Podcasts about Discrete

We may know what the big turn offs are but there are many small things that kill desire. In today's episode we are discussing invisible turn offs that end up taking sex off the table without you even realizing it. Join our expert hosts, Dr. Laurie Watson and George Faller, LMFT as they review these 'microfractures', signals that you don't know you're sending. Stress, feeling hangry, irritability can all signal to your partner that they aren't important to you. Cell phones, social media and distracted minds dilute connection between partners and quickly eliminate connection. Our hosts share how familiarity of your partner can sometimes cause rejection. The more predictable you are to one another the less curious you will be. So what can you do? Start to notice your partner, pay attention to them with intentionality. Put your phone DOWN and connect with your love. Spend time giving each other prolonged kisses, longer gazes and more attention. These little actions can lead to big connections, decreasing turn offs and increasing turn ons! Keep it hot, y'all! Please checkout this episode's sponsor (and help the pod!): RexMD.com -- Discrete, confidential, online treatment for ED. Use the link to get up to 95% off your first order! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this solo episode, Darin explores a radical idea backed by ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience: that awe — a single embodied moment of wonder — may be the fastest biological doorway to expanding consciousness. Drawing on cutting-edge research, timeless spiritual traditions, and personal stories, Darin reveals how awe reduces inflammation, rewires the brain, quiets the ego, boosts vagal tone, expands time perception, and reconnects us to meaning in a world drowning in distraction.     What You'll Learn in This Episode 00:00 — Welcome to SuperLife: igniting sovereignty, possibility, and human potential 00:32 — Sponsor: Therasage — the most nutrient-dense food on Earth 01:51 — Today's topic: Awe as a biological shortcut to consciousness 02:00 — The definition of awe: when the world becomes bigger than your understanding 02:17 — Awe literally changes the brain — research from Dacher Keltner 02:23 — What if the fastest way to expand consciousness isn't meditation or psychedelics… but a single moment of awe? 02:34 — "Embodied awe" as a key humans have overlooked 02:41 — Science is catching up — the physiological effects of awe 02:47 — Awe reduces inflammation, rewires neural pathways, and increases connection 02:55 — Modern life has cut us off from awe — but nature left a back door 03:02 — Awe as a temporary collapse of ego → widening of consciousness 03:12 — What awe feels like: chest expansion, mind quieting, heart opening 03:22 — Awe is triggered by vastness — moments that shift your framework 03:31 — Awe motivates us to transcend self-interest and connect to something bigger 03:47 — Examples of awe: star-filled sky, ancient trees, rivers carving canyons 04:01 — 90% of humans can't see the stars anymore — light pollution crisis 04:23 — Awe in music, nature, micro-patterns, the beauty of small things 05:00 — Awe in ancient traditions: Darshan, Greek thauma, Biblical reverence 05:12 — Darin's hawk story — the personal power of unexpected awe 06:03 — The science of awe: IL-6, immune markers, inflammation reduction 06:28 — Awe quiets the Default Mode Network — the home of the ego 06:43 — Less rumination → more presence, clarity, and connection 07:06 — Awe expands time perception — Stanford research on "time abundance" 07:32 — Awe increases generosity, altruism, pro-social behavior 08:04 — Awe boosts vagal tone: calm, resilience, emotional regulation 08:22 — Why we are STARVING for awe — screens, indoor living, disconnection 08:57 — Sponsor: Caldera Lab 11:33 — "We've traded the vastness of the universe for tiny screens." 11:40 — How to reclaim awe: look at the sky, clouds, moon, trees 11:53 — Let your eyes adjust to nature again 12:03 — Astronomical awe puts your problems in perspective 12:14 — Awe as emotional first-aid: go outside, find the horizon 12:30 — Limit phone time — reduce micro-dopamine addiction 13:02 — Micro-awe: the patterns in a leaf, the sunlight through branches 13:12 — Nature is always available — if you choose it 13:16 — Awe as the ultimate nervous-system reset 13:27 — Circadian alignment: dim lights, follow nature 13:56 — Humility = freedom — awe repositions your place in the universe 14:19 — Awe is biological, spiritual, emotional nourishment 14:27 — Awe is the ultimate bio-hack 14:35 — Awe reduces inflammation, expands time, deepens empathy 14:46 — "Awe is the gateway to the self-transcendent." 14:55 — If you want more meaning, vitality, and connection — start with awe 15:02 — Awe reduces stress, boosts empathy, reconnects you to your soul 15:18 — Awe reconnects you to what actually matters 15:30 — Final message: Have yourself the best SuperLife day ever     Thank You to Our Sponsors: Therasage: Go to www.therasage.com and use code DARIN at checkout for 15% off Caldera Lab: Experience the clinically proven benefits of Caldera Lab's clean skincare regimen and enjoy 20% off your order by visiting calderalab.com/darin and using code DARIN at checkout.     Join the SuperLife Community Get Darin's deeper wellness breakdowns — beyond social media restrictions: Weekly voice notes Ingredient deep dives Wellness challenges Energy + consciousness tools Community accountability Extended episodes Join for $7.49/month → https://patreon.com/darinolien     Find More from Darin Olien: Instagram: @darinolien Podcast: SuperLife Podcast Website: superlife.com Book: Fatal Conveniences     Key Takeaway "Awe isn't entertainment — it's medicine. It's the biological, emotional, and spiritual nourishment your body has been starving for. Reclaim awe, and you reclaim your soul."     Bibliography & Research Sources Bai, Y., Ocampo, J., Jin, G., Chen, S., Benet-Martínez, V., Monroy, M., Anderson, C., & Keltner, D. (2021). Awe, daily stress, and well-being. Emotion, 21(4), 562–566. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000638 Chirico, A., & Yaden, D. B. (2018). Awe: A self-transcendent emotion. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Article 2353. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02353 International Dark-Sky Association (DarkSky) & NASA. (n.d.). Light pollution and night sky brightness data. NASA Earth Observatory / DarkSky International. https://darksky.org/resources/ or https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/NightLights Keltner, D. (2023). Awe: The new science of everyday wonder and how it can transform your life. Penguin Press. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622177/awe-by-dacher-keltner/ Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2003). Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 17(2), 297–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930302297 Louv, R. (2008). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Algonquin Books. http://richardlouv.com/books/last-child/ Piff, P. K., Dietze, P., Feinberg, M., Stancato, D. M., & Keltner, D. (2015). Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(6), 883–899. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000018 Pollan, M. (2018). How to change your mind: What the new science of psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence. Penguin Press. https://michaelpollan.com/books/how-to-change-your-mind/ Rudd, M., Vohs, K. D., & Aaker, J. (2012). Awe expands people's perception of time, alters decision making, and enhances well-being. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1130–1136. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612438731 Shiota, M. N., Keltner, D., & Mossman, A. (2007). The nature of awe: Elicitors, appraisals, and effects on self-concept. Emotion, 7(4), 944–963. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.7.4.944 Stellar, J. E., John-Henderson, N., Anderson, C. L., Gordon, A. M., McNeil, G. D., & Keltner, D. (2015). Positive affect and markers of inflammation: Discrete positive emotions predict lower levels of proinflammatory cytokines. Emotion, 15(2), 129–133. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000033  

In this lecture, we review four different Variance Reduction Techniques (VRT's). Namely, we discuss common random numbers (CRNs), control variates, antithetic variates (AVs), and importance sampling. Each one of these is a different approach to reducing the variance in the estimation of relative or absolute performance of a simulation model. Variance reduction is an alternative way to increase the power of a simulation that is hopefully less costly than increasing the number of replications.We wrap up with a summary of the four VRT's that we have discussed in the class – Common Random Numbers (CRN's), Antithetic Variates (AV's), Importance Sampling, and Control Variates.

In this lecture, we start by reviewing approaches for absolute and relative performance estimation in stochastic simulation. This begins with a reminder of the use of confidence intervals for estimation of performance for a single simulation model. We then move to different ways to use confidence intervals on mean DIFFERENCES to compare two different simulation models. We then move to the ranking and selection problem for three or more different simulation models, which allows us to talk about analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc tests (like the Tukey HSD or Fisher's LSD). After that review, we move on to introducing variance reduction techniques (VRTs) which reduce the size of confidence intervals by experimentally controlling/accounting for alternative sources of variance (and thus reducing the observed variance in response variables). We discuss Common Random Numbers (CRNs), which use a paired/blocked design to reduce the variance caused by different random-number streams, and then we introduce control variates (CVs), which allow for reducing the output variance of a measurement by leveraging information about other sources that may be corrupting the output.

In this lecture, we review what we have learned about one-sample confidence intervals (i.e., how to use them as graphical versions of one-sample t-tests) for absolute performance estimation in order to motivate the problem of relative performance estimation. We introduce two-sample confidence intervals (i.e., confidence intervals on DIFFERENCES based on different two-sample t-tests) that are tested against a null hypothesis of 0. This means covering confidence interval half widths for the paired-difference t-test, the equal-variance (pooled) t-test, and Welch's unequal variance t-test. Each of these different experimental conditions sets up a different standard error of the mean formula and formula for degrees of freedom that are used to define the actual confidence interval half widths (centered on the difference in sample means in the pairwise comparison of systems). Next time, we will generalize to the case of more than 2 systems, particularly for "ranking and selection (R&S)." That will let us review the multiple-comparisons problem (and Bonferroni correction) and how post hoc tests (after an ANOVA) are more statistically powerful ways to do comparisons.

Mrs. Bateman's Cougar Club: Part 1 The Summer of '77 Changed My Life. Based on a post by Sel Wync Dog. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Way back in 1977, I was a naive 18-year-old. Summer was here and I wanted to spend it having fun. I was going to start college in the fall and luckily, didn't have to work. Mom and Dad were fortunate and made good money. He was the VP of Advertising and Marketing for a major energy company and Mom was actually a successful author. I had a generous allowance and a car (a white '73 BMW) It had been Dad's, and he gave it to me at graduation. I guess I should tell you about myself. I was a blonde-haired, skinny white boy with blue eyes and a big dick. Not that I'd done anything with it. It was just genetics. I knew I was bigger than my friends, but none of the girls I knew were aware of that and I was too shy to advertise it. Hell, I wasn't even sure what to do with it. My first experiments with jacking off were surprising and yet disappointing. I wanted a woman. But as I said, I was painfully shy around the females of the species. My best friend throughout school had been Rick Bateman. Rick had joined the Navy after graduating, and was off at boot camp. Well, one day his Mom called. She said that with Rick gone, she needed help with a few things involving the pool and asked if I would come over. My Mom of course said yes without even asking me. "Todd, go on over to Olivia Bateman's and give her a hand with her pool." I rang the doorbell and she let me in. "Thank you for coming over Todd! I was hoping you weren't too busy." "Not at all Mrs. Bateman," I replied. "Just listening to albums." "That's nice, Rick likes the Eagles. Do you?" "Oh yeah! They're awesome!" She led me out into the back yard, Like most people in our neighborhood, she had a pool. "With Rick around, I never hired a pool service, but now; I'm here alone, and I would rather hire the maintenance done." She gestured at the pool. Since Rick had been gone, it had accumulated a layer of leaves. "No problem," I said. I'll take care of it." She went inside and I set to work. Amazingly it wasn't too bad. I was finishing up when I heard her come outside again. Now their pool was inside a privacy fence but when I turned around I was surprised. She was wearing a white bathrobe. Outside. In June. Looking back I can say Mrs. Bateman was about 5'7", 130 to 140 pounds, and very curvy. Her tits had to be in the double to triple D range. Her wavy dark brown hair was worn most often loose and reached her shoulders. Of course, although I acknowledged her as attractive for a middle-aged woman, she was forty-one years old, but I hadn't really thought of her in a sexual way. I'd known her and Rick for twelve years. Her husband had passed away about six years earlier from cancer. As I stared she dropped the robe onto a chaise. She was completely naked. She slowly walked over to the pool and down the steps. She finally turned to face me when she was waist-deep. "I just love having a pool!" she said smiling. "And I hate the idea of paying someone to tend to it. Do you think you could do it for me, Todd?" "Umm; I guess so." I automatically answered. "Wonderful!" She turned over and floated on her back, slowly going the length of the pool. She turned and swam back then faced me again. "Well, Todd?" "Huh?" I stared at her big tits as they floated in full view. "Are you coming in?" "Uh;" "Todd, when a woman gets naked and invites you to skinny dip with her; you really should. Wouldn't you rather touch these than just stare at them?" she said as she cupped her breasts. Okay, as I said earlier, I was awkward and nervous around girls and not experienced or confident. But the offer finally overcame my shyness and I quickly stripped and dove in. Now the view of her big breasts had aroused me somewhat, but my nervousness had prevented a full-blown hard-on. I suddenly found myself in front of her and she slipped her arms around me and pulled me close. She kissed me and I felt her breasts pressing into me. I felt my erection growing. She did too; and reached down to grasp the thick rod. No one had ever done that. I almost came right then. But she was experienced enough to realize how careful she had to be. She smiled and released me after a moment. "My, you are blessed, aren't you, Todd? Why aren't the girls all over you?" I blushed. "I...uh;" "Oh? Really? You're still a virgin? Well, that won't do. That won't do at all. Here," she patted the edge of the pool, "sit up here. I want to visit Mr. Todd for a while" As I sat on the pool edge she spread my legs wide, then toyed and stroked my cock gently while smiling at me. "Such a nice, big cock." she said. Then she kissed it, licked it up and down, and finally slipped it into her mouth. She sucked on it as she stroked it. Her grip was firm. I reclined back and rested on my elbows. In no time, I knew I was going to cum. I tried to warn her but she ignored me and I blew my load into her mouth. Mrs. Bateman didn't miss a beat and continued to swallow it all as she stroked my jerking cock. I was stunned. I didn't know that was a thing. I had no idea a woman would do that. Of course, all I knew was that:  you touched a girl, she got wet, you got hard, you stuck it in, thrust until you came. Period. I truly knew no more than that. I had a lot to learn. Mrs. Bateman finally finished and smiled at me. She continued to play with my cock. "What? Did that surprise you, Todd?" "Yeah; you just;" "Swallowed your cum," she said matter-of-factly. "Some women like to. Some don't. I assume no one ever did that for you before." I shook my head. "Well, I like to. Especially with young guys. Otherwise, you might not last long once we start fucking." My eyes popped. "Oh yes! I intend to fuck you, Todd. What do you think about that? I intend to fuck you today, and if you're good enough, all summer long." She took my hands and pulled me into the pool with her. She kissed me again and again, slowly teaching me to do it right. I squeezed her tits and she guided me to be gentle and allowed me to kiss and suck on them. See I loved big tits. Always have. My girlfriends had laughed at my infatuation with big knockers, and two of my slutty classmates had let me see and touch them. One had let me kiss and suck a bit. She might have been a C cup at best. These big, beautiful things were amazing! They were huge, soft, round and firm all at the same time. Her areola were large tan ovals and her nipples were thick stubs. I squeezed, kissed, sucked and played with them as she smiled and giggled. "Boys! Every one of you are titty-crazy! Come sit on the 3rd step up. I'll sit below you. Now wrap your arms around me and let my tits know how much you like them" I was giddy with enthusiasm and soon I had her nipples poking out firmly. " You just can't get enough of my big titties huh? Well go on, enjoy yourself!" She said and laughed, as she leaned back against my chest. But a minute later she spun around to face me, kneeling, and pulled my face to hers and kissed me again. This time she slipped her tongue into my mouth. My last girlfriend had allowed only a few French kisses and this was thrilling. Mrs. Bateman also began to fondle my turgid cock again, and when I was good and stiff, she climbed up the steps from the pool and lay on the padded double chaise lounge. She spread her legs and toyed with her pussy. I followed and as I mounted her, she took my cock and guided me into her. She was wet and warm and it felt fantastic. She was still holding my rather thick cock and coached me to use short strokes in and out until I could fit deep inside of her. "Oh god, Todd! That's it; nice and slow. God, you're so big! Oh, that feels so good! Yes, yes; that's it; oh so good, oh so good!" We fucked nice and slow for a few minutes and then I warned her I was cumming again. She laughed and grabbed my hips and held me deep. "Go ahead Todd, cum in me! Give it to me!" I couldn't hold back and came, emptying my load deep inside of her. "God! Yes! That feels so good!" she moaned. When I had finished, I pulled out and collapsed onto the chaise. Mrs. Bateman began to play with her pussy and the flood of cum, thrusting her fingers in deep and rubbing it all over her pussy. "Not bad;" she said. "A nice big cock, lots of cum; but you need training and practice. If you keep quiet about it; this is going to be an amazing summer." Mrs. Bateman and I had sex again before she sent me home. I was fortunate that my parents were too busy and disinterested to notice my shit-eating grin. The next day Mrs. Bateman "hired" me to help her with her rental properties. Mom and Dad bought it and thereafter, my daily disappearances were ignored.     I would arrive at her home and we would fuck immediately. This could be in any room of the house or at the pool. We fucked in the living room, bedroom, kitchen, guest rooms, even Rick's room, with the Eagles latest album playing on the stereo.  One day she led me into the garage and I fucked her across the hood of her '73 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. She was wearing a nice skirt and shiny satin blouse, and as we kissed and groped, I found she was wearing no panties and was soaking wet. As I played with her pussy, she opened her blouse and lifted her braless tits out. I bent her over the hood and took her from behind as she shouted encouragement at me. After a bit, she pushed me away and rolled onto her back with her hips on the fender and her legs in the air. As I fucked her, she played with her tits and moaned. When we finished, I had to back the car out and wash it. Oh and she insisted that I always call her either Mrs. Bateman, Ma'am, or Mistress. Never Olivia or any affectionate nickname. I understand now that it was to keep me from becoming too casual in public. But at the time it was also fun. I would step up behind her in the living room and reach around to cup her huge tits. Nibbling on her neck I would whisper. "God, Mrs. Bateman you are so sexy! I just can't help myself. I want to fuck you so bad!" "Oh Todd," she would reply, "if you insist." She would bend over the sofa and I would lift her skirt and finger her pussy before slipping my cock into her wet folds and snug, warm depths. "Oh Mrs. Bateman, that feels so good!" I would moan. "You feel good too Todd. such a big thick cock!" Then after pumping into her cunt for a while. "Oh Mrs. Bateman, I'm going to cum! I'm going to cum Mrs. Bateman!" Sometimes she would let me cum inside her, sometimes she would turn and suck me off. Once she didn't turn fast enough and I sprayed my load all over her face and the front of her dress. I expected her to be angry but she simply smiled. "I'm sorry Mrs. Bateman!" "That's okay, it happens," she said as she wiped the cum from her face and sucked on her fingers. "But this dress; come help me change." This went on almost daily for three full weeks. I was coming home tired and my cock was sore, but I was thrilled. I mean this woman wanted a lot of sex! We were fucking at least three times a day! I learned to be a good fuck, of course, but more than that, she taught me to be a great kisser, a skilled cunnilinguist, and an attentive lover. I learned foreplay, physical and mental, and to focus on pleasing her, knowing that the journey to her orgasm was fun and pleasing to me and that my own orgasm was always just minutes after hers. It was thrilling to feel her pussy squeezing my cock as she came. That, coupled with her vocalizations (be they cries of pleasure, squeals of delight, or shouts of ecstasy) always made me cum. And beyond all that, she was paying me cash every Friday to keep up the illusion that I had a legitimate job. I thought I was in heaven. Man, was I wrong. Overnighters. July 1st was on Friday. Mom and Dad had wanted to go on vacation that week and the next. I didn't, of course and Mrs. Bateman came up with the ruse that one of her renters was moving and we had to clean the place, paint, and prep it for the next renter that week. Mom was upset, but Dad said it was a good experience;  and I was left behind. I wanted to spend the night at her home but figured Mom would call me nightly to check on me. Mrs. Bateman instead came over and spent the night in my bed Thursday night. We made love for what seemed like hours and my bed was soaked. She simply threw a towel over the wetness and went to sleep. This was the first time in my life that I had a woman sleep with me. I mean she went to sleep in my arms. I discovered that amazing feeling of a soft, sensual body pressed against mine. The next morning I woke up with the typical morning woodie but she wasn't interested until she'd had a chance to wake up and get some coffee. We did fool around elsewhere in the house, even going sixty-nine across my parent's bed. Then she said she had some things to do and told me to come over at four with an overnight bag. Discrete with Diane. When I arrived, there was another car in her driveway. A nice cream colored Mercedes 450SLC. A convertible with the heart of a sports car. When I went in, using the side door for appearance sake as she always insisted, I found Mrs. Bateman sitting in the living room with another woman. Mrs. Bateman was in her favorite wing chair, attired in a red skirt and white blouse. She waved me in. "Ah, here he is," she said. "Todd this is Diane, Diane, Todd," she made the introductions. Diane stood and sized me up. She was tall, in her heels she matched my 5'11". Her hair was blonde and she was a bit more slender than Mrs. Bateman with smaller tits. She was tanned and her sleeveless dress was white with a deep V front and a fully pleated skirt. As she stepped closer I couldn't help but glance at her cleavage. Diane traced the V with one finger and smiled. The other hand she placed on my cheek. To my surprise she kissed me. A nice deep, long kiss. A second kiss followed and I felt her hand slide down to my crotch where it squeezed my growing cock. As she stepped back, she grinned. "Oh yes, he'll do nicely." She kissed me again, this time with more passion. My hands found her waist and slid up her back. I had no idea why this strange woman was doing this but damn, I wasn't going to turn it down. She broke the kiss and walked away. Picking up her purse and a small bag, she went up the stairs. I watched her long legs in that swishing skirt and stood there grinning. Finally, as she disappeared from view the enchantment was broken. Mrs. Bateman stood and came over, wrapping her arms around me. "What's going on?" I asked. "Oh Todd, it's quite simple. You are going to go up to the guest room and fuck her brains out. The same way you fuck me." "What?" "Yes, she's waiting to fuck you. So go fuck her. Give her what she wants, any way she wants, for as long as she wants. Be polite and patient and above all, ask no questions!" "She wants to have sex with me?" I asked incredulously. "Yes, don't look so shocked! Look, if she met you somewhere else and hit on you, suggested having sex, wouldn't you do it?" "Umm; Well before you started fucking me, yeah. But now that we're fucking.;" Mrs. Bateman smiled, "And if you want to keep fucking me, you'll go up there and please her, like I know you can. Think of it as practice." She swatted my ass and pointed to the stairs. "Go." I knocked on the door but it was slightly ajar. I went in and closed it behind me. Diane was standing at the foot of the bed. With barely a sound, the dress slipped from her shoulders and fell to the floor around her ankles. She paused a moment to let me gaze at her naked body. She was nicely tanned except for the white skin of her bikini area. The stark tan lines were strangely erotic, obviously she tanned in a small string bikini. Her tits were about a C cup and her areola large and round with little pink nipples. Her waist was slim, and her hips round and firm. She was proud of her body and liked showing it off it seemed. "Your turn," she said. I stripped and as my growing cock was freed, she grinned broadly. She climbed onto the bed and uncrossed her legs, revealing a pussy covered in short, sandy straight hair. "I'm told you have a talented tongue; Show me." I started with kisses on her ankles and slowly moved up each leg to her knees and then up her inner thighs. By the time I reached her pussy she was gasping and breathing rapidly. I could smell her arousal and she was already quite wet, beads of fluid lined her inner lips and she tasted sweet. I did my best to focus on pleasing her as Mrs. Bateman had taught me. Soon her hips were rocking and her hands were squeezing her breasts. A cry of ecstasy and a gush of juices confirmed her orgasm. I lapped up the tasty wetness and looked up at her. "Oh god!" she panted. "Fuck me, fuck me now!" I slid my knob against her wet slit and pushed it in. She was so wet it slid in easily. A few thrusts and I was all the way in. "Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!" she panted. I held it deep and kissed her, then she grabbed my head and stared deep into my eyes. "Fuck me!" I started thrusting in and out and she moaned and groaned in pleasure. Soon I rose to my elbows and picked up the pace. Her pussy was making wet squishy sounds and her tits were bouncing. I couldn't last and came, pumping my load in her. She gasped. "Oh god! Oh god no! Not yet! Don't stop! Oh no!"     I sat up to catch my breath and as I pulled out I could see the cum start to flow out of her pussy. I found it weirdly erotic. Very erotic. Mrs. Bateman usually either played with it, ignored it, or wiped it up with tissues. I'd never actually watched it. I reached down and toyed with it, running my fingers through it and spreading it over her pussy. Diane was watching too. I spread a glob over her clit and she twitched and gasped. I slipped two fingers inside of her and she moaned. I stroked the inside of her pussy behind her clit and she bit her lip and groaned. I kept it up and she was soon gasping and trembling. She started pinching her nipples as I stroked faster and faster. Cum was everywhere. Then she threw her head back and cried out, "Oh Fuck! Gah!" My cock was hard again and I shoved it in, pushing all the way in one, hard, violent thrust. "Ah! Oh Fuck!" she screamed. I could feel her pussy spasming around my cock, squeezing and releasing over and over again. Diane grabbed my hand and placed it over her mouth and screamed again and again. I started thrusting. Slowly pulling out until only my knob was inside then thrusting hard, slamming our bodies together. Each time, she screamed into my hand. I began thrusting faster and she started sucking my cum drenched fingers. Soon I was up on my knees, gripping her legs and pounding her furiously. Diane was gasping, and moaning, and weeping as she grabbed and pulled on the sheets. I had no idea what I was doing, only that I couldn't stop. I was overcome with desire, and passion, and need. I have no idea how long I fucked like that, but finally felt the release coming and came again. I finished and pulled out, watching again the flow of cum from her reddened pussy. At some point Diane had stopped being coherent and was limp with her eyes rolled back and simply lay there moaning and humming. I lay next to her and cradled her head. After a minute, her eyes focused on me and she smiled. I kissed her and pushed the hair from her face. I laid down and she rolled onto her side next to me. She lifted one leg up and over me and I could feel the wetness on my hip. After a bit I dozed off. I was awakened by Diane, stirring and sitting up. She smiled at me and went into the bathroom. When she came out she seemed more composed and sat next to me. She gently toyed with my flaccid cock. "That; That was amazing." "Thank you." I softly replied. "I; I, uh; I came, uh; I came a lot. I've never; had that happen, that intense, that; long. God, a part of me wants to do it again. But I don't think I could take another session like that." "So we take it easy this time," I said. My cock was growing as she played with it. Diane smiled and straddled me. We kissed and I caressed her hips and back as she rubbed her pussy against my cock. She reached down and guided it into her pussy, and slowly slid down onto it. I let her ride me at her pace. She liked it slow and I caressed her thighs, hips, waist and breasts as she rose and fell. The slow pace was nice, I relaxed and studied her, my mind wandering. Who was she? I couldn't recall exactly where I'd seen her, yet she did seem familiar. She was admittedly sexy, yet mature. I guessed she was in her late thirties at the most. I felt like she was a trophy wife, she had that air about her. The realization that I was probably fucking somebody's wife didn't upset me. If anything it made me feel special. Damn lucky in fact. And if she wanted to meet again? I knew I wouldn't turn it down. Mrs. Bateman suddenly leapt into my mind. What was going on? Why had she allowed me to fuck this woman? How did they know each other? Was she indeed going to continue to fuck me after this? And if I could fuck only one of them, which would it be? Diane whoever-she-was was amazing, yet Mrs. Bateman had those huge tits and loved to suck my cock... I was jerked from my musings as Diane leaned down and kissed me. Her tits pressed into my chest. "God dammit Todd! I can't stand it! Fuck me again, fuck me hard and make me cum!" I grabbed her hips and started thrusting in and out. Faster and faster as she rocked forward on her knees. Her tits were in my face and I began to suck one. I squeezed her ass and pounded her pussy. Diane screamed into the pillow a minute later. "God! Yes! Ah!" I wanted to finish, to cum again, but I wasn't sure how much more it might take. Diane ended it for me, she slid down hard onto my cock and squeezed me tightly with her arms, legs and pussy. She held me tightly as she quivered for a minute or two, then slowly relaxed. She stayed on top and my cock relaxed inside of her. Finally she rose up and looked in my face. "God, you are so good!" she said and kissed me. "I, I have got to stop," she muttered. "I don't want to...but I'm so sore." Slowly she sat up and rolled off of me. My cock plopped wetly from her pussy. She bent and kissed me again. "Damn, you're a good lover. But I need time to heal after a fucking like this." She admitted. She stumbled into the bathroom, taking her dress with her. I lay there feeling awesomely happy. After a while Diane came out of the bathroom. She was dressed and composed. Only her smile gave anything away. I sat up. "Will I see you again?" I asked. "Look, if you do see me, anywhere except in this room, you must ignore me. Understand?" "Yes, I get it. But you are coming back then?" She paused, then grinned, "Oh dammit Todd, that was the best sex I've ever had! Of course I'm coming back!" She kissed me again and left the room. I went to the bathroom. When I came out, Mrs. Bateman was there. She smiled at me and then looked at the wet, crumpled sheets. She reached out and wiped up some of the wetness. Holding her hand to her face she inhaled deeply and grinned. "I love the smell of hot, wet sex," she said. "Call me sick if you want, but it turns me on.' She walked over to me and gently caressed my cock. "She didn't break you, and it sounded like you pleased her. I'm proud of you Todd. I knew you'd be a great fuck." She pointed to an envelope on the nightstand. "That's yours." Curious, I opened it. Inside were twenty dollar bills, I quickly counted them. "Two hundred bucks?" "Yes, that's all yours." To be continued. Based on a post by Sel Wync Dog, for Literotica

Mrs. Bateman's Cougar Club: Part 1 The Summer of '77 Changed My Life. Based on a post by Sel Wync Dog. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Way back in 1977, I was a naive 18-year-old. Summer was here and I wanted to spend it having fun. I was going to start college in the fall and luckily, didn't have to work. Mom and Dad were fortunate and made good money. He was the VP of Advertising and Marketing for a major energy company and Mom was actually a successful author. I had a generous allowance and a car (a white '73 BMW) It had been Dad's, and he gave it to me at graduation. I guess I should tell you about myself. I was a blonde-haired, skinny white boy with blue eyes and a big dick. Not that I'd done anything with it. It was just genetics. I knew I was bigger than my friends, but none of the girls I knew were aware of that and I was too shy to advertise it. Hell, I wasn't even sure what to do with it. My first experiments with jacking off were surprising and yet disappointing. I wanted a woman. But as I said, I was painfully shy around the females of the species. My best friend throughout school had been Rick Bateman. Rick had joined the Navy after graduating, and was off at boot camp. Well, one day his Mom called. She said that with Rick gone, she needed help with a few things involving the pool and asked if I would come over. My Mom of course said yes without even asking me. "Todd, go on over to Olivia Bateman's and give her a hand with her pool." I rang the doorbell and she let me in. "Thank you for coming over Todd! I was hoping you weren't too busy." "Not at all Mrs. Bateman," I replied. "Just listening to albums." "That's nice, Rick likes the Eagles. Do you?" "Oh yeah! They're awesome!" She led me out into the back yard, Like most people in our neighborhood, she had a pool. "With Rick around, I never hired a pool service, but now; I'm here alone, and I would rather hire the maintenance done." She gestured at the pool. Since Rick had been gone, it had accumulated a layer of leaves. "No problem," I said. I'll take care of it." She went inside and I set to work. Amazingly it wasn't too bad. I was finishing up when I heard her come outside again. Now their pool was inside a privacy fence but when I turned around I was surprised. She was wearing a white bathrobe. Outside. In June. Looking back I can say Mrs. Bateman was about 5'7", 130 to 140 pounds, and very curvy. Her tits had to be in the double to triple D range. Her wavy dark brown hair was worn most often loose and reached her shoulders. Of course, although I acknowledged her as attractive for a middle-aged woman, she was forty-one years old, but I hadn't really thought of her in a sexual way. I'd known her and Rick for twelve years. Her husband had passed away about six years earlier from cancer. As I stared she dropped the robe onto a chaise. She was completely naked. She slowly walked over to the pool and down the steps. She finally turned to face me when she was waist-deep. "I just love having a pool!" she said smiling. "And I hate the idea of paying someone to tend to it. Do you think you could do it for me, Todd?" "Umm; I guess so." I automatically answered. "Wonderful!" She turned over and floated on her back, slowly going the length of the pool. She turned and swam back then faced me again. "Well, Todd?" "Huh?" I stared at her big tits as they floated in full view. "Are you coming in?" "Uh;" "Todd, when a woman gets naked and invites you to skinny dip with her; you really should. Wouldn't you rather touch these than just stare at them?" she said as she cupped her breasts. Okay, as I said earlier, I was awkward and nervous around girls and not experienced or confident. But the offer finally overcame my shyness and I quickly stripped and dove in. Now the view of her big breasts had aroused me somewhat, but my nervousness had prevented a full-blown hard-on. I suddenly found myself in front of her and she slipped her arms around me and pulled me close. She kissed me and I felt her breasts pressing into me. I felt my erection growing. She did too; and reached down to grasp the thick rod. No one had ever done that. I almost came right then. But she was experienced enough to realize how careful she had to be. She smiled and released me after a moment. "My, you are blessed, aren't you, Todd? Why aren't the girls all over you?" I blushed. "I...uh;" "Oh? Really? You're still a virgin? Well, that won't do. That won't do at all. Here," she patted the edge of the pool, "sit up here. I want to visit Mr. Todd for a while" As I sat on the pool edge she spread my legs wide, then toyed and stroked my cock gently while smiling at me. "Such a nice, big cock." she said. Then she kissed it, licked it up and down, and finally slipped it into her mouth. She sucked on it as she stroked it. Her grip was firm. I reclined back and rested on my elbows. In no time, I knew I was going to cum. I tried to warn her but she ignored me and I blew my load into her mouth. Mrs. Bateman didn't miss a beat and continued to swallow it all as she stroked my jerking cock. I was stunned. I didn't know that was a thing. I had no idea a woman would do that. Of course, all I knew was that:  you touched a girl, she got wet, you got hard, you stuck it in, thrust until you came. Period. I truly knew no more than that. I had a lot to learn. Mrs. Bateman finally finished and smiled at me. She continued to play with my cock. "What? Did that surprise you, Todd?" "Yeah; you just;" "Swallowed your cum," she said matter-of-factly. "Some women like to. Some don't. I assume no one ever did that for you before." I shook my head. "Well, I like to. Especially with young guys. Otherwise, you might not last long once we start fucking." My eyes popped. "Oh yes! I intend to fuck you, Todd. What do you think about that? I intend to fuck you today, and if you're good enough, all summer long." She took my hands and pulled me into the pool with her. She kissed me again and again, slowly teaching me to do it right. I squeezed her tits and she guided me to be gentle and allowed me to kiss and suck on them. See I loved big tits. Always have. My girlfriends had laughed at my infatuation with big knockers, and two of my slutty classmates had let me see and touch them. One had let me kiss and suck a bit. She might have been a C cup at best. These big, beautiful things were amazing! They were huge, soft, round and firm all at the same time. Her areola were large tan ovals and her nipples were thick stubs. I squeezed, kissed, sucked and played with them as she smiled and giggled. "Boys! Every one of you are titty-crazy! Come sit on the 3rd step up. I'll sit below you. Now wrap your arms around me and let my tits know how much you like them" I was giddy with enthusiasm and soon I had her nipples poking out firmly. " You just can't get enough of my big titties huh? Well go on, enjoy yourself!" She said and laughed, as she leaned back against my chest. But a minute later she spun around to face me, kneeling, and pulled my face to hers and kissed me again. This time she slipped her tongue into my mouth. My last girlfriend had allowed only a few French kisses and this was thrilling. Mrs. Bateman also began to fondle my turgid cock again, and when I was good and stiff, she climbed up the steps from the pool and lay on the padded double chaise lounge. She spread her legs and toyed with her pussy. I followed and as I mounted her, she took my cock and guided me into her. She was wet and warm and it felt fantastic. She was still holding my rather thick cock and coached me to use short strokes in and out until I could fit deep inside of her. "Oh god, Todd! That's it; nice and slow. God, you're so big! Oh, that feels so good! Yes, yes; that's it; oh so good, oh so good!" We fucked nice and slow for a few minutes and then I warned her I was cumming again. She laughed and grabbed my hips and held me deep. "Go ahead Todd, cum in me! Give it to me!" I couldn't hold back and came, emptying my load deep inside of her. "God! Yes! That feels so good!" she moaned. When I had finished, I pulled out and collapsed onto the chaise. Mrs. Bateman began to play with her pussy and the flood of cum, thrusting her fingers in deep and rubbing it all over her pussy. "Not bad;" she said. "A nice big cock, lots of cum; but you need training and practice. If you keep quiet about it; this is going to be an amazing summer." Mrs. Bateman and I had sex again before she sent me home. I was fortunate that my parents were too busy and disinterested to notice my shit-eating grin. The next day Mrs. Bateman "hired" me to help her with her rental properties. Mom and Dad bought it and thereafter, my daily disappearances were ignored.     I would arrive at her home and we would fuck immediately. This could be in any room of the house or at the pool. We fucked in the living room, bedroom, kitchen, guest rooms, even Rick's room, with the Eagles latest album playing on the stereo.  One day she led me into the garage and I fucked her across the hood of her '73 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. She was wearing a nice skirt and shiny satin blouse, and as we kissed and groped, I found she was wearing no panties and was soaking wet. As I played with her pussy, she opened her blouse and lifted her braless tits out. I bent her over the hood and took her from behind as she shouted encouragement at me. After a bit, she pushed me away and rolled onto her back with her hips on the fender and her legs in the air. As I fucked her, she played with her tits and moaned. When we finished, I had to back the car out and wash it. Oh and she insisted that I always call her either Mrs. Bateman, Ma'am, or Mistress. Never Olivia or any affectionate nickname. I understand now that it was to keep me from becoming too casual in public. But at the time it was also fun. I would step up behind her in the living room and reach around to cup her huge tits. Nibbling on her neck I would whisper. "God, Mrs. Bateman you are so sexy! I just can't help myself. I want to fuck you so bad!" "Oh Todd," she would reply, "if you insist." She would bend over the sofa and I would lift her skirt and finger her pussy before slipping my cock into her wet folds and snug, warm depths. "Oh Mrs. Bateman, that feels so good!" I would moan. "You feel good too Todd. such a big thick cock!" Then after pumping into her cunt for a while. "Oh Mrs. Bateman, I'm going to cum! I'm going to cum Mrs. Bateman!" Sometimes she would let me cum inside her, sometimes she would turn and suck me off. Once she didn't turn fast enough and I sprayed my load all over her face and the front of her dress. I expected her to be angry but she simply smiled. "I'm sorry Mrs. Bateman!" "That's okay, it happens," she said as she wiped the cum from her face and sucked on her fingers. "But this dress; come help me change." This went on almost daily for three full weeks. I was coming home tired and my cock was sore, but I was thrilled. I mean this woman wanted a lot of sex! We were fucking at least three times a day! I learned to be a good fuck, of course, but more than that, she taught me to be a great kisser, a skilled cunnilinguist, and an attentive lover. I learned foreplay, physical and mental, and to focus on pleasing her, knowing that the journey to her orgasm was fun and pleasing to me and that my own orgasm was always just minutes after hers. It was thrilling to feel her pussy squeezing my cock as she came. That, coupled with her vocalizations (be they cries of pleasure, squeals of delight, or shouts of ecstasy) always made me cum. And beyond all that, she was paying me cash every Friday to keep up the illusion that I had a legitimate job. I thought I was in heaven. Man, was I wrong. Overnighters. July 1st was on Friday. Mom and Dad had wanted to go on vacation that week and the next. I didn't, of course and Mrs. Bateman came up with the ruse that one of her renters was moving and we had to clean the place, paint, and prep it for the next renter that week. Mom was upset, but Dad said it was a good experience;  and I was left behind. I wanted to spend the night at her home but figured Mom would call me nightly to check on me. Mrs. Bateman instead came over and spent the night in my bed Thursday night. We made love for what seemed like hours and my bed was soaked. She simply threw a towel over the wetness and went to sleep. This was the first time in my life that I had a woman sleep with me. I mean she went to sleep in my arms. I discovered that amazing feeling of a soft, sensual body pressed against mine. The next morning I woke up with the typical morning woodie but she wasn't interested until she'd had a chance to wake up and get some coffee. We did fool around elsewhere in the house, even going sixty-nine across my parent's bed. Then she said she had some things to do and told me to come over at four with an overnight bag. Discrete with Diane. When I arrived, there was another car in her driveway. A nice cream colored Mercedes 450SLC. A convertible with the heart of a sports car. When I went in, using the side door for appearance sake as she always insisted, I found Mrs. Bateman sitting in the living room with another woman. Mrs. Bateman was in her favorite wing chair, attired in a red skirt and white blouse. She waved me in. "Ah, here he is," she said. "Todd this is Diane, Diane, Todd," she made the introductions. Diane stood and sized me up. She was tall, in her heels she matched my 5'11". Her hair was blonde and she was a bit more slender than Mrs. Bateman with smaller tits. She was tanned and her sleeveless dress was white with a deep V front and a fully pleated skirt. As she stepped closer I couldn't help but glance at her cleavage. Diane traced the V with one finger and smiled. The other hand she placed on my cheek. To my surprise she kissed me. A nice deep, long kiss. A second kiss followed and I felt her hand slide down to my crotch where it squeezed my growing cock. As she stepped back, she grinned. "Oh yes, he'll do nicely." She kissed me again, this time with more passion. My hands found her waist and slid up her back. I had no idea why this strange woman was doing this but damn, I wasn't going to turn it down. She broke the kiss and walked away. Picking up her purse and a small bag, she went up the stairs. I watched her long legs in that swishing skirt and stood there grinning. Finally, as she disappeared from view the enchantment was broken. Mrs. Bateman stood and came over, wrapping her arms around me. "What's going on?" I asked. "Oh Todd, it's quite simple. You are going to go up to the guest room and fuck her brains out. The same way you fuck me." "What?" "Yes, she's waiting to fuck you. So go fuck her. Give her what she wants, any way she wants, for as long as she wants. Be polite and patient and above all, ask no questions!" "She wants to have sex with me?" I asked incredulously. "Yes, don't look so shocked! Look, if she met you somewhere else and hit on you, suggested having sex, wouldn't you do it?" "Umm; Well before you started fucking me, yeah. But now that we're fucking.;" Mrs. Bateman smiled, "And if you want to keep fucking me, you'll go up there and please her, like I know you can. Think of it as practice." She swatted my ass and pointed to the stairs. "Go." I knocked on the door but it was slightly ajar. I went in and closed it behind me. Diane was standing at the foot of the bed. With barely a sound, the dress slipped from her shoulders and fell to the floor around her ankles. She paused a moment to let me gaze at her naked body. She was nicely tanned except for the white skin of her bikini area. The stark tan lines were strangely erotic, obviously she tanned in a small string bikini. Her tits were about a C cup and her areola large and round with little pink nipples. Her waist was slim, and her hips round and firm. She was proud of her body and liked showing it off it seemed. "Your turn," she said. I stripped and as my growing cock was freed, she grinned broadly. She climbed onto the bed and uncrossed her legs, revealing a pussy covered in short, sandy straight hair. "I'm told you have a talented tongue; Show me." I started with kisses on her ankles and slowly moved up each leg to her knees and then up her inner thighs. By the time I reached her pussy she was gasping and breathing rapidly. I could smell her arousal and she was already quite wet, beads of fluid lined her inner lips and she tasted sweet. I did my best to focus on pleasing her as Mrs. Bateman had taught me. Soon her hips were rocking and her hands were squeezing her breasts. A cry of ecstasy and a gush of juices confirmed her orgasm. I lapped up the tasty wetness and looked up at her. "Oh god!" she panted. "Fuck me, fuck me now!" I slid my knob against her wet slit and pushed it in. She was so wet it slid in easily. A few thrusts and I was all the way in. "Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!" she panted. I held it deep and kissed her, then she grabbed my head and stared deep into my eyes. "Fuck me!" I started thrusting in and out and she moaned and groaned in pleasure. Soon I rose to my elbows and picked up the pace. Her pussy was making wet squishy sounds and her tits were bouncing. I couldn't last and came, pumping my load in her. She gasped. "Oh god! Oh god no! Not yet! Don't stop! Oh no!"     I sat up to catch my breath and as I pulled out I could see the cum start to flow out of her pussy. I found it weirdly erotic. Very erotic. Mrs. Bateman usually either played with it, ignored it, or wiped it up with tissues. I'd never actually watched it. I reached down and toyed with it, running my fingers through it and spreading it over her pussy. Diane was watching too. I spread a glob over her clit and she twitched and gasped. I slipped two fingers inside of her and she moaned. I stroked the inside of her pussy behind her clit and she bit her lip and groaned. I kept it up and she was soon gasping and trembling. She started pinching her nipples as I stroked faster and faster. Cum was everywhere. Then she threw her head back and cried out, "Oh Fuck! Gah!" My cock was hard again and I shoved it in, pushing all the way in one, hard, violent thrust. "Ah! Oh Fuck!" she screamed. I could feel her pussy spasming around my cock, squeezing and releasing over and over again. Diane grabbed my hand and placed it over her mouth and screamed again and again. I started thrusting. Slowly pulling out until only my knob was inside then thrusting hard, slamming our bodies together. Each time, she screamed into my hand. I began thrusting faster and she started sucking my cum drenched fingers. Soon I was up on my knees, gripping her legs and pounding her furiously. Diane was gasping, and moaning, and weeping as she grabbed and pulled on the sheets. I had no idea what I was doing, only that I couldn't stop. I was overcome with desire, and passion, and need. I have no idea how long I fucked like that, but finally felt the release coming and came again. I finished and pulled out, watching again the flow of cum from her reddened pussy. At some point Diane had stopped being coherent and was limp with her eyes rolled back and simply lay there moaning and humming. I lay next to her and cradled her head. After a minute, her eyes focused on me and she smiled. I kissed her and pushed the hair from her face. I laid down and she rolled onto her side next to me. She lifted one leg up and over me and I could feel the wetness on my hip. After a bit I dozed off. I was awakened by Diane, stirring and sitting up. She smiled at me and went into the bathroom. When she came out she seemed more composed and sat next to me. She gently toyed with my flaccid cock. "That; That was amazing." "Thank you." I softly replied. "I; I, uh; I came, uh; I came a lot. I've never; had that happen, that intense, that; long. God, a part of me wants to do it again. But I don't think I could take another session like that." "So we take it easy this time," I said. My cock was growing as she played with it. Diane smiled and straddled me. We kissed and I caressed her hips and back as she rubbed her pussy against my cock. She reached down and guided it into her pussy, and slowly slid down onto it. I let her ride me at her pace. She liked it slow and I caressed her thighs, hips, waist and breasts as she rose and fell. The slow pace was nice, I relaxed and studied her, my mind wandering. Who was she? I couldn't recall exactly where I'd seen her, yet she did seem familiar. She was admittedly sexy, yet mature. I guessed she was in her late thirties at the most. I felt like she was a trophy wife, she had that air about her. The realization that I was probably fucking somebody's wife didn't upset me. If anything it made me feel special. Damn lucky in fact. And if she wanted to meet again? I knew I wouldn't turn it down. Mrs. Bateman suddenly leapt into my mind. What was going on? Why had she allowed me to fuck this woman? How did they know each other? Was she indeed going to continue to fuck me after this? And if I could fuck only one of them, which would it be? Diane whoever-she-was was amazing, yet Mrs. Bateman had those huge tits and loved to suck my cock... I was jerked from my musings as Diane leaned down and kissed me. Her tits pressed into my chest. "God dammit Todd! I can't stand it! Fuck me again, fuck me hard and make me cum!" I grabbed her hips and started thrusting in and out. Faster and faster as she rocked forward on her knees. Her tits were in my face and I began to suck one. I squeezed her ass and pounded her pussy. Diane screamed into the pillow a minute later. "God! Yes! Ah!" I wanted to finish, to cum again, but I wasn't sure how much more it might take. Diane ended it for me, she slid down hard onto my cock and squeezed me tightly with her arms, legs and pussy. She held me tightly as she quivered for a minute or two, then slowly relaxed. She stayed on top and my cock relaxed inside of her. Finally she rose up and looked in my face. "God, you are so good!" she said and kissed me. "I, I have got to stop," she muttered. "I don't want to...but I'm so sore." Slowly she sat up and rolled off of me. My cock plopped wetly from her pussy. She bent and kissed me again. "Damn, you're a good lover. But I need time to heal after a fucking like this." She admitted. She stumbled into the bathroom, taking her dress with her. I lay there feeling awesomely happy. After a while Diane came out of the bathroom. She was dressed and composed. Only her smile gave anything away. I sat up. "Will I see you again?" I asked. "Look, if you do see me, anywhere except in this room, you must ignore me. Understand?" "Yes, I get it. But you are coming back then?" She paused, then grinned, "Oh dammit Todd, that was the best sex I've ever had! Of course I'm coming back!" She kissed me again and left the room. I went to the bathroom. When I came out, Mrs. Bateman was there. She smiled at me and then looked at the wet, crumpled sheets. She reached out and wiped up some of the wetness. Holding her hand to her face she inhaled deeply and grinned. "I love the smell of hot, wet sex," she said. "Call me sick if you want, but it turns me on.' She walked over to me and gently caressed my cock. "She didn't break you, and it sounded like you pleased her. I'm proud of you Todd. I knew you'd be a great fuck." She pointed to an envelope on the nightstand. "That's yours." Curious, I opened it. Inside were twenty dollar bills, I quickly counted them. "Two hundred bucks?" "Yes, that's all yours." To be continued. Based on a post by Sel Wync Dog, for Literotica

In this lecture, we start by further reviewing confidence intervals (where they come from and what they mean) and prediction intervals and then use them to motivate a simpler way to determine how many replications are needed in a simulation study (focusing first on transient simulations of terminating systems). We then shift our attention to steady-state simulations of non-terminating systems and the issue of initialization bias. We discuss different methods of "warming up" a steady-state simulation to reduce initialization bias and then merge that discussion with the prior discussion on how to choose the number of replications. In the next lecture, we'll finish up with a discussion of the method of "batch means" in steady-state simulations.

In this lecture, we review estimating absolute performance from simulation, with focus on choosing the number of necessary replications of transient simulations of terminating systems. The lecture starts by overviewing point estimation, bias, and different types of point estimators. This includes an overview of quantile estimation and how to use quantile estimation to use simulations as null-hypothesis-prediction generators. We the introduce interval estimation with confidence intervals and prediction intervals. Confidence intervals, which are visualizations of t-tests, provide an alternative way to choose the number of required replications without doing a formal power analysis.

In this lecture, we introduce the estimation of absolute performance measures in simulation – effectively shifting our focus from validating input models to validating and making inferences about simulation outputs. Most of this lecture is a review of statistics and reasons for the assumptions for various parametric and non-exact non-parametric methods. We also introduce a few more advanced statistical topics, such as non-parametric methods and special high-power tests for normality. We then switch to focusing on simulations and their outputs, starting with the definition of terminating and non-terminating systems as well as the related transient and steady-state simulations. We will pick up next time with discussing details related to performance measures (and methods) for transient simulations next time and steady-state simulations after that. Our goal was to discuss the difference between point estimation and interval estimation for simulation, but we will hold off to discuss that topic in the next lecture.

In this lecture, we review statistical fundamentals – such as the origins of the t-test, the meaning of type-I and type-II error (and alternative terminology for both, such as false positive rate and false negative rate) and the connection to statistical power (sensitivity). We review the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve and give a qualitative description of where it gets its shape in a hypothesis test. We close with a validation example (from Lecture H) where we use a power analysis on a one-sample t-test to help justify whether we have gathered enough data to trust that a simulation model is a good match for reality when it has a similar mean output performance to the real system. Peppered throughout the lecture are also comments about why normality is required for t-tests, why there is a minimum expected count for chi-squared tests, and how to avoid statistical inference issues when making multiple comparisons.

At the start of this lecture, we review statistical topics and fitting techniques from Unit G (particularly Lecture G3, on goodness of fit). In particular, we review hypothesis testing fundamentals (type-I error, type-II error, statistical power, sensitivity, false positive rate, true negative rate, receiver operating characteristic, ROC, alpha, beta) and then go into examples of using Chi-squared and Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests for goodness of fit for arbitrary distributions. We also introduce Anderson–Darling (for flexibility and higher power) and Shapiro–Wilk (for high-powered normality testing). We then pivot to formally defining simulation verification, validation, and calibration and then introducing techniques that incorporate rigorous statistical tools into the validation and calibration process. We focus specifically on the use of the t-test (for confirming that populations of simulation data are consistent with the mean behaviors from the real systems they are meant to represent) and the power analysis (for understanding the conditions when a failure to detect a difference between simulation and real system allows for inferring that the simulation is sufficiently close to the real system).

In this lecture, we (nearly) finish our coverage of Input Modeling, where the focus of this lecture is on parameter estimation and assessing goodness of fit. We review input modeling in general and then briefly review fundamentals of hypothesis testing. We discuss type-I error, p-values, type-II error, effect sizes, and statistical power. We discuss the dangers of using p-values at very large sample sizes (where small p-values are not meaningful) and at very small sample sizes (where large p-values are not meaningful). We give some examples of this applied to best-of-7 sports tournaments and voting. We then discuss different shape parameters (including location, scale, and rate), and then introduce summary statistics (sample mean and sample variance) and maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), with an example for a point estimate of the rate of an exponential. We introduce the chi-squared (lower power) and Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS, high power) tests for goodness of fit, but we will go into them in more detail at the start of the next lecture.

In this lecture, we continue discussing the choice of input models in stochastic simulation. Here, we pivot from talking about data collection to selection of the broad family of probabilistic distributions that may be a good fit for data. We start with an example where a histogram leads us to introduce additional input models into a flow chart. The rest of the lecture is about choosing models based on physical intuition and the shape of the sampled data (e.g., the shape of histograms). We close with a discussion of probability plots – Q-Q plots and P-P plots, as are used with "fat-pencil tests" – as a good tool for justifying the choice of a family for a certain data set. The next lecture will go over the actual estimation of the parameters for the chosen families and how to quantitatively assess goodness of fit.

In this lecture, we introduce the detailed process of input modeling. Input models are probabilistic models that introduce variation in simulation models of systems. Those input models must be chosen to match statistical distributions in data. Over this unit, we cover collection of data for this process, choice of probabilistic families to fit to these data, and then optimized parameter choice within those families and evaluation of fit with goodness of fit. In this lecture, we discuss issues related to data collection.

During this lecture, we review the topics covered up to this point in the course as preparation for the upcoming midterm exam. Students are encouraged to bring their own questions to class so that we can focus on the topics that students feel like they need the most help with.

In this lecture, we review pseudo-random number generation and then introduce random-variate generation by way of inverse-transform sampling. In particular, we start with a review of the two most important properties of a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG), uniformity and independence, and discuss statistically rigorous methods for testing for these two properties. For uniformity, we focus on a Chi-square/Chi-squared test for larger numbers of samples and a Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test for smaller numbers of samples. For independence, we discuss autocorrelation tests and runs test, and then we demonstrate a runs above-and-below-the-mean test. We then shift to discussing inverse-transform sampling for continuous random variates and discrete random variates and how the resulting random-variate generators might be implemented in a tool like Rockwell Automation's Arena.

In this lecture, we first cover some discrete distributions (and the Poisson process) that we ran out of time for during the previous lecture. We then launch into a discussion of how to generate pseudo-random numbers distributed uniformly between 0 and 1 (which are necessary for us to easily generate random variates of any distribution). We talk about the two most important properties of a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG), uniformity and independence. We then talk about desirable properties. Some examples are given of some early PRNG's, and then we introduce the linear congruential generator (LCG) and its variants (like the Combined Linear Congruential Generator, CLCG), which represent a much more modern PRNG that has a number of good properties. We close with a discussion of tests of uniformity. We will continue this discussion and add on tests for independence during next lecture (which will primarily cover random-VARIATE generation).

In this lecture, we review basic probability fundamentals (measure spaces, probability measures, random variables, probability density functions, probability mass functions, cumulative distribution functions, moments, mean/expected value/center of mass, standard deviation, variance), and then we start to build a vocabulary of different probabilistic models that are used in different modeling contexts. These include uniform, triangular, normal, exponential, Erlang-k, Weibull, and Poisson variables. We will finish the discussing next time with the Bernoulli-based discrete variables and Poisson processes.

In this lecture, we introduce the measure-theoretic concept of a random variable (which is neither random nor a variable) and related terms, such as outcomes, events, probability measures, moments, means, etc. Throughout the lecture, we use the metaphor of probability as mass (and thus probability density as mass density, and a mean as a center of mass). This allows us to discuss the "statistical leverage" of outliers in a distribution (i.e., although they happen infrequently, they still have the ability to shift the mean significantly, as in physical leverage). This sets us up to talk about random processes and particular random variables in the next lecture.

This lecture provides some historical background and motivation for System Dynamics Modeling (SDM) and Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), two other simulation modeling approaches that contrast with Discrete Event System (DES) simulation.In particular, in this lecture, we briefly introduce System Dynamics Modeling (SDM) and Agent-Based/Individual-Based Modeling (ABM/IBM) as the two ends of the simulation modeling spectrum (from low resolution to high resolution). The introduction of ABM describes applications in life sciences, social sciences, and engineering (Multi-Agent Systems, MAS)/operations research. NetLogo is introduced, and it is used to present examples of running ABM's as well as the code behind them. This lecture is also be coupled with notes discussing the Lab 3 (Monte Carlo simulation) results and general experience. These comments focus on interval estimation (which is right 95% of the time, as opposed to point estimation that is right 0% of the time) and the role of non-trivial distributions of random variables (as opposed to just their means).

This lecture covers content related to implementing simulations with spreadsheets and the motivations for the use of special-purpose Discrete Event System Simulation tools. In particular, we discuss different approaches to implementing Discrete Event System (DES) simulations (DESS) with simple spreadsheets (e.g., Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, etc.). We cover inventory management problems (such as the newsvendor model) as well as Monte Carlo sampling and stochastic activity networks (SAN's). Although we show that spreadsheets can be very powerful for this kind of work, we highlight that this approach is cumbersome for systems with increasing complexity. So this motivates why we would use more sophisticated tools specifically built for simulation (but perhaps not so great for data analysis by themselves), like Arena, FlexSim, Simio, and NetLogo.

“Discreet” 和 “discrete” 这两个单词虽然具有完全不同的含义，拼法却十分接近，读音更是完全相同。那么我们该如何区分它们呢？在口语交流中，我们可以根据谈话的上下文和场景来辨别对方想要使用哪个单词；而在阅读和书写时，我们则需要注意区分这两个单词的拼写方式，避免在使用中混淆它们。听节目，跟主持人 Georgie 和步理一起学习单词 “discreet” 和 “discrete” 的用法。

In this lecture, we close out our review of DES fundamentals and hand simulation. After going through a hand-simulation example one last time, we show how to implement a Discrete Event System (DES) simulation using a spreadsheet tool like Microsoft Excel without any "macros" (VBA, etc.). This involves defining relationships ACROSS TIME that allow the spreadsheet to (in a declarative fashion) reconstruct the trajectory that is the output of the simulation.At the end of the lecture, we pivot to discussing the previous "Lab 2 (Muffin Oven Simulation)", which lets us introduce common random numbers (CRNs), statistical blocking, requirements of 2-sample and paired t-tests, and more sophisticated statistical methods that better characterize PRACTICAL significance (and take into account the multiple comparisons problem). Thus, the post-lab2 reflections are largely a preview of future topics in the course.

In this lecture, we review fundamentals of Discrete Event System (DES) simulation (e.g., entities, resources, activities, processes, delays, attributes) and we run through a number of DES modeling examples. These examples show how different research/operations questions can lead to different choices of entities/resources/etc. We close with a hand-simulation example of a single-channel, single-server queue with provided interarrival times and service times.

In this lecture, we cover fundamentals of discrete-event system (DES) simulation (DESS). This involves reviewing basic simulation concepts (entities, resources, attributes, events, activities, delays) and introducing the event-scheduling world view, which provides a causality framework on which an automatic simulation of a DES system can be built. We also discuss briefly how the stochastic modeling inherent to DESS means that outputs will be variable and thus will require rigorous statistics to make sense of.

In this lecture, we introduce the three different simulation methodologies (agent-based modeling, system dynamics modeling, and discrete event system simulation) and then focus on how stochastic modeling is used within discrete-event system simulation. In particular, we define terms such as system, dynamic system, state, state variable, activity, delay, resource, entity, and the notion of "input modeling."

Send us a textIn this episode, the Inorganic Ventures team continues their overview of SEAL-compatible Discrete Analyzer Reagents—this time focusing on four essential nutrient and anion methods: chloride, sulfate, phosphate, and ammonia.Ashley Jones and Liv Forbes break down the key reactions behind each method, including:The iron thiocyanate reaction for chlorideTurbidimetric analysis of sulfate via barium sulfate formationThe molybdenum blue reaction for phosphateA safer variant of the Berthelot reaction for ammoniaThey also share storage tips, instrument compatibility notes, and how to adapt these reagents for non-SEAL platforms.

In this lecture, we introduce Industrial and Systems Engineering as a blend of science and engineering that necessitates model building. We then define model (as something that answers a "What If" question) and different types of models. This gives us an opportunity to discuss how modeling is less about describing reality and more about generating tools to do useful things/make useful predictions. We end with a comparison of mental and quantitative models, as well as a comparison of different types of quantitative models (including simulation modeling).

This lecture introduces students to IEE 475 (Simulating Stochastic Systems), a required course for Industrial Engineering majors that covers the design and analysis of simulation models of real-world engineered systems. The lecture covers contents of the syllabus as well as where students can find more information in the Canvas Learning Management System site for the course.

This week Shawn Tierney hosts Michael Warren from Wieland Electric in studio to demonstrate the SAMOS PRO Safety Controller in episode 15 of The Automation Show Season 2: #Automation #IndustrialAutomation #InsightsInAutomation Watch The Automation Show: Samos Pro Safety Controller Listen to The Automation Podcast from The Automation Blog: Show Notes: Thanks to Michael for coming out to our office, and to Wieland for sponsoring this episode! For more information about the SAMOS Pro Safety Controller, see the below links: Wieland Electric Safety Products Free Download of Samos Plan6 SAMOS PRO SAFETY CONTROLLER Safety Training Wieland Electric North America Contact info Note: The video edition was originally released on 07-22-25, and re-released with Audio Podcast Edition on 08-21-25. Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated) Shawn Tierney (Host): Everybody, welcome back to the show. Sean Tierney here from Insights and Automation, and we have a special show for you today. I have Michael here from Wheelan, and we’re gonna talk safety PLCs and all kinds of great stuff. But before we jump into that, you know, I haven’t had Wheeling on the show before. So, Michael, I’m hoping you can give us a well, not only introduce yourself. I got to meet him this morning before we started recording. But, if you could introduce yourself and then maybe tell us a little bit about your company, and then we can jump into why we’re here to talk about these good looking products. So let me turn it over to you. Michael Warren (Wieland): Okay. Great. Well, thank you, Sean. Thank you for having me. I appreciate that. And, yeah, my name is Mike Warren. I’m a business development manager for, Whelan Electric, North America. I’ve been, with Whelan a couple years now, but, I got over twenty years of experience in the industry. I have a couple of TUV certifications under my belt. I have a TUV functional safety engineer and also TUV certified functional safety expert. In addition to that, I do consulting for safety applications. I teach safety classes. I also teach the CFSE class. And, I do things like, review machine safeguarding, standards, CE marking, risk assessments, remediations, lockout tagout, basically everything that, is involved in in the safety world. These are some of the classes that I cover. So, what we’re doing today, Sean, is to talk about, our product. Okay? The the Samuels Pro Compact. And the Samuels Pro Compact is a safety PLC. It’s known, by various names, safety controller, brick PLC, whatnot. But it is a compact, as the name implies, safety controller. And in a safety chain, it really is, the keystone to a safety, system. There’s always, an input device. Okay. We follow the ILO system. Okay. I for input devices. L for logic, in this case, the Samuels Pro Compact. And an output devices could be contactors, which I have here, in the demo itself. Okay. It could be a, OSSD, inputs from a VFD or robots. Okay? So those qualify as output devices. But the input device is for detection. The large device makes a decision, and the output device executes. And the primary purpose of an output device is to remove energy in an emergency or a, an intrusion, situation. So let’s take a look at the product itself. Okay? The Samuels Pro Compact, again, is occupying this spot right here, in the demo itself. It’s 45 millimeters. Okay? Very compact. The base system is set up with 20 inputs. Okay? 20 devices. Okay. 20 inputs, it would be, 10 safety devices. Safety device is always redundant. There’s two points per safety device. So that device is already set up for 10. There’s four safety outputs on it. And the version that I have here in the demo is actually an upgraded version including motion. So not only will it, set up and accept the inputs from some of these safety devices that I have here, for example, like light curtains, I have door switches, I have an e stop, I also have an analog position switch right there that’ll detect the input. Other than those devices, I also have a safety encoder attached to one of the axes, in the demo to do motion detection. Not only are we detecting people, but we’re also detecting shaft movements, okay, with the encoder itself. Shawn Tierney (Host): And that’s optional. So there’s two models, one with motion and one without. Michael Warren (Wieland): That’s absolutely right. Alright. And I wanna point out that the software is free. It can be downloaded easily. It can throw it on your laptop. And the nice thing about it, and we’ll get to the software. We’re gonna show a little bit about it, that you can use the software without any hardware attached to it yet. Okay? You could literally can build your safety system in the virtual sense, test it out, check to see if it’s, working properly. And, again, when we dive into the software, you’ll see a little bit, the nice, additional features you get. Things like a schematic and a report, and also show you the modules that are actually part of the system itself. Okay? Now, we talked about, the communications on this too. Okay? We have three onboard communication, protocols. Okay? Onboard, we can, work with PROFINET, Ethernet IP, and Modbus TCP. Shawn Tierney (Host): Oh, nice. Michael Warren (Wieland): There are additional gateways that you can get to add additional, cons. Okay? That includes CAN open, PROFIBUS, and EtherCAT. So, again, we have a nice way of communicating with other protocols, and let’s face it, other manufacturers. And in the safety world, the manufacturer’s controllers, the actual, automation controllers are not to dictate to the safety system when to remove energy or not. It’s the other way around. The safety always has a a precedence and a priority over the controls. Its purpose with these communication gateways is to inform the control systems of what’s going on in the safety. Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah. I mean, most of the time, your your master PLC is gonna already have an HMI or SCADA system. Correct. So they’re gonna wanna display that information. So if you have those especially the the three you have built in, I’ll be able to probably the biggest three Yep. You know, according to all the surveys and industry reports and whatnot. Having those built in means I mean, you cover most PLCs standard PLCs. You’re gonna be able to give the data to them. They’re gonna be able to know in their program. They’re They’re gonna be able to let their operators know using the existing equipment. So very cool. Michael Warren (Wieland): Yep. And in this world, we, fully understand that, it’s a it’s a mix and match. Okay? Okay. Rare do we find customers that are using a single brand for everything. You and it’s necessary that, you know, one brand of light curtains works with the controller and another brand of door switch and whatnot. They’re all kinda compatible. And the communications, though, is very, very important, because, again, they’re not, operating, independently and in a silo. Shawn Tierney (Host): So if I understand that correctly, so we’re seeing your products, Ian. I really don’t know much about your company and what products they make, but I can see you make a lot of products here. So you’re saying that you don’t just work with the Whelan products, you work with other people’s safety products as well. Absolutely. Third party light curtain or third party contactor or safety contactor or third parties, safety push button. Michael Warren (Wieland): Absolutely. Okay. Whelan, itself is a, it’s a German company. Okay? Okay? They’re famous for their terminal blocks. Okay? So really we put them on the map, you know, many, many years ago. But, there’s two pillars for the company right now. One is safety products, and the other is distributed power. And, again, this is an important product for it. This is really our keystone and our leading product, as a logic device in a safety system. So a lot of time and energy and development has been put into this, to make it, a world class and, leading with all the features, like you said, including communications. Shawn Tierney (Host): Well, I think too the fact that the audience can go out there and grab a copy of the software and actually simulate their system, that gives them a you know, because maybe they maybe they’re like me. Maybe they haven’t used your system before. So they can actually build a system, put it together, test it in the simulator without spending a dime. They’ll be like and, hey. They go to the boss and say, hey. I got a proof of concept here. Let’s let’s call Mike and say, we can’t come to call out and and show us more. Michael Warren (Wieland): Yep. No. No. As a please call. By the way, I appreciate that. No. Like I say, it is a, a wonderful benefit. It helps people try to determine because, let’s face it. Not everybody knows and understands safety unless you do this, day in and day out. Yeah. You’re not up with the latest standards. You don’t understand simple things like an e stop here requires a, a contrasting yellow background to it. Something as simple as that. And, again, the, the the software itself is smart enough where you put these devices together, and if you configure it wrong, it bounces you out. And the reason that it bounces you out or says that you can’t, you’re not permitted to do that particular because it’s always traceable back to standards. Okay? So the standards are embedded in the configuration, and the algorithms that allow you to drag and drop and put particular devices together are based on, on the standards themselves. Okay. So the controller itself, in a safety system, is of the highest rating. Okay? In the PL system, it’s PLE. Okay? That’s, that’s that is the highest, that you can, arrive to in in the PL system. It’s PLE, SIL three, or CAT four. Okay? They’re all being used in in today’s industry. People, communicate, about safety either in cats or seals or PLs. But the latest and greatest, in, going forward really is the, the the performance level, PLE. That’s the highest level. But, again, it follows basic, safety fundamentals that if you attach, devices, in a chain, a safety chain, and you have PLE, PLE, PLE, and you have one device, that’s PLD or PLC, for example, a little lower than the whole system always reverts down to the lowest in the chain. It’s the weakest link basically. The weakest link. Yeah. Okay. So, again, you’re starting out with a a PLE safety controller, and now the weakest link is not the controller. It tends to be something else. Good. Okay? I mentioned also that, the motion control. Okay? And it has a a safe motion, embedded in the software, and we’re gonna take a peek at these a little bit. Six different TUV function blocks. Okay? Certified function blocks. Okay? They are, a safe standstill motion. Okay? Or or basically a zero RPM, determination. Okay? And all of these function blocks in the motion world are designed to detect shaft motion, shaft speed, shaft position, okay, and shaft direction. All the rest of the safety devices we have on here are for human detection. Okay? Hands, like light curtains, hands going in, door switches, gates opening, things like that. To your point, Sean, that, yeah, you say, you know, we have compatibility with lots of other brands and lots of other products. We don’t have all the safety products that are available here in front of us. For example, safety mats. Okay? Okay. Safety mats can be fed into this. Okay? It’s just another input device. Mhmm. Okay? Safety scanners can be fed into this. Okay? The form factor of a safety scanner is a little different than light curtains. Okay? But it’s basic same principle. Okay? Rope pulley stops. Okay? Two hand controls. All of these different devices are available in the library. Okay? And, again, we’re gonna show the software here in a little bit, and you can configure it, as you please with whatever brand, you’d like to use. And, again, some people are are stuck on certain technologies. For example, safety mats are kinda older technology. Mhmm. But they’re still viable and a viable solution in a lot of applications, and we see them all the time. So, obviously, the safety controller, will take those, as a, a viable input. Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah. A lot of times I’ve seen that the choice there is really I mean, I think most people wanna do the light curtains, but I think the mats, the rope pulls, the the scanners, I mean, they all address applications where the light curtain just doesn’t isn’t the best fit. So it really comes back, and you tell me if I’m wrong, but it seems the the choice there, a lot of times, comes back to, not always. I mean, there’s preferences. They want they all work. Right? Yep. But the scanners usually being the most expensive in my experience. But, yeah, a lot of Michael Warren (Wieland): it there’s there’s some applications you just have to have the rope pull. You something else won’t work. Yep. No. You’re absolutely right. The application typically drives the choice of devices. And, one of the things that, I go through when I do safety, machine safeguarding classes is this should always be be based on risk assessments. Yeah. Really looking at it, holistically, the whole system, the usage, the severity of the potential injuries, the frequency, the chances of these injuries type of happen. And, again, we put the best recommendations going forward, based on when we see applications. But it is by application by application. Rarely do we see, two that are exactly the same. Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah. And the risk assessment, I mean, if you’re an expert, you have the training he has, you you maybe you can do your own. But a a lot of us don’t have that training. And so to pick the right products, you gotta know what the risks are. And you don’t wanna spend thousands and thousands of dollars on something and then find out, oh, like, the biggest risk you didn’t address because it just didn’t come to mind. So the risk assessment by an expert is so huge in these type of applications. Again, some of the people, maybe they went to your training, maybe they got certified, and they can do their own. But, that’s usually a big part of a part of a project. Michael Warren (Wieland): It is. It is. And, it’s important, again, to have at least, you know, some background. Okay? It isn’t really an arbitrary, choice of devices. It’s usually a thoughtful process thinking of the input devices and the risks to people and, considering the the, the collaboration of people and machinery together. This is where we have to try to protect, humans near the equipment. Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah. Absolutely. And it’s gone on the days from a 100 years ago where, you can take those risks. I know a lot of people still do, but, you know, every time somebody gets hurt and there’s a new light current going up or a new god going on something, the go on are the days where a sign says, don’t touch or you may die. That’s not sufficient these days. And a lot of that’s driven by the insurance companies because they don’t wanna have to pay out for people getting all these injuries. Right? And I think we all know people who are missing hands and thumbs and and and body parts because they got they got stuck in a machine. So, I think this is a good trend. And these products, I I I think when you guys see the software, they’re super easy to use as well, so it makes a lot of sense. Michael Warren (Wieland): Yep. And let’s not forget, you mentioned insurance companies, but let’s not forget government oversight. Okay? OTA Yeah. True. Is, here in The United States is, really the watchdog for safety. And, not only are there, costs involved with machine downtime and injuries and insurance payouts, but let’s not forget, fines, levied by, OSHA. Okay? And, once you, unfortunately, once you get into, OSHA’s radar, they keep they can’t they tend to keep an eye on you. And, you don’t again, it’s it’s this kind of scrutiny you really don’t want. Poor publicity, downtime, and, again, that’s reputation. I mean, at some point, it boils down to company reputation. Okay? But, speaking of software, why don’t we take a peek at the software here, and let me show you a couple of details about it. Okay? This is the basic work screen right here. I have the software, called up. Again, it was a free download. I downloaded it online. And, again, I wanna create a basic system. Okay? I’m not gonna replicate this whole system here. There’s a lot of devices here and there could be conditions where I have multiple safety zones, which is something that you could put in the software. But I’m just gonna do a very basic configuration. I I call it the five minutes to safety setup. And what’s the simplest safety device to wire up and set up here? It’s the lonely estop. Okay? What we’re going to do is we’re gonna take an estop, put it into our, our our workspace here, and wire it up, run it, make sure it operates properly. I have the proper, wiring, I have proper configuration, and then we’ll see how the software guides us to, that completion. Okay? So, Sean, we’re gonna grab a device here. Okay? I’m gonna go ahead and grab an e stop. And you’ll notice here, I have a choice either a single channel or a dual channel. We always wanna pick dual channel. Safety is always redundant to contacts per. Okay? So I grab that. Okay? Now as part of a safety system, once I, initiate an emergency stop, I have to be able to reset it. Okay? That’s an important part of the actuation of the, of the estop. So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna grab a reset button. Okay? Right out of the library. Now pop it right over here. Now the next thing I wanna do is I have to have the actual contact, the initial initiation of a switch itself. Okay? So I’m going to come over here to the switch, and I’m going to grab a dual channel switch. Just drag it over here. Okay? So I have my emergency stop. I have my reset, and then I have the actual switch, the initiation switch of the system. And what’s missing? My output device. Right? So I’m gonna come over here, and I’m gonna just grab some contactors. Okay? Quite similar to what I have in the demo itself. And again, dual channel. I’m gonna grab that guy right there. Okay? So input device, logic device is the Samuels, controller here, and also the software called Samuels plan is right in front of us. Now we connect. I’m connecting here to there. I connect here to here, and then I connect the output to the contactors. Okay? Boom. I’m all set up. That’s it. Now why don’t we run and initiate, a safety function here? Let’s test it out. That’s how you’re gonna really know now. Right? I turn the simulation on. The background goes green. So I’m in a simulated mode. I’m in a virtual system right now. And as you can see, I have no hardware set up. I’m just using the software and the tools in the software itself. Okay? I’m gonna start the safety. Okay? Start the simulation. You can see the counter go up. This is the the time, okay, that I’m run actually running the, the simulation, and I have to turn things on. Right? I have to initiate them. Okay? I turn that on. You’ll notice here I have this flashing display, display reset request. I turn that one on, and then I actually do a reset. It’s as though I just set up an estop, and I say, okay. Let’s initiate it. Let’s get it started. Okay? Now I want you to notice the lines. Right? From my estop to the reset to the contactors are all green. That means I’m up and live, and I have a living, breathing safety system right now. So how do I know if it’s working properly? Well, let’s just trip the estop. It would be as simple as hitting the mushroom here and depressing it down. Since we’re virtual here, I’m gonna hit the estop right here. My green lines disappear. Okay? I’ve effectively executed a safety function. I, pushed the estop here, and I lost my connection to my contactor. I now have removed energy from that contactor. Okay? But and now if I wanna go through a a reset, sequence, go back on, you’ll see the flashing light. I turn that on, turn that on, and now I have my system back up again. Okay? Very easy. And, again, I I tell people that, this isn’t really a a programming system. This is really a configuration, and you’re just dragging and dropping. Now let’s take a look at some of the other tools that we have here. I’m just gonna pause the simulation for a second here. Okay. Once I actually do this and I know I have a living, breathing, simulation system. Okay? I shut off the simulation for a second and let’s see what the software has shown us or what done for us. Okay? Number one, the module. It actually shows us the module that it’s selected to accomplish the function that we wanted to do. Okay? This particular model, okay, the non motion one, you you mentioned that before. This is a non motion because all we’re doing is an e stop detection here. And if you take a look, you’ll see some very interesting points. Okay? Notice you’re gonna see an e stop symbol right here on I one and I two. It automatically selected, I one and I two to do that connection. The switch, the reset switch itself, I three and I four, and on the output side, I have q 1 and q two. They’re my contactors. It actually shows up right on here. Okay? And, as you can see on the demo itself, we have flash we have lights that are on. We have a communication light on the Ethernet IP port that’s flashing. These would be, your indicators on here telling you the condition whether you have good communications, you have good connections, or in in the event that you have a safety trip. Okay? Some of these indicators will go red. And that’s how your your first visual when you approach a, controller like this and you see that you have a safety trip, you would have the red indication on here. Okay? So that’s the module that that came up automatically in the software. Next is the report. Okay? It’s gonna generate a report on our configuration. Okay? And it’s nice because there’s a lot in the report itself. If we scroll down, we end up with a CRC control number. This is actually a time date stamp that identifies the unique configuration of the, project that we just created here based on the time date, and it’s unique. Okay? And when you go ahead and build a big system and you get a machine commissioned, okay, the CRC number is important to identify the material condition and the safety, the report that is generated, the safety level, and it’ll be identified here in the report itself. Okay? Okay. List of materials. Okay. We have, not only a bill of materials. Okay. Scroll down. There’s our controller again. That is in the report. Again, it’s a replication of what we saw in the software. There’s a bill of materials, the actual devices that are part of the safety system here. Okay. And we scroll down a little bit more. If we ran some diagnostics and more elaborate systems, we can run diagnostics and collect that information and actually have it show up here in the report. Okay? General information, things like CPU cycle time, for example, CPU usage. Okay? Isn’t identified here. Now we go down a little bit further and this is a really really cool part of the system that I like is actually the wiring diagram. We get calls all the time. Hey, how do you wire this? They say, you know, what do I connect? And I said, well, you know, it’s a input device, log device, output device. Yeah. But how do you connect it? When you set it up in the software here and you do the drag and drop like you see and run the report, you get an automatic wiring diagram. That’s all. So you don’t have to, you know, break out a pen and paper and draw up your wiring diagram. It’s already in here. And you can export this and put it into your master, wiring diagram. Okay? So those are on the inputs. Right? Okay? It’s my test policies. Okay? It shows my mercy stop and then also my reset switch. And on the output, I show my contactors. Okay? So, again, as you go through the whole report, it shows all the details or anything we configured. Again, we did something very simple. Just wired up an e stop to, actuate, a safety function, and we had the contactors to actually do something. The logic device makes a decision, and the contactors actually remove the energy. Okay? Now if we had additional things like, IO. Okay? This does have the ability to, have expanded IO. Again, we mentioned there were 20 IO points, resident, on the, controller itself. But if you needed more than 20, okay, we have additional safety inputs. We have additional safety outputs. We you also can attach through the backplane on the DIN rail itself, non safety IO. Okay? Things like the lights that are on here. Okay? Those aren’t really safety functions, but we do need IO points to actually run those. Shawn Tierney (Host): Is that what the gray module is? Michael Warren (Wieland): That’s exactly what that is. Safety. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Good call. And again, it’s, there’s not a really a standard that says that that they shall be yellow, but it’s kind of an industry convention. Yeah. Okay? There’s a difference between a standard convention and, yellow kinda calls out as a safety device and non yellow, for example, would be a, non safety, and that is a non safety function. So again, we have, additional, IO not only for, the safety but non safety. And, again, people tend to think that, the safety itself, can’t do a standard, operations and standard logic. But, I might point out here in the function blocks themselves. Okay? We actually have capabilities like that. Okay? In the software itself, okay, you take a peek here. These are just standard logic symbols. Right? Okay. I have a not, and, or. I mean, I can do a lot of features on here and really create elaborate safety systems. Mhmm. And again, a safety controller can do some non safety functions. It’s you just can’t go the other way around. A a non safety controller cannot be, utilized, for safety. Okay? But that’s all built into the software right there. And again, if we had additional if we wanted EtherCAT, for example. Okay? EtherCAT was not resident on here. We would add a separate, comm gateway, to that system right there, and it would show up in our report here. Additional gateways, extension modules, and any sort of logic that we had associated with the system itself. But, again, this report just gets printed up automatically. It shows, basically what we saw in the software that’s resident in here too. If you have to go back and make modifications, you’re obviously going to change the CRC number because every time you change configuration, you get a new configuration code. But, you do get a chance to basically see, and it’s a copy of, whatever that you had configured there in the report. So you have the report, you have the modules, and then you have your workspace. And, again, all of this was done virtually. All we had was, the free software downloaded, and we ran it, to run, the system for us. Shawn Tierney (Host): I should’ve asked you before you close the report. Do you get a bill of materials, like, the actual part numbers you need to order? Michael Warren (Wieland): Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I’m glad you asked that. Okay. Run the report. Open it up again. And our bill of material, Shawn Tierney (Host): let’s It’s usually a pretty big one too because, you know, you you’re not gonna be an expert like they are on their products or use any data tool to help you select which products you need, especially since you just went through and configured it all. And so there it is. There’s your bill of material. Michael Warren (Wieland): That’s the bill of material there. Okay? We have the controller itself. The card is, an SD card. Okay. Good point. We should mention this now. Yep. The, the SD card itself, okay, is, specially configured to work with the, this it’s not entirely big. It’s only a 512, megabyte, but it is required and this is where all of the, safety programs are actually resident. The nice thing about that is if you’ve had if you have multiple safety controllers in your facility and you have your recipes, resident on the card here, you literally can take this out and pollinate, literally go to each controller, install it, and then load up and have have safety programs. So you go from one controller to the other to the other, but the recipes are resident on the card itself. Shawn Tierney (Host): So what how about duplicating the program? If I if I’m an OEM and I have a bunch of machines. Right? And I just wanna duplicate the program. Can I use the card to do that as well from machine to machine to machine? Michael Warren (Wieland): Absolutely. You could do it card to card or if you did, you know, use your laptop. Okay? And you have the program on there. Shawn Tierney (Host): Okay. You save right to the card? You save it to the card. Yep. Okay. Without having the controller here, you can save right to the card. Michael Warren (Wieland): Save right to the card. Shawn Tierney (Host): Oh, that’s a nice feature. Yep. Some people can’t do that. Yep. I won’t mention any names. Michael Warren (Wieland): So yeah. Like I say, the good news is, it does save to the card. The bad news is you have to have the card, as part of it. Shawn Tierney (Host): It needs to be the company. It needs to be a wheeling card that’s matched for that device. Exactly. The special call it out. Michael Warren (Wieland): Yep. To close it out. And then again, the the rest of, the the bill materials is we have the e stop, the dual channel closer. That’s that’s just the software’s name for the reset switch and a set of contactors inside. But that is, to answer your question, that is the, the bill material there. Did you have any questions? Well, you know, he gave me some Shawn Tierney (Host): of the most popular good. I have not well, I purposely as you guys know, I purposely don’t look at the companies the first time I see them because I wanna try to have a natural reaction like you will the first time you’re watching this episode. Yeah. So, in any case, Mike was kind enough to give me some of the questions that come in. So how about number one? Alright. So I’m gonna read number one here. What makes the Samos I’m sorry. What makes the Samos Pro Compact ideal for space constraint applications? Michael Warren (Wieland): That’s a great question. And, we touched upon this and it has to do with the actual size of it. Okay? As I mentioned, it only occupies, 45 millimeters, on a DIN rail. Okay? Great. And, itself is set up with 20 input points, meaning it’s 10 safety devices. And let’s say I had discrete relays. Discrete relays typically take up 22 and a half millimeters a piece on the DIN rail space. 22 and a half millimeters times 10 devices, okay, would be occupy the whole DIN rail here. Okay? For 10 devices using discrete relays. The beauty and the benefit of having a say a compact like this, it only occupies 45 millimeters. Okay? So you have all this additional space for either expansion modules or other products. For example, the controls themselves. Yeah. K. No one says you have to run the controls, okay, or for safety in a separate cabin. They oftentimes share the same space in in the cabin. Cabinet space is valuable. Very real estate is very valuable. So again, it only occupies 45 millimeters. It saves an awful lot of space, holds a lot of devices just by itself. So, there’s an advantage right there. It makes a quick and easy configuration. Shawn Tierney (Host): Now you talked about something. I always thought this was a little odd. So you have an existing PLC, and then the the word comes in that whatever equipment you’re adding to the line or maybe it’s been reconfigured and you need to add a safety PLC. A lot of times, companies will not they’re like, we’re not gonna mess with the part that works. We’re gonna add in a separate safety PLC. And I think that’s unintuitive for people who you know, if you’re designing a brand new system, you’re gonna wanna design and get to buy a POC that’s a standard POC and a safety POC all in one. But I don’t think that’s that’s the opera. Do can you just share some of your thoughts on applications that you’ve seen over the years where they had an existing control system, but they needed to add a safety POC? And and that’s why they chose your product because it had to be totally separate from the existing system. Michael Warren (Wieland): Exactly. Exactly. You know, it’s it’s often nice to work on projects where you’re in the design, the front end. Okay? And you can have it all integrated and it all works quite nice. Yeah. Whatever you want. But, the the reality is that, you know, we’re called upon to add safety to a lot of older legacy systems. And, the concept that we always adhere to is really it’s a safety layer. Okay? And I really try in my classes, I try to separate control circuits from safety circuits. I call the control circuit the black circuits, and I call the safety circuits the red circuits. And the red circuits always have priority. Okay? And they have overreach, let’s say, of the black circuits to remove energy in an emergency situation. I mean, that’s what we’re that’s what we’re here to do. Right? We’re here the logic device is here to make a decision on an input. It could be either a detection of a hand or door opening or whatnot, or in the case of motion, an encoder signal. Okay? Identifying, over speed, going the wrong direction, has not reached a zero RPM state. Okay? That’s a a dangerous situation and it won’t open a door. It won’t unlock something until it achieves that state. So, to your question, we do a lot of applications where we have to put safety on as an afterthought. Yeah. Okay? And we work again with the controls, but we never integrate the safety directly. It always has a priority over it. And the idea is that the safety system will remove energy Yeah. From, whatever source. And when I say energy, it doesn’t have to be just electricity. Right? There could be kinetic energy. Mhmm. Okay? There could be Okay? There could be hydraulic energy. Okay? Their fluid power safety is just as important as electrical power safety. Okay? Quite honestly. Yeah. So those have a priority. It removes that energy, from the source, and then it turns around and it forms the control circuits. Okay? And this again, it’s it’s a little more painful and a little more complicated sometimes to add it onto a legacy equipment, but, it does get added, all the time. Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah. And, you know, I know a lot of the vendors these days are only supporting the last, maybe, the six or seven years of software. If you have a multimillion dollar system that’s full of racks and racks of standard controls, you know, upgrading that, just even upgrading the CPU to get a safety CPU could be that could be more than than this entire project. Yeah. And I think that’s what I’ve seen is, you know, they don’t wanna update the software. They don’t wanna have to buy new laptops. They don’t wanna have to stock new spares. That control system is standalone and works great. And so they’ll whether they go with the same company or a different company or a wheel in, they they’ll add in the safety, the PLC as as a secondary PLC that controls the safety that’s integrated with the safety because that big expensive system, they can’t touch it, and they can’t afford to upgrade it. Just as a standalone, trying to upgrade that would be would be, really overkill. So and that’s what I’ve seen. And you guys tell let us know in the comments what you’ve seen. Now am I way off? You know, let let us know in the comments, and I’d love to hear what your thoughts are. But let me pitch it back to you, Mike, and, after that interruption. Sorry. No problem. Any other questions by chance? Hey. I have another, often asked question. How does Samos Pro Compact reduce programming and commissioning time? Ah. Michael Warren (Wieland): How does it do that? Well, let’s start off with everybody’s favorite word. It’s free. The software is free. Okay? Truly. Easy to download and, as we just, showed us, easy to configure. And, quite honestly, the complaints for a a lot of system, setups and a lot of software packages is the complexity of using it. And, slowly but surely, software is evolving to the point where it’s very graphical and it’s all drag and drop. Okay? Yeah. And as you saw on the library, all the ingredients are there. Okay? And even if you select the wrong thing and you try to you drag and drop, you know, the output of one thing into the input of another thing, and if it bounces and it won’t accept it, you know you’re violating or you’re not setting it up properly. So slowly but surely, it’ll explain to you. And what you can do in the software too, if you ever have any questions, I should have mentioned this when we were looking at the software, was you can right click on any of the modules themselves, and it automatically goes to a help screen and you get all the details on that device. And if there are variables, if there are variables available to change the features on that. For example, like a a an or device. Okay? Or an and gate. Okay? You can pull it up, drag it into the screen and say, well, it’ll default to, to two. And it said, well, I need, I need three. I have three. Okay? I need this and this and this. Okay? You right click and you have a variable and a drop down and you can add another input to that. Shawn Tierney (Host): Oh, that’s cool. Okay. I love how you’ve combined the configurator with the programmer. Yeah. So now it’s all in one. So you get your bill of materials. You also get to test the program. You get the simulator built in. Very cool. Michael Warren (Wieland): That’s right. And to, cut down on commissioning time, again, a lot of this work can be done prior to actually receiving. So you have a concept, a safety concept. You do a risk assessment. You say, okay. I need the following input devices. I need this logic device. I’m gonna attach to these output devices. And there’s time for that to come in. Okay? And you don’t have to wait for those to come in. Okay? You can actually get the software, start putting all those pieces together and setting up the system prior to the, hardware actually arriving. So, your commissioning time, you don’t start your commissioning time when the hardware shows up. You’re literally done before the hardware is done. It it comes in. That’s awesome. Yep. Yep. Any other questions, Sean? Shawn Tierney (Host): Hey. I got another one right here. How easy is it to connect Samos Pro Compact to existing control systems? I think we know the answer to this one. Go ahead. Michael Warren (Wieland): Gateways. And again, what we don’t have resident, on board, the the Samos Pro Compact itself, we have additional, gateways. Okay? CANopen. We have EtherCAT. That’s quite a popular, gateway protocol these days. We’re able to add just add an additional card to that and have that compatibility. And as you saw on the software, it showed up. Okay? Mhmm. When you add the cards, the card shows up and that protocol shows up. So it’s ready as a, an EtherCAT module, in an EtherCAT based system. Shawn Tierney (Host): So You said that it has PROFINET, ETHANIP, and Modbus TCP built in, which I think is so cool. Yes. I’m such a fan of companies that are doing that. But do you have to do something in the software to tell it which one you’re gonna use? Michael Warren (Wieland): No. You do not. In the software itself, it does especially when you’re using the virtual system, it does a detection, a health detection. Yes. Actually, that’s how it works. And then, again, you can go in and make a a a slight or small adjustments. You can actually get, addresses, through the software itself. So Oh, nice. It’s it’s not again, it’s you’re not, programming, you’re configuring. Shawn Tierney (Host): That’s awesome. Michael Warren (Wieland): It’s it’s a huge time savings, quite honestly. Shawn Tierney (Host): That’s awesome. You want me to go to number four? Michael Warren (Wieland): Sure, please. Shawn Tierney (Host): Let me ask you this. Is it sustainable? I’m sorry. Is it suitable for safety critical applications in demanding environments? Yeah. We haven’t talked about that yet. Michael Warren (Wieland): Yes. The the the device itself, typically has, most electrical devices in the industry typically have, an IP 20, rating themselves. Yeah. So IP 20, it doesn’t keep out, a lot of moisture itself. And quite honestly, these are typically, put in, cabinets, themselves to protect them. Okay? But but, the, the cabinets themselves, can, experience, a lot of temperature variations. Okay? So, these are rated between a minus 25 c to, plus 65 c. Okay? So, again, they are, designed for, harsh, cabinet temperatures, let’s say. Vibration, there are some, values of, it’s, it’s shock resistance. Okay? I had a customer the other day saying that, he was concerned about, the vibration that the cabinet was going to receive in a punch press. Every time the punch press, there was just this huge vibration. And we talked about the, the the shock resistance of the, controller itself and, mounting techniques. I mean, in my job as a safety consultant, as I mentioned, I look at things holistically. I talk about things that again, things like a shock mounting. Okay? We have the safety light curtains mounted here. At the moment, I have some standard, t fittings, okay, on the brackets, your standard ones. But if I was in a shock environment, I would, you know, talk with the customer and I would say, you know what? Based on what I’m seeing here, these obviously will handle a certain amount of shock by themselves. There’s no moving parts. Okay? So it does withstand a certain amount of shock, but, light curtains are notorious for being going out of alignment. And over a long distance, if one, the the transmitter, is, poorly aligned with the receiver, okay, and there’s some shock, then they’re gonna lose alignment with those vibrations and you’re gonna have nuisance stress. Nuisance tripping it. In that situation, I would tell people, I says, look, we have isolation dampeners. Okay? And a little rubber, grommets that you can actually put between the hardware and give a little bit of, a shock resistance to the light curtain themselves to help maintain. These are the kind of, little, advice, nuggets that we, deliver when we talk about a system, a holistically system, because we understand. Like you said, you know, some of these environments are pretty harsh and demanding. And the controller, as we mentioned earlier too, is a PLE. So the controller itself will never be, you know, the, the weak link in a safety system. There are some other devices. For example, in the motion, world, when we use a, a Samus motion and we use, the TUV function blocks for motion themselves. In addition to those is a vibration toolbox in the software itself. Okay? And that helps fine tune and take out nuisance vibrations that you’re trying to detect pulses from an encoder. You’re not trying to detect, other vibrations. Okay? Now the good news is that you can invoke these things in harsh harsh environments. Okay? You will knock down okay? According to the standards, you do knock down your PLE to PLD. Okay. But PLD is quite, is still is quite impressive and and robust. And again, the controller tends not to be the weakest link in a safety system. But great question. Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah. I’m just seeing something else here too. What is the four amps for? Is that each output’s four amps or Michael Warren (Wieland): No. It’s the high switching power. That way you don’t have to use actuators. Okay? You’re able to have that. So, again, they they tend to be, kind of a high power on the output side of things, and it reduces the need for additional relays or any any sort of additional devices, for that. Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah. How about question number five? You ready for that one? Sure thing. Encoder types. Does it have to be a Wheatland encoder? Michael Warren (Wieland): I get that all the time. Actually, no. Okay? It’s just looking for a standard HTL incremental encoder, and, it and in in fact, the people are using, non safety encoders too. Okay? There are safety rated encoders and non safety rated encoders and they can use it. The good news is you can use a non safety encoder with it. The bad news is it does degrade the PL level. Okay? You can get a PL level, e by using, safety rated encoders. Again, redundant. You can do two tracks. You do four tracks. However you need. And again, I I gave the example about, shaft, shearing and trying to detect whether or not you have a broken shaft. We mount an encoder on both ends and match and, tune up those two signals together. Because soon as you have a deviation, you know you have a shaft breakage. I think we were pretty successful in showing not only, the fact that it’s it saves a lot of space on the DIN rail for the number of devices it’s able to manage. Okay? It, the input devices, again, can be varied. Some of them are here, some of them are not here. But, a lot of typical devices, that get applied. And again, it’s not brand specific. Okay? It’s quite agnostic. Okay? Most of the safety devices in the industry work with our controller. As I mentioned, the the Wieland Safety Controller is our own product. Okay? So it’s our own design hardware and both software. So when we have upgrades and development, again, the upgrades are free. Okay? We we send out, and anytime the software gets over, there’s a point release, whatnot. Those are free. Okay? And, we know a lot of people in the industry, charge, for software. There’s licensing fees and whatnot, and, that never happens, with, the wheel and controller products. Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah. You know, could you wake up the HMI? It it looked like the screen was very well designed. Would you mind tapping the HMI? Yeah. So the HMI is good. So let’s talk a little bit about, like, aside from this, what are the products do you make? I mean, you make a safety POC. It looks like you also make an HMI. Michael Warren (Wieland): Yes. Yes. I’m glad you asked that. By the way, some of the, non safety type products, are actually on here. As you mentioned, the HMI itself. Okay? It’s a touchscreen, and, we have various sizes on it. And what you’re seeing here on this demo is a representation of a CNC machine. Okay. K? It gives a little bit of a story behind the devices that go into this. So for example, I turn it on. I’m running it. Okay. Okay. You hear my CNC running? Yeah. Oh, yeah. There we go. Very robust CNC. Now I go to open one of the doors. Okay? Okay. Not only will it stop the motion, but it’ll also show me on the HMI which particular door I opened up. Okay. Did you see that? Yeah. Yeah. That moved. Okay. And back with that. Shawn Tierney (Host): You see HMI updating as well? Michael Warren (Wieland): That’s right. So the up, the HMI updates itself and again, it continues to tell the situation. And that’s what’s nice about sending the output of this, over this, Ethernet, port here, to the HMI itself that when you have a trip. Okay? Look, I have several safety devices here. I have light curtains. I have three door switches here. I have, a an analog, position switch, a distance switch here. I also have an e stop here. Various devices. If I have a trip, okay, and if this was a real machine in a facility, I’d have a light stack and I’d have a light flashing. You would come up to the machine saying, which device tripped? I don’t know. You can look at the HMI and either have a graphical display of the machine itself or a table. Okay? It would show all the devices and it would have an indicator of which one it is. So you’d come to the machine, you say, oh, I see what it was. It was that door switch. I close the door and then I have to reset it. Okay? A safety system requires a manual reset. You just don’t close the door, the machine starts up automatically like that. Okay? And then I did a reset, and then I also did a machine start. And now And my CNC is back up and running. Shawn Tierney (Host): That’s excellent. That is excellent. So you’re more than just safety PLCs. Michael Warren (Wieland): That’s right. No. We do the safety PLCs. We do the light curtains. We do all these door switches. We have three grades of door switches here. The simplest technology is standard key, door interlock. Okay? Yep. And a standard, fork, key interlock. The switch goes on the frame. The key goes on the door. Open the door, key comes out and it indicates to the system that there’s an intrusion. Now in addition to that, those are contact switches. Okay? We have this version here. We have a secondary version that’s a little bit bigger that has a solver in it, and there’s a locking, guard locking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. K? Therefore, if I have an application where I want to go into the cell, but the cell presents a hazard and the hazard has to either cool off or there has to be a a coast down period, say 60 or whatnot, A timer is used inside the controller and once sixty seconds elapse, it sends a signal of the solenoid to release the door lock and allow you to go into the cell. Okay? Keep it. And then there’s other applications where non contact is preferred. And we have two versions of non contact here. Okay? One is a coated magnetic. Okay? There are several codes available, and so you can’t take another, magnet and fake it out. Shawn Tierney (Host): Big thing. Right? It has to be coded. Yeah. Michael Warren (Wieland): Bypassing. Yeah. Bad bad word in the safety world. I get calls. People say, hey. I have door interlocks. I keep finding the keys in there, but they’re not attached to the, to the door anymore. And I said, okay. And we can improve the robustness of the safety system by switching out keyed interlocks to a coated magnetic switch. And these coated magnetic switches do not work with refrigerator magnets. Okay? It takes a coated actuator to actually close this. But, people that have a lot of these can find another matching actuator and fake these out. And we’ll get a call. Mike, I’m getting my magnetic switches being bypassed. What can we do? The next level of technology up is RFID. Oh. Okay? RFID is high coded. Okay? High coded. And and if you high coded means that you have a thousand or more codes. And if you have a thousand more codes, nobody is gonna find another matching actuator to fake out the switch and try to bypass it. Shawn Tierney (Host): When you buy it, do you get it just random from the shelf or Michael Warren (Wieland): You get it initially random and then there’s a sequence where you, cycle the power to do and change the codes. Oh, okay. So you can actually get multiple codes. Okay? Okay. That and again, so we start out with the basic technology. The next step up is magnetic, and the highest level technology is RFID for door switches. Okay? So, and let me see. Now in addition to all of this, okay, you’re gonna notice that, I have Shawn Tierney (Host): Turn the speed down. So Michael Warren (Wieland): Oh. Oh. I went I went back. Sorry. Reverse the direction. That’s okay. Or we coulda we coulda just, put our hand in the light curtain or whatnot. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But, in addition to the products, the safety products and the HMIs, we sell power supplies. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, we have our own power supplies. As a matter of fact, I always advocate people that when they have a safety system is to have a dedicated power supply. Yes. They’re not really expensive and for the peace of mind. Okay? And for the robustness and integrity of the safety system is to have a separate power supply running the safety system alone as opposed to sharing it from some other things. Okay? Yeah. You don’t have to worry about spikes in the system. You don’t have to worry about, in rush currents or whatnot. And, again, it’s dedicated and it won’t interfere with the functions of the safety because let’s face it, you’re trying to maintain, say PLD or PLE safety system. And, the the best thing that you could do is, it make the power supply independent. Okay? It makes the safety system robust and safer. Okay? You always have an eye towards making, the application as safe as possible. Now, in addition to, the HMIs, the power supplies in here, just within the system here, some of the other products that Whelan offers are distributed power systems. Okay? And as I mentioned in the beginning, Whelan is famous for their terminal blocks. Yes. Okay? And again, our catalog is full of, industrial automation, pieces. We really try to a bridge, from device to device in the automation world, all these filler, and detail type products, gateway switches. We have managed and unmanaged switches too, by the way. Okay? Oh, Shawn Tierney (Host): Yes. You have switches as well. Michael Warren (Wieland): We do. We do. I invite you to, take a look at our website, wheelen,uh,-electric,uh,.com. And, it has a lot of good information, and you’ll see the full catalog of information. Today, really, we were just kinda covering, safety, but it’s really the tip of the iceberg of the, Wheeling portfolio. Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah. And we will conclude not only an end of show slide here so you can see all the important stuff. We’ll also include all these links in the description. So wherever you’re watching, you’ll have links to everything we’re talking about so you don’t have to go and hunt it down and, like, you know, how do I spell wheel end? And all the links are there. We’ll put the slide up on the screen as well so you guys can see all that good information. And, Mike, with that, was there anything else we wanted to cover today? Michael Warren (Wieland): I think we covered it, pretty thoroughly. I wanted to make sure that, I showed you the software because, you know, a lot of manufacturers, create the box and a little the little safety PLC. And, quite honestly, the the magic of the PLC itself isn’t the hardware, isn’t the 45 millimeters resin case itself. It’s the actual software. How easy to use, how comprehensive it is, what information it’ll do for you. Okay? And again, we showed that we have a, workspace, drag and drop, library, pull the devices in. We have motion, we have presses, we have combustion technology, muting. We have a lot of different libraries, function blocks, certified function blocks to drag into the workspace. It creates the report. And, basically, again, it just shows you, the creation of your system short of hardware. Of course, when you hook up your hardware, you do a synchronization. Okay? And now you can make your tweaks. You may find that your virtual system was better than the hardware list that you created, and you may want to upgrade that at some point. Okay? The nice thing about a controller is it’s infinitely repurposable. Okay? You program it one way, one day, and if you add another device, that’s not a problem. That’s easy to go in the software, add another device. Okay? I subtract a device, change out devices, whatnot. It’s easy enough to use. So, yes. Again, the Samos controller, is a leading product for us in the safety, product portfolio for Wieland. And, again, we lead off with, our our software, the Samos plan software. Shawn Tierney (Host): Yeah. And I appreciate it. Just that short demo you did really helps. Like, I feel like I could get in there and start doing stuff. You know, when you open something up for the first time, if you’ve never seen a demo of it, it can be like deer in the headlights type of and I’ve been there many times myself. So thank you for not only talking to us about the hardware, talking to us about your company, but also giving us that software demo as well. And I wanna thank you for coming out and driving all the way out here, three hours to get out here to do an in live. He doesn’t Mike doesn’t know this. He’s the first one to come and do a live. I had to clean up all last night. The place was so messy, but he was actually the first vendor to come out and do a live, and I really enjoyed having him here, medium, and the preshow and, and whatnot. But I also wanna thank Wheelan for sponsoring this episode so there’ll be no ads on it. Didn’t you guys enjoy having no ads during the episode? We don’t make a lot of money from those ads. It’s pennies. So thank you to please tell your, people to thank you very much for sponsoring this episode so we can bring all this information to the audience without any nasty ads. And with that, any final words? Michael Warren (Wieland): No. No. Thank you, Sean, for having me. Appreciate your hospitality, and, you did a great cleanup job here. It looks wonderful here. And it’s a it’s a great, for, format here for us to, show off our product here. Shawn Tierney (Host): Well, thank you, Michael. I hope you come back sometime. Michael Warren (Wieland): I’m looking forward to it. Thank you. Vendors: Would you like your product featured on the Show, Podcast, and Blog? If you would, please contact me at: https://theautomationblog.com/contact Until next time, Peace ✌️  If you enjoyed this content, please give it a Like, and consider Sharing a link to it as that is the best way for us to grow our audience, which in turn allows us to produce more content

Send us a textIn this episode, the team dives into colorimetric methods for silica and nitrate analysis using SEAL Discrete Analyzer Reagents developed by Inorganic Ventures. Ashley Jones and Liv Forbes walk through the chemistries behind the molybdate silica method, cadmium coil nitrate reduction, and hydrazine-based nitrate reduction—along with practical maintenance tips for keeping your reduction efficiency in check.They also discuss how to adapt these reagents for non-SEAL instruments, important considerations like pH and matrix matching, and which IV standards pair best with each method.

Send us a textSelecting an ERP system for discrete manufacturing can be complex due to frequent overlaps with other production modes like Make-to-Order, Make-to-Stock, or Engineer-to-Order. Many manufacturers operate hybrid models—for example, a machine builder that also manages chemical adhesives—where discrete processes dominate but some process-oriented functions are necessary. This list highlights ERP solutions that excel primarily in discrete manufacturing, even if they offer limited process capabilities. Understanding the precise structure of your operations is essential to determine whether you need comprehensive process support or just enough to complement your core discrete workflows effectively.In this episode, our host Sam Gupta discusses the top 10 discrete manufacturing ERP systems in 2025. He also discusses several variables that influence the rankings of these discrete manufacturing ERP systems. Finally, he shares the pros and cons of each discrete manufacturing ERP system.Background Soundtrack: Away From You – Mauro SommFor more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is Tim's eighth appearance on the show. His second to  last appeared on episode 246 for a masterclass on Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, explaining it from the ground up and elucidating some common misconceptions. In this episode Tim returns for a discussion of the philosophy of time. More particularly, Tim and Robinson discuss black holes, fundamentality, simultaneity, time's flow, rate, and limits, connections to physics, time travel, and more. If you're interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute's life.Tim's Website: www.tim-maudlin.siteThe John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.orgOUTLINE00:00:00 Introduction00:01:01 “What Is” Questions00:06:09 Everyday Misconceptions About Simultaneity00:15:12 The Relativity of Duration00:20:19 Is Time Fundamental?00:28:55 Does Time Exist at Quantum Scales?00:40:19 Is Quantum Mechanics Complete?00:50:16 What Is Time-Reversal Invariance?01:01:01 Parity Violations01:11:46 What Is Metaphysics?01:22:16 Does Time Have A Rate of Passage?01:25:02 Does Time Flow?01:27:04 What Does Time Really Measure?01:29:15 Is There a Limit to How Accurately Clocks Can Measure Time?01:33:06 Is Time Continuous or Discrete?01:36:36 On Zeno's Paradoxes of Motion01:44:08 Is Time Discrete?01:51:14 Did Time Have a Beginning?02:02:41 Stephen Hawking on Time02:05:39 David Albert's Past Hypothesis02:14:13 The Debate Between Presentism and Eternalism02:23:16 Lee Smolin's Black Hole Theory02:24:46 A Shortcoming of the Standard Model02:26:05 Arrival Time and Time of Flight02:34:51 Arrival Time Experiments and Bell's Inequality02:46:07 The Black Hole Information Paradox02:56:27 Is Time Travel Back to the Dinosaurs Possible?02:58:34 A Rant on Aliens03:03:35 The John Bell Institute for the Foundations of PhysicsRobinson's Website: http://robinsonerhardt.comRobinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where is also a student in the Law School.

The Martin Garrix Show #559Mix 11. Lesgo - Rhythm [AETERNA RECORDS]2. OKAYVAL - Reposado [TH3RD BRAIN]3. Sara Parker - My Love Is Deep (Eats Everything Rebeef) [TOOLROOM]4. Andryx, Adam Griffin - All I Need [PERFECT HAVOC]5. Wade - I Was Made For Lovin' You [CRITERIO MUSIC]6. Qobra - By My Side feat. James French [146 RECORDS]7. Eleganto feat. Silver Nova - Body And Mind [STMPD RCRDS]8. Discrete & Alex Newell - Out Of Sight [146 RECORDS]9. Chris Lorenzo - Appetite [CATCH & RELEASE]Mix 210. ATTICUS - Vibe [FORCE OF HABIT]11. Biscuits - Crush [WARNER]12. ESSEL - Legacy [TOOLROOM]13. Unfazed - A Gira (David Guetta Remix) [SPINNIN DEEP]14. Axwell feat. CARMA - Until The Lights Go Out [AXTONE]15. Oliver Heldens & Julia Church - Ruins [SONY]16. Moksi - Never Come Down feat. AK RENNY [CONFESSION]17. Martin Garrix & Breathe Carolina - Something [TOMORROWLAND MUSIC/STMPD RCRDS]18. DubVision & Sick Individuals - Endless Dreamers [STMPD RCRDS]A weekly selection of tracks that I love to listen to at home or play out at a party. New episodes uploaded weekly

Follow me: Facebook: fb.me/xabionly Twitter: twitter.com/xabionly Youtube: youtube.com/xabionly Mixcloud: mixcloud.com/xabionly Instagram: instagram.com/xabionly TRACKLIST: https://1001.tl/2dx039b9 Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4STV7DPVgwI4ntvi1sQvjh?si=CU6lCNZcRkKiZytdXaI5TQ TRACKLIST: 01. Fideles - Unawela [THREE SIX ZERO] 02. Eximinds & Eldream & Aniølkü - Together [INTERPLAY] 03. Mia Mendi & SYONA - Shelter [SPECIES] 04. Mesto & Vluarr - All Night [STMPD] 05. Stone Van Brooken - Insomnia [ERRORR] 06. Calvin Harris & Clementine Douglas - Blessings [COLUMBIA] 07. TELYKAST & LORYN - The Good Part [STMPD] 08. Just_us - Flashback [STMPD] 09. Anyma & SCRIPT - In My Mind [THE END OF GENESYS] [TRACK OF THE WEEK] 10. Maesic, Marshall Jefferson & Salomé Das - Life Is Simple (Move Your Body) (SCRIPT Remix) [HELIX] 11. Hayden James & ARCO - We Could Be Love (Mark Hoffen & Rivo Remix) [FUTURE CLASSIC] 12. Rem SIman - Bang [DAYS LIKE NIGHTS] 13. TH;EN - My Head [SPECTRUM] 14. DELATO - In Your Mind [LOGICALLY DELICIOUS] 15. Rose Motion & GTULLY ft. Jamie Rose - About You [GEMSTONE] 16. Galoski & Felipe Zona - Emotion [SOCIAL MEDIA VOTE WINNER] 17. Robin Aristo - Chromatic [BOUNCE & BASS] 18. Armin van Buuren & Seth Hills ft. Alessia Labate - Gimme The Love [ARMIND] [RELEASE OF THE WEEK] 19. Kristian Llov & CAMPS - System Malfunction [HYPERSIA] 20. Molothav - Love In Acid [KURAI] 21. The Lost Shepherds - Poing [REVEALED] 22. Molothav - Acid Storm [KURAI] [PROMO OF THE WEEK] 23. Retrika & Alex Mueller & AV & Noah Seven - Being Alone [INTERPLAY UNITY] 24. Mesto & Vluarr - Gemini [STMPD] 25. Morgan Page & Will Sparks - The Longest Road Ahead [ARMADA] 26. Discrete & Alex Newell - Out Of Sight [146 RECORDS] 27. Axwell ft. CARMA - Until The Lights Go Out [AXTONE]

Make it Louder! Episode 555 of Make Some Music radio show with your host - Ruslan Radriges ♪ New track with Annie Sollange "Desert Heart" ► interplayrec.band.link/itp382 ♪ Discover this episode: ► band.link/msm555 Also new music by Ruslan Radriges in playlist. Subscribe: ► soundcloud.com/ruslanradriges/sets/rrmusic Follow Ruslan Radriges: ♦Instagram ► instagram.com/ruslanradriges ♦Spotify ► spoti.fi/2pRImzg ♦Facebook ► facebook.com/RuslanRadriges ♦YouTube ► youtube.com/c/DjProduserRuslanRadriges ♦VK ► vk.com/ruslanradriges ♦Apple ► music.apple.com/ru/artist/ruslan-radriges/541431482 ♦SoundCloud: ► @ruslanradriges ♦Yandex ► music.yandex.ru/artist/3961521 #RuslanRadriges #MSM555 TRACKLIST: Ruslan Radriges - Intro 01. Akille & Sarah Lynn - Champion [Audio Imprint] 02. RoelBeat & Terry Golden - Dance all Night 03. Costa & Hanna Finsen - More Than A Dream [RNM] 04. Ruslan Radriges & Annie Sollange - Desert Heart [Interplay] 05. Benassi Bros & Dhany - Hit My Heart (TR3NACRIA Remix) [Dvision] 06. Eximinds x Eldream x Aniolku - Together [Interplay] 07. Stone Van Brooken - Insomnia [Errorr] 08. SRNDE & KEL - Rinnina [Gekai] 09. Diego Antoine & Stilo Mancia - House N Love [HoTL] [PERFECT TUNE] 10. Alexander Popov & Huvagen - Fairytale [Interplay] 11. Alexander Popov & Chester Young - Faded [Interplay] 12. Plastik Funk x Chester Young x Hackatone - Digital Safari [Future House Music] 13. TryBetter - On My Mind [Forever Young] 14. Discrete & Alex Newell - Out Of Sight [146] 15. FAWZY x Faidin x Ayda - Nouray (Ayda Remix) [Narratology] [SOME LATELY FAVORITE] 16. A.R.D.I. - Silence In Your Eyes [Sub Mission] [MOMENT OF THE PAST] 17. Ruslan Radriges x Alexander Turok x WhiteLight - Unstoppable 18. DMNDS x 3rd Wall x CERES - Euphoria [Armada] 19. Marie Vaunt & Mha Iri - Out of Time [Kurai] Ruslan Radriges - Outro

This week Raza is joined by Amit Jain, CEO and co-founder of Luma AI, to explore why the future of artificial intelligence lies beyond language. Amit shares Luma's bold mission to build world models through multimodal training and why video is the most overlooked and critical data source in AI today.Chapters:00:00 - Introduction03:40 - Competing with Big AI Labs: Language vs. Multimodality08:09 - Joint Training and Why Current Multimodal Models Fall Short11:01 - Language is Discrete, the World is Continuous14:36 - Do These Models Have World Models?18:18 - Planning, Counterfactuals, and Causal Reasoning in AI22:08 - Capabilities of Ray 2 and Real-World Use Cases26:14 - Rethinking Video Length and Creative Workflows29:18 - Solving Coherence Across Shots and Characters30:00 - When Will AI Create a Feature-Length Film?31:27 - What You Can Build with Luma's API Today35:49 - Overlooked Ideas and Noise in the AI Industry38:34 - Why Video is the Missing Link in AI

1: VIV CASTLE – Lovely Day2: YES BOONE - Modern Life (Extended Mix)3: BODY OCEAN - What Would It Profit (Extended)4: DISCRETE & NOTELLE - Sunrise (Extended)5: BEN NICKY & HIX FEAT. TORI SMITH - Sober (Extended Mix)6: THOMAS NEWSON, GUZ - Get Raw (Extended Mix)7: YER MAN - Juicy8: BOB SINCLAR - Cruel Summer (Club Mix) LISTENERS' CHOICE8:         Matt Darey - Beautiful (1999 Extended Mix) 10: JOHN SUMMIT - Focus (feat. CLOVES) [Extended Mix]11: TOM & COLLINS - Mambo (Extended Mix)12: BASILONE – Moving On13: HIGGO – Go Back TRIED & TESTED14: INTERPLANETARY CRIMINAL – Badman Control 15: JAGUAR – Wild!16: SURF MESA & JOHN ALTO - Holding On (Original Mix)17: NIKKO - SIDE2SIDE  GUEST SELECTION: MARK SIXMAPush - Universal Nation (Original Mix) [Bonzai Vinyl]Mark Sixma & VIVID feat. Noubya - Cyanide (Extended Mix) THE WARM UP SELECTION 18: DOUNIAH, MAKEZ – Fruits Of The Universe19: POWERS & PATERSON – Play Right20: FONZERELLI, ERAN HERSH, ANORRE – Moonlight Party21: MARATONE & NHATO - Guiga THE MAINSTAGE MIX  22: YURIE - What You Waiting For 23: QRION FEAT. JOSIE MAN - Hush My Heart (Spritzz Extended Mix)24: CHRISTIAN ROGERS – Party People25: MATTY RALPH - Paradise26: JON MANGAN - Vintage27: NIFRA - NRG28: 4MOTION & DARRELL MARTIN – Over 4 Me29: PRODIGY - Omen JJ Remix V4-2

Hakuro Matsuda さんをゲストに迎えて、iPhone 16e, MacBook Air, Mac Studio, インドなどについて話しました。 Show Notes Perplexity Pro iPhone 16e Apple C1 modem real-world iPhone 16e tests Update: Apple's C1 modem doesn't interfere with MagSafe on the iPhone 16e Apple officially delays its 'more personalized' version of Siri Apple introduces the new MacBook Air with the M4 chip and a sky blue color Here's how much faster the M3 Ultra's GPU is compared to M4 Max Rebuild: 331: Inspired By Yoshinoya (hak) otorola razr 50 ultra Clicks Keyboard case Introducing Alexa+, the next generation of Alexa Crossing the uncanny valley of conversational voice The next chapter: Moving from Skype to Microsoft Teams インディア・ペールエール Hario V60ドリップスケール TRMNL | E-ink dashboard to stay focused 関心領域 トワイライト・ウォリアーズ Steam：機動戦艦ガンドッグ 太陽系物語

What does walking with God involve? Proverbs 12:15–28 looks forward to the sermon in this week's midweek meeting. In these fourteen verses of Holy Scripture. the Holy Spirit teaches us that walking with God involves godly speech, and diligence, in the path that leads to eternal life.

Ewig durch Social Media scrollen und sich mit anderen vergleichen? Viele Menschen bemerken, dass sie erschreckend wenig Kontrolle darüber haben, wie viel Zeit sie auf Social Media verbringen. Leon und Atze besprechen, woran das liegt und ob Social Media so schlimm ist, wie immer behauptet wird. Außerdem geben sie Tipps, wie man das Smartphone wenigstens ab und zu mal zur Seite legen kann. Leon & Atze Start ins heutige Thema: 08:46 min. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leonwindscheid/ https://www.instagram.com/atzeschroeder_offiziell/ Mehr zu unseren Werbepartnern findet ihr hier: https://linktr.ee/betreutesfuehlen Buchempfehlung: Die Klavierspielerin von Elfriede Jelinek Zehn Gründe, warum du deinen Social Media Account sofort löschen musst von Jaron Lanier Empfehlung: https://www.instagram.com/buchantiquariat_willbrand/?hl=de Quellen in chronologischer Reihenfolge Spektrum der Wissenschaft. Lexikon der Neurowissenschaft: Dopamin. https://www.spektrum.de/lexikon/neurowissenschaft/dopamin/2959 Baskerville, T. A., & Douglas, A. J. (2010). Dopamine and oxytocin interactions underlying behaviors: potential contributions to behavioral disorders. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics, 16(3), e92-e123. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-5949.2010.00154.x Wise, R. A. (2004). Dopamine, learning and motivation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5(6), 483-494. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1406 Memorial Museum-estate of academician I. P. Pavlov. http://en.pavlovmuseum.ru/photos Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: the Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. Penguin Press. Fiorillo et al. (2003). Discrete coding of reward probability and uncertainty by dopamine neurons. Science.https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.1077349 Burkhard, P., & Rueegg, J. (2023) Warum wir den sozialen Netzwerken nicht widerstehen können. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. https://www.nzz.ch/technologie/warum-wir-den-sozialen-netzwerken-nicht-widerstehen-koennen-ld.1733551 Miltenberger, R. G. (2016). Behavior modification: Principles and procedures. Cengage Learning. Helle, M., & Helle, M. (2019). Psychotherapie: Von den Anfängen bis heute. Psychotherapie, 1-5. Kritik an Body Positivity: Körpergewicht: „Body Neutrality“ bevorzugt https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/koerpergewicht-body-neutrality-bevorzugt-531249bd-9df5-47d2-ba93-3a59f1a1ef19 Haidt, J. (2024). The anxious generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. Random House. Universität Würzburg. Generation Angst: Machen soziale Medien die Jugend psychisch krank? https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-events/news/detail/news/generation-angst-thesenpapier/ Cunningham, S., Hudson, C. C., & Harkness, K. (2021). Social media and depression symptoms: a meta-analysis. Research on child and adolescent psychopathology, 49, 241-253. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/S10802-020-00715-7 Appel, M., Marker, C., & Gnambs, T. (2020). Are social media ruining our lives? A review of meta-analytic evidence. Review of General Psychology, 24(1), 60-74. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1089268019880891?journalCode=rgpa Marker, C., Gnambs, T., & Appel, M. (2018). Active on Facebook and failing at school? Meta-analytic findings on the relation- ship between online social networking activities and academic achievement. Educational Psychology Review, 30, 651-677. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-017-9430-6 Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature human behaviour, 3(2), 173-182. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-018-0506-1 Ivie, E. J., Pettitt, A., Moses, L. J., & Allen, N. B. (2020). A meta-analysis of the association between adolescent social media use and depressive symptoms. Journal of Affective Disorders, 275, 165-174. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032720323727 Redaktion: Dr. Jan Rudloff Produktion: Murmel Productions

Professor Yoshua Bengio is a pioneer in deep learning and Turing Award winner. Bengio talks about AI safety, why goal-seeking “agentic” AIs might be dangerous, and his vision for building powerful AI tools without giving them agency. Topics include reward tampering risks, instrumental convergence, global AI governance, and how non-agent AIs could revolutionize science and medicine while reducing existential threats. Perfect for anyone curious about advanced AI risks and how to manage them responsibly. SPONSOR MESSAGES: *** CentML offers competitive pricing for GenAI model deployment, with flexible options to suit a wide range of models, from small to large-scale deployments. https://centml.ai/pricing/ Tufa AI Labs is a brand new research lab in Zurich started by Benjamin Crouzier focussed on o-series style reasoning and AGI. Are you interested in working on reasoning, or getting involved in their events? They are hosting an event in Zurich on January 9th with the ARChitects, join if you can. Goto https://tufalabs.ai/ *** Interviewer: Tim Scarfe Yoshua Bengio: https://x.com/Yoshua_Bengio https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kukA0LcAAAAJ&hl=en https://yoshuabengio.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshua_Bengio TOC: 1. AI Safety Fundamentals [00:00:00] 1.1 AI Safety Risks and International Cooperation [00:03:20] 1.2 Fundamental Principles vs Scaling in AI Development [00:11:25] 1.3 System 1/2 Thinking and AI Reasoning Capabilities [00:15:15] 1.4 Reward Tampering and AI Agency Risks [00:25:17] 1.5 Alignment Challenges and Instrumental Convergence 2. AI Architecture and Safety Design [00:33:10] 2.1 Instrumental Goals and AI Safety Fundamentals [00:35:02] 2.2 Separating Intelligence from Goals in AI Systems [00:40:40] 2.3 Non-Agent AI as Scientific Tools [00:44:25] 2.4 Oracle AI Systems and Mathematical Safety Frameworks 3. Global Governance and Security [00:49:50] 3.1 International AI Competition and Hardware Governance [00:51:58] 3.2 Military and Security Implications of AI Development [00:56:07] 3.3 Personal Evolution of AI Safety Perspectives [01:00:25] 3.4 AI Development Scaling and Global Governance Challenges [01:12:10] 3.5 AI Regulation and Corporate Oversight 4. Technical Innovations [01:23:00] 4.1 Evolution of Neural Architectures: From RNNs to Transformers [01:26:02] 4.2 GFlowNets and Symbolic Computation [01:30:47] 4.3 Neural Dynamics and Consciousness [01:34:38] 4.4 AI Creativity and Scientific Discovery SHOWNOTES (Transcript, references, best clips etc): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ajucigli8n90fbxv9h94x/BENGIO_SHOW.pdf?rlkey=38hi2m19sylnr8orb76b85wkw&dl=0 CORE REFS (full list in shownotes and pinned comment): [00:00:15] Bengio et al.: "AI Risk" Statement https://www.safe.ai/work/statement-on-ai-risk [00:23:10] Bengio on reward tampering & AI safety (Harvard Data Science Review) https://hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/w974bwb0 [00:40:45] Munk Debate on AI existential risk, featuring Bengio https://munkdebates.com/debates/artificial-intelligence [00:44:30] "Can a Bayesian Oracle Prevent Harm from an Agent?" (Bengio et al.) on oracle-to-agent safety https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.05284 [00:51:20] Bengio (2024) memo on hardware-based AI governance verification https://yoshuabengio.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/FlexHEG-Memo_August-2024.pdf [01:12:55] Bengio's involvement in EU AI Act code of practice https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/meet-chairs-leading-development-first-general-purpose-ai-code-practice [01:27:05] Complexity-based compositionality theory (Elmoznino, Jiralerspong, Bengio, Lajoie) https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.14817 [01:29:00] GFlowNet Foundations (Bengio et al.) for probabilistic inference https://arxiv.org/pdf/2111.09266 [01:32:10] Discrete attractor states in neural systems (Nam, Elmoznino, Bengio, Lajoie) https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.06403

SOL | Sleepbomb | Voidwards | Pseudodoxia | Until Death Overtakes Me | Plague Psalm Music On This Mixtape: SOL: "The alchemy of dying in dreams" taken from the album "We shall fall from the sky as burdens reborn" Sleepbomb: "Cemetery Song" taken from the album "The Sleeping Dead" Voidwards: "Bagulnik II" taken from the album "Bagulnik" Pseudodoxia: "IV : I G N I S" taken from the album "Se Solo Potessimo Cadere" Until Death Overtakes Me: "White Light" taken from the album "Diagenesis" Plague Psalm: "His Vial Upon the River Euphrates...And the Water thereof Was Dried Up" taken from the album "II: The Gifts of Wrath" Thanks for listening! I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed making it! Interviews, reviews, and more at www.dreamsofconsciousness.com

In this episode, Joe Zeccola joins Sharona and Bosley to discuss the interplay between discrete skills and more "holistic" skills, primarily in the discipline of writing. Utilizing some questions asked by Dr. Emily Pitts Donahoe in a recent blog post about Rhetorical Analysis, Joe, Sharona and Bosley explore the balance between assessing discrete individual skills and assessing more holistic processes and how that might play into the design of an alternatively graded course.LinksPlease note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!Teaching Reading and Analysis with…Standards-Based Collaborative Grading? by Dr. Emily Pitts DonahoeTime for Meaning: Crafting Literate Lives in Middle & High School by Randy BomerReading/Writing Connection, The: Strategies for Teaching and Learning in the Secondary Classroom by Carol Booth OlsonThe Reading Apprenticeship frameworkPoint-Less: An English Teacher's Guide to More Meaningful GradingDeveloping Assessment-Capable Visible Learners, Grades K-12: Maximizing Skill, Will, and Thrill (Corwin Literacy) by Nancy Frey, John Hattie and Doug FisherResourcesThe Center for Grading Reform - seeking to advance education in the United States by supporting effective grading reform at all levels through conferences, educational workshops, professional development, research and scholarship, influencing public policy, and community building.The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:The Grading for Growth BlogThe Grading ConferenceThe Intentional Academia BlogRecommended Books on Alternative Grading:Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark

Send us a textThe unique nature of discrete manufacturing necessitates specialized capabilities and approaches. Unlike process manufacturing, which is formula-driven, discrete manufacturing focuses on managing individual components and the quantity of finished units. This specificity can pose challenges, especially when integrating varied materials and components. Consequently, discrete manufacturers must consider a range of factors to optimize their operations, from precise inventory control to advanced production techniques, ensuring that each component fits seamlessly into the final product.In this episode, our host, Sam Gupta, discusses the top 10 discrete manufacturing ERP systems in 2024. He also discusses several variables that influence the rankings of discrete manufacturing ERP systems. Finally, he shares the pros and cons of each discrete manufacturing ERP Systems.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs. rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Fictional detectives are some of the most beloved characters in print and on-screen. It's easy to relate to someone with an overblown sense of justice and a need to set the world right (or as right as it can be). There are nosy neighbors like Nancy Drew and Miss Marple with no real credentials whatsoever and police detectives — Hello, Harry Bosch! Ta, Inspector Lynley! — with entire departments behind them. Relentless journalists, dogged medical examiners, resourceful bounty hunters (We see you, Stefanie Plum!), and, perhaps, the most endearing detectives of them all: private eyes. This show is all about the gumshoes who work outside the pesky laws of search warrants and chain of evidence. Who maybe toil in an office with a frosted glass door and a dame with moxie tapping away at a typewriter — or perhaps the dame with moxie is the detective. This installment celebrates independent investigators who distract and delight in their search for the truth. In this episode, we meet the world's first PI and first American lady detective, delve into Poe scholarship and the problem with his ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue,' and discuss one of the kindest mystery authors. Then we recommend five books we love that put us in the thick of dangerous inquiries, including the escapades of a thoroughly modern detective agency, an urban mystery with a bookish PI, a British caper with an unforgettable hero, a how-to for wannabe detectives, and a noir-tinged fantasy novel about a reluctant sleuth. Here are the books about Detective Agencies we recommend on the show: The Verifiers by Jane Pek IQ by Joe Ide Odds Against by Dick Francis The Complete Idiot's Guide to Private Investigating by Steven Kerry Brown The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry For more on the books we recommend, plus the other cool stuff we talk about, visit show notes. Sign up for our free Substack to connect with us and other lovely readers who are curious about the world. Transcript of Detective Agency: Discrete Inquiries, Mysteries Solved Do you enjoy our show? Do you want be friends with other (lovely) people who love books and travel? Please support our work on Patreon! Strong Sense of Place is an audience-funded endeavor, and we need your support to continue making this show. Get all the info you need right here. Thank you! Parts of the Strong Sense of Place podcast are produced in udio. Some effects are provided by soundly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What should we be talking about? Anything and everything! Bald cap threats, the inability to understand people, plucking thoughts from mid-air, abdominal cramps, lactose tolerance, dragons, long form rants, and living life unfiltered! Enjoy this week's episode!CHECK OUT OUR PARODY MUSIC VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Mwk1PCcBk-8?si=ApfMkqNV5cKYxHDJLeave us a voicemail at 702-900-6446, share your dirty secrets, stories, and questions/comments with us! Or email twndpodcast@gmail.com with an eye-catching subject line!Follow the podcast on our socialshttps://www.instagram.com/twndpodcast https://www.twitter.com/twndpodcast SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/TWNDsubscribeJOIN US ON PATREON for ad-free, BTS, and more: https://bit.ly/TWNDpatreon Join our Members-Only YouTube: https://bit.ly/TWNDYTMolly's Links https://www.instagram.com/thisredheadissfw https://www.tiktok.com/@leavemollyaloneSPONSORSExperience the taboo-free community of Jerkmate. Sign up through our special link to help the pod and help yourself to an eyeful of delicious choices and exclusive shows! Try it out: bit.ly/jerkTWNDGet hydrated & STAY hydrated with the amazing taste of LiquidIV! Get 15% off when you use code TWND or this link: https://bit.ly/TWNDLIVBring pleasure right to your door in a beautiful box. Check out our friends at Honey Play Box for all your intimate needs: https://bit.ly/HoneyPlayTWNDSurprise your partner (or spoil yourself) with something very geeky to use in the bedroom! Geeky S*x Toys has everything to fulfill your fantasy from lightsabers (that feel like RIGHTsabers) to colorful tentacles! Use code TWND10 to save 10% at https://bit.ly/twnd10GEEKYCute ring lights, just like we use for the podcast! Use our link and help support this podcast! Shop Kawaii Lighting for all your RGB ring light needs: http://bit.ly/KawaiiTWNDQuinky fantasy-wear? Yes, please! Treat yourself or your partner to something from https://www.misterpierre.com and use code TWND to save on your purchase! Discrete storage for your portable aromatherapy needs: https://bit.ly/TWNDsmyleProduced

Dr. Emily Casanova is a professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at Loyola University in New Orleans who studies autism, human/neanderthal hybridization, and sundry soft tissue disorders that are often co-inherited with autism. Her research has shown that autism spectrum disorders are underpinned by a complex network of genetic interactions whose first emergence can be traced back to human/neanderthal interbreeding nearly 40,000 years ago. This suggests that, contrary to popular belief, the grounds for autism spectrum disorders long predate the first diagnoses made in the early 20th century. We talk about why it's so hard to come up with a genetic cause for autism, why “species” might not mean what we think it does, intricacies of embryogenesis, and why environmental causes are so hard to talk about. Sign up for our Patreon and get episodes early + join our weekly Patron Chat https://bit.ly/3lcAasB AND rock some Demystify Gear to spread the word: https://demystifysci.myspreadshop.com/ OR do your Amazon shopping through this link for Dr. Casanova's Book, Defining Autism: https://amzn.to/4d8sK30 (00:00) Go! (00:07:46) Is autism actually exploding? (00:16:15) Culture of autism? (00:26:10) Genetic linkage not so clear (00:31:51) Defining autism (00:47:39) Genetics v. cause (00:56:28) How much does genetics matter in autism? (01:04:00) Environmental arguments (01:13:33) Species don't really exist (01:26:29) Neaderthal roots of autism? (01:40:38) Continued human evolution (01:50:56) Making the world knowable as inherently valuable (02:08:36) AI applications in education #sciencepodcast, #longformpodcast, #AutismResearch, #NeurodiversityScience, #HumanEvolution, #NeanderthalDNA, #GeneticComplexity, #NeuroscienceInsights, #SpeciesBlending, #AutismOrigins, #EmbryologyTalks, #EnvironmentalFactors, #AutismSpectrum, #HumanNeandertalHybridization, #GeneticInteractions, Check our short-films channel, @DemystifySci: https://www.youtube.com/c/DemystifyingScience AND our material science investigations of atomics, @MaterialAtomics https://www.youtube.com/@MaterialAtomics Join our mailing list https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S PODCAST INFO: Anastasia completed her PhD studying bioelectricity at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting, reading, and guiding backcountry excursions. Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities. - Blog: http://DemystifySci.com/blog - RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss - Donate: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD - Swag: https://bit.ly/2PXdC2y SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

This week Be a Man, John Fiore, and Tonzo talk about going postal, Taking an exam to be a postman, Raised by mailmen, Modern postal workers, Drugs in the mail, Tipping your postman, The pony express, Love letters, Discrete packaging, Lost in the mail, Stealing mail, The postman rings twice, Losing your mind at work and some fan questions from the Be A Man Mailbag ALL BE A MAN LINKS: http://www.Link.me/bostonbeaman