FOTD -- December 27, 2008 (Rating 8) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image rates an 8, which means I like it quite a bit with its almost layered look. I have nothing against fractals that appear to have several layers as long as the layers are part of a single fractal, as today's layers are. The scene lies in a bit of debris between the two branches of the Seahorse Valley of a Mandelbrot set that has been rotated 180 degrees and is starting to morph into a Z^(6)+C Mandeloid. Most of the image consists of inside stuff made visible by the bof61 inside fill. Since there are two nearly identical mini- brots in the image, I named it "Double Feature". I was thinking of the old Saturday afternoon matinees at the movies, where an action-oriented youngster could see two third-rate cowboy movies for the price of one. The calculation time of 11-3/4 minutes is slower than I would have liked, but still well within reason. Those with a different definition of reason may view the finished image on the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> One of this year's presents was a new-age book about spiritual reality. As I was browsing through it Thursday evening, FL innocently asked me if I considered myself a materialist. She knows better than to ask such questions, because this kind of stuff always causes me to start pondering, and she gets more reply than she expected. "Materialists consider the material world to be the ultimate reality,", I began. "But I'm not even sure that such a thing as an ultimate reality exists, much less that the material world is real. All I experience are ever-changing images in my aware- ness. Rational people claim but cannot prove that these images correspond to something that is really out there, whatever 'out there' means." I finally settled the discussion by declaring that, in my opinion, the material world is every bit as real as a fractal, no more and no less. An unobserved material object is in the same state that the Mandelbrot set was in before it was discov- ered. I guess this makes me an idealist type of a materialist. After an ice-storm on Wednesday and a pleasant Christmas, clouds and sun mixed together here at Fractal Central on Friday to produce a perfectly average winter day, with a temperature of 36F 2C. The fractal cats enjoyed the sun and tried to ignore the clouds. My day was occupied by trying to break in a new king-size coffee mug. The next FOTD will likely appear in 24 hours. Until then, take care, and when reality turns bad, make imagination real. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Double_Feature { ; time=0:11:43.29-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=basic.frm formulaname=DivideBrot5 passes=1 symmetry=none center-mag=+3.035409692250254/-0.020872200758093/\ 67367/1/-167.5/0 params=6/-4 float=y maxiter=1500 inside=bof60 logmap=yes periodicity=10 colors=000zgzweztczqbwmWtjRpgMpcOq_UrVYsPatKdvJfzI\ ezJdxKbvL_uMXtNUsORrPOqQMpRKpSKpTKpUKpULpUMpUNpUOp\ VPpVQpVRpWTp_VpcYpgapkeqpjtupwwuztsvnnrgipaepZapXY\ pWVpWSpWQpWPpWOpWNpWMpVb6Vb6Ua6Ta7Sa8Ra8P`9O`AN`BM\ _BL_CK_DJ_DGbIDdMBgR8iV7k`6kZ2hT5eV4bT4_R3YQ3VO2SM\ 1PK1MI0KH0HF0ED0BB0890680970B71D62G62J53M56P4BS4HV\ 3MY3R`2Yb2`e0Wb1RY2LU3EQ4AM56H42D40941C44F36I38L3B\ O3DR3GU2IX2L_2Nb2Rf3Pe2Ne1Le0Ke0Ie0Ge0Ed0Dd0Bd09d0\ 7d04c06d07d08d09d0Ad0Bd0Cd0De0Ee0Fe0Ge0He0Ie0Je0Bk\ WKe0BU96X12JJ03i05d06`07X29T3AP4BL6DH7ED8208928F98\ LG8RN8XU0ko3hg8b`DXTHWEISMJOTKK`KHgJJdJLaJMZJOXIQU\ IRRITOIUMHWJHYGHZDH`BGb8Gc5Ge2Kj0Ih0Gf0Ed4Cb8BaC9_\ G7YK5WP3UT2TX0R`0Pd0Nh0LlH1a5Bi0Kp0NY0QF0T00U10V50\ V93WD6XH9XLCYPFZTIZXL_`O_d0MQ0II0E9AGp5EZ0CINbb390\ 0A0E5l87X29H0ko0aZ0OIZ1XP4PF6H589SFMHDF6B800VdbbQT\ QBJD0k00dT0PF0c80kT0VFR20 } frm:DivideBrot5 { ; Jim Muth z=(0,0), c=pixel, a=real(p1)-2, b=imag(p1)+0.00000000000000000001: z=sqr(z)/(z^(-a)+b)+c |z| < 1000000 } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================