FOTD -- June 09, 2008 (Rating 8) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: While FL and I were sitting on the shore of a nearby lake Sunday afternoon, watching the duck families peacefully swim past, she innocently commented on how cynical I am becoming in my later years. She said that I seem to be turning against everything, especially science, religion and politics. She asked me what, if anything, I now approve of. Well, I replied, it's rather hard to approve of a science that fails to include the most important thing of all -- self-aware- ness -- in its search for a theory of everything. (This is why I refer to this theory as 'the theory of almost everything'.) Perhaps the omission is an oversight, or perhaps the physicists do not yet realize that self-awareness is included in the set of everything. If so, this omission should be acknowledged and corrected. Or could it be that they fear ridicule, or even worse, that their venerated scientific method is powerless? And it's just as hard to approve of the world's religions, which, after pronouncing conflicting doctrines for thousands of years, have still not found a way to demonstrate that the super- natural things they teach, such as God and the afterlife even exist. As I often comment, "It seems as though God gave us the faculty of reason so we couild understand his universe, but when we use this gift of reason, we are led to the conclusion that He does not exist." As the nuns used to say, 'it's a mystery'. Oh well, I guess a mystery is better than an accident. As for politics, the less said the better. And this is no mystery. But this leaves the big question unanswered. What do I approve of? Why I approve of fractals. And today's fractal is a typical example. The image consists of the entire parent fractal created by the formula Z^(1.237)+C as it appears 14 levels up the logarithmic ladder when the 'floor' function is used. Without the 'bof60' inside fill, the fractal is rather dull, but with this fill the inside explodes to life. And check those crazy orbit paths of the points around the edges of the circle inside the fractal. It's those wild orbits that led me to try the various inside options on the originally bland fractal. Too bad the orbits cannot be included in a parameter file. I rated the image at an 8. It's worth it. And I named it "On Fire Inside", which the fractal most certainly is. The calcula- tion time of just over 2 minutes means that no one will suffer fractal exhaustion waiting for the parameter file to finish running. An even better way to stay refreshed in such hot weather is to visit the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and view the finished GIF image there. Hot sun, high humidity, and a temperature of 95F 35C made Sunday another lazy day here at Fractal Central. Luckily, Fractal Central is only 1/4 mile from Lake Augusta, where peeping duckling and gosling families make it seem 10 degrees cooler. The fractal cats see baby ducks and geese as food however, not as psychological air conditioners. So they spent the day safely indoors, keeping cool as best they could. My fractal search went well enough, and hopefully, tomorrow's search will go even better. The next FOTD fractal will be posted in 24 hours. Until then, take care, and if we don't know what we don't know, how will we know what we know when we find the answer? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= On_Fire_Inside { ; time=0:02:08.09-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotBC3 function=floor passes=1 center-mag=-0.58138/-0.286362/0.6230116/1/-12.5/0 params=1.237/0/14/0 float=y maxiter=1150 inside=bof60 outside=tdis colors=000G0XRKgVUhYci_ihanhcigecggZfiWfkSemPeoNdq\ RdsUcuXcw_bzcbzg_zlYzl_zneznjzppzrvzvzzzzzzzzzz8W9\ 9TAARABPBCNBCLBDJCEHCFECGCDGADH8DI6EF4EK2EUDIUOMcZ\ PmiTztWmmSVgPcaLUVISPESJBQLIONOMPUKQ_OKYSEWW9VVDSU\ HPTLNSPKtgXwo_ulYtiXsgWrdVqbUp_TnXRmVQlSPkQOjNNiKM\ hILfFJeDIdAHc7Gb5Fa2E`0D_1CZ1BY2BX2AW3AW39V49U48T5\ 8S57R66R66Q75P75O84N84M93M93NB5NC7ND9NEBNFDNHENIGO\ JIOKKOLMOMNOOPOPROQTPRVPSXPUYPV_PWaPXcPYe567FLPPZf\ _mzZlxZlwZluZltZlsYkqYkpYkoYkmYklXjjXjiXjhXjfXjeTg\ eXjd_lcbobeqaht`lxZkv_jt_jr`iq`hoahmagkbfjbfhcefcd\ ddWW_dcdmkiyuovsnsrnqqnnpmlominmgmldllbkl_jkYikVgk\ SfjQejNdjLciIbiGaiD`hB_h8Zh6Yh7Ye8Yb9Y_AYYBYVBYSCY\ PDYNEYKFYHGYEGYCFWGFVKFUNFSRFRUEQYEP`ENdEMgELkDHpE\ KnFMmGOlGQkHSjIUhJWgJYfK_eLadMdbMfaNh`Oj_PlZPnXQpW\ RrVStURxQSwSSvTSuUStVSsWSrXSrZSq_Sp`SoaSnbSmcSmeSl\ fSkgSjhSiiShjRlrShkTddT`Y } frm:MandelbrotBC3 { ; by several Fractint users e=p1, a=imag(p2)+100 p=real(p2)+PI q=2*PI*fn1(p/(2*PI)) r=real(p2)+PI-q Z=C=Pixel: Z=log(Z) IF(imag(Z)>r) Z=Z+flip(2*PI) ENDIF Z=exp(e*(Z+flip(q)))+C |Z|<a } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================