FOTD -- February 15, 2003 (Rating 5) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: 'What is reality?' philosophers wonder. Is reality an indepen- dent objective thing, or is it something largely determined by the particular culture in which a person happens to live? 'What is a fractal?' I wonder. Is a fractal a real thing or an imaginary thing made visible by a computer? Certain physical objects such as coastlines have a fractal nature, but can the fractal nature be separated from the object and still be consid- ered real? Can a smile be separated from a face, or a mind from a brain? Today's image consists of trapped and evaporated inside stuff made visible by the < bof61 > inside fill option. Does this make it any more or less real than traditional images that consist of outside stuff rendered with equal-escape bands? It all depends on how the word 'real' is defined. If 'real' is taken to mean 'composed of objective physical matter', then all fractals created by computers are unreal. If 'real' is taken to mean 'observable by the senses', then visual fractals, and fractal music as well, are quite real. If we agree with the latter definition, and since it is observable, both on the screen and printed on a sheet of paper, today's image must be considered real. Most importantly, would I have concerned myself all these years with something that is not real? Today's image most certainly is real. I named it "Poinsettia" because it reminds me of one of those plants with red leaves resembling flower petals, which are in demand around Christmas time. As noted above, it is an evaporated scene made visible by < bof61 > inside fill. The parent fractal consists of three vertically stacked bays, with the north bay partially obscured by several intruding, apparently non-critical valleys. But once again, appearances are deceiving, for today's scene lies on the west shore of the intruding valley on the east, which proves to have a few critical features in it after all. I could rate the image no higher than an average 5. There's nothing really wrong with it, there's simply nothing in it that I could focus on to justify a higher rating. With a render time of 6/10 second under 15 minutes on my machine, the parameter file is decidedly slow. Speed may be achieved by downloading the completed GIF image from Paul's web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> or from Scott's site at: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> Clouds and sun combined with an unexpectedly mild temperature of 40F 4C to give the cats a jolly afternoon on the porch Friday afternoon. Their moods were so good in fact that I had no need to break out the tuna. But this morning is colder with 6cm of fresh snow on the ground, snow still falling, and a forecast of a blizzard. The task of keeping them in a good mood throughout the day will be more difficult. As for me, I'm going to think of clearing the sidewalks. I might even decide to do it. Until next time, take care, and patience will soon be rewarded. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Poinsettia { ; time=0:14:59.40--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+0.7145852718248/+1.29586558138/2322434\ /1/-77.5/1.32154340873325005e-008 params=-5/-1.559\ 6104695/-0.5/-15.596104695/0/1e+100 maxiter=1200 float=y inside=bof61 symmetry=none periodicity=10 colors=000DJ_4GI8HLCHOGIRKITNIWRJZVJ`ZKcbKfeKhdIfd\ HedGdcFccEbcDacC`bBZbAYb9Xb8Wa7VFUoa5Ta4SYMOVcKStH\ aGYdMZgS_jZ`mdapjanlYlnUjpRhrNftJeuGk7ojBnjFnjJnjN\ nfSmbXmZ`lVelRjlNnkFUoFwk`vduuZnr_go``maUjbNgcGed9\ be2`eId1OfCUhN_jYdkhifXnbMsZBZoGRnNJmUBm_Acb9Vd8Lg\ 8CiCClFUoICrLCtIOKOMJVKHVMQXPLZSG`VBbY6d`1aZ5_Y8YX\ BWWFUVIRULPTPNSSLRVJQZGPaEOdCNhAMk8LnGOhNQcUTZaVTz\ YOo_JsQNvHRy8VwJQuULsdHqoCpz8mvBjsDgoFelHbhJ_eMYaO\ VZQSVSQSUNOXKLZIH`FEbCAdA7fEAdHCcKEbNGaQI`TK_WMZZO\ YaQXdSWgUVhTUiTUiSUjSUjRUkRUlQUlQTmPTmPTnOToOToNTp\ NTpNTjQCgRDdSEaTEZUFWVFTWGQXGNYHKZHH_IE`IBaJ9aJDbI\ GcIJdIMeIPfITgIWhIZhIaiHdjHhkHklHnmHqnHtoHwoHxqIxs\ JxuKxwLxyLwqTwi`vagvUovNvqMplLjgLdbK_YKUTJOOIJJIDE\ H7AH2CJ3EK3GL3IM3KN4MO4OP4PQ4RR5TS5VT5XU5ZV6`W6bX6\ cY6aNJ_DVZ3fY7gYAgYDgYGgXKgXNgXQgXTgWXgW_gWbgWegVi\ gVlgVogVrgVsdWOsTNrQNqNNq } frm:MandelbrotMix4 {; 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, k=real(p3)+1, l=imag(p3)+100, c=fn1(pixel): z=k*((a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f)))+c, |z| < l } END 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE==================================