FOTD -- April 09, 2010 (Rating 7) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: With or without humans in the universe, there would probably still be fractals. Or maybe we invented fractals, and if we were to vanish, the fractals would vanish with us. And speaking of fractals, we have a semi-outstanding one for today. At first glance, the parent fractal of today's cubic image looks like a Mandelbrot set. Closer examination however reveals cubic tendencies just beneath the surface. The scene is located on the X-axis just beyond the large mini- brot on the main stem of the parent. This large minibrot is shaped much like the Zexpe fractal, with today's image lying in its west valley. I named the image "Common-Sense Cubic". The name could mean anything one wishes. The rating of a 7 means the image is a little better than average. The calculation time of 13 seconds is no mistake. Even an image with a rating of 1 would be worth this brief wait. And as always, the image may also be seen by visiting the FOTD web site at: <http://www.Nahee.com/FOTD/> where the finished image is posted for instant bliss. My philosophical energies were once again aroused on Thursday, and this time I did not let the opportunity to have a philosoph- ical conversation pass. To avoid non-fractal philosophizing, skip to the last paragraph. FL sometimes accuses me of being insensitive to the problems of the environment, when in fact I am all too aware of the true situation. As we ate lunch on Thursday, we watched one of those doomsday climate-change programs, this one about the melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas. The glaciers are definitely melt- ing because of the warming climate, and if the melting is not stopped, over one billion people in India and other countries, who depend on the glaciers for their water, will be left without water. The program claimed that if this happens, the death toll could run into tens of millions. I told FL that the earth is definitely warming. Only the amount of warming that is caused by man's activity is in question. But the real environmental problem is the number of people that the earth with its limited resources is being asked to support. The planet already holds several times the population it can support in a comfortable (think American style) manner. The obvious but unworkable solution is to rid the planet of its excess population, either by euthanasia or mass sterilization. If we fail to drastically cut our own numbers very soon, and indeed, because of the moral issues, we will surely not do this, the planet will cut our numbers for us by making the quality of life unbearable for humanity. And no amount of liberal green- energy dreams or conservative no-problem, business-as-usual bellowing can change this. As history shows, when life becomes unbearable, people react in ways that are irrational and self- destructive. Is this kind of thinking callous and insensitive? FL says we must not think such thoughts about death and sterilization, we must go 'totally green', whatever that means. I am certainly not suggesting we start killing people, but as I see it, as long as our numbers continue to grow, any 'green' solution will be futile. The over-population is the cause of our environmental problems, and the situation is already hopeless. Most likely, we will simply lie back blaming others, passing silly, useles laws, and dreaming feel-good dreams about fantastic solutions that would inconvenience no one, until the last human being is gone and the insects take over. It's kind of a depressing scenario, but I am always open to a reasonable and workable way out of the situation, which would be far more encouraging than the 'stop crying and enjoy the end' stuff I hear now. The midsummer weather continued during the day Thursday here at Fractal Central, with sunny skies and a temperature of 88F 31C. But the summer-like conditions came to an abrupt end around 6pm, when a lively thunder-storm moved in, dropping the temperature to 61F 16C. The fractal cats continued in their summer modes during the day, and asked for reassurance when the thunder began rumbling. My day was average. The next FOTD will be posted the day after NASA lands the next man on the moon. (Just kidding!) Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Common-Sense_Cubic { ; time=0:00:13.76-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=basicer.frm formulaname=FinalDivideBrot function=recip float=y center-mag=-1.814854179191/0/5e+007 params=3/10/0/0 maxiter=900 inside=0 logmap=55 symmetry=xaxis colors=000F3EIGHLKJOOKRSLVWMY_N`eOckPfpQhuRjvTlvVn\ wYpwasxevyjyzpzzuzzzzypzthyocxlVwhYudasadqYhoUkmRn\ kLlkGjkBiNczPgzRkzSozUszVQVXNSYJO_FK`CHVIFPOEJTCDZ\ B8cA6R74E4OUzJUzFKzAKz63mJ1cF1PC1N814512cqt4Hp3Dc3\ 9R25EKdnERY8EHw`foW`hSWaNRVJMNEGGAB956`1`V1VP1PRQT\ NUNJYHH`FFbDDzCBzA9h97j75l69243P3cQhXL`RHULDNE9F85\ 8ZLuUIlPFdKCXG9PB6H639uCeb8SK4Ew5oc3ZL2IuQGUT89yM7\ iG5VB3G69nA7e86Y75Q54H4392p8Ze6SW5LM3EC27dNQxVApR8\ iN7aJ6VG5OC4G839428Wx6Oi5GV38GpZScQLRIEE97znkoeceY\ WWQOMHGC98rBY`7NJ4ClzXbmQUaKKPDBD7qdciZYbTSVNNOIHG\ CC966MT6FJ48A2yhYo`SeUNWNHMFCC86gwTaoPXhMS`INUFHNB\ CF8784Qn6EQ3FGJABD667UU3PP2KK2GF2zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzn\ zGfzJizzzCPmzSozzrIYtz`vMzxNztPzqRhszivVzzXlzzmz`z\ zbpzzqzezz`hzzdzRzzMXzz_zFzzEczCezBgz9iz8kz6mz5oz3\ qz2sz1tz2tz3tz3tz4tz5uz5uz6uz7uz7uz8uz8Qz9OzBMzCLz\ EJzFHzHGzI1z6AzDIzKQzQzzz } frm:FinalDivideBrot { ; Jim Muth z=(0,0), c=pixel, a=-(real(p1)-2), esc=(real(p2)+16), b=imag(p1)+0.00000000000000000001: z=(-b)*(z*z*fn1(z^(a)+b))-c |z| < esc } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================