Become An Artist

Happy New Year 2012!
ox, steve

Talking Tea Kettle + Magic + Museum of Moving Image

I am FCP mechanical turk in the production of this video and pal to the artist Terese Svoboda. On Saturday, December 10, 2011 Talking Tea Kettle premiers at the Museum of Moving Image in the opening of their winter show Magicians On Screen. There is a Live Magic Show by Ben Robinson at 4:30pm before Terese's video.

Thanksgiving in Greenport NY

Families join to celebrate Thanksgiving in Greenport NY.
Left to right: Stuart, Terese, Jonathan, Kit, Frank, Seanna, Katy, Felix, Steve
Surnames: Bull, Hollingsworth, Hunt, Svoboda
On a leash: Dixie
Background: Mitchell Park Carousel

My donation to your re-election campaign

Following today's outcome of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, I sent the following email message to ALL the committee members.

[Message begins]
I am an independent voter in New York. I do not make donations to one party over another. I support the various campaigns of elected officials across the USA by individual donations. I am so disappointed by the results of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction that I am going to donate some money to the campaign of whomever runs against you in your next election. I am sending this same message to ALL the committee members. You have individually and collectively failed the citizens of the USA. You are not an effective politician. You should no longer continue to represent hard working citizens.
[Message ends]

Members
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), (co-chair) Secretary of the Democratic Conference; Chairwoman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
(D-MT), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Senate Minority Whip
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH)
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA)
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), (co-chair) Republican Conference Chairman SHAME: Does not accept email outside of 5th Congressional District of Texas.
Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; Chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation SHAME: Does not accept email outside of his district.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee SHAME: His weblink contact creates this alert "This Connection is Untrusted"
Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), Assistant Democratic Leader SHAME: Does not accept email outside of his district.
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Democratic Caucus Vice Chair SHAME: Does not accept email outside of his district.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), House Budget Committee ranking member SHAME: Does not accept email outside of his district.

NOTE: The House of Representatives' server will not deliver my email message. Anyone in a "qualifying" HoR district is encouraged to forward this posting to them. Thank you.

Brushless Motor vs Brushed Motor

A DC Brushless Motor uses a permanent magnet external rotor, three phases of driving coils, one or more Hall effect devices to sense the position of the rotor, and the associated drive electronics. The coils are activated, one phase after the other, by the drive electronics as cued by the signals from the Hall effect sensors, they act as three-phase synchronous motors containing their own variable frequency drive electronics.

PRO BLDC Motor
Electronic commutation based on Hall position sensors
Less required maintenance due to absence of brushes
Speed/Torque- flat, enables operation at all speeds with rated load
High efficiency, no voltage drop across brushes
High output power/frame size.
Reduced size due to superior thermal characteristics. Because BLDC has the windings on the stator, which is connected to the case, the heat dissipation is better
Higher speed range - no mechanical limitation imposed by brushes/commutator
Low electric noise generation

CON BLDC Motor
Higher cost of construction
Control is complex and expensive
Electric Controller is required to keep the motor running. It offers double the price of the motor.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -



A Brushed Motor has a rotating set of wound wire coils called an armature which acts as an electromagnet with two poles. A mechanical rotary switch called a commutator reverses the direction of the electric current twice every cycle, to flow through the armature so that the poles of the electromagnet push and pull against the permanent magnets on the outside of the motor. As the poles of the armature electromagnet pass the poles of the permanent magnets, the commutator reverses the polarity of the armature electromagnet. During the instant of switching polarity, inertia keeps the classical motor going in the proper direction.

PRO Brushed Motor
Two wire control
Replaceable brushes for extended life
Low cost of construction
Simple and inexpensive control
No controller is required for fixed speeds
Operates in extreme environments due to lack of electronics

CON Brushed Motor
Periodic maintenance is required
Speed/torque is moderately flat. At higher speeds, brush friction increases, thus reducing useful torque
Poor heat dissipation due to internal rotor construction
Higher rotor inertia which limits the dynamic characteristics
Lower speed range due to mechanical limitations on the brushes
Brush Arcing will generate noise causing EMI

Click on images for their source and catalog.
Text source http://www.dynetic.com/brushless%20vs%20brushed.htm

Death Is My Caddy

Death is my caddy and the others
   in my party don't seem to notice.
He proposes the seven iron
   as I play under par.
While I get no holes-in-one,
   Death applauds my long putts.
I can feel Death's hot eyes
   as I wedge out of a sand trap.
Death chuckles when I
   murder the ball.
Death kindly offers advise
   on how I can improve my swing.
I fish some other's lost
   Titleist from the water hazard.
Lightning strikes me down
   as I tee off on the 13th hole.
I will wait for my companions
   at Gabriel's clubhouse bar.

Death Is My Caddy
by Steve Bull, November 2, 2011
for Bert Fraser
Death and Dying Conference
sponsored by AtlantiCare
at Stockton College

RF Sky Rings

Just when you thought it was safe to go outside--no those are not uber-UFO's over the Midwest. There is a logical explanation. However, what is the explanation? The Chinese claim success with their weather controlling efforts. Does this October 12, 2011 weather radar image show some attempts by North Americans? Take a look at the YouTube link and think. Comments/reactions by locals in these areas is most appreciated. Stay well.

Soldier Tech Enjoys a Beverage

Enjoy and explore this mystery. The image comes from a Russian website and I believe is an interior photo of radio station UVB-76 before its closing. However, it does not seem to be closed! Read more at http://uvb-76.net/ about the LIVE continuous rebroadcast of their signal. UVB-76 got a write up in Wired and that is when it appeared on my radar. I have posted a picture of the guard dog, The Dog, on Pet-Pals and I contemplate the integration of the signal from UVB-76 for a Cellphonia performance. The iTunes' stream presents the steady audio. Note the occasional SSB cross talk.

Marching to Occupy Wall Street

October 5, 2011, NEW YORK NY. Steve Bull was discovered at 6pm EDT in a march supporting the Occupy Wall Street protest.

DOLPHIN by Hereshoff

Tomorrow I am going to crew on DOLPHIN and the last time was in the 1960s. I also varnished the bright work and performed other maintenance duties with my brother Jeff. John Lockwood was skipper then. Dolphin is a Herreshoff designed Newport 29 that is currently cared by Oakcliff Sailing Center.

Croquet with lawn chairs

My brother Jeff got married to Marilyn last week [09/10/11 12:13] in Westport. As an after event treat I positioned the reception plastic furniture for a game of croquet. The newly wed couple won over the other 3 brothers and their spouse partners: Steve & Terese, Jay & Cindy, Ware & Kahsia.
Photo by Ware.

Castle Brunnenburg

In March 2011, I visited long time friend and author Mary de Rachewiltz at her family Castle Brunnenburg. I first met Mary years before when I was European location scout on the PBS Voices and Visions documentary of Ezra Pound.


Castle Brunnenberg, March 2011 (map)


Romantic painting of Castle Brunneburg ruins before reconstruction


Authors Mary de Rachewiltz and Terese Svoboda


Bust of Ezra Pound by Gaudier


View from the pig pen of the castle's organic farm.

Three of the Herd

This will be the first year and my first time ever owning cattle. My herd will be very small, 8 to 15 animals. Individuals are bought in small numbers from nearby raisers or purchased at the end of the auctions after the bigger sized lots are sold and almost everyone else has left that event. Scott is raising them for me and the cattle are grazing on the organic buffer strip planted around my organic crops. The buffer strip is a barrier to prevent contamination by GMO crops that is the predominant new normal agriculture in western Nebraska. I favor heritage seeds and sustainable agriculture. The herd is not organic and I am participating for just a short time in the economic life cycle of this protein source.
Caveat: My = Terese Sovoboda and I (wife and husband, farming partners).

Aerial Fish Fertilizer

I spoke to my organic farming partner in Grant, Nebraska last night and he said that our crop of corn looked pretty good, a little more rain would help finish the growth. He has been busy this summer that included taking the opportunity to plant millet into tilled soil that had peas and oats growing earlier in the spring which were planted into last year's sunflower stalks. In this late summer break before harvest time he will bill me for my share of the fertilizer he had applied to the corn by airplane. The fertilizer included some fish but also a number of other components, such as seaweed and micro nutrients. The photo is imagined.
Farm report: Grant NE.

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50 oysters in a pail

50 oysters in a pail with the gear required to service these mollusks. Crocs for wading. Scrub brush for cleaning the oyster cages of squirts that block the flow of tides, and the brush makes the oysters themselves look their best. Heavy duty rubber cloves protect the hands from the razor front edges of the shells.

1500 oysters in cages that will soon return to hanging from the dock of the Harbor Knoll Bed and Breakfast in Greenport NY.

Use Gin to Clean Knot Hole

Back Story: The plug fell out of the knot hole in the floor of my old house. Coincidentally, I was building a spar for the lug sail of AEOLUS and I had left over thickened epoxy. I put the epoxy around the inside of the hole and the outside of the plug and gently hammered the plug back into the hole. See above photo.

Helpful tip: Epoxy had dribbled over the edges and I had run out denatured alcohol that I usually use to cleanup the mess. I remembered I had a new bottle of New Amsterdam Gin. I poured the gin on my clean up rag and cleaned the area around the hole and the plug.

PHIL image du jour

Public Health Image Library (PHIL) has many useful images that are in the public domain. Here is today's image du jour.
ID#: 1472
Description: Anterior chain of Mesocestoides sp.
Anterior chain of Mesocestoides sp. Tapeworm, cestode, parasite.
Content Providers(s): CDC/ Dr. George Healy
Creation Date: 1965
Categories: CDC Organization : MeSH : Organisms : Animals : Invertebrates : Helminths : Platyhelminths : Cestoda

Now where was I going in my search before I was delightfully distracted?

Neptune's Bicycle

I found Neptune's bicycle between the ebb and flood on the beach next to LIRR station in Greenport NY.

Selling Cornflakes

This photo of me comes from the shoe box photo archives of colleague Brian Perkinson. I confess that as crew in the movie/TV industry, as well as member of the DGA, to aiding in the legal sale of corn flakes, kitchen detergents and after shave tonics that are "necessary" products in today's consumerism. I was "sitting-in" for the DP and gaffers in a lighting check. The folds in the photo delineate the frame of the shot masking out the back light and rest of set. The grip stand in front me of was a temporary spatial marker. While the further details of this particular job elude me, a close examination of the digital watch on my wrist should give a clue to the decade of this early Polaroid image.

Oyster Report - June 10, 2011

I spent several hours at the Cedar Beach Creek facility of SPAT: Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County working on my 1,000 oyster crop that over wintered there. I brought a few back for taste testing.
My progress report:
Fall 2010 tasting = 24
Early Summer 2011 tasting = 49
5 cages x 100 = 500
7 cages x 50 = 350
Hollow shells = 31
Total accounted = 954

Kim Tetrault who runs this Southold cooperative can also be discovered locally playing electric and acoustic bass with Jazz on the Half Shell.