FOTD -- August 10, 2005 (Rating 8) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: I see on the news that someone has just cloned a dog. It's not much of a surprise, since they have already cloned mice, sheep, horses, cats, etc. But it does raise a theological question. Is the fact that men have created living animals evidence that God is unnecessary for the emergence of life, or is it evidence that life can arise only through the working of a higher intelli- gence? This question is one that I will discuss in detail when (if ever) the next outburst of philosophy happens. For now, we have a fractal to discuss, and a rather good one at that. The parent fractal came about when I combined a negative portion of Z^(-1.1) with 5 negative portions of Z^(-11), then added (1/C) to create one of those rambling, indescribable fractals, boring on the surface but filled with deep mysteries. Today's parent fractal is dominated by one huge open ocean. The scene of the image is located on the northern shoreline of this ocean, deep in a rather strange inverted 'V' shaped valley. I rendered it with the outside set to 'tdis', resulting in the venetian blind effect that inspired the name "Venetian Blinds". I rated the image at an 8. It is quite unlike a typical image of a typical midget, and this uniqueness gives it its value. The render time of 6 minutes is slightly slow, but this time is on my 10-year-old machine. On most modern machines the render time will be cut to around 2 minutes. This render time can be forgotten entirely by going to the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and downloading the already-rendered GIF image from there. The clouds hung heavy on Tuesday here at Fractal Central, but no rain fell from them and the temperature stopped rising at 77F 25C. These conditions proved unexpectedly satisfactory for the cats, who spent over five hours in the holly thicket. Only a little tuna was needed to end their day happily. Today is start- ing partly cloudy with rain again forecast, but something tells me that the experts are wrong with their rain forecast, and the cats will be happy. I'll be happy when I get the work caught up, a condition that is not yet showing signs of coming about. Unless something goes wrong, the next FOTD will appear in 24 hours. Until then, take care, and does ultimate truth always need to make sense? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Venetian_Blinds { ; time=0:06:17.73--SF5 on a P200 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=-0.36941160733038520/+1.098637553115404\ 00/2.600405e+008/1/-122.5/4.31742300780260657e-005 params=-1/-1.1/-5/-11/0/0 float=y maxiter=2000 inside=0 outside=tdis periodicity=10 colors=000sVgrXhqXipYjoYkn_lm_ll`mk`njaoiaohbofbpe\ dqddrbesaet_ftYftXguVgvUhvShvUgvVfuVftXetXdtYds_br\ _br`aq``pa`oa_obYodYndXmeXmeVlfUkgUjgSjhRihRhiPgiP\ gnRcsS`uSYuUatVesVhrXjpXmnYonYql_tj_vi`vg`veavdava\ _v`YvYXuXUsUSoSRmRPiNLfLJaGGY900D9S55M00AhNifLgeLf\ dJeaJb`Ga_G`XDYVDWUDVR9SP9QN5OJ5KG0HD0E506001_upXu\ mUuiRseNn`JfVDYO5LESDqR9oP9lN5iL5fJ5bG0ZD0V90Q50K0\ 0Atuvsuvqsvorvnpvmnvkmvikvhjufhtdfqbdo`alY_iVXgUVc\ RS`NPWJLTGGO99H006abv_`vXYvVVtSUoPRlNNgJJbDGW99Q00\ EUUvSSvRRvPPtNNpLLmJJiGGeDD`99V55O00EJY0GX0GV0DU0D\ S0DR09P09N05L05J05G00D0090050000uuQuuOuuOuuMuuMuuK\ uuKttKrrHopHmnEkkEhhAefAbbA__6VV6RS1NN1GG0550sacq`\ bo_anY`mXZkVYjVWhUVfSVeRTbPSaPQ_NOXLMVJKSGKPDHNDEJ\ 9AD56901000u0vu0vu0vu0vu0vu0ts0sq0pn0om0lj0jg0ge0e\ a0aY0ZV0VR0SL0MG0H506_ugYueXscVrbUpaSn`RlZRjWPhVNf\ TLbSJ`QGYOGVKDSH9NE5JA0D6 } frm:MandelbrotMix4 {; 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, 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=========================================