FOTD -- (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: It's Sunday mid-morning here at Fractal Central, and all is well. I have just finished emptying my e-mail box of two large undeliverable e-mails that were returned to me. This is well enough, except for the fact that I never sent the letters in the first place. It's probably another virus, and a clever one at that -- one that works like sending a letter via normal mail with no postage and writing the name of the address you want it delivered to in the 'from' space. Then when the post office 'returns' the letter for lack of postage, they are actually delivering it. I also feel a bit cruel about failing to reply to Baerbel's request for information about unsubscribing from the Fractint list. But it's a bit amusing to see such a request (from someone who already knew how to subscribe) appear three lines below the unsubscribe information in the letter's header. As for today's fractal, (which I have rated at a harmless 6), it's a scene in the fractal that results when 0.01 part of Z^2 is added to Z^(-2), and (1/C) is added to the combination, then the whole thing is iterated with a bailout radius of 100. That 0.01 part of Z^2 is not much, but it makes a world of difference in the final fractal. The parent fractal, which is enclosed in a circle, looks surprisingly like a fractal planet. Changing the logmap of today's image to 0 and doing about 10 out-zooms will reveal this planet in its full glory. As is the case with most fractals that contain a negative exponent of Z, the bailout radius has a great effect on the appearance of the fractal. With the parent fractal on the screen, redraw the image with imag(p3) set to 2400. A totally different image appears. I named today's image "Iterative Teardrops" because of the teardrop shape of the elements surrounding the central midget. These disconnected elements are typical of fractals whose formula contains negative powers of Z. The rating of 6 equals a little above normal on my rating scale -- about the mildest praise I could give to such a mundane image. The redeeming feature is the render time of 6 minutes, and the fact that the completed GIF image file may be downloaded from either of the following web addresses: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> The fractal weather Saturday here at Fractal Central was uneventful. The partly cloudy day with a temperature of 95F 35C and moderately high humidity was notable only because it continues the warmer and drier than normal pattern that has prevailed most all summer. Also it was the fourth day in a row on which the weather experts had predicted showers, and the fourth day in a row on which the predicted showers failed to arrive. Those experts are far better at explaining why something did not happen than forecasting what will happen. The fractal cats, who are unconcerned with weather experts, passed the day doing what cats do best -- lazing around the fractal grounds. As for me, it's Sunday morning, and if I really work hard, I might find a way to get through the day without working. And don't laugh. After all, working to avoid work is no more anti- productive than fighting for peace. Until next time, on the 20th, take care, and don't be too lazy. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ IterativeTeardrops { ; time=0:06:12.45--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+3.31533979732890300/+3.380854530622418\ 00/2.718068e+010/1/17.4927412805414235/0.007870415\ 83158384211 params=1/-2/0.01/2/0/0 float=y maxiter=1000 inside=0 logmap=130 periodicity=10 colors=000GLKFNKNUTV`WbgZjnhtml90M_pwcipgbgkWZnPQe\ TNXXKOXHRbJTecVhLfkm_nNmqOctPzvQYqRQlSIgTBcUFdXJe_\ NfbRgeVhhTqpSYwRZwQOwbzocmidhcdcZe0TeUO_TPVTQPTRKT\ SFRTnGwjJtgMndPhaSbZVXWYRT`LQcGWaOa`WgZclYjghsbrwn\ auzLpjKmVJkFIi0Ig6RoBZvHmwMnwJcwHTwFIwD8wSCgfGTuJE\ tLFsMFsOGrPGrRHqSHqTH9WbDYeG_gJajMblPdnSfqVhsYiurk\ wzhtseiscZtf_pdbmbej`gg_jdYlaWoZVqWTtTRwQPwNOwKMwH\ KwEJwDIwCHwBGwAFw9Eu8Ds7Cp6Bm5Ak49h38e38cBDfVEkWCp\ XAuX9wO5pG2gK9lNGpQMtUTwXZw_ewbkwb_wbOwbCwb1wd2we3\ wf4wg5wh6wj6wk7wl8wm9wnAwoAwjRtegjaxadscfnehigjdil\ _knVmpQorLqtGsvBux6wz2wrDujOqbZnVijNsgQUwNWwKYwI_w\ FawDcvAet7gs5ir2kq0lp4fs7`uAVwDUwGVwJWwMXwPYwSZwU_\ wW`wZaw`bwbcwedwgewifwlgwnhwpiwsjwukwwlwymwvnwtowr\ pwpqsnrnlsiitdgu`evWcwRaxM_yIYzMWzQUzTSzXQz_OzcMzg\ LzjJznHzqFzuDzwBzw9zw8zwJzwUzwdzwozwnzwnzwnzwnzwnz\ wnzwnzwozwpzwpzspzopzkpzg } 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==================================