FOTD -- May 10, 2005 (Rating 4) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Has the FOTD 'jumped the shark'? Jumping the shark refers to the outstanding event in a great series that marks the start of the decline in quality that leads inevitably to the end of the series. The past few weeks have hardly seen great FOTD's. The images have been ho-hum. The discussions have been terse and have merely repeated what everyone already knows. The philoso- phy is still brewing, but seems stuck in some grey nether land. There has been no outstanding event, but I must keep careful watch over this trend. Today's image is a close-up of the midget that appeared at the center of yesterday's 'Son of Scene' image. What name could be more appropriate than "Grandson of Scene"? Three consecutive visits to the same point in the world of fractals really is a bit too much. I could therefore rate the image no higher than a lowly 4. To make matters worse, the render time of 55 minutes is well into the slow range. With its broken arcs, diffuse shorelines, and small crooked buds, the midget is about what would be expected in a fractal of order 1.5. The magnitude of almost 6x10^11 is high enough that I included the mathtolerance entry in the parameter file to be certain that the image renders at the correct size. The best way to avoid rendering problems is to download the pre- rendered GIF image from the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> Monday's weather was the best so far this spring here at Fractal Central. Absolutely clear skies, gentle winds, and a tempera- ture of 77F 25C were just what the fractal cats were waiting for. The 9 hours they spent in the yard set a new record for time outdoors in a single day. Today is starting with more blue skies and warmer temperatures, it looks to be another great cat day. For me it looks like just another workday. The next FOTD will appear in 24 hours. Until then, take care, and if life serves you a watermelon, spit out the seeds. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Grandson_of_Scene { ; time=0:55:33.40--SF5 on a P200 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotBC2 center-mag=-1.25338697940232200/+0.346669700387809\ 50/5.822357e+011/1/-17.5/-0.000441531350640803066 params=1.5/0/1/0 float=y maxiter=25000 inside=0 logmap=1048 periodicity=10 mathtolerance=/1 colors=000cPtbPsaPr`Pq_PpZPoYPnXPmXPlXPkVPjUPgTPdS\ PbRP_QPXPPUOPSNPPMPMLPJKPHJPEIPBHP8GP6xSHsUJnVKjWM\ eXNaYOX_QT`ROaSKbUFcVBdWFfXJgYMiZQj_Tk`Xma_nacpbfq\ cjrdmtequftvfmogfih`ciUYiNRjHLkAFl49l6Bi8DgAFdBHbD\ J`FKYGMWIOUKQRLSPNTMPVKQXISZFU`DVaBR_EOZGKYIHWKDVM\ AUOEKJIAFL0BH2ME3XA4g75qD4oJ4nP4mV3k`3jf3il2gr2fx2\ eU6M0A398GH6TP5eV7k`8qcEpfKoiQolWnn`nqfmtlmwrlywlY\ kaSceMWiHOmBGq69uAEpEIkIMfMQbQUYUYTYbOafKejFinAmr5\ pv1nr2lo2jk2hh3fd3da3bY4`V4ZR4XO5VK5TH5RD6PA6N66L3\ 6QADVHJZNPcUWh`alfgqmnvttzzzqzzhzzkzzczzWzzOzzGzz9\ DABFEDHHFJKHLNJNQLPTNRWPTZRVaTXdVZgX`jZbm`dpbes`go\ _hlYiiXkfVlbUm_SoXUpUZqQcsNhtKmuHqwDtxAwy7zz4zw3zu\ 3zs5zqAzoFzmKzkPziUygZxecwchvamu_rtYvsOztFzpMzlTzh\ Zzdez`lzYrz`pzbozenzgmzjlzlkzojzqizthzvgzsfzpfznfz\ keziezfezddzadzZdzXczUczSczPbzNbzKbzIbzLazO`zR`zU_\ zWZzZZzaYzdYzfXziWzlWzoVz } frm:MandelbrotBC2 { ; by several Fractint users e=p1, a=imag(p2)+100 p=real(p2)+PI q=2*PI*floor(p/(2*PI)) r=real(p2)-q Z=C=Pixel: Z=log(Z) IF(imag(Z)>r) Z=Z+flip(2*PI) ENDIF Z=exp(e*(Z+flip(q)))+C |Z|<a } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================