FOTD -- April 21, 2004 (Rating 4) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: I still have a fondness for those junky old sci-fi and monster movies that were made in the 1950's. Those movies were populated by an incredible variety of giant spiders, crabs, ants, mantises, living plants, and blobs of all consistency, not to mention the invading aliens from outer space. Except for the specialty networks, those movies are gone from TV now -- they have been replaced by computer effects, car chases and explosions -- but I still have hundreds of the junkers safely stored away in my vast collection of junky old movies. Whenever I find myself in the mood for some TV junk, I pop in a tape and sit down to see how long I can watch before falling asleep. I mention junky movies because today's image reminds me of one of my favorites -- "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" -- in which alien pods drop from space, hatch into duplicates, and take over our minds. I have named the image "Invasion of the Pods". When I studied the image, I found myself looking up into a clear blue sky at a shower of pods raining down to earth. I guess we will never know whether the invasion is successful, but with a rating of a mere 4, the image is only marginally successful. The parent fractal is basically a shapeless hole, created by combining portions of Z^(-1.2) and Z^(-2.1), which lies in a sea of sand, with a vast expanse of fat twisting filaments extending far to the south. I have found no signs of midgets in this parent fractal, but the sea of sand proved interesting enough to produce today's image. The invading pods may be seen by running the parameter file or by downloading the complete GIF image from: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> With lots of sun and a temperature of 77F 25C, Tuesday was another fine day here at Fractal Central. The cats must have thought so also, since they spent almost six hours in the yard, mostly sleeping. Today however is starting cloudy with showers in the area. It remains to be seen how the dynamic duo will make out. For me it's work, then play. Until next time, take care, and see you in 24 hours, when the next FOTD appears. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ InvasionOf_ThePods { ; time=0:03:11.53--SF5 on a P200 reset=2003 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=-7.81089/3.08437/31.9843 params=1/-1.2/\ 0.57/-2.1/0/0 float=y maxiter=1200 inside=0 logmap=yes periodicity=10 colors=000M`uKZuHXuFVuCTuARuCTpEUlGVhHWcJX_LYWM_RO\ `NQaJRbETcAVd6We2Zb3``3bZ3dX3fV3hS3jQ3lO4wn8xn8yn7\ zn7r`8vn8n_8rn8oZ8vm8l`8rg8hc8kf8ea8fb8aa8d_8YY8`W\ 8UUcSScQRcOPcNNcLLUJJUHHUUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczU\ czUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUcz\ UczUczUczUczVczWczXczYczZcz_cz`czaczbczcczcczcczcc\ zcczcczcczcczcczcczcczcczcczcczcczbczacz`czZczYczX\ czWczVczTczSczRczQczPczNczMczLczKczJczHczGczFczEcz\ DczBczAcz9cz8cz7cz8cz9czAczAczBczCczDczDczEczFczGc\ zGczHczIczJczJczKczLczMczMczNczOczPczPczQczRczSczS\ czTczUczVczWczVczVczVczVczVczVczVczVczVczVczVczVcz\ VczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczUczTczTczTc\ zTczTczTczTczTczTczTczTczTczRczTczVczXczYcz_czaczc\ czdczfczhczgczhcziczjczkczlczmcznczoczpczqczrczscz\ tczuczvczvczucztcztczsczrczqczqczpczoczncznczkczhc\ zfczcczcczcczcczcczcczccz } 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==================================