FOTD -- November 20, 2003 (Rating 7) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: With today's scene, we again take a trip into the depths of the Mandelbrot set. We choose the basin of the midget at -1.47 on the X-axis to be the scene of our trip. This midget is surrounded by radiating filaments, with the location of today's scene found on a small filament on the northeast shore. The midget in the image is of the fourth order, meaning it is located near a midget, near a midget, near a midget, near the midget at -1.47. For some reason known only to the mathematical illuminati, when a midget is located in one or more basins of attraction of larger midgets, the number of elements surrounding the midget resets itself several times as the midget is neared. Thus, instead of having the series 4,8,16,32...infinity, we have 4,8,16,32,...infinity, 8,16,32,64...infinity, 16,32,64,128... infinity, and so on. Today's midget shows this quirk quite clearly. And other than having this curiosity, it is a fairly lively scene, maybe not quite worth the half-hour required to render it from the para- meter file, but certainly worth the effort to go online and download the completed GIF image from Paul's web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> or from Scott's site at: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> Rating the image was no problem. Considering the image itself and the time required to render it, I could rate it no higher than a 6. Pictures of scenes such as this are fairly common. (Had I found today's image 10 years ago, it might have rated an 8.) The weather in the Fractal Central area on Wednesday was violent to say the least. Torrential rain in the afternoon caused the local streams to flood, resulting in three deaths and several rescues. The temperature reached 68F 20C, but with flash flood conditions prevailing, the fractal duo wisely chose to remain indoors, asking for tuna. Today is starting sunny, but the wind is blowing, and the duo does not like wind, which hides the subtle sounds of approaching danger. They may be reluctant to venture out of doors. The fractal basement escaped with only a small puddle in the corner. My graphic work is reasonably under control. Another Mandelbrot fractal in 24 hours is a virtual certainty. Until then, take care, and keep your fractals dry. (Come to think of it, I have never seen a wet fractal.) Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Mandelbrot-08 { ; time=0:31:08.32--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=mandel passes=1 center-mag=-1.47539451765734098536/0.0079188952178\ 53054469/2.528066e+016/1/27.5/3.88578058618805e-016 params=0/0 float=y maxiter=7200 bailout=9 inside=0 periodicity=10 colors=000NUWTUVYVUcVTiWSnWRjOWfH`b\ 9eZ2ia3kd4lg4mj5nm6op6pjCodInZOmTUlN_kHejBki5qh7pf\ 9odBncDmaFl_HkZJjXLjWbkKtl9pnNmp_jrlVupZrqaordlsgi\ tjfumduhgncjgZm`UpUQrNRkORdPRYQSRRSKSSDTTNRUWPVeNW\ nLWwKVwKVwKUwKUwKUwKmX9k`BjcDhgFgjGemIdqKbtMawNfrQ\ knSoiVteXxaZo`ag`d__gS_jK_mRVjXRgSJmOCsQDpSEnUFlkz\ glmcla`mPXmDUiLQeSMaZIYfEUmAQt6PoEOjLNeSM`_LWfKRmJ\ NtYdbWfZVgVUhRTiNSjJRkFQlBPm7RfDT_JUUPWNVXH`ZAf_4l\ VFgQPcL__GiWCsSGnPKiNNdLR`JVWGYREaMCdIAbNBaSC`WDZ`\ EYeFXiFiVBuG7mLBePFYUJQYNJaQHZWGW`FTesVKpYLm`OjcRg\ fVeiZbma`peZqhUobPlYKiSGeNBbH6_CKXKPXUUWcZWicVnhVs\ kVviWtgXpeYkcZga_b_`ZYaUWbQ`ZMdVJhUGmcCqq9zz6qmAmc\ EjUIfKMbTQ_VUWYYT_`S`XSaTVeUXiU_mUaqUZjTWcSTXRQQQN\ JPTLPYMPbNPgOPjJUmEZoAbr5gt1kk6YcALWE8QJKKNWPMYTL_\ YKaaJbfIdjHfoGhsGijKfaNcUQ`LTYCWV4ZSCSNKLJREFVKKZP\ PbUUgZYldbqjgvplzvpsrkmnggkbagZVdUQbQHTY } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================