FOTD -- February 13, 2004 (Rating 5) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image was never supposed to be. I announced earlier today that there would be no FOTD for February 13. But the other work went faster than expected, and I managed to find the time for a quick trip into the star of the period-5 radical on the northeast shore of the Mandelbrot set. I stopped at a point on an arm of the star at a magnitude just before the switch over to arbitrary precision math becomes necessary, and zoomed into the nearest midget. The result is pretty much as expected, with spiky filaments radiating and branching from the central midget. For some strange reason I named the image "Whisk Brooms". One benefit of stopping just before the switch over to arbitrary precision math becomes necessary is the extreme speed of the image, which renders in only 17 seconds. Unfortunately, the ordinariness of the scene cut a couple points off the rating, but with a render time of mere seconds, even an image with a rating of a 5 has an overall value of 1786, making it well worth the effort of running its parameter file. As always, the finished GIF image is available on Paul's FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> A cloudy and chilly day here at Fractal Central on Thursday kept the dynamic cats' outdoor time limited to under 15 minutes. But the brief outing in the 41F 5C degree air seemed to satisfy them, and only a small treat of tuna was needed in the evening to keep their moods livable. The work today was heavy, but the Friday 13th jinx did not appear, and the work was finished faster than at first seemed possible. Until tomorrow's FOTD, which hopefully will appear on schedule, take care, and God made fractals at the same time that he made the universe. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Whisk_Brooms { ; time=0:00:16.87--SF5 on a P200 reset=2003 type=mandel mathtolerance=/1 center-mag=+0.43792435442605380/+0.341892138828262\ 40/1.312819e+012/1/142.836672263020262/-0.000 params=0/0 float=y maxiter=1500 bailout=9 inside=0 logmap=322 periodicity=10 colors=000HMcINdJMeJMfKMgKMhLMiLLiMLjMLkMLlNLmNLnO\ KnOKoPKpPKqPKrQKsQJsRJtRJuSJvSJwSJxQKyOKzMKzKKzIKw\ GKtFLqDLnBLk9Lh7Le5Lc3Ma4L_4KY4KX4JW4JU4IT4IS5HR6G\ Q7GP8FO9FNAEMBDLCGKCKHDOLESOEWRF_UFcXGg`GkcGofHsiH\ ulHvmKwmNvlQujStiVsgZrfaqdepcioaln`lmallbmlcmldkle\ jlfhlhglhelicljblk`kl_kmZknYkoYkpXkqXkrWksVkuVkwUk\ yXkzUkwRgtPdrM`mKXhHUcFQZCMUAJPCMRDPUFSYGV`IYdJ`gL\ ckMfnOirPluNivMfvLdvKawJZwIXwHUwGRxFPxEMxDJyCHyBEy\ ACyFEvJGsNIpRKmWMj_OgcQdgSaiSYkT_iS`gRaeQccPd`OeZN\ gXLhVKiTJkQIlOHmMGoKFpIEqHDpHDpHDpGCoGCoGCoFCoFBnF\ BnEBnEAmEAmDAmDAmD9lC9lC9lC9lFBhIDdLE`KGXKHTKFQKAM\ K0IK0EM0AP06S03V03Y03`00c13f15i27p59rACtFEvKGxPIzU\ LzZNzcPzhRl5Tk6Wm6Yn6_p7aq7dr7fr8hs8ju5ns8lrAkpCjo\ EinGhlIgkLeiNdhPcgRbeTadV`bYZa_Y`bXZeWYhVYkUXnUZq9\ atBcwDezFgzGizIlzKnzMpzNrzPtzRvzSrzWnzZjzbfzebziZz\ lUzrVzoWzmWzkXziYzgYzeZzc } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================