FOTD -- April 27, 2005 (Rating 5) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image takes us to the northwest shoreline of the main bay of the Mandelbrot set, where we find a midget buried in an area of chaos. We then go deep into the East Valley of this midget, where we find a much smaller midget. This smaller midget lies unresolved at the center of today's image, which I have named "Purple Shadows" for no obvious reason. The rating of a 5 indicates that I consider the fractal to be average. The render time of under 3 minutes is within reason. As has been the case for quite a few years, the completed image is available for download on the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> While skimming the thousand-page book "Road to Reality" that I recently purchased, I came upon a passage where Roger Penrose, the author, expresses his opinion that the much vaunted 'theory of everything' (except the mind) could very well be a pipe dream. He suspects that multi-dimensional strings and mem- branes, though interesting, are just another dead end. He specu- lates that, before we can find a true theory of everything, we will have to find a way to include the conscious mind in it. This is basically my own opinion also. Before we will ever solve the big questions of philosophy, we will need to surrender our old view of a world filled with objects out there, separate from ourselves, which we observe from inside our bodies. This view gives us a feeling of security about the foundation of our science, but it just ain't so. What do I have to replace this classic world view? That is the question. The skies remained mostly sunny most all day Tuesday here at Fractal Central, which let the temperature reach a high of 70F 21C. But the wind blew quite briskly during the afternoon, holding the fractal cats' outdoor time to under an hour. Their disappointment made a trip to the tuna closet necessary. Today is starting partly cloudy. The cats' day will likely be better. For me, the work is moderate and the fractals are numerous. Until next FOTD, take care, and the universe is *how* old? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Purple_Shadows { ; time=0:02:42.19--SF5 on a P200 reset=2004 type=mandel mathtolerance=0.05/1 center-mag=-0.44479131953974950/+0.559494324388213\ 20/3.515691e+012 params=0/0 float=y maxiter=30000 bailout=9 inside=0 logmap=-3848 periodicity=10 colors=000NaaNbZNdZNfZQhZVjcZlgcnlhpqlquqszutzrqyo\ ntlkoihjfeecca``XYYSVVNSSIPPDNN9QMATLBWKBYJC`JDcID\ eHEhGFkFFnFGpEHsDHvCIxCItBJqBKmBLjAMfANcAO_APX9QT9\ RQ9SN9TQAUSAUUAUWAUYAU`AUbAUdAUfBVhBVkBVmBVoBVqBVs\ bVzlVzvZzlazbezAhmAkl9nk9qk9tiJpgNkeRecV_aZU_`OYbK\ WcJUdHSfGQgFQhEPjDPkCPlBPmAMpFKrJItOGvSExWCz`Azd8z\ i6zm4zq7zm9xjCsgEmdHhaJcZMZWOTTROQTJNVEKUINTMPSPSS\ TURWXQ_ZQbaPfcOjeOmhNqjMtmMxoLzrKztKzvMzwOzwQzxSzx\ UzyVzyXzzZzz`zzbyzdxzexz`esXOjsC_qBXpBUoBSnBPlBMkB\ KjBHiBEgBCfB9eB6dB4cFAcJGbNMbRSaUYaYc`ai`eo`htKgm4\ gf5ih5kj6lk6nm7oo7qp8rr8tt8uuArsCoqDloFimGfkIciJ`g\ LYfMVdOSbPP`RMZSJXUGVVDUTEWRFXPFYNGZLG`JHaHIbFIcDJ\ eBJf9Kg8KhHSkQ_mYgofoqowswzutztrxspurnrqlnpjkohhof\ endbmbZl`WkZTjXQiVNiSLiVMjXMkIetHetGftEfuDfuCfuAfv\ 9fv8fvAhwCjwElwGnwIpxKrxMtxOvxQwxbtfoqQppVqo_qocom\ aml_kjZjiXhgWffUedTccRabP } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================