FOTD -- November 16, 2003 (Rating 5) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: There was no FOTD on Saturday, the 15th of November. This was because I found a small pile of unfinished graphic work, and wanted to get it out of the way before the week ended. As I learned recently when I fell a week behind in the work, small tasks left unfinished soon pile up, and merge into a large task that takes several weeks to clear away. Rather than start falling behind again, I decided to forego the daily FOTD and clear away the work. Now I can search for fractals without the feeling of guilt. I may occasionally miss other FOTD's in the future. If so, do not feel concern. I am not growing tired of doing the FOTD; I am merely tending to first things first. With today's fractal comes good news and bad news. The good news is that the image takes only 15 seconds to render. The bad news is that the image rates only an average 5. In search of the image, I went to a midget on a filament extending from a sub-bud on the northwest shore of the large period-3 north bud of the Mandelbrot set. I zoomed in on a point of the filament just beyond the end of the main stem of the midget. To no one's surprise, I found a midget there. Since the location of the second midget is just beyond the tip of the stem of a larger midget, the second midget, which appears in today's image, is surrounded by not-quite-connected sword- like elements quite accurately mirroring the overall location of the scene. (Four much larger 'swords' appear out beyond the borders of the screen, and can be seen by outzooming and turning off the logmap.) If I were giving the image a proper title rather than a catalog number, the name would be something such as "Sword Play". The pre-rendered GIF image is available on Paul's web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and on Scott's site at: But even a high-speed download cannot be faster than rendering today's image from the parameter file. <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> The winds remained brisk Friday here at Fractal Central, but slacked enough in the afternoon for the fractal cats to venture into the yard. Tippy even managed to climb a few feet into a tree and sit there on the lowest branch, enjoying the sun and temperature of 46F 8C, and remembering the days when he could dash 20 feet up the trunk in a single bound. Thomas watched the action with disinterest. Saturday was sunny and warmer, with almost no wind, and a temper- ature of 55F 13C that made outdoor conditions quite pleasant for the duo. They spent several hours in the holly thicket, and needed to be coaxed indoors when the day ended. Today looks to be a not-so-sunny repeat. I'll try to take it reasonably easy today. If I try hard enough, I might even succeed. Until next FOTD and next trip into the infinite depths of the Mandelbrot set, take care, and where oh where did it all come from? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Mandelbrot-04 { ; time=0:00:15.60--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=mandel passes=1 center-mag=-0.18985803257882940/+0.852822417465450\ 00/2.285195e+012/1/-102.5/0.00326419793650863793 params=0/0 float=y maxiter=1600 bailout=16 inside=0 logmap=332 periodicity=10 colors=000YuZYuaXueXuhWulWuoXtnXsnYrmYrmZqlZpl_ok_\ ok`nj`mj`mialiakhbjhbjgcigchfdgfdgeefeeedeedfdcfcc\ gbbgbbhaah`ai_`i_`jZ_jY_jYZkXZkWYlVYlVXlUXkTWkSWjS\ VjRViQUhQUgQUfRTeSTeTTeUSeVSeWSeXReYReZReZRe_Qf`Qg\ aQhbPicPjdPjeOkfOkfOlgOlhNmiNmjNnkMnlMomMonLonLooL\ opLoqKorKosKotJouJovJrwLpxKoxJmzJlzIkzHiyHhxGgwFeu\ FdsEcqDaoD`mC_kBYiBXgAWe9Uc9Ta8S_7QY7PX6OV5MU5LT4K\ R3IQ3HP2GO2EP5DP7CP9BPCAPE8QG7QJ6QL5QN2OJ3PM4QP5RS\ 6RV7SY8T`8Tc9UfAViBVlCWoDXrEZuDXuCWuCVuBUuBSuARu9U\ u9Zu8cu8hu7mz6mz6mz5mz5mz4mz3mz3mz2mz2mz1rz1wz2zz2\ zz2zz2zz2zz2zz3zz3zz3zz3zz3Gj3Hi3Hh4Ih4Jg4Jf4Ke4Ld\ 4Lc4Mb5Na5O`5O_5PZ5QY5QX5RW6SW6SV6oU6qT6rS6sR6sQ7s\ P7sO7rN7pM7nL7lK8iJ7fK7eK7dL7cL6bM6bM6cN6dN5fO5gO5\ hP5jP4kQ4kQ4kQ4lR3mRAnSFoSKrTPuTUwUZyUczVhzVmzWrzW\ wzWzzVzzVzzVzzUzzUzzUzzTzzTzzTzzSzzSzzSzzSzzRzzRzz\ RzzQzzQzzQzzPzzKzzOzzRzzV } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================