FOTD -- February 07, 2004 (Rating 7) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Here in Fractal Central territory it's the 100th anniversary of a memorable day. In the rest of the world, it's just another day. Today is the 100th anniversary of the great Baltimore fire -- the world's least-known conflagration. On this day in 1904 someone threw a cigarette butt down a ventilation grate and started a fire that burned over 1500 buildings in the downtown area. Only one person was reported as killed -- a drunk who was pulled from the harbor -- but it has always been uncertain that the death was actually due to the fire. Refusing to admit defeat and without federal assistance, the city pulled itself from the disaster and rose to be the nation's largest seaport for most of the 20th century. Only toward the end of the century did the bottom fall out. It now appears our no-longer-fair city leads the nation in everything bad and is in last place in everything good. The reasons for the decline are as numerous as the people still living in the city, which is where I still live by less than 1/2 mile, though this will likely change within two years. The connection of the fire to today's fractal is straight- forward. The fire started as a simple lit cigarette; today's fractal started as a simple mathematical expression -- (Z^2)-0.25(Z^3)+C. Like so many other things of the world around us, and even of the worlds within us, a fire has a fractal nature. Like fractals, a spark can find itself in con- ditions that are stable, neutral or unstable. If a tiny flame finds itself in stable conditions such as a burning match on a concrete sidewalk, it will quickly be extinguished. If the con- ditions are neutral, such as the flame of the wick of a large candle, it will continue unchanged indefinitely. But if the con- ditions are unstable, such as a flame in a large pile of waste paper, the flame will quickly grow without limit, as did that cigarette spark back in February of 1904. The parent fractal of today's image resembles a Mandelbrot set rotated 180 degrees. Its East Valley, which is now on the west side, is split down the middle into two separate valleys, leaving two entirely new shorelines along the interior edges of the valleys. Today's scene is located along one of these shore- lines, rather deep in the valley. In this area, the 'outside' parts of the fractal do not have the smooth, unbroken nature that we find in the 'outside' parts of the M-set. They are more like a swiss cheese in which the holes have been organized to form a regular pattern that can itself become the most important feature. In today's image however, it is not the holes that are the most important feature, it is the coloring. The amber ring close around the central midget is so brilliant that I named the entire image for it. The name I chose is "Amber Mandeloid". The rating of a 7 that I gave the image is above average, but the overall value has been cut to a measly 13 by the render time of over 53 minutes. In a few days I will adjust the method of calculating the overall value, or perhaps drop it entirely. The wait of nearly an hour for the parameter file to finish running may be avoided by downloading the completed image from Paul's FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> Heavy rain all day Friday here at Fractal Central led to localized flooding and unhappy cats. The high temperature of 36F 2C helped not at all. It took almost a whole can of tuna to restore the spirits of the dynamic duo. Luckily, today is starting better. That's it for now. Until next FOTD, take care, and fill in the blanks before you leave. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Amber_Mandeloid { ; time=0:53:24.50--SF5 on a P200 reset=2003 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix2 function=ident passes=1 center-mag=-0.00161624027746348/+0.000070489860749\ 22/1.182809e+009/1/-155/1.14853522872881975e-008 params=1/2/-0.25/3/0/0/0/0 float=y maxiter=10000 inside=0 outside=tdis periodicity=10 colors=000kqihypdzxczz`zyYzuWxpTqkRkhOdcMZZJTVIMRF\ GMDAIA4D90AA76CF3DM0FV0Ga0Ii0Jq0Jy0Mx0Ov0Pu0Rs6TqC\ VpGWpMYnRZmY`kcaihchndhs`cfYWWVPJRJ9OD0L90PzsJnxFe\ zA_z4Wy0Tx0Qx0Nw4Kw7HwCEtFFoJHhMIcRJZWQ`ZUZcYZfZWk\ `TncOsdLvfIxiJykJzmJznLzpLzqLzuMzvMzxMzyOzzOzzOzzO\ uzIczCOy6MsCLmIJhOIaTGYZGRdFMkDGpCCvA6zA1zFJzJazZf\ dnkJzn0vd4nW9fMDZDJR4OJ0Tz7zzCuzGmzLdvOYqTPmYGh`9c\ d1Zi0Vm0`i0dh0kf0pd0vc0za0z`0zZ0zW0xT0qP0kM0dJ0ZG0\ TD0LA0F70940310000000000000011344979DADJDGPILWLO`O\ TfRYmV`sYdx`hsYipWkmVmiRndPpaOqZLsWJuRIvOFxLDyICzD\ 9zA7z76z44zA3yG3qL3kR3cY3Wa1Ph1In1As14y10z10sJAhaV\ Yum`mkadkdYifPiiJikChn4hp0fs0fu0fp0Zm3TiDLfMFaW9Zf\ 1Wp0Ty0Ps0On0Mh0Jc0IZ0GT0FO0CI0AD09907304003001000\ 0010030040060460970F90LA0PC0WC0`94a7Cc6Jd4Rf3Zh1fi\ 0mk6nfApaFpYJqVOqPVsLZsIcuDhv9mv6sx1xx0zy0zy0zz0zz\ 0zn0pc0aT6PGDC6L00T03W0AY } frm:MandelbrotMix2 {; 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 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE==================================