FOTD -- October 27, 2004 (Rating 3) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image moves us on to the 'julia4' formula, which draws the Julia sets created by the formula Z^4+C. I have done little exploring in these Julia sets, mostly because they appear to mirror the more interesting sets created by the standard Z^2+C formula. But there are still some interesting scenes to be found in the Z^4 sets, and today's image, which corresponds to a point very near the shoreline of the main bay of the Z^4 Mandel- brot set, illustrates one of these. The lowly fractal for today is quite a come-down from yester- day's. I named it "Paint Drops", and I offer it more as an opinion than a fractal. The name came to me when, while study- ing the image, I remembered a long-ago visit to the studio of an old artist friend of mine. The artist was of the paint-slinging variety, who felt he could express his anger at the world by slinging his paints at large expensive canvasses. When I saw his latest work in progress, I was more impressed by the pattern created by the paint that had splashed and dripped onto the tarpaulin covering the floor than I was by the image on the canvas on the wall. I suggested that he might produce a better work if he were to exchange the canvasses. My friend failed to appreciate my suggestion. Today's image looks almost exactly like what I saw on the floor of that artist's studio. And it rates only an abysmal 3. (What I saw on his wall would rate a 2.) Wherever he is now, I wonder what he thinks when he sees dumb unconscious computers creating works equalling those that he himself once unintentionally created on the floor of his studio. One good feature of today's computerized art is that it took only 13 minutes to create. I don't know how much time my artist friend spent working on his opuses, but it was certainly more time than my computer took to recreate his accidental by-product. The 13-minute render time raises the rating of a 3 to the quite modest overall worth of 23. And yes, those who suspect that I have little appreciation of some forms of modern 'art' are cor- rect. My comment on the sad state of present-day art can be seen by running the included parameter file or by downloading the completed image from the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> A little bit of sun broke through in mid-afternoon here at Fractal Central on Tuesday, and the temperature reached 63F 17C. When the cats saw the sun, they rushed to be let out. Unfortu- nately, the sun was visible for only 15 minutes, not nearly long enough to make cats of the fractal variety happy. When they came sulking indoors 1/2 hour later, a generous treat of tuna- turkey was needed to bring their moods up to bearability. Today is starting much the same. I expect that the cats will have a similar day. For me, the commercial work is still up to date. This means an uninterrupted flow of fractals. The next one will appear in 24 hours. Until that moment of ecstasy arrives, take care, and where are fractals leading us? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Paint_Drops { ; time=0:13:06.03--SF5 on a P200 reset=2003 type=julia4 passes=1 logmap=62 center-mag=-1.66533e-016/1.66533e-016/4.76586 params=-0.6990978893967172/0.2833827999427266 float=y maxiter=50000 bailout=9 inside=255 outside=summ symmetry=origin periodicity=10 colors=000FsMDtIAtE8tA6t68rA9pEAoICmMDlQEjUFiYIhWL\ gUNgSQfQSfOVeMXeK_dIadGdcEfcCibAkb8jZAiWBhTDhQEkOD\ mMDpKDrJDuHDwFDyEDxFFwGGvGIuHJtHLsIMrJOrJPqKRpKSoL\ UnMVmMXlNYlNZkOXjPViPUhQSgQRfRPeROdSMcSL`UMZWMXYMU\ _MSaMQcNNeNLgNJiNHkNGkMFjLEjKEjJHfNKbQM_TPWWRT_UPb\ WMeZIh`FlcBoe8rh4uj1xg3we5vc7va9u_BuYDtWFtUHsSJrQL\ rONqMPqKRpITpGVoEXnCZnA`m8bm6dl4el9bhD`dHZ`LXXPVTT\ TPYQLaOHeMDiK9mI5qG2nH5lH8iHBgIEdIHbIK`JNYJQWJSTJV\ RKYPK`MKcKLfHLiFLlDLnFNoGOoHQoIRpJTpLUpMVqNXqOYqP_\ rQ`rSarTcsUdsVfsWgtYhtZjt_ku`muanubouapt`ps_psZqrY\ qrYqqXrqWrpVrpUsoTsoTsnStmRtmQtlPulOukOukNvjMvjLvi\ KwiJwhJwhIwhHwiGwiFwjydSyeTyfUxgVxhVxiWwkXwlYwmYvn\ Zvo_vp`vq`unatkashbrfbrcbq`cpZcoWcoTdnQdmOdlLelIek\ GejDfiAfj9gi8fi8fh7fh7fh7fg6eg6eg6ef5ef5ef5de4de4d\ d3dd3dd3cc2cc2cc2cb1cb1bb1ba0ba0ba0bVKYOcTJzQIwPIu\ PHsPHpPHnPRrfOrbMsZKsVHsQ } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================