FOTD -- January 04, 2004 (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Last evening I heard an item on one of the local news outlets that caused me to stop and wonder. The news item claimed that, with 500 or so homicides in 2003, Chicago had the highest murder rate in the nation, while here in Baltimore, we had only 300 or so homicides, making us only 60-percent as violent. It sounds good until one realizes that the population of Chicago is around 3,000,000, while the population of Baltimore is close to 600,000. My calculations tell me that this gives Baltimore a homicide rate 6 times that of Chicago. I wonder whether this was local Chamber of Commerce propaganda or whether the news reporters actually did not know any better. When this kind of stuff starts annoying me, I turn to fractals for distraction, and in this case, I was distracted by today's image, which like yesterday's, is an evaporated one consisting only of 'bof61' inside fill. The image is a scene in the ghost of the fractal that results when various portions of Z^(-1.8) and Z^(-8.1) are mixed and (1/C) is added, then the whole thing is evaporated by raising the escape radius to one-googol. I named the image "Arachnid". I gave it this name when the dark filaments surrounding the ever-present central midget reminded me of a spider's web in front of a carnival-like display of colors. I rated the image at a 6, since IMO it's not really that great. Another drawback is the render time, which on my machine is over 1-1/2 hours, making a download of the completed GIF image from: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> the far better choice. But before rushing for the download, give Paul an hour or so to render and post the image. Saturday was warm or chilly, depending on which side of town one was located. Here on the northeast side, the temperature reached 52F 11C, which was mild enough to keep the cats happy; but a few miles to the south, the temperature reached 70F 21C, which would have made them ecstatic. As it was, the duo spent several hours in the yard, meditating and enjoying their senior years. My day went fair enough. Hopefully, today will be just as fair. Until next FOTD, take care, and stay fairly well. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Arachnid { ; time=1:36:43.82--SF5 on a p200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix2 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+1.12455703364229600/+0.172257651110892\ 40/1.987188e+009/1/-120/-0.000760825470566633966 params=1.8/-8.1/8.1/-1.8/0/1e+100/0/0 float=y maxiter=3600 inside=bof61 periodicity=10 colors=000CaZC_YDZYDYXDWWEVWETVESUFRUFPTFOSGNSGLRG\ KQCFPGJQJNRMQSPUSSYTV`UZdVahVdkWgoXjsYpx_mvYkuWitV\ fsTdrRbpQ_oOYnNWmLTlzRjIPiGMhEKgDIfBFdADc8Bb68a56`\ 34hzFc4Qg5Wn7_k6ci5gg4jd4nb3r`2uZ2vczveCviHvlMwpRw\ sWww`wzduxcsvbquaqR0nr_lpZjnYimXgkWejVchUbfT`eSZcR\ pflYbREb1F_6GXAHVEHSJIPNJNRJKVKH_LFcMCgM9lN7pO4taP\ IO2xQCnRLeSUXUcOVlFWu6ToAQiDNdGKZJHTMEOPDPODPNCPMC\ PMCPLBPKBPKAPJAPIAPIBRHCSGDTGEUFFVFGXEHYEIZDJ_DK`C\ Gj6LaCPUHTMNXES`6XcHTfRQi`NljKotHisIdrJ_qJVqKQpKLo\ LGoLGoMGoMIkLJhLLeLMbKN_KPXKQUKRRJTOJULJVIIXFIYCIZ\ 9IWDOTGTQJZNMcKQhHTnEWsCZxJXwQVvXTvcRujPtpOtkLufJu\ aGuXEvSCvN9vI7wD4w82w40w7Ct9OrBZpDjnFulIpjKlhNggPc\ eSZdUVbXQaZM_aHZcDXe9W`BXWDYRFYMHZHJ_CK_GOZJRZMUZP\ XZT_ZWbZZfZaiZelZhoZkrZnuZkq`hnafjbcgcaddZ`eWYfUUg\ RRhPOiMKjJHkHDlEAmC7nBBjBEgBHcBK`BNXBQUBTRAWNAZKAa\ GAdDAjcAibAgaBfaBe`Bc_Cb_ } frm:MandelbrotMix2 {; 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 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE==================================