Fractal fans of years past: We're still alive and kicking here at Fractal Central, but things have not been going too well in the past couple months. To start, we found a one week old abandoned kitten in the fractal yard on July 31, which we bottle fed until it was old enough to take care of itself. Then the oldest fractal cat, Nicholas, passed away on September 27, and we decided to keep the orphan kitten, which is a little girl we named Riley. The new girl is now 14 weeks old and learning how to get along with the established cats, Jasmine and Lida. But being raised by humans, she does not yet know how to properly interact with other cats, and some occasional hissing and growling still occurs. As for the fractals, I am still very interested in them, but I am also becoming quite interested in things that are not totally rational, such as alien abductions, crop circles, bigfoots, hauntings and other things widely considered paranormal. I have never seen a convincing image of an alien, ghost or bigfoot on a TV show, but crop circles definitely have existed. The photos are plentiful, and despite the claims that they are all hoaxes, which appears to satisfy skeptics, I find it easier to believe that something unknown is creating the more intricate of these formations other than a couple guys with boards or groups who show that at least the more simple circles could be done by humans in one night. Perhaps the most intriguing thing of all I have gotten into is the furor between materialists and idealists over the meaning of the quantum discoveries of the past almost 100 years as they apply to the everyday world. I see materialists defending their position that the material world is real, while idealists are claiming that material is an illusion created by the mind, a belief that supports the mystical claims of eastern religions. Since no one really understands the quantum, both sides can spin the quantum discoveries and results of experiments to make it appear as their own theory of reality is true, but to me at least, it appears that the materialist side is doing the greater amount of spinning. I also notice that materialists are quicker to slip into anger and launch ad hominem attacks when they have no real rebuttal of idealist claims. To me this is how people react when they begin to doubt their own beliefs. Then again, maybe it's all a tempest in a teapot . . . Jim M.