FOTD -- December 07, 2004 (Rating 8) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today we tackle the last formula of the Fractint list, the 'volterra-lotka' formula, which appears in the book "The Beauty of Fractals". This formula is one of those that fully comes to life only when its inside parts are rendered with an active fill, such as the 'atan' that I used for today's image. Setting the 'decomp' feature to 256 helped the image also. Today's fractal has brought out the mystic in me. The reason for the name of the image, "Yin and Yang", is obvious as soon as the image is seen. The resemblance to the yin-yang symbol is striking. Yin and yang are not two Chinese farmers, they are the names the Chinese have given to the two great polar oppo- sites of the universe, the energies which manifest themselves in many contrasting ways, such as positive-negative, objective- subjective, matter-energy, time-space, past-future, wave- particle, male-female, heaven-earth, body-soul, brain-mind, etc., (though materialists would deny that things such as heaven and the soul exist, and would insist that the mind is somehow generated by the brain). Having caught myself waxing philosophic, which I have a tendency to do, I will now admit that in the second half of my life I find myself slowly drifting from the scientific view of the world toward the mystical view. In contrast to the scientific view, which breaks things down into their constituent parts and studies the pieces, the mystical view joins things together into larger units, the ultimate single unit being God. (Become one with ***** they say.) I have not yet found God, but then we are all like deep-sea fish searching for water. Fractals must in some way be connected to the ultimate unit, but we have gone far enough in the philosophical direction for one day. Today's fractal rates an 8 and renders in a little over 2 minutes, a combination that gives it an overall worth of 360 -- not bad for a yin-yang symbol. It will take no miracle to see today's image by running the included parameter file or by downloading it from the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> Cold, damp, dreary weather with occasional light rain here at Fractal Central kept the dynamic cats indoors all day Monday. Needless to say, much tuna was needed to keep them happy. Today is starting warmer but it is raining again. It looks like I should stock up on more tuna. For me the work is moderate. I should be at the fractal machine before the sun sets, which it does at 4:43pm today. Until tomorrow, take care, and despite the skepticism, never abandon the search for the part of existence that lies beyond the limits of the senses. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Yin_and_Yang { ; time=0:02:19.95--SF5 on a P200 reset=2004 type=volterra-lotka passes=1 center-mag=1.08715/1.13888/3.934074/1/-90/-1.23373\ 5336114705e-014 params=0.5008/0.4827 float=y maxiter=256 bailout=9 inside=atan outside=atan logmap=yes decomp=256 periodicity=0 colors=000UekWdkYck_ajc`ih_imXjrVkwTlzRmzPnzNozLqz\ JszguzewzczzazzZzzXzzUzzPzzKzzFzzAzz5zz0z000000000\ 000A0AA0AA0AA0AA5LB8NDBOFEQHHRJKTKNUMQVOTXQWYSZ_Ua\ `RBrSBrSArTArTArU9sU9tV9uV8vW8wW8xW8wVAuUBtUCrTDqT\ EpSGoSHoRIoRJnQKnQMnPNmPOmOPmOQlNSlNTlMUkMVkLWkLYj\ KZjK_jJ`iIaiIchHdhHehGfgGggFigFkfEmgEohDqiDsjCukCv\ mBwoBwqAwsAwu9ww9wy8wz8wzAwzBwzDwzEwzFwzHwzImzKjzL\ hzMfz3azQgzllzUSNB05A8H99T8Ad8BpSZqjuqPRX000000000\ 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000\ 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000\ 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000\ 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000\ 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000\ 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000\ 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000\ 0000000000000000000000000 } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================