FOTD -- December 06, 2011 (Rating 8.5) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image is the fourth consecutive one with a rating of 8-1/2. All right, maybe I'm pushing the rating a bit, but it's still a pretty good image, with lots of angular contrasts in the strongly colored vaguely egg-shaped patches surrounding the central minibrot. The parent fractal was created by subtracting Z^(0.7) from Z^(0.5), then adding straight C on each iteration. This parent is a Mandeloid rotated 180 degrees, so that its East Valley is on the west side of its main bay. Much unexpected detail lies in this East Valley area, consisting mostly of disconnected pieces of fractal stuff floating in a networked sea of ever- smaller pieces. Today's image lies in this east detail, which is actually on the west side of its parent. The largest bud of the parent, which lies along the positive X-axis, is even more striking than the East Valley (west) area. Instead of the expected near circular shape, this bud has the rough outline of a violin, with large sub-buds on the north and south shore lines. The stuff normally found beyond the large bud along the main spike is missing. The bud terminates at a very large valley, with only unknown emptiness beyond. As a possible home of minibrots, this violin-shaped bud is equally as interesting as the East Valley area of the parent, and will be checked more closely in tomorrow's FOTD. The name "Blobs and Things" refers not only to the blob-filled image but also makes a comment on the names often given to the trendy but near useless stores that fill the main streets of small towns soon after a Wal-Mart opens nearby. I created the colors with a single stroke of the <enter> key, which brought up a palette of intense but narrow bands of colors alternating with near-black bands. In today's image it works quite well. The calculation time of 1-1/4 minutes will pass swiftly once the top of the image appears and anticipation surges. Preparing a parameter file from this letter is a minor hassle however, but this is where the web sites come in handy. The finished image is posted on the FOTD web site at: <http://www.crosscanpuzzles.com/Archives.html> A high-definition version of the image is posted at: <http://www.emarketingiseasy.com/TESTS/FOTD/jim_muths_fotd.html> The classic FOTD web site is at: <http://www.Nahee.com/FOTD/> Heavy clouds and occasional rain made the high temperature of 57F 14C here at Fractal Central today less enjoyable than it otherwise would have been. The fractal cats found no joy in the outside conditions, turning instead to their food bowls for happiness. Humans such as FL and I require slightly more sophisticated things for our happiness however, so our day turned out merely average. The next in the long string of FOTD images will appear in 24 hours and is likely to be another with a rating of 8-1/2. Until then, take care, and if life serves you a lime, trade it for a lemon and make lemonade. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Blobs_and_Things { ; time=0:01:15.00 SF5 at 2000MHZ reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=basicer.frm formulaname=MandAutoCritInZ function=ident passes=1 center-mag=-0.831799168802/-0.000017810524/2e+007/\ 1/-45/0 params=1/0.5/-1/0.7/4/300/0/0 float=y maxiter=1250 inside=0 logmap=80 periodicity=6 colors=0002hu1iv0bm0We0QX0JP6610DG068g`yaWqXRiRNaM\ IVGDNB9F547duU`oRXjOTeLQ_JMVGIQDELABF87A535281u70m\ 70p60_60X50U50S40P40M30J30G20E20B108105002PCBOBANB\ AMA9LA9zAzz98z9zz88z87z8zz77z76m6zm66m6zc5zc5zc5zU\ 44U43U33K33K32K22A22A11A11211100000p9Vl8Ti7Rf7Pb6N\ _6LX5JT5HQ4FN3DJ3BG29D27915613301MlcLjaKh`JfZIeYIc\ WHaVG_UFZSEXREVPDTOCSMBQLBOKAMI9LH8JF7HE7FC6EB5CA4\ A8387375254132011mr1gk0ae0X_0RU0MO0GI0BC0560OKPNJO\ MINLIMKHLKGKJGKIFJHEIHEHGDGFCGECFDBEDADCACB9CA9BA8\ A979878768657656545434334323212111000OXpGMZ8BHZR8X\ P7WO7UN7TM6SL6QK6PJ5OI5MH5LG4KF4IE4HD4GC3EB3DA3C92\ A82972861651541430220110g1jCVSARO9zL7zH6zE4zA3z71z\ 3Mz3Lz2zz2zz2zz2zz2zz2zz2zz1zz1zz1zz1zz1zz1zz1zz0z\ z0zz0zz03z02z01z0gzKXzFMzABz56zz5zz5zz5zz5zz5zz4zz\ 4zz4zz4zz4zz3zz3zz3zz3zz3zz2z72z7GzdFzeEzfDzhCziBz\ jAzk9zm8zn7zo6zp5zr4zs3zt } 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=========================================