FOTD -- July 21, 2009 (No Rating) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Despite my questionable mood, there is a fractal for today. Its name is "Fractal Telescope" and it's pretty much the same as yesterday's fractal. If you enjoyed yesterday's image, you'll enjoy today's also; if yesterday's image left you bored, you'll be bored again today. But today's image calculates in only 10 seconds, so regardless of how you feel, little time will be wasted. If in doubt, view the finished image on the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> Monday got off to a bad start here at Fractal Central when FL asked why I wrote such a negative discussion for yesterday's FOTD and suggested that I should learn to think in a more 'positive' manner. (She does read most of the FOTD discussions.) I told her that I assumed we would never again explore deep space because we lack the resources -- it's that simple. And being testy, as I always am during the early hours, I launched into a lecture about the overblown value of 'positive thinking'. 'All the positive thinking in the world will not get men to the other planets.' I added. Then, still annoyed by the original comment, a great old sci-fi movie, "The Day the Earth Stood Still", came to mind. In the movie, a visitor from an advanced race of space aliens tells us either to get our act together and stop fighting, or face total destruction. I speculated whether there might be a lot more truth in the old movie than we first imagined. I thought of some kooky conspiracy theories floating around. One of them is about a 'Galactic Federation', of the advanced races in the galaxy, which is closely monitoring mankind's behavior. When they saw us successfully reach the moon, they became alarmed and feared we might soon spread our violence to the other planets of the solar system and eventually the stars. To protect themselves from our violence, they secretly ordered our government to end the moon landings at once and abandon all future plans for manned deep-space exploration. This is why the Apollo program was terminated prematurely. The aliens then restricted our manned space efforts to low earth orbit, where we could do no harm, and kindly permitted us to develop the space shuttle to give us something to keep us occupied. We would not be permitted to return men to the moon or send men to the other planets until we learned how to live in peace among ourselves. Then, almost believing my own words, I said we have failed miserably, and as a result the aliens have ordered us to destroy the space station, which was to have been our stepping stone to the stars. 'But hope is in sight,' I added. The aliens will soon appear openly and reveal the truth about life throughout the galaxy, which we now are aware of only as the various beliefs of the religions. Hopefully, when we know the details about things now considered supernatural and are given proof that these things actually exist, we will have no further reason to fight about our different religious beliefs. Soon after that, we will all start to love one another, everyone will be equal, no one will be in need, etc. etc. etc., and we will be permitted to join the Galactic Federation and, as inhabitants of the galaxy, travel to the stars. At this time, FL told me to come to my senses, and I told her that she was now the one thinking negatively. She got offended, went into a sulk and sulked for most of the day. Due to much higher humidity, the seasonal temperature of 81F 27C here at Fractal Central on Monday felt more unpleasant than the same temperature on Sunday, when the air was dry. The fractal cats' inner thermometers must have registered the humidity, for they spent the afternoon stretched to almost their full lengths of about one meter. With FL sulking, my day was unusually quiet but not all that unpleasant. The work was out of the way by mid-afternoon, and I spent the rest of the day watching reruns of the moon landing. Unless a man lands on the moon before tomorrow around this same time, the next FOTD will appear on schedule. Until then, take care, and do I really believe in an alien conspiracy to confine mankind to the planet earth? That's for the wise to know and the others to guess. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Fractal_Telescope { ; time=0:00:10.06-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=basic.frm formulaname=DivideJulibrot passes=1 center-mag=0/0\ /0.591666/1/-31.5/0 params=89.99/0/89.99/0/-1.9119\ 5247/0.64047271/0/0/101/1.5 float=y maxiter=255 inside=0 periodicity=10 colors=000_9RS8TJ7VB6X35ZBAbJEfRJjZNnfSrnWvv_zzz_z\ zKzvKzsKypKxnKwlKujKshKqfKodKmbKk`KiYKgWKeUKcRKaPK\ _MKoYZqYcsYhuXmvXrwWzxWzyWzzVzzVzzUzzUzzUzzDzzDzzD\ ziDTgCUeBUcAUa9U_8UZ7UY6VX5VZ4V`3Va2Vc1Ve0Vf0Vh0Sj\ 0Ok0Lm0Io2Fp4Cr6As8AqAApCAoEAnGBmIClKDkMFjOHiQIhQJ\ gQKfRLfRLeRMdSNcSObSPaTQ`TR`TR_TSZUTYUUYUVXUWWVXVV\ YUVZTW_SW`RWaQXbPXcPXcOYdNYeMYfLZgKZhiDPhAPRn4Qj4Q\ f4Qc4P_4PX4PU4PV4RSYUVg5__Fe`Oe`Xdaedahb_k`YnZWqXV\ tVTwTRzSQLU_NWYPYXR_VTaUVcSXeRZgQ_aN_XK`SH`ME6tf4u\ kC0XKpIaHBaC8dGBfJEiNHkQJmTMpXPr_StbUqPSoCQr9Ku6Fx\ 3AvDLuMWsVfrcppdhNl9KnFHoLEpQCrW9s`od`neTmeLleEmgJ\ niNokSolWpn_qpdrrhrslskascSibS_bSQaSHaSSTTbKUmBVx2\ Ww6_wAbvEevIhuMkuPnnWqgbs`hvU0xNuzHXoC8d8Ma4_Z1lWA\ n`JpeSrj`snVsqPstKswLsvh0SMruMquNqtNqtOpsPpsPorQor\ QoqRnqSnpSmpTmoTmoUlnUlnVkmWkmWklXjlXjkYikZijZij_h\ i_hi`gh`ghaggbfgJmCNiEReH } frm:DivideJulibrot {; draws 4-D slices of DivideBrot Julibrots pix=pixel, u=real(pix), v=imag(pix), a=pi*real(p1*0.0055555555555556), b=pi*imag(p1*0.0055555555555556), g=pi*real(p2*0.0055555555555556), d=pi*imag(p2*0.0055555555555556), ca=cos(a), cb=cos(b), sb=sin(b), cg=cos(g), sg=sin(g), cd=cos(d), sd=sin(d), aa=-(real(p5)-2), bb=(imag(p5)+0.00000000000000000000001), p=u*cg*cd-v*(ca*sb*sg*cd+ca*cb*sd), q=u*cg*sd+v*(ca*cb*cd-ca*sb*sg*sd), r=u*sg+v*ca*sb*cg, s=v*sin(a), c=p+flip(q)+p3, z=r+flip(s)+p4: z=sqr(z)/(z^(aa)+bb)+c |z|< 1000000 } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================