FOTD -- October 09, 2005 (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: In the middle ages the politically powerful Catholic Church sold indulgences. By purchasing an indulgence with earthly money, bereaved relatives could buy their loved one's way out of purga- tory and end the soul's suffering. This required the ridiculous assumption that God's favor could be bought with money, but from what I read, the indulgence business, along with obligatory contributions, under penalty of hell-fire, kept the churches and monasteries going rather well. Other religions have similar short cuts to spiritual success. Buddhists had prayer wheels, which worked much like the Catholic indulgences once did. Instead of spending hours saying the proper prayers, a devout Buddhist needed only to spin the right prayer wheel, and the prayer recorded on that wheel would be sent to the creative higher power, which in this case is not considered a supreme superman-like being. For some strange reason, today's image reminds me of a Buddhist prayer wheel. The formula that did the deed is named 'Mytest09'. It appears to have been written around the same time I wrote yesterday's 'Mytest07' formula, and like that formula, the purpose of today's formula, if any, is a mystery. But mysterious or not, today's formula, with its two changeable functions, creates a large variety of fractals. The one active function I used in today's image is called 'cosxx'. (The 'ident' function acts as no function.) Don't try looking up cosxx in a math book because it will not be there. The function is actually a mistake that was made in an early version of Fractint and was kept in the program because it creates some interesting fractals. Today's image was rendered with the outside set to 'tdis', though there is very little to distinguish this rendering from the outside=iter version. The rating of a 6 seems appropriate for today's effort. And the render time of only 9+ seconds can hardly be beat. It will take several times as long to go to the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and download the completed image from there. But for those with Fractint deprived computers, this might be the only way to view the scene. The rain fell heavily all day Saturday here at Fractal Central, adding up to something over 7-1/2 inches, 190mm, and creating much local flooding, including the Fractal Central basement, which boasts a brand-new puddle of water. I guess we can blame it on the farmers, who for several months have been praying so hard for rain. Now that their crops are lost, God has finally sent the rain. In fact, He has sent so much rain that in addi- tion to losing their crops, some farmers have lost their homes as well. I guess you just can't win when bargaining with a god who, as the nuns told me in school, works in mysterious ways. The fractal cats have far more important things than God to concern themselves with. Their yard looks like a frog pond, and it will be several days before it dries out enough to be stepped on by sensitive cat paws. They are not about ready to start praying, but their mood is as dismal as a swamp, and they are demanding all the extra tuna I can give them. Tuna can do only so much for disgruntled cats however, and better weather will be needed before they are once again themselves. Unfortunately, better weather does not seem to be near. Today is starting very cloudy with showers forecast, and in addition it is much cooler. It looks like a bum day coming up for the duo. For me it looks like another average day. The next FOTD will appear in 24 hours. Until then, take care, and get your vectors straight. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Prayer_Wheel { ; time=0:00:09.69--SF5 on a P200 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=jim.frm formulaname=Mytest09 function=ident/cosxx center-mag=-0.529901/-0.0707615/0.181739/0.6708 params=3/0/1/1/-1/0 float=y maxiter=95 inside=0 outside=tdis periodicity=0 colors=000zhI9JHOG6IPBGbp14g7JUn7N`LJS_CNTcNYXDP7D\ SADVDj9waGlUMaLSRn1`8F3AM8CSCDZSDWM4Qaac1P`9GewFcl\ EaaD_Rp0_bCTQNM7dXA`OGeHFbGE_GX8iQH_JQQ2Qs5Si8U_BW\ QRQMNSKKUJGWHwo1_f9r2cdDWROOps7bkAQdDoW3WXAdsoRhYS\ BcNJWIRO8LIEIqB3qCJZU6LPDJXPFMCF6Ob4Xc2ec0mcB`VLPN\ VDFApQ0PCsqtqswpuzbmjXcVQeVImEGiFFeFEaGTT7LWCysn`h\ XNNBKQDITEFWFxeEJjhJ8sHFiGL_ESQIaZF_PPz7LpAHfD7ErA\ OZl2AcACVIDMQFXcqfgX45u9K`8`5WsghOtYSfNVTq4VqcP4VT\ 9XMwmTkiP_eMOaJSpOOkMKfKGaIvMw_SaOl6IdBS6x6OVoYceY\ YWYSMYMjX8UYCZMcTPYOSSIVMBP`M4FHJGVNMPRKJVIxn3`eAz\ cJiaIT_HVBMMNJtGteMfRSTSJ1KR9hGuTP`IuCFiE2iv5fk8c`\ B`QmeQGHHFNGETGlUW`WQPXLcLgVQYMUPg42_C6SJ9KRD8rdBg\ SkaRvyEaQaPURLncIhWFbOkvPbNNWQLQTJJWH`eUCkzDgnDdbD\ `RtNxZTaeHYYMTRQPKUKFIcEOWDTOIkYGfSEaMhXkD1fX_XNZO\ IV24zF9kGSn4f4vSJ`ph2fe6Xb9N_D1ni7eVT1GPAGLIGHQG4r\ o7lf9gYBbPTcnL`Xil6TdB8ku } frm:Mytest09 {; Jim Muth z=fn1(pixel), a=real(p3), b=imag(p3), c=a+(b*pixel): z=(((z^p1)*fn2(z))^p2)^(-p2)+c, |z|<=100 } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================