FOTD -- June 08, 2004 (Rating 7) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Alert: the topic of the next three paragraphs is political rather than fractal. Those who are bored with politics should skip ahead. The day started with fractal lady complaining of the heat, telling me that global warming is getting bad, and they had better do something about it before drought kills the crops and we all starve. I tried to convince her that she is complaining of a temporary localized hot spell in the Mid-Atlantic region of North America, not a permanent world-wide rise in temperature, but being a proper liberal thinker, she knows that the current heat is caused by the evil big greedy corporations that care only about their profits and not one bit about the environment or the poor people who work for them. I ended the conversation by telling her that liberals (whatever they are) mean well, but they had best get their facts straight before offering irrelevant solutions to monumental problems. Catastrophic global warming is a real possibility, but a single early summer warm spell in Maryland is not a sign that it is happening. The real problem is that the human population is suffering runaway inflation and under-developed countries are starting to develop. Forcing the big corporations to care about the environment and pay their workers more money, as she would like the government to do, would not end the population explo- sion. It certainly would cause prices to rise and inflict more hardship on the poor however. The most effective means of controlling population growth is economic development, but the planet has too few resources to bring its present population of 6,200,000,000 to the economic level now enjoyed in the U.S. Mankind is most likely as doomed as F. Lady fears, but from unavoidable over-population rather than a global warming that might or might not be in progress. What better way to cure a downer of a morning than with a good fractal. And today's image is well above average. (At least IMO.) Today's image is actually beyond the range of resolution, but with such a naturally broken-up image, the slight extra break-up caused by the math failure is hardly noticeable. The 'mathtolerance' entry that permits such a magnitude to be reached is now automatically included in the Fractint parameter files. To find today's very slow image, I went to the southern shoreline of the broadened East Valley of the large midget on the negative stem of the Z^2.0001+C Mandeloid, and examined an unusually fragmented area. What I found there is worth being chosen FOTD for June 8. For some forgotten reason, I named the image "Fractalville", not to be confused with Frackville, an old coal-mining town in central Pennsylvania. Then I rated the scene at a 7, which might be a bit of a gift. Unfortunately, the image is an unusually slow one, taking almost two hours to complete on my old machine. Fortunately, I have sent the completed image on ahead to Paul at the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> where it is posted, ready for download. A high temperature of 88F 31C on Tuesday kept the fractal cats on the shady porch all afternoon, where they stretched out to take it easy. They must have had a thoroughly satisfactory afternoon, for when they came in, they asked for no tuna. My day was average. Today is starting even warmer; I expect similarly lazy cats. The next FOTD will appear right here in 24 hours, more or less. Until that apocalyptic moment, take care, and if the end comes, can a new beginning be far behind? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Fractalville { ; time=1:57:50.12--SF5 on a P200 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotVE-VP passes=1 center-mag=-1.74990797821024600/-0.000452782810913\ 32/2.790644e+013/1/82.5/-0.0271040593762201867 params=2.0001/0/0/0/0/0/2/0 float=y maxiter=32767 inside=0 periodicity=10 mathtolerance=0.05/1 colors=0003vL4vK4uJ5uI5uH6tG6tG7tF7tE8sD8sC9sB9rAA\ r9Ar9Br8Bq7Cq6Cq5Dp4Dp3Ep2Ep2Go1In1Jn1Lm1Ml1Ol1Pk1\ Rk1Sj1Ui1Vi0Xh0Yg0_g0`f0bf0ce0ed0fd0hc0ic0jb2kb3kb\ 4lb5lb6ma7ma8na9naAoaBp`Dp`Eq`Fq`Gr`Hr_Is_Js_Kt_Lt\ _MqZPoZRmZUkZWiZYgZ`eZbbYd`YgZYiXYkVYnTYpRYrP_oO`l\ MbiLcfKedIfaHhZFiWEkTDlRBnOAoL8qI7rF6sD6pE6mE6jF6h\ F6eF6bG6_G6YG6VG6SF6PE6NE6KD6HD6EE6CE69E65F65FA4FK\ 9HP3IU7KXAL_EMbHPeMQhQSkVUnZWq`Yte_wi`zmcypdzsezpb\ xm_vkXvhUueRtcOs`MrYJpUGoQDjNAeJ7eH5iFBmIHqNNpTToY\ Ynacmiilqokstirqhlnfkleiicdfbcd`ba_aZY`XX_UVZRUYPS\ XMRWJPVHOUEMTBLS9RWBX_DbcFhgHnkJtoLzrNyoJylFxiBxf8\ vdAucCsbEraFp`Ho_JnYLlXMkWOiVQhUSgTThVShXShYSh_Rha\ RhbRhdQhfQhgQhiQikPilPinPipOiqOisOiuNivNixNiyNixPi\ xRixTixVixXixZix`ixbixdiwfiwhiwjiwliwniwpiwriwtiwu\ jusktqlsomrmnqkooipngqmerlcskatj`pibmhdjgfgghdfjae\ lZdnWdobSWhFDeJEcMEaPE_SE } frm:MandelbrotVE-VP {; Jim M. variable escape and power a=p1, z=p2, c=pixel+p3, b=sqr(real(p4)): z=z^(a)+c, |z| < b } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================