FOTD -- October 17, 2002 (Rating 5) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: There has been a notable lack of critical thinking in the Fractal Central area lately. Critical thinking is what skeptics, as well as fractalists, do so much of, and what believers in unlikely things do so little of. Those who think critically will explain events as simply and rationally as possible. They will not use questionable phenomena such as mental telepathy as an explanation when a normal explanation such as somehow receiving the information through the senses will work as well. There is a good reason for this -- the simplest, most reasonable, explanation is most often the right one. A rash of shootings have taken place in the area lately, and the sniper has so far eluded capture. To me, the explanation is simple -- most likely a very clever maniac is on the loose, or possibly it is the beginning of the next phase of foreign terrorism in the U.S. The shootings are almost certainly not some of the things I have been hearing, such as the beginning of an alien invasion from outer space, or a racist plot to make the ethnically-mixed police department look bad, or a plot to swing the upcoming election in favor of the candidate who wants tighter gun control. I doubt that the shootings are the begin- ning of Armageddon, as I have heard one woman very seriously claim. I wonder how long it will be before the psychics appear on the scene with so many different explanations that one of them is certain to be correct. Oh, we have a fractal today. I named it "Mandel Fragments" because of its extremely fragmentary nature. The generating expression combines various negative portions of Z^(-1.2) and Z^(-11.7). The fractal is then turned outside-in by adding 1/C instead of just plain C. The midget at the center of today's image is a third-order one, lying near the southeast border of a larger midget that lies in the East Valley area of a still larger midget, which in turn lies in a valley of the parent, which consists of oversized but scattered Mandeloid figures. Try as I might, I could see nothing in the final product that is above the long-term FOTD average. I therefore rated it at an average 5. The unreasonably long render time of 1-3/4 hours does nothing to raise the image out of the realm of the mundane. But do not give up hope of seeing the image. Relief will soon arrive in the form of the finished GIF image, which will be available on the FOTD web sites as soon as Paul and Scott can render it. Paul's site may be accessed at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and Scott's at: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> The fractal weather Wednesday featured, if it could be called a feature, heavy rain, strong winds, and a temperature of 57F 14C. The cats seemed to know early that it would not be an outdoor day, and satisfied themselves watching the raindrops trickle down the windows. Surprisingly, the sun did break through late in the afternoon, though it was still too wet outside for the dynamic duo's paws. Today is beginning much more pleasantly, both for man and cats. The sun is shining, it is warmer, and the amount of work to be done is reasonable. I think it might be a good day. Until tomorrow, take care, and beware of the fractal conspiracy. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Mandel_Fragments { ; time=1:47:58.14--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+0.56720708891643850/-0.004432614125375\ 13/9.794662e+010/1/35/-0.000417907618523220836 params=7/-1.2/0.7/-11.7/-1.5/800 float=y maxiter=14400 inside=0 periodicity=10 colors=0001MA0M80M72N93OA5PB6QD8RE9SFATGCUIDVJFWKG\ WLIXNJYOKgPM_QN`SPaTQbUScVTdXUdYWeZXf`Zga_hbaicbje\ ckfKcXgmkiomkqomsqntspuurvwswxvxywxzyyzzyzzzzzzz7_\ WuxutxusxtsxtrxsrxsqxrpxrpxqoxqoxpFWUmxomxoFWUlxnk\ ymjymjyliylhykhykgyjgyjfyieyieyhdyhdygcygbyfbyfaye\ ayecxcdwbevafv`guZhtYjsXksWlrVmqTnqSopRqoQrnOsnNtm\ MulLvlKukLukLtjMtjMtiNsiNsiOrhOrhPrgPqgQqfQpfRpfRp\ eSoeSodTndTncUncUmcUmbVlbVlaWlaWk`Xk`Xj`Yj_Yj_ZiZZ\ iZ_hY_hY`hY`gXagXafWbfWbfWbdXacYaaZa`Z`__`Y``X``Va\ _Ub_Tc_Rc_QdZOeZNeZMfZKgYJhYIhYGiYFjXDjXCkXBlX9mW8\ mW6nW5oWFaV2pV1qV0qV1pW2oW3nW4mW4lW5kW6jW7iX7hX8gX\ 9fXAYXBdXBcXCcYDbYEaYE`YF_YGZYHYYHXYIWZJVZKUZLTZLS\ ZMRZNQZOQ_OP_PO_QN_RM_SL_SK_TJ`UI`VH`VG`WF`XE`YD`Y\ D`_GX`JUbMRcPOdSLfUIgXFh_Cjb9ke6lg3hb9eYEbTKZOPWKV\ TF_PAeM5jJ1oL3mM5kN6jO8hP9gRBeSCdTEbUGaVH_WJZYKXZM\ W_NU`PUaRUbSUcTUcUUcUUcUU } 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==================================