Ashland News Release:

May 8, 2014

Ashland HydroSheer^™ II technology solves skin care formulation challenge and wins the Beiersdorf Innovation Pitch award

WILMINGTON, DE - Manufacturers of personal care products continually search for new innovations to improve the performance and aesthetics of skin care creams. Ashland Specialty Ingredients, a commercial unit of Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH), now offers HydroSheer™ II formulation technology, a system designed to modify emulsion behavior in such a way that finished lotions appear clear or virtually clear during rubout on wet skin. Solving a long-standing formulation challenge, Ashland won the first ever Beiersdorf Innovation Pitch award at the in-cosmetics trade show, April 2nd in Hamburg, Germany.

Ashland's HydroSheer II technology takes into account a number of formulation variables required to produce stable creams and lotions that apply clear on wet skin, including the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance or HLB. The featured ingredients are Escalol™ UV filters for SPF protection and Prolipid� lamellar gel for smooth feel, application uniformity and formulation stability.

Accepting the award for Ashland Specialty Ingredients was Anna A. Gripp, global marketing leader for sun care, Ashland Specialty Ingredients; Hani Fares, senior director - skin care, Ashland Specialty Ingredients; and Dr. Alexander Wendt, strategic account manager, Ashland Specialty Ingredients.

"In designing a system that matches the unique lamellar organization of skin's lipids, and other requirements, we are meeting a consumer need for creams and lotions that perform better on a number of levels," said Anna Gripp. "HydroSheer II formulation technology may change the way skin care emulsions are made and sold."

"Manufacturers of skin care emulsions wanted a system that worked better, more efficiently and more simply than anything in the marketplace," said Hani Fares. "A series of investigations pointed us toward a solution that we call HydroSheer II formulation technology.

"Once we understood all of the components of the problem, the solution had become obvious. We are pleased to present a major game-changing innovation with HydroSheer II formulation technology."
Previously, Ashland commercialized its HydroSheer formulation technology for spray and gel form products, providing formulators the option to produce sunscreen products with water-resistant films miscible in water.

The Beiersdorf Innovation Pitch
Beiersdorf's Innovation Pitch award is an extension of the company's open innovation initiative called "Pearlfinder." By integrating external knowledge into its research and development, Beiersdorf seeks to further bolster its innovation power.

Out of 66 entries, 23 companies were selected to the final round at the in-cosmetics trade show. The ideas were evaluated by a Beiersdorf jury consisting of experienced R&D, marketing and scouting heads. Key criteria included uniqueness, feasibility, consumer benefit, fit with Beiersdorf brands and market potential - with the winners excelling in these areas. Ashland, a long-time Beiersdorf strategic partner, won first place for a promising idea related to sun care.

About Ashland Specialty Ingredients
Ashland Specialty Ingredients, a commercial unit of Ashland Inc., offers industry-leading products, technologies and resources for solving formulation and product performance challenges in key markets including personal care, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, coatings and energy. Using natural, synthetic and semi-synthetic polymers derived from plant and seed extract, cellulose ethers and vinyl pyrrolidones, Ashland Specialty Ingredients offers comprehensive and innovative solutions for today's demanding consumer and industrial applications.

About Ashland
In more than 100 countries, the people of Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) provide the specialty chemicals, technologies and insights to help customers create new and improved products for today and sustainable solutions for tomorrow. Our chemistry is at work every day in a wide variety of markets and applications, including architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, food and beverage, personal care, pharmaceutical, tissue and towel, and water treatment. Visit ashland.com to see the innovations we offer through our four commercial units - Ashland Specialty Ingredients, Ashland Water Technologies, Ashland Performance Materials and Valvoline.

Omnicom, Publicis call off proposed $35 billion merger | Reuters

(Reuters) - The $35 billion merger of U.S.-based Omnicom and France's Publicis collapsed on Friday after a battle for control destroyed plans to create the world's largest advertising agency.



Omnicom, Publicis call off proposed $35 billion merger | Reuters

Dell Services Expands Enterprise Mobility Offerings with New Partners | Dell

Dell Services today announced it is giving customers enhanced solutions and strategic support for their enterprise mobility strategies through two new partnerships. Partnerships with Apperian, Inc., the leading platform for securing and managing enterprise mobile apps, and Kony, Inc., the fastest growing cloud-based mobile application development platform (MADP) in the industry will help Dell customers through the development, deployment and management of their enterprise mobility applications. These partner capabilities will complement the innovative and award winning Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) offerings Dell has introduced into the marketplace.



Dell Services Expands Enterprise Mobility Offerings with New Partners | Dell

Internet Archive Amasses All TV News Since 2009

The following is an excerpt from an article in:


The New York Times
Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Internet Archive Amasses All TV News Since 2009

By BILL CARTER

Inspired by a pillar of antiquity, the Library of Alexandria, Brewster Kahle has a grand vision for the Internet Archive, the giant aggregator and digitizer of data, which he founded and leads.

“We want to collect all the books, music and video that has ever been produced by humans,” Mr. Kahle said.

As of Tuesday, the archive’s online collection will include every morsel of news produced in the last three years by 20 different channels, encompassing more than 1,000 news series that have generated more than 350,000 separate programs devoted to news.

The latest ambitious effort by the archive, which has already digitized millions of books and tried to collect everything published on every Web page for the last 15 years (that adds up to more than 150 billion Web pages), is intended not only for researchers, Mr. Kahle said, but also for average citizens who make up some of the site’s estimated two million visitors each day.  “The focus is to help the American voter to better be able to examine candidates and issues,” Mr. Kahle said. “If you want to know exactly what Mitt Romney said about health care in 2009, you’ll be able to find it.”

Of course, if you want to discredit or satirize a politician based on a clip showing some reversal of a position, that will be made easier as well. Or, as Mr. Kahle put it, “Let a thousand Jon Stewarts bloom.”

Many conventional news outlets will be available, including CNN, Fox News, NBC News, PBS, and every purveyor of eyewitness news on local television stations. And Mr. Stewart’s program, “The Daily Show” is one of those 1,000 series that is part of the new news archive.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Times-Picayune’s Hurricane Isaac Coverage Hints at Paper’s Future

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, September 03, 2012

Times-Picayune’s Hurricane Isaac Coverage Hints at Paper’s Future

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

As the staff at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans applied their well-developed hurricane-reporting skills last week, it was not just flooded roads and power failures that they contended with. Hurricane Isaac struck the region a month before the paper is to cut back print publication to just three days a week, lose part of its newsroom staff and merge into a new company with the Web site Nola.com.

While the newspaper may be in the middle of its transition, the storm gave readers a glimpse of what coverage may look like in the coming months. While The Times-Picayune still printed papers at plants in nearby Mobile, Ala., and Houma, La., the Web site became the destination for residents seeking updates about power failures, closed roads and where to buy ice. There were videos of a photographer driving through the storm, and aerial photographs that allowed evacuated residents to see the flooding in their neighborhoods.

Randy Siegel, the president for local digital strategy at Advance Publications, which owns the paper and Web site, said Nola.com had two to three times its usual traffic during the storm’s four-day sweep.

Hurricane Isaac arrived while the newsroom was still relatively well-staffed. And since the storm was less severe than Hurricane Katrina in 2005, The Times-Picayune could put roughly the same number of journalists to work during Isaac as it did back then.

Three-quarters of the 200 people who are being laid off throughout the paper were still covering Hurricane Isaac because they agreed to work through the end of September, according to Mr. Siegel. The paper also has hired more than half of the people who are joining the new news operation.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Wondering How Far Magazines Must Fall

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Monday, August 13, 2012

Wondering How Far Magazines Must Fall

By DAVID CARR

Making a weekly newsmagazine has always been a tough racket. It takes a big staff working on punishing deadlines to aggregate the flurry of news, put some learned topspin on it and package it for readers. But that job now belongs to the Web and takes place in real time, not a week later.

Tina Brown may have understood the digital insurgency that was disrupting the publishing business, but that didn’t stop her from stepping into the maw at the end of 2010, after Sidney Harman bought Newsweek. She married her Web site, The Daily Beast, with Newsweek in an attempt to put the paddles to a franchise gone cold, but Mr. Harman is now gone and his family has withdrawn its financial support. With losses continuing to pile up, that leaves IAC/InterActiveCorp, which also owns The Daily Beast, holding the bag.

As the former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, Ms. Brown was an odd choice to be Newsweek’s savior. Even in its diminished state — Mr. Harman bought it for a dollar in addition to assuming some $40 million in liabilities — the magazine is aimed at a mass audience in the kind of Middle America places where Ms. Brown, a hothouse flower of Manhattan media, rarely visits. Still, she has been able to maneuver The Daily Beast into the middle of the conversation and she has never lost her touch for getting people talking. But a newsweekly is a brutal, perhaps unwinnable, challenge.

Because of changes to the informational ecosystem, weeklies have been forced to leave behind the news and become magazines of ideas. Ms. Brown understood that; it’s just that some of her ideas weren’t always very good. Sometimes she tried too hard — Barack Obama was depicted as the first gay president — and sometimes not hard enough, as with last week’s cover about fancy dining around the world.

People who predicted that her effort would come to tears might be tempted to do an end zone dance now. But that would be dumb. The problem is not Tina Brown or her conceptual obsessions, or even the calcified formula of the weekly magazine.

The problem is more existential than that: magazines, all kinds of them, don’t work very well in the marketplace anymore.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Best of Outright Weekly Round-Up: Personal Information Edition

March 30, 2012 by Jennifer Escalona Dunn

Should employers have access to their employees’ Facebook profiles? Plus, when’s the last time you went outside? Why it’s time to plan a little outdoor adventure plus much more in this week’s Round-Up!

Click the link below to view the Outright Weekly Round-Up:

http://outright.com/blog/best-of-outright-weekly-round-up-personal-information-edition/