FOTD -- May 10, 2008 (Rating 7)
Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts:
Once again, the philosophy, or whatever it is, leads off the
discussion. To reach the fractal stuff, skip ahead seven para-
graphs.
I recently watched a 'skeptical' (read Atheist) show supposedly
devoted to debunking paranormal claims. Not surprisingly, after
demonstrating that Madam Zucchini, the local psychic, could not
predict the future, the topic soon wandered to the so-called
'delusion' of spiritual life after death.
During the entire show, the announcer repeatedly stated that
extraordinary claims, such as the existence of spirits of the
dead, demand extraordinary evidence.
So far, so good, but the point of the program was to show the
viewers that ghosts are nothing more than images created in the
brain and mistaken for reality, or else outright fabrications.
But with legends of ghosts, etc. existing in every culture on
earth, and with many of those who see ghosts aware of the possi-
bility of mistaking a hallucination for reality, the claim that
absolutely everyone who claims to see a ghost is either mistaken
or inventing the story is in itself quite extraordinary. Accor-
ding to the 'skeptics' own words, this claim also must demand
extraordinary evidence.
But such evidence cannot be found. The high (or low) point of
the show came at the end, when the announcer said that, since it
is impossible to prove a negative, there can be no scientific
evidence that ghosts do not exist. And since there is so much
admittedly non-scientific and anecdotal evidence that ghosts do
exist, this totally negated the entire message of the show.
The only thing the show convinced me of is that skeptics and
Atheists are out to convert others to their belief system. IMO,
this makes Atheism as much a religion as any other religion on
earth.
And now on to the fractal stuff.
In today's image I see a picture of an erupting volcano as
viewed from a few thousand feet directly above the crater,
complete with billowing clouds of ash, zig-zagging lightning,
and oozing lava. The name 'Volcano" is quite appropriate, since
a volcano is currently erupting in Chile.
The formula behind all the volcanic action adds straight Z to
Z^(2.1) to create a parent fractal that is quite hard to
describe. Perhaps the best description would be a disembodied
Mandelbrot main bay with two lopsided sausages where the single
large bud should be.
A large field of scattered zig-zagging debris lies off to the
west of the two sausages, with today's image located very deep
in one of these zig-zags. It lies so deep in fact that the
resolution is starting to break down. Luckily, this is hardly
noticeable, but I did include the mathtolerance entry to assure
that the parameter file calculates at the correct magnitude.
The rating of a 7 is arbitrary, but the calculation time of 42
seconds is as fast as a photon. As always, the finished image
is posted on the FOTD web site at:
<
http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html>
An all day rain and temperature of 54F 12C made Friday less than
ideal here at Fractal Central. The fractal cats took one look
at the water running down the sidewalk and returned to attack
their catnip rats.
My day was average. With any luck at all tomorrow will be the
same. Look for the next FOTD in 24 hours. Until then, take
care, and if I had not seen a ghost, I would never believe that
they exist.
Jim Muth
jamth@???
jimmuth@???
START PARAMETER FILE=======================================
Volcano { ; time=0:00:42.24-SF5 on P4-2000
reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm
formulaname=MandAutoCritInZ function=ident
center-mag=-1.68679550605384600/-0.833917252303289\
20/2.434378e+013/1 params=1/2.1/1/1/0/0/0/0 float=y
maxiter=390 inside=0 logmap=132
periodicity=10 mathtolerance=0.05/1
colors=000670880A90CA0EB1GC2ID3LE3PG3UJ4YL4aO4eR4j\
T5pW5uX5zd5zf6zj6zo6zr6zo5zm5zi5zg5we5tc5ra5p`5nY5\
lX5jU5hT5fR5dQ5cWBbaGagL`mQ_sV_y_YtXXoUVkRUfOSaLRY\
JUzBbmVk`mmaloakqbjrbitcivchwcgydfzdezeezedzfczfbz\
fbqkM`p6LBxPDuTEsXFq`GodHmhIklJipKgtLexMczNazO_zPY\
zNVzLTzJRvHPsFNpDLmBJi9Hf7Fc5D`3Bc8FfCJhHMkLQmQUpU\
XsZ`ubdxggzkkzpoztrzqmzoizlezjazgXzeTzbPz`LzZHzXOz\
VUzT`zRfyPlvNksLjpKimIhjHggFgdDfaCeZAdW9cT7bQ6bSAW\
UEOP`URXRSUPTRNUOLVLJzdgy`ctY_oVWjRSeOO`LKZiFYbGOc\
qM`oKYnIVlGSjEPiQUpaYwlfrvompkckhUfdKaaAaLRa4fc7je\
9mfBphDsjFvkHyXpoUqpSrpPspNspLtpIupGvpEvpRwgbwZnwR\
trbzmnzhztgtjfn_ehQdbGcYR`R`YKkVEuS7zP1zylzcnzJolN\
mYRl_TdaUXcWPdXHbUH`RHZOHYDJXLH_Y8ZVAYSBYQDXNEWKGI\
0cK3_M6XO8UQBQSDNUGKOc0Q_3RX5SU8TRAUODVLFz4Ow6Ns8M\
oALkBKgDJcFI_HHuqRh_MZiqXWZL77OAARDCUGFhPMeNLcMKaL\
J_KIYJHOMzPLtQLnRKhNLJMJG }
frm:MandAutoCritInZ {; Jim Muth
a=real(p1), b=imag(p1), d=real(p2), f=imag(p2),
g=1/f, h=1/d, j=1/(f-b), z=(((-a*b*g*h)^j)+(p4)),
k=real(p3)+1, l=imag(p3)+100, c=fn1(pixel):
z=k*((a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f)))+c,
|z| < l }
END PARAMETER FILE=========================================
