Although NBC Politics Bot was a little rudimentary in terms of its interactions, this particular application of chatbot technology could well become a lot more popular in the coming years – particularly as audiences struggle to keep up with the enormous volume of news content being published every day. The bot also helped NBC determine what content most resonated with users, which the network will use to further tailor and refine its content to users in the future.
Regardless of which type of classifier is used, the end-result is a response. Like a music box, there can be additional “movements” associated with the machinery. A response can make use of external information (like weather, a sports score, a web lookup, etc.) but this isn’t specific to chatbots, it’s just additional code. A response may reference specific “parts of speech” in the sentence, for example: a proper noun. Also the response (for an intent) can use conditional logic to provide different responses depending on the “state” of the conversation, this can be a random selection (to insert some ‘natural’ feeling).
Unfortunately the old adage of trash in, trash out came back to bite Microsoft. Tay was soon being fed racist, sexist and genocidal language by the Twitter user-base, leading her to regurgitate these views. Microsoft eventually took Tay down for some re-tooling, but when it returned the AI was significantly weaker, simply repeating itself before being taken offline indefinitely.
When we open our news feed and find out about yet another AI breakthrough—IBM Watson, driverless cars, AlphaGo — the notion of TODA may feel decidedly anti-climatic. The reality is that the current AI is not quite 100% turnkey-ready for TODA. This will soon change due to two key factors: 1) businesses want it, and 2) businesses have abundant data, the fuel that the current state-of-the-art machine learning techniques need to make AI work.
Lack contextual awareness. Not everyone has all of the data that Google has – but chatbots today lack the awareness that we expect them to have. We assume that chatbot technology will know our IP address, browsing history, previous purchases, but that is just not the case today. I would argue that many chatbots even lack basic connection to other data silos to improve their ability to answer questions.
For example, say you want to purchase a pair of shoes online from Nordstrom. You would have to browse their site and look around until you find the pair you wanted. Then you would add the pair to your cart to go through the motions of checking out. But in the case Nordstrom had a conversational bot, you would simply tell the bot what you’re looking for and get an instant answer. You would be able to search within an interface that actually learns what you like, even when you can’t coherently articulate it. And in the not-so-distant future, we’ll even have similar experiences when we visit the retail stores.
As people research, they want the information they need as quickly as possible and are increasingly turning to voice search as the technology advances. Email inboxes have become more and more cluttered, so buyers have moved to social media to follow the brands they really care about. Ultimately, they now have the control — the ability to opt out, block, and unfollow any brand that betrays their trust.
There are multiple chatbot development platforms available if you are looking to develop Facebook Messenger bot. While each has their own pros and cons, Dialogflow is one strong contender. Offering one of the best NLU (Natural Language Understanding) and context management, Dialogflow makes it very easy to create Facebook Messenger bot. In this tutorial, we’ll…
This is the big one. We worked with one particular large publisher (can’t name names unfortunately, but hundreds of thousands of users) in two phases. We initially released a test phase that was sort of a “catch all”. Anyone could message a broad keyword to their bot and start a campaign. Although we had a huge number of users come in, engagement was relatively average (87% open rate and 27.05% click-through rate average over the course of the test). Drop off here was fairly high, about 3.14% of users had unsubscribed by the end of the test.
Chatfuel is a platform that lets you build your own Chatbot for Messenger (and Telegram) for free. The only limit is if you pass more than 100,000 conversations per month, but for most businesses that won't be an issue. No understanding of code is required and it has a simple drag-and-drop interface. Think Wix/Squarespace for bots (side note: I have zero affiliation with Chatfuel).
A bot is software that is designed to automate the kinds of tasks you would usually do on your own, like making a dinner reservation, adding an appointment to your calendar or fetching and displaying information. The increasingly common form of bots, chatbots, simulate conversation. They often live inside messaging apps — or are at least designed to look that way — and it should feel like you’re chatting back and forth as you would with a human.
Smooch acts as more of a chatbot connector that bridges your business apps, (ex: Slack and ZenDesk) with your everyday messenger apps (ex: Facebook Messenger, WeChat, etc.) It links these two together by sending all of your Messenger chat notifications straight to your business apps, which streamlines your conversations into just one application. In the end, this can result in smoother automated workflows and communications across teams. These same connectors also allow you to create chatbots which will respond to your customer chats…. boom!
Polly may be a business-focused application, but the chatbot is designed to improve workplace happiness. Using surveys and feedback, managers can keep track of how effectively their teams are working and address problems before they escalate. This doesn’t only mean organizations will run more productively, but that workers will be happier in their jobs.
In other words, bots solve the thing we loathed about apps in the first place. You don't have to download something you'll never use again. It's been said most people stick to five apps. Those holy grail spots? They're increasingly being claimed by messaging apps. Today, messaging apps have over 5 billion monthly active users, and for the first time, people are using them more than social networks.
Chatbots such as ELIZA and PARRY were early attempts at creating programs that could at least temporarily fool a real human being into thinking they were having a conversation with another person. PARRY's effectiveness was benchmarked in the early 1970s using a version of a Turing test; testers only made the correct identification of human vs. chatbot at a level consistent with making a random guess.
“Major shifts on large platforms should be seen as an opportunities for distribution. That said, we need to be careful not to judge the very early prototypes too harshly as the platforms are far from complete. I believe Facebook’s recent launch is the beginning of a new application platform for micro application experiences. The fundamental idea is that customers will interact with just enough UI, whether conversational and/or widgets, to be delighted by a service/brand with immediate access to a rich profile and without the complexities of installing a native app, all fueled by mature advertising products. It’s potentially a massive opportunity.” — Aaron Batalion, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners
Do the nature of our services and size of our customer base warrant an investment in a more efficient and automated customer service response? How can we offer a more streamlined experience without (necessarily) increasing costly human resources? Amtrak’s website receives over 375,000 daily visitors, and they wanted a solution that provided users with instant access to online self-service.
Now, with the rise of website chatbots, this trend of two-way conversations can be taken to a whole new level. Conversational marketing can be done across many channels, such as over the phone or via SMS. However, an increasing number of companies are leveraging social media to drive their conversational marketing strategy to distinguish their brand and solidify their brand’s voice and values. When most people refer to conversational marketing, they’re talking about interactions started using chatbots and live chat – that move to personal conversations.
We’ve just released a major new report, The CIO’s Guide To Automation, AI, And Robotics. We find that, to stay ahead, CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, and other executives integrating leading-edge technologies into their companies’ operations and business models must turn their attention to automation technologies, including intelligent machines, robotic process automation (RPA) bots, artificial intelligence, and physical […]
Automation will be central to the next phase of digital transformation, driving new levels of customer value such as faster delivery of products, higher quality and dependability, deeper personalization, and greater convenience. Last year, Forrester predicted that automation would reach a tipping point — altering the workforce, augmenting employees, and driving new levels of customer value. Since then, […]
What if you’re creating a bot for a major online clothing retailer? For starters, the bot will require a greeting (“How can I help you?”) as well as a process for saying its goodbyes. In between, the bot needs to respond to inputs, which could range from shopping inquiries to questions about shipping rates or return policies, and the bot must possess a script for fielding questions it doesn’t understand.
If AI struggles with fourth-grade science question answering, should AI be expected to hold an adult-level, open-ended chit-chat about politics, entertainment, and weather? It is thus encouraging to see that Microsoft’s Satya Nadella did not give up on Tay after its debacle, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is sponsoring an Alexa social chatbot competition. I love this below quote from Jeff:
Authentication. Users start by authenticating themselves using whatever mechanism is provided by their channel of communication with the bot. The bot framework supports many communication channels, including Cortana, Microsoft Teams, Facebook Messenger, Kik, and Slack. For a list of channels, see Connect a bot to channels. When you create a bot with Azure Bot Service, the Web Chat channel is automatically configured. This channel allows users to interact with your bot directly in a web page. You can also connect the bot to a custom app by using the Direct Line channel. The user's identity is used to provide role-based access control, as well as to serve personalized content.
Botsify is another Facebook chatbot platform that helps make it easy to integrate chatbots into the system. Its paid subscription helps you in five easy steps. 1) Log into the botsify.com site, 2) Connect your Facebook account, 3) Setup a webhook, 4) Write up commands for the chatbot you are creating, and 5) Let Botisfy handle the customer service for you. If the paid services are a little too much, they do offer a free service that lets you create as many bots as your lovely imagination can dream up.
When one dialog invokes another, the Bot Builder adds the new dialog to the top of the dialog stack. The dialog that is on top of the stack is in control of the conversation. Every new message sent by the user will be subject to processing by that dialog until it either closes or redirects to another dialog. When a dialog closes, it's removed from the stack, and the previous dialog in the stack assumes control of the conversation.
Conversational bots can help a business’s customers with difficult transactions, plus collect data and give recommendations. For example, a conversational bot integrated to an airline’s website can answer questions regarding flight availability, rebook tickets, fees and suggest add-ons like hotels. Though a conversational bot may not be able to finish the exchanges, it could still be able to gather preliminary data and pass it on to the next available customer care agent. In both cases, the airline will save considerable time in its call center.
The plugin aspect to Chatfuel is one of the real bonuses. You can link up to all sorts of different services to add richer content to the conversations that you're having. This includes linking up to Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, as well as being able to request that the user share their location, serve video and audio content, and build out custom attributes that can be used to segment users based on their inputs. This last part is a killer feature.
Derived from “chat robot”, "chatbots" allow for highly engaging, conversational experiences, through voice and text, that can be customized and used on mobile devices, web browsers, and on popular chat platforms such as Facebook Messenger, or Slack. With the advent of deep learning technologies such as text-to-speech, automatic speech recognition, and natural language processing, chatbots that simulate human conversation and dialogue can now be found in call center and customer service workflows, DevOps management, and as personal assistants.
The main challenge is in teaching a chatbot to understand the language of your customers. In every business, customers express themselves differently and each group of a target audience speaks its own way. The language is influenced by advertising campaigns on the market, the political situation in the country, releases of new services and products from Google, Apple and Pepsi among others. The way people speak depends on their city, mood, weather and moon phase. An important role in the communication of the business with customers may have the release of the film Star Wars, for example. That’s why training a chatbot to understand correctly everything the user types requires a lot of efforts.
Bots are also used to buy up good seats for concerts, particularly by ticket brokers who resell the tickets.[12] Bots are employed against entertainment event-ticketing sites. The bots are used by ticket brokers to unfairly obtain the best seats for themselves while depriving the general public of also having a chance to obtain the good seats. The bot runs through the purchase process and obtains better seats by pulling as many seats back as it can.
The bot itself is only part of a larger system that provides it with the latest data and ensures its proper operation. All of these other Azure resources — data orchestration services such as Data Factory, storage services such as Cosmos DB, and so forth — must be deployed. Azure Resource Manager provides a consistent management layer that you can access through the Azure portal, PowerShell, or the Azure CLI. For speed and consistency, it's best to automate your deployment using one of these approaches.
In a traditional application, the user interface (UI) is a series of screens. A single app or website can use one or more screens as needed to exchange information with the user. Most applications start with a main screen where users initially land and provide navigation that leads to other screens for various functions like starting a new order, browsing products, or looking for help.
What began as a televised ad campaign eventually became a fully interactive chatbot developed for PG Tips’ parent company, Unilever (which also happens to own an alarming number of the most commonly known household brands) by London-based agency Ubisend, which specializes in developing bespoke chatbot applications for brands. The aim of the bot was to not only raise brand awareness for PG Tips tea, but also to raise funds for Red Nose Day through the 1 Million Laughs campaign.
Marketing teams are increasingly interested in leveraging branded chatbots, but most struggle to deliver business value. My recently published report, Case Study: Take A Focused And Disciplined Approach To Drive Chatbot Success, shows how OCBC Bank in Singapore is bucking the trend: The bank recently created Emma, a chatbot focused on home loan leads, which […]
Chatbots are often used online and in messaging apps, but are also now included in many operating systems as intelligent virtual assistants, such as Siri for Apple products and Cortana for Windows. Dedicated chatbot appliances are also becoming increasingly common, such as Amazon's Alexa. These chatbots can perform a wide variety of functions based on user commands.


Baseball Charitable Honoree a Different Cut of Philanthropist
September 13, 2012; Source: New York Daily News
Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey may not win the Cy Young Award (which this writer hopes will go to Washington Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez), but he just won the 2012 Branch Rickey Award, which honors one baseballer a year for his charitable activities. Branch Rickey, as NPQ Newswire readers know, was the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers who signed Jackie Robinson to a minor league contract in 1945 and then brought him up to the big leagues to play for the Dodgers in 1947, breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier.
The award, created by the Denver Rotary Club, honors major leaguers for their community service per the Rotary International motto, “Service above self.” Each team nominates one player, coach, or manager for the award each year. Like the charitable giving associated with the teams’ foundations, the typical nominees are contributors to rather standard charities. Past winner include Curt Schilling and San Diego Padre pitcher Trevor Hoffman, who were active with charities fighting specific illnesses, ALS or “Lou Gehrig’s disease” in the case of Schilling and kidney disease in the case of Hoffman. Another theme is disaster relief, with Bobby Valentine, during his time as manager of the Mets, contributing to September 11th causes and Diamondbacks outfielder Luis Gonzalez pitching in on Hurricane Katrina relief.
This year’s winner, R.A. Dickey, is a very different sort of baseball player and maintains a very different approach to philanthropy. Dickey won this year’s award for distributing baseball equipment and medical supplies in South America. By climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, he also raised $100,000 to help women in India who have been forced into prostitution in Mumbai, although that charitable activity had his team, the New York Mets, steaming that their star knuckleballer might have gotten injured.
Like his knuckleball, perfected rather late in his career, R.A. Dickey is cut from a different cloth. Give the Mets and the Denver Rotary some credit for being willing to go with a Branch Rickey award winner who is hardly mainstream as a player, person (read his autobiography, Wherever I May Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball, which discusses his life in ways you’ll never see in other sports bios), or humanitarian. Wouldn’t Dickey be a good candidate for the NPQ board of directors?—Rick Cohen
Video Game-Linked “Digital Telethons” Emerge as Fundraising Tool
Public Catches On to Megadonor Domination over Philanthropy—and Everything Else
Coldplay Seeks to Make Its Tours Carbon Neutral
By Marian Conway


God is not in the Church Bible Study: LTLFM
Origin of Christmas-Part 3: Exchanging Gifts
Origin of Christmas-Part 3-Exchanging Gifts
The origin of Christmas gift giving is actually a relic of an old pagan custom called the winter solstice a holiday that was first celebrated in ancient Rome. People exchanged gifts during the holiday called Saturnalia. Saturnalia was a holiday observed between Dec. 17 to Dec. 23 and later extended to Dec. 25 (depending on which calendar you go by). This holiday was to honor the false god of Saturn, and was renowned and famous for wild parties, gift giving and sacrificing humans on Dec. 25 after subjecting them to cruel tortures and forcing them to do illicit sex acts in the days leading up to their deaths when they were murdered as a sacrifice to the false god of Saturn. The first recorded date of December 25th being celebrated as Christmas was in 336 during the time of Roman Emperor Constantine's reign (the first Christian Roman Emperor). Pope Julius I officially declared that December 25th would be the date that people would celebrate Jesus Christ's birth.
Gifts were Given After People Were Sacrificed At the Temple of Saturn
"The holiday Saturnalia was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their slaves.The poet Catullus called it "the best of days". It was the Roman equivalent to the earlier Greek holiday of Kronia, which was celebrated during the Attic month of Hekatombaion in late midsummer (1).
Origin of Christmas
No where in the bible is there an example of a birthday for Jesus or for any followers of Christ. However, Gifts were brought to Christ by the Wise men because they knew He was a King, the Son of God and not as a birthday celebration. It was commonplace during this period, for gifts to be brought to newborn kings. Christmas is not mentioned or celebrated in the Holy Bible.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica Blog, Christmas was not celebrated by original Christians but was celebrated in the 3rd century as the Winter Solstice following a Roman festival called Saturnalia where people exchanged gifts. Christmas was also celebrated as a birthday for a popular false god of light and loyalty called Mithra (2)
Can Christ Be Glorified Through a Holiday Steeped in Pagan Rituals?
David C. Pack states, "Why do people think that Christmas is wonderful? It certainly felt wonderful to me. I trusted what my parents told me. I had no reason to doubt them. They were merely teaching me what their parents had taught them. I never questioned the true origin of Christmas!
Every aspect of Christmas has pagan origins. There is no way that Christ could be glorified by pagan rituals even though man has attached His Holy name to this pagan holiday-it is still in fact based on pagan rituals.
Most never reflect on why they believe what they believe or do what they do. We live in a world filled with customs, but few ever seek to understand their origin. We generally accept them without question. Most people basically do what everyone else does—because it is easy and natural!
Let’s carefully examine the roots of Christmas. Let’s look at why people follow the customs associated with it. Why is it kept on December 25th? Did the early New Testament Church keep it? This booklet is filled with facts from history that, when placed together, paint a complete picture. Let’s avoid all assumptions and only accept what can be proven!"
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1. Saturnalia. (2017). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 5 December 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia
2. "Search". 2017. Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed December 5 2017. https://www.britannica.com/search?query=origin%20of%20Christmas.
Photo used under Creative Commons from Loren Javier


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Eastern Kentucky businesses partner to Power Up the Pantry
ASHLAND, Ky. – Ten businesses, community colleges and local governments are collaborating to Power Up the Pantry and replenish depleted area food pantries.
Dual daylong events are planned for April 5 in Hazard and in Prestonsburg. Kentucky Power organized the events and partnered with Anthem Medicaid, Appalachian Regional Healthcare, the City of Hazard, the City of Prestonsburg, Big Sandy Community and Technical College, Hazard Community and Technical College, God’s Pantry Food Bank, New Hope Church, and WYMT. Donations in Prestonsburg will go to God’s Pantry, which operates distribution centers in Prestonsburg and London that serve food pantries in eastern Kentucky. Hazard donations will go to New Hope Church Emergency Food Pantry, which also is served by God’s Pantry. The businesses joined forces on the food drive to have the largest community impact.
“We are coming out of winter when food pantries historically have more requests. In addition, several of our communities have experienced flooding. This combination of need has left many agencies facing critical shortages of food and supplies,” said Cindy Wiseman, Kentucky Power’s managing director of external affairs and customer service. “We are challenging area businesses to spend the next month collecting non-perishable food, baby supplies, including diapers, or money to restock shelves for those in need.”
On April 5, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., a collection site will be set up in Hazard at the ARH Medical Mall parking lot on Black Gold Boulevard. A second site will be at Big Sandy Community & Technical College’s parking lot near the Science Center at Bert Combs Drive in Prestonsburg.
“We encourage businesses to put up collection barrels for employees or customers and then deliver the goods to one of the collection sites on April 5,” Wiseman said. “Monetary donations also are welcome. Checks can be made payable to God’s Pantry Food Bank.”
One in six residents in Kentucky struggles with hunger and are unsure where their next meal will come from, according to God’s Pantry Executive Director Michael Halligan.
God’s Pantry Food Bank provides nutritious foods and fresh produce to more than 400 food pantries and meal programs in central and eastern Kentucky. Last year, God’s Pantry gathered and distributed nearly 11.2 million pounds of food, enough to create 9.3 million meals for those who are hungry in eastern and southeastern Kentucky alone. The organization’s Prestonsburg warehouse serves Pike, Floyd, Johnson, Lawrence, Magoffin, Letcher and Martin counties. The warehouse stores orders until local agencies can pick them up for distribution and has fresh produce delivered for agencies to access. God’s Pantry also operates a warehouse in London that serves Perry and other southeastern Kentucky counties.
“Ending hunger does not happen at a food bank,” Halligan said. “It takes communities working together in partnership like this to have an impact. We appreciate the support and focus Power Up the Pantry will generate and look forward to seeing the difference it will make in eastern Kentucky for those in need.”
Kentucky Power, with headquarters in Ashland, provides service to about 166,000 customers in 20 eastern Kentucky counties and is an operating company in the American Electric Power system, one of the largest electric utilities in the United States.
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Germany Monitor
In the "Germany Monitor" series we address political and structural issues which have great significance for Germany. These include commentaries on elections and political decisions, as well as technology and industry issues, and macro-economic topics which go beyond the business cycle matters addressed in "Focus Germany".
China-EU relations: Gearing up for growth
Banking and financial markets, Economic and european policy, Macroeconomics, Sectors and resources
Analyst:
Hannah Levinger, Syetarn Hansakul
The recently announced plans for a free trade agreement between China and the EU are momentous. China is the EU’s No. 1 supplier of goods and its third-largest export market. In turn, the EU is China’s largest trading partner. Going by current trends, EU-China annual bilateral trade could grow close to 1.5 times in a decade’s time. Not only goods but also services trade has large potential to grow. Chinese investment into the EU is still in its infancy but is likely to increase and become more broad-based, covering a wider range of industries and countries across Europe. New dynamism is expected from a bilateral investment agreement currently in negotiation and rising interest of Chinese investors in European companies, as shown by our compilation of Chinese M&A deals vis-à-vis the EU and Germany. Plenty of headroom exists for greater use of RMB in bilateral trade and investment relations. A note of caution concerns the risk of trade disputes which is unlikely to be removed in the near term. [more]
The changing energy mix in Germany: The drivers are the Energiewende and international trends
Economic and european policy, Macroeconomics, Sectors and resources
Josef Auer, Vasilios Anatolitis
Due to numerous political incentives, especially relating to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), the renewables share has increased sixfold since 1997 with regard to both primary energy consumption and electricity generation. Germany's first energy policy rethink (or Energiewende 1.0) not only sent costs ballooning but also impacted on electricity prices, the generation mix and emissions trading. And despite the EEG the contribution of wind/solar to primary energy consumption (PEC) was a mere 2%-plus in 2013. Overall, the “green electricity share” could reach roughly 60% by 2035. But how will the remaining 40% be generated – in view of the Energiewende 2.0? Depending on the scenario, the onus is more on natural gas or coal. [more]
The future of Germany as an automaking location
Eric Heymann
The differences between the German automotive industry and the automotive industry in Germany will continue to expand in the coming years – the construction of production capacities in the growth markets is progressing. Expansion abroad does not have to be to the detriment of Germany as an automaking location. However, a stable or even positive development of Germany as an automotive manufacturing location cannot be taken for granted. We outline three potential scenarios for the development of Germany as an automaking location until 2025. In our most likely scenario domestic car output remains at around its current level until then. At the same time Germany benefits from a gradual recovery in western European car demand. In addition, smaller export markets become more important. [more]
Crowdfunding: Does crowd euphoria impair risk consciousness?
Banking and financial markets, Macroeconomics, Sectors and resources
Christoph Laskawi, Thomas-Frank Dapp
From the standpoint of potential company founders, an inadequate supply of funding is a key issue especially in a start-up's early phases. Therefore, we welcome the efforts of the crowdfunding movement from an economic perspective, particularly with regard to growth. However, there is an urgent need for action aimed at eliminating the existing information asymmetries and conflicts of interest between company founders, funding platforms and investors. [more]
Big data  the untamed force
Macroeconomics, Sectors and resources
Thomas-Frank Dapp, Veronika Heine
Big data is increasingly becoming a factor in production, market competitiveness and, therefore, growth. Cutting-edge analysis technologies are making inroads into all areas of people’s lives and changing their day-to-day existence. Sensors, biometric identification and the general trends towards a convergence of information and communications technologies are driving the big data movement. Data has a commercial value – therefore the risks should not be underestimated. It is now a question of putting in place the necessary regulatory framework to allow these state-of-the-art methods and the technology that underpins them to properly flourish. [more]
Industry 4.0: Upgrading of Germany’s industrial capabilities on the horizon
Stefan Heng
Industry 4.0 will upgrade Germany as an industrial location by bringing on the fourth industrial revolution. With trade flows becoming increasingly internationally interlinked, the aspects associated with Industry 4.0 of automation, more flexible processes as well as horizontal and vertical integration will become more and more important features of a modern, competitive production structure. Especially for Germany with its particularly favourable basic conditions, Industry 4.0 provides the long-term major opportunity to consolidate the country's leading position in the competitive global marketplace – also relative to the fast-growing emerging markets. [more]
Tight bank lending, lush bond market: New trends in European corporate bond issuance
Banking and financial markets, Macroeconomics
Orçun Kaya, Thomas Meyer
In our empirical analysis we investigate the substitution between weak bank lending and lush bond markets and we show that rising bank CDS spreads are consistently associated with positive growth in securities underwriting and negative growth in loan syndication. This suggests that banks and clients switch funding instruments in times of financial stress. In this regard, a well-developed bond market is an important element to increase financial resilience as it offers an alternative source of funding for the real economy and an alternative source of revenue to banks. However, we also note a worrying trend towards financial fragmentation during times of stress which limits diversification potential. [more]
Germany's "Energiewende" driving power-to-gas: From an idea to market launch
Economic and european policy, Macroeconomics
The massive expansion of renewables in the last few years has led to an increase in the volatility of the power supply. As the implementation of the "Energiewende" is one of the crucial issues for the new federal government, this also requires innovative solutions that go beyond traditional technical storage facilities in our view. Looking ahead, the energy revolution may hardly succeed without power-to-gas as power-to-gas as a storage medium could offset the continuing strong increases in the volatilities in power supply. The prospects for power-to-gas are favourable. Experts claim the installation of power-to-gas systems with an electricity generation of 1,000 MW by 2022 to establish an initial market. If in the time thereafter – as we expect – the demand for electricity storage media continues to rise as a result of increasing green electricity quantities and fluctuations, power-to-gas is an appropriate answer to the currently still open question as to a sustainable technical solution. [more]
The GCC going East: Economic ties with developing Asia on the rise
Kevin Koerner, Oliver Masetti
Substantial changes in global economic weights over the past decades, in particular the rise of China and India, combined with major shifts on the energy supply side – the US shale revolution – have increasingly shifted the Gulf countries’ economic focus towards the Asian continent. Asia is now the GCC’s most important trade partner, both in terms of its hydrocarbon exports as well as imports of machinery, manufactured goods and food. The growing trade ties have also been accompanied by intensified bilateral investment relations. The observed shift promises to give the GCC countries better access to rapidly growing Asian retail markets, not only in energy but also other sectors such as telecommunications and Islamic finance. This should help the GCC in its ambition to diversify its economies. Migrant workers from Asia contribute significantly to economic prosperity and development in the Gulf monarchies, although the socio-economic implications stemming from the rapidly growing expatriate communities in the region will pose some challenges. [more]
What’s behind recent trends in Asian corporate bond markets?
Banking and financial markets, Economic and european policy, Macroeconomics
Hannah Levinger
Corporate bond markets in Asia have expanded rapidly. Since the global financial crisis, Asian corporates have made increasing use of bond issuance for their funding needs, complementing traditional channels such as bank lending. While the bond markets of Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea are comparatively advanced and liquid, markets in China, India, Indonesia and Thailand are still at an early stage of development. Considerable variation exists in terms of bond issuances' structural characteristics by sector, currency, issuing volume and the use of funds. Fast growth in bond markets has provided an effective source of financing for the corporate sector, but its development is far from complete. [more]


» Financial
MagnaChip says OLED driver shipments in Q4 2019 were better than expected
OLED driver IC developer MagnaChip says that it expects revenues in Q4 2019 to reach $198-200 million, up from its earlier estimate of $181-191 million.
MagnaChip says that its OLED revenue was significantly better than had been expected.
Read the full story Posted: Jan 16, 2020
BOE plans a new OLED microdisplay fab in a $470 million investment
In March 2017 OLED maker BOE Technology and OLED microdisplay maker OLiGHTEK announced a new $170 million joint-venture to produce OLED microdisplays for the consumer VR and AR markets
Once complete, BOE's fab will have the largest capacity in the industry - but this is not enough for BOE. Yesterday it was reported in Chinese media that BOE plans to build a second, larger OLED microdisplay fab in Yunnan. BOE will invest $257 million while a state-owned development group will invest $28 million. BOE will also raise $200 million from external sources. Total investment in the new fab will total $486 million.
Read the full story Posted: Dec 28, 2019
Is Samsung delaying its $10.8 billion QD-OLED investment plans?
In October 2019 Samsung Display formally announced its decision to invest $10.85 billion in QD-OLED TV R&D and production lines. SDC was supposed to start the plan in 2019, but according to a report from China the Company is delaying its initial investment. Originally mass production was supposed to begin in Q1 2021, but this may happen later if the investment is delayed.
It seems as if equipment makers expected to receive orders for production equipment, but that did not happen. The report says that Samsung decided to make personnel changes and transfer in January 2020 and only after these changes will the company finalize its investment plan in the new OLED TV fab.
Meyer Burger sells its PixDro inkjet printing unit to Suss MicroTec
Meyer Burger announced that it is selling its PixDro inkjet printing business to Germany-based Suss MicroTec SE. The agreed price is $5 million, and the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of February 2020. Meyer Burger reveals that PixDro currently has annual sales of around $8 million. This transaction continues Meyer burger's strategic focus on its solar (PV) business.
PixDro develops and manufactures inkjet printing equipment for for the electronics and semiconductor industries. PixDro started out as a startup in Isarel, and was later integrated into the Netherlands-based OTB-Group, which was later renamed Roth & Rau AG, which was then acquired by Meyer Burger. The company continues its journey and will now be part of Suss MicroTec.
eMagin announces two significant orders for OLED microdisplays
OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported two significant orders for its OLED microdisplays - both from the defense sector.
The first order is a follow-on order for $4.3 million in connection with the U.S. Army’s Enhanced Night Vision Goggle – Binocular (ENVG-B) program - which is expected to result in more orders as this is a multi-year program. The second order if from a major defense contractor (eMagin did not detail further) - and worth $5.6 million.
Guangzhou's government to support its local display industry with large subsidies
The government of the Guangzhou province in China announced that it aims to help its local display industry and have allocated large funds - up to 2 billion RMB (around $285 million USD) in subsidies per company. The goal is to help companies invest in production of emerging display technologies - including OLEDs, Micro-LEDs, QD-LEDs, 3D displays, e-paper displays, graphene enhanced display technologies and more.
The subsidies will be given to companies that start trial production, and when mass production begins.
Ichigo Asset Management to invest up to $830 million in Japan Display
In August 2017, Japan Display announced a last-resort strategic focus on OLED displays as the Japanese display maker failed to shift to OLED displays in time. JDI found it extremely difficult to secure the needed funds, but it finally raised $430 million from Oasis Management group and one of its customers (likely to be Apple).
It is now reported that Ichigo Asset Management will invest up to $830 million in Japan Display.
The US DOE awards $1 million to develop silver inks to replace ITO in OLED lighting panels
The US Department of Energy (DoE) awarded a $1 million project that aims to replace ITO with a metal-based micro-grid with an aim to improve the performance of OLED lighting panels.
This research project is led by Professor Paul Leu from the University of Pittsburgh and Texas-based Electroninks which provides the silver-based inks. Electroninks’ metal inks can cure at low temperatures, be printed into patterns, and has conductivity comparable to bulk metal. Using a new metal patterning technique that prints the metal grid directly on glass or plastic, it is possible to create micro-grids that can outperform ITO at a lower manufacturing cost.
Taiwan's Chunghwa Picture Tubes filed for bankruptcy
In September 2019, CPT (Chunghwa Picture Tubes) filed for bankruptcy - as the company could not repay its debt.
CPT was established in 1971 in Taiwan and was a CRT and LCD display maker. In 2012 CPT started to develop AMOLED technologies and the company established a small-size experimental line. Later on CPT actually started to produce AMOLEDs in low volume, and also developed flexible OLED technologies.
Read the full story Posted: Nov 25, 2019
eMagin reports significantly improved Q3 2019 financial results
OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its financial results for Q3 2019. Revenues were $7.9 million (up from $6.9 million a year ago) and operating loss was $0.4 million (down from $1.3 million in Q3 2018).
eMagin says that these financial results present a significant improvement, with the second highest quarter revenues in the Company's history. The company demonstrated significant improvement in yield and throughput as production volumes increased over 50% from the second quarter.
Read the full story | 1 comment | Posted: Nov 10, 2019


Scenic alpine lake above Tahoe being sold to Forest Service
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. (AP) ” A scenic alpine lake and private enclave overlooking Lake Tahoe that once served as a playground for the rich and famous should be in the public’s hands this summer under a compromise announced today.
The Incline Lake Corp. will receive a deposit of at least $46 million for 777 acres, including Incline Lake, atop a forested ridge of the Sierra between Lake Tahoe and Reno, the current landowners said.
A trial will be held in federal court to determine whether additional compensation is justified under what was described as a “friendly condemnation” proceeding, the Reno Gazette-Journal first reported on it’s Web site Wednesday afternoon.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., suggested the compromise. It was arranged after the landowners and U.S. Forest Service failed to agree on value of the property.
“Today marks another historic milestone in our efforts to preserve the Lake Tahoe Basin,” Ensign said in a statement.
“The Incline Lake property is truly spectacular, including some of the most breathtaking views in Nevada that will now be protected for all of the public to enjoy. Its an awe-inspiring site, and through this agreement we are ensuring that this oasis will be enjoyed by our grandchildren and generations beyond,” he said.
The Incline Lake Corp. originally asked for $75 million but federal appraisals put the value as “tens of millions” less than that, said Glen Williams of Terra Firma Associates, representing the owners.
The scenic property should transfer to the U.S. Forest Service sometime in June, although the exact value of the land won’t be determined for perhaps a year, Williams said.
The lake will remain closed to the public until next year while all improvements, including buildings, foundations, water tanks and utilities, are removed, landowners said.
“It’s been a rough haul,” Williams said as of the four years of negotiations leading to the agreement.
Norm Nash, president of Incline Lake Corp., cited a “tremendous development potential” for the land, which will instead become scenic national forest.
“As much as I am pleased the property will be preserved for the public, part of me will always see a great development opportunity lost,” Nash said.
Since 1939, when the property was acquired from George Whittell by Norman Biltz, the “Duke of Nevada,” Incline Lake has generally been off-limits to the public.
Past visitors included some of Nevada’s most prominent personalities, like philanthropist and dairy king Max Fleischmann, longtime U.S. Sen. Patrick McCarran and Moya Lear, philanthropist and wife to Bill Lear, creator of the Lear jet.


Peer-to-peer boat rental marketplace Boatsetter raises $10M as it looks to grow globally
Darrell Etherington	@etherington / 5 months
Obviously, not everyone owns a boat, and boat ownership is far more unique than car ownership — which makes it maybe an ideal category for peer-to-peer marketplace rentals. P2P boat rental startup Boatsetter recognized this opportunity, and is now announcing a $10 million Series A “extension” funding round to help it grow its business, with investment led by WestCap Group and Valor Equity.
Boatsetter counts itself the top peer-to-peer boat rental marketplace in the U.S., and offers insurance to boat renters, owners and captains alike through a just-announced strategic partnership with Geico. The Miami-based startup estimates the size of the peer-to-peer boat rental market at as much as $50 billion annually, and plans to use its investment to expand its offering, both from a product perspective and expanding its presence in key markets globally.
To date, Boatsetter has raised $31 million, including earlier portions of this Series A raised over the past two years. The company focuses on rentals for anywhere from two to more than a dozen passengers, and a range of boat options that can also include qualified captains for larger vessels. It’s a bit like an Airbnb crossed with an Uber, and there are rentals available in vacation hotspots around the world. As part of this new funding, Boatsetter is also adding a new board member — Laurence Tosi, the former CFO of Blackstone and Airbnb, who is also a founder and partner at new investor WestCap.
The funding will help the startup invest in bringing in new talent focused on design, engineering and brand building, in addition to product work and market expansion.


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Jorge Abraham Soto Moreno
Fellow Ashoka
CitiVox
This description of Jorge Abraham Soto Moreno's work was prepared when Jorge Abraham Soto Moreno was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 2012 .
Jorge Soto is engaging citizens, government, and institutions through in an active dialogue about social change and a real-time examination and monitoring of social systems by utilizing innovative online platforms and web-based tools. Through Jorge’s work, governments receive citizen reports, citizens gain power and ownership through a collective voice, and institutions are better able to serve their communities.
La nuova idea
Based on his understanding of technology and his experience working with citizen organizations (COs), Jorge realized the need for platforms enabling citizens, institutions, and governments to interact in real-time to solve social problems. He founded CitiVox to create a network of online platforms that allows communication between political decision-makers, enterprises, COs, and citizens around a variety of topics from local community issues to national social crises. Unlike other organizations that lack the infrastructure to handle a high volume and variety of projects, CitiVox analyzes the content of diverse proposals to create public, actionable reports to send to the appropriate organizations or agencies. For example, during recent elections, Jorge launched a CitiVox platform to collect citizen “reports” of voting fraud, electoral offenses, and violence through a variety of social media from Twitter to text messages. The system aggregated thousands of reports, over two-hundred of which resulted in direct legal action. Using the CitiVox platforms, governments can make better-informed decisions and move toward increased accountability through access to real-time information and collaborative tools for change.
To encourage their use, the platforms are easy to use, anonymous, and free. They do not simply diagnose a problem using existing technologies, like other COs do. By analyzing the information submitted through the website or social media channels and preparing a summary report, Jorge conveys this information to officials in a practical form. This information is also made available for the public to access. CitiVox’s comprehensive reports provide decision-makers with actionable information required to solve social problems. Furthermore, Jorge and CitiVox often go beyond these reports and actively engage with citizens and the government in real-time to advocate and arrive at policy changes. Jorge not only seeks to help citizens’ voices be heard but also to empower the government and institutions to solve problems through increased transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration.
CitiVox is already collaborating in six countries in Latin America with governments, COs, multilateral organizations, and companies, so these organizations can better understand and serve the public. Within a few months, Jorge plans to launch an open source version of the CitiVox website so that citizens can create social networks or report any type of social problem. The new platform will give politically motivated citizens the tools to organize themselves and advocate for government accountability in solving problems ranging from the simple—pothole repair—to the complex—election monitoring and drug trafficking. In turn, the increased accountability CitiVox generates lends greater legitimacy to the public sector. By reducing the communication gap between governments, institutions, and citizens, CitiVox is boosting citizens’ faith in public institutions.
Il problema
Latin America’s institutions, government, and informed citizens lack forums to communicate with one another. Decision-makers are often unable to analyze the information and communication streams available in order to respond effectively. As a result of a long history of authoritarian regimes, citizens are especially hesitant to speak out against problems such as violence and crime because they fear repercussions either from corrupt government officials or members of their communities. This mistrust of authority and government aggravates the lack of communication, meaning that many problems go unreported and unaddressed.
The lack of clear communication among institutions, governments, and informed citizens leaves a pervasive, detrimental impact on Latin American society. For example, a dearth of powerful civil demands for government accountability and transparency has led to pervasive corruption and fraudulent elections, perpetuating government abuses. Furthermore, the citizen distrust in institutions due to graft leaves misconduct and crime unreported. In turn, violence and exploitation escalate amid a police force ill-equipped or unwilling to face organized crime. Such is the case in Monterrey, where an alarming number of restaurants have closed due to the increase in violence and rapid exodus of city dwellers seeking safety in less dangerous Mexican states. The crime and lack of public gathering spots leads many citizens to rarely leave their homes other than to go to what jobs remain in the city. Combined, these factors cause a further decline in communication among institutions, government, and citizens.
Grassroots organizations and emerging COs in Mexico are often formed to meet specific societal needs. Unfortunately, they lack the expertise and technical knowledge required to reach new audiences, recruit more actors, and engage stakeholders in activism and advocacy through media. Barriers to community organization and citizens sense of powerlessness may also lead COs to shy away from engaging with the government or supporting institutions in the joint pursuit of transparency, accountability, and comprehensive solutions.
Novel technological tools are beginning to offer ways to promote accountability, but their impact is still quite superficial. Several COs attempt to bring citizens and institutions together by offering communication technology services, such as mapping community problems. However, these technologies only offer visual depictions of social problems, rather than provide actionable information and recommendations for policymakers. Furthermore, powerful social media tools including Twitter, enable citizens to communicate with institutions and government officials, but these platforms are primarily one-sided, giving citizens an opportunity to voice concerns or pinpoint problems but leaving decision-makers either overwhelmed by the quantity of information or excluded from engaging in a meaningful dialogue. As a result, citizens expressing their informed opinions often come across as shouting matches rather than collectively voicing their community concerns. Without the communication or collaboration of citizens, institutions and authorities, serious problems like drug trafficking increase daily. Despite numerous advances in the region, without a significant communications transformation, social problems are likely to worsen.
In 2009 Jorge launched a series of web-based tools to address issues of civic engagement and the question, “How can citizens use technology to change society?” He designed new technologies to empower citizens to become informed and engaged, to enable government to hear from and respond to its constituencies, and to help institutions to reach new changemakers. Jorge is building a series of real and virtual communities to actively confront and find solutions for social problems.
Jorge began his work with the development of forums that build community by bringing people together around issues. For example, in 2011 Jorge hosted Mexico’s first “hackathon,” bringing together the skills and resources of computer programmers, developers, software engineers, and hackers to help COs solve social problems with technology. In doing so, he not only created alliances between hackers and COs, two groups who would ordinarily not interact with one another, but also facilitated substantive projects to affect change. As a result, one group of hackers created a web application to display which government agencies were denying the most requests for information. Another group created an application programming interface to provide real-time riot monitoring in the state of Oaxaca. In creating these relationships between hackers and COs, he has increased the reach and voice of non-profits and their social causes. Jorge plans another hackathon in the coming months, this one focused on children’s rights.
Jorge’s next endeavor was the creation of an election monitoring tool which collected reports of Mexican electoral offenses, violence, and fraud from Twitter, text messages, and emails. The tool was remarkably successful, receiving some 11,000 reports, 200 of which later faced legal action. This tool would become We Take Care of the Vote, which was soon implemented in Yemen, Benin, and throughout Mexico, allowing Jorge’s organization to provide real-time election tracking and monitoring. Official trained observers as well as citizens were able to report election crimes and concerns via text messages. In Benin, the system received more than 1,000 reports while the Yemen system received 8,000. This kind of civic participation in Yemen, which only enacted universal suffrage in 1990, demonstrated citizens’ understanding that democracy involves not only voting, but also protecting the right to vote from corruption.
In response to a 2009 proposed Internet tax increase, Jorge and his team launched another site, Necessary Internet. The site monitored all tweets opposing the tax, then analyzed the information and sent a daily summary of the 120,000 daily postings to each congressional representative. In response, they were invited to participate in a Senate discussion to present their findings. The new tax did not pass. These experiences were formative for Jorge because they helped him realize the power of technology paired with personal engagement.
Following this success, Jorge’s organization realized the importance of converting citizen reports into actionable information while guaranteeing confidentiality and safety. He created Project Tehuan in partnership with the Center of Citizen Integration and a number of national and international governmental agencies, COs, as well as private business associations in the state of Monterrey. Project Tehuan is a mass collaboration technological platform that enables citizen participation in important social issues. Citizens may send the organization Twitter, email, text or web-based reports of anything from potholes, car accidents, and medical emergencies, to information on illegal activity. The agency then facilitates collaboration between citizens and public agencies as well as agencies’ responses by consolidating and publishing citizen reports. Citizens may also receive notifications and alerts according to their preferences to be better informed.
In the first six months, some 50,000 community members used Project Tehuan to exchange information, report problems, and communicate directly with the government in real-time. The project has had many successes, including citizens’ working together to find a stolen car only eleven minutes after the theft was first reported. Project Tehuan represents a powerful way to incentivize government and institutions to hear and respond to citizens. It also encourages a community of informed citizens to actively engage their government and support agencies, and has demonstrated how that engagement can be sustained over time. Today, CitiVox has a presence in eight countries through Internet-based programs managing projects such as crime reports, the protection of journalists, legislative transparency, education problems, election monitoring, and the protection of children from violence. Jorge provides his partner COs with training in product use, as well as one-on-one consulting throughout the entirety of the project. To date, CitiVox’s business-to-CO strategies have received 271,000 reports and interact with an average 144,000 citizens each month.
After managing these custom-made programs, Jorge saw that CitiVox faced scalability limitations due to the development work required to build each custom-made platform. He realized that in each of their successes, citizens initiated the conversation on social media before there was ever a software solution. Jorge saw the weaknesses of relying on citizen information from those sources alone: the overwhelming amount of information on sites such as Twitter, the limited amount of attention decision-makers are able to devote to it, and the distraction of irrelevant posts. It was then Jorge then realized he wanted to create a free, consumer-based platform to focus even more on the citizen voice.
The free platform, also called CitiVox, aims to create a more organic interaction that galvanizes citizens to come together around topics of interest. While not exclusively focused on social action, the goal of CitiVox is to create a platform for social action as well as sustained interaction. Jorge plans to identify and adopt ten projects each year from CitiVox, citizens, and CO interactions, for the kind of deep engagement and additional support it currently gives to its custom-made programs.
CitiVox’s new online platform allows users to create and share community action boards, post texts, photos, and videos to start conversations around shared interests or issues. Users can interact with the posts on community boards, which are integrated with social media. Most importantly, rather than controlling user interaction, Jorge wants to ensure his organization, citizens, COs, and the government understand it.
La persona
Jorge grew up in Veracruz, the son of two doctors, one very liberal and the other very conservative, who often discussed Mexican politics with him. From a young age, he also witnessed rampant fraud, as several of his friend’s parents openly engaged in corrupt acts. Their actions contributed to a local culture that accepted such behavior as normal.
Jorge was a curious child, often taking apart electronics to learn how technology worked. In college he developed an interest and talent in computer technology, studying electronic systems engineering and later nonprofit administration at Columbia University.
Two turning points early in his career marked his decision to dedicate his efforts to social change: (i) widespread and corroborated fraud in the 2006 presidential election, and (ii) the eruption of narco-trafficking-related violence in Monterrey; transforming it from one of the safest cities in Mexico to one of the most troubled and dangerous. In 2010 Jorge was particularly affected by the death of two students at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, one a close friend, who were both killed in the crossfire between the Mexican military and drug cartel members. Dismayed by the violence and frustrated with the lack of local action against it, Jorge moved to Mexico City to find new ways to use his technology skills to affect change. After completing his studies, he was equipped to launch his first technological initiatives to foment communication and civic participation through CitiVox.
At only 29, Jorge has already received significant international recognition for his work. Using this momentum, his eyes are set on global expansion and the creation of new platforms to achieve even greater social impact.
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Chatting with NASCAR star Matt DiBenedetto
posted by Casey Carter - Sep 10, 2019
If you saw the race at Bristol Motor Speedway a few weeks ago, there is no doubt in my mind that you became a Matt DiBenedetto fan that night- if you weren't a fan of his already. Here was a guy that just found out that he is losing his ride for next year, he was in an underfunded team, and with a handful of laps to go, he was leading the race on the way to his first win. Much to the disgrace of fans everywhere, he ended up finishing second- the most heartbreaking second place finish EVER... heartbreaking to the point where race winner Denny Hamlin actually apologized for winning- but "Matty D" won over a bunch of new fans that night.
He called yesterday and I was hoping that he would announce that he has a new ride for next year. I even asked him about it! And in typical poker-face race car driver fashion, he had no announcement. But in a great-for-him-bad-for-this-interview turn of events, Matty D announced TODAY that he will take over the famed Wood Brothers 21 car for retiring Paul Menard next year. Yep... I was a day late and a dollar short on our conversation :)
Nonetheless, DiBenedetto is an incredibly likable guy who you love to root for, and I'm am sure that a TON of NASCAR fans are pumped to root for him the rest of this year, next year, and beyond. In fact, I hope to see you at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a few weeks rooting him on. Friday, September 27th is qualifying, Saturday is the Xfinity race followed by a Rock the Roval Party (free if you have a Saturday or Sunday race ticket), and Sunday the 29th is the Bank of America Roval 400 where Matt and the other drivers will take to the 2.28 miles and 17 turns of Charlotte's Roval. Adult tickets start at just $49 for the BofA Roval 400, kids 13 and under get in for just $10 with an adult ticket purchase, and kids are FREE on non-cup event days! Get your tickets here and check out our chat below.
Credit 360001Chris Graythen/Getty Images: CHARLOTTE, NC - JANUARY 29: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Matt DiBenedetto poses for a portrait during the NASCAR Production Photo Days at Charlotte Convention Center on January 29, 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina.


Intermediate+ Word of the Day: puff
puff (noun, verb) /pʌf/ LISTEN
Cream puffs are delicious.
A puff is a short blast of air or smoke, as well as the sound made when giving off a puff, and the act of inhaling and exhaling on a cigarette or pipe. It is also a ball of choux pastry (as pictured above) baked and filled with something sweet, often whipped cream and jam. Figuratively, a puff is a flattering review. To puff means ‘to blow with a short blast,’ as wind sometimes does, ‘to give or let out in a puff,’ and ‘to move with a puff.’ To puff is also ‘to become swollen or inflated’ and ‘to make fluffy.’
A puff of wind blew the papers off the table.
A single puff of smoke came out of the chimney.
Can I have a puff on your cigarette?
We had coffee and cream puffs.
Winston was puffing on his cigar.
The steam train puffed into the station.
The bird puffed up its feathers.
Jim puffed the cushions on the couch.
Words often used with puff
out of puff: out of breath, mostly UK. Example: “Karen hadn’t been for a run for a long time and she was out of puff by the time she got to the end of her road.” This expression can also be used figuratively to mean that something is losing momentum. Example: “The project started well, but now it seems to be running out of puff.”
puff pastry: a type of pastry where much of the butter is incorporated through a long process of folding and rolling, with the pastry frequently being returned to the fridge to chill, so that when it is cooked, it puffs up and becomes crisp, light, and airy.
powder puff: a pad for applying powder to your skin, especially face powder.
The Powerpuff Girls is an American animated TV series that ran from 1998 to 2005 and was rebooted (that means they made a new version and started running it again) in 2016. You can see the theme from the series here:
Puff the Magic Dragon is a 1963 song by the group Peter, Paul, and Mary. You can see them performing it live in 1965 here:
Just as a puff is a flattering review, a puff piece in the news or in a newspaper is an article or segment that is upbeat and optimistic, usually about an unimportant “feel-good” subject, like a cat helping a puppy climb up a riverbank. And some of you may remember the word puff from last week, as it’s one of many hairstyles worn with natural kinky hair.
A puff sleeve is a sleeve that is gathered at the top and the cuff, but full in the middle.
puffingly (adverb)
Puff dates back to the late 12th century, when the Middle English verb puffen meant ‘to blow with your mouth.’ Its origin is imitative, meaning that the word comes from the sound the action makes. It is, however, related to the Middle Dutch puffen, and the Low German pof or puf, so some speculate that there may have been a common origin that is now lost, and the word (both the verb and noun forms) may be older than we think. The meaning expanded to ‘pant’ and ‘breathe fast or hard’ in the late 14th century, and has been used to describe swellings and protuberances since the mid-16th century. The transitive figurative meaning (to exalt) also dates back to the mid-16th century, and this sense grew to include ‘praise in self-interest’ in the early 19th century. The noun comes from the verb, when the Middle English puf or puffe originally meant ‘the act of puffing’ or ‘a short blast.’ It has been used as a name for a type of light, airy pastry since the 14th century, and figuratively to mean ‘flattery or praise’ since the mid-18th century.
Learn more about puff in our forums
Puff in other languages
Intermediate+ Word of the Day: whoop
Intermediate+ Word of the Day: broil
Intermediate+ Word of the Day: blink


Dunston, Lincolnshire
Updated on Feb 03, 2018
Population 1,005 (2011)
Region East Midlands
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Shire county Lincolnshire
District North Kesteven
OS grid reference TF063628
Post town Lincoln
Local time Wednesday 4:03 AM
Weather 8°C, Wind S at 29 km/h, 97% Humidity
UK parliament constituency Sleaford and North Hykeham
Dunston is a small village in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately 7 miles (11 km) south-east from the city and county town of Lincoln, and close to the B1188 between Nocton to the north and Metheringham to the south.
Map of Dunston, UK
Twinned village
In Domesday the village is written as "Dunestune", meaning 'Dune's farm'.
The parish church is dedicated to St Peter, and is a Grade II listed building dating from the 12th century. It was restored by R. H. Carpenter between 1874 and 1876.
Dunston Pillar is 3 miles (5 km) to the west on the A15. It is a Grade II listed tower and former land lighthouse built by Sir Francis Dashwood to guide travellers across Lincoln Heath. In 1810, at the jubilee of George III, the lantern was removed and replaced with a statue of the king, and in the 1843 Journal of the Agricultural Society it was described as the "only land light-house ever raised".
The Peterborough to Lincoln Line passes through the village, with a station 1 mile (1.6 km) away at Metheringham.
The White Horse public house is to the east at Dunston Fen; the Red Lion is on Middle Street.
Trangé, near Le Mans, France.
Dunston, Lincolnshire Wikipedia
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#DelilahBookClub ... Our August Book | "Northern Lights"
posted by David Savino - Aug 20, 2019
It’s almost football season - or so all the football displays in the big box stores tell me… I don’t usually follow the sport on a professional level, but I was right there in the bleachers all those Friday and Saturday nights in Junior High and High School, cheering on my home team!
Buy link: Northern Lights
My August book pick, Northern Lights, is more about that variety of football - the kind so many of us can relate to, and the really positive influence school athletics have on raising strong kids.
The author, Cathy Parker, is a life-long sports fan, who married a former professional football player, and went on to bring up four student athletes. She’s experienced both the highs and lows of sporting and knows the challenges that come with committing one’s self to a team - it doesn’t just affect the individual, but the entire family.
She’s so very passionate about promoting student athletics that she founded Athletes to Champions, their mission, as shared on their web site is to “Help kids build character, learn discipline and value respect through sports.” But the story of Northern Lights, is about some very specific athletes, so far removed from Parker’s intimate sphere, that it’s rather amazing a connection was ever formed..
After watching a documentary about a high school football team who played on a gravel field (often the cause of injury) in a town called Barrow, Alaska, Parker spearheaded a fundraising campaign to bring the players to Jacksonville, Fla., her home town, so that they could train.
Afterward, she started campaigning for the creation of a more modern field in Barrow, which is located within the Arctic Circle! Layers of permafrost posed an almost unsurmountable obstacle, and Parker had her work cut out for her!
Her book talks about the many many logistical nightmares involved in this undertaking, and how she grew in character and faith throughout the process. There is a LOT of distance between Jacksonville, Florida and Barrow, Alaska… this story is about bridging that distance through friendships, alliances, and determination and full of touching moments that make you feel as though you’re a part of the effort.
Although this particular game is over, reading Northern Lights, is much like watching it on replay. Cheer Parker and her supporters on from the sidelines all the way to the final scoring touchdown!
I love Cathy’s story, and Cathy herself. One more person who followed the whisper in her heart and made a difference in our world.
Pick up your copy of Northern Lights right HERE.
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