FOTD -- September 16, 2007 (Rating 4) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image is named "Dry Valley Ambush". I gave it this name because I was ambushed by it. Dry valleys are symmetrical features that look like they have a midget at their centers, but when the symmetry is enlarged, it dies out in a flat blank area. A flat blank area is what I found when I eagerly dove into the broad double spiral in today's image, fully expecting to find an unusual midget at its center. Due to my disappointment, I rated the image at a lowly 4. I doubt that it is worth much more. But with its clashing bright oranges and dark blues, there is a certain mischievousness about it that merits publication. So I decided to change what should have been an immediate discard into the FOTD for today. The parent fractal resulted when I combined 0.01 part of Z^(-77) with 0.01 part of Z^(79) and added (1/C). This parent is little more than a thin ring of radius 1 centered on the origin, with the fractal stuff lying in the interior of the ring. At first, the entire ring looks promising, but only the parts of the ring that lie on the X-axis are actually in the critical state. Today's scene is located near the point where the ring inter- sects the negative X-axis. Because of the location, I expected more at the center of the spiral in today's image than I found there. But fractals are unpredictable, and one is sometimes un- expectedly surprised or, as in today's case, disappointed. At least, the image is a fast one, finishing in 53 seconds on the fast P4-2000mhz machine. It would take near 5 minutes on the old P200mhz unit. The finished image is posted on the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> A slightly chilly but otherwise near perfect day prevailed here at Fractal Central on Saturday. The fractal cats enjoyed the pigeons scrounging for food on the sidewalk. I enjoyed having the work caught up, even though the day's fractal left something to be desired. The next fractal will appear in 24 hours. Until then, take care, and fill in life's blanks with fractals. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Dry_Valley_Ambush { ; time=0:00:52.79-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandAutoCritInZ function=recip passes=1 center-mag=-1.00587732385816700/+0.000000760828969\ 08/5965409 params=0.01/-77/-0.01/79/0/0/0/0 float=y maxiter=310 inside=255 logmap=50 periodicity=10 colors=0000AK0AK0AK0AK0AK0AK0AK0AK0AK0AK0AK0AK0AK0\ AJ0AM0AP1AR2AU3AU4AU5AU7AU9AUBAUDAUFAUHAUKAUNAUQAU\ TAUWAUZAUaAUdAUfAUiAUkAUmAUoAUpAUrCUtFSvIPwLNxOLyQ\ KzSJzUIzSGzQFvOErMDmKChIAcG9cI8cL7cO6cS8cWAc_CeaEn\ cGnaHo_IoYJpWJpUFmS8jQ8gO8dM8bK8_I8XG8UF7RG7PG7MI7\ PLAUODZRGaUJcXM`_PYbSVeTShTPfTNdTKbTH`TEZTBXT8VTYT\ TfRTgWZl`cudhsbfraeq_doZcnXamW`kU_jTZiRXgQWfOVeNUf\ ORgOPhONiOKiOIjOGkODlOBlO9mMCnLFnJIoILpGNpFQqDTrCW\ rBYpDZoEZmG_lH_jJ_iK`gM`fNadPacQaaSb`TbZVcYWcXXcTV\ fQUhNTjKRmHQoEPqBOsCQsDSsEUsFVsGXsHZsI`sJasC_o6Yk0\ Xg4`d8caBf_FiXIlUMoSPrPTuMWxKTxRRxYPxcNxjLxpPtnTqm\ Xnk`kjchhgegkbeo_drXcnZ`j_Zf`XcbV_cSWdQTfOPgMLhJIj\ HEkFAlD7mB8qv9psAppBpnCokDoiEofFndGnaHn_IjZJgZJcYK\ `YKYYLUXLRXMOXNKWNHWOEWOAVP7VP4VODUNMTMVSMcRR`PVYO\ _VNcSLhPKlMJqJHuGGyDFwCJvBMuBPsASr9Vq9Yp8`n7dm7gl6\ jj5mi5ph4sg4va7sXAqSDoNGm } frm:MandAutoCritInZ {; 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)+(p4)), k=real(p3)+1, l=imag(p3)+100, c=fn1(pixel): z=k*((a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f)))+c, |z| < l } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================