FOTD -- July 06, 2002 (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image is named "Interesting Midget". 'Interesting' or 'nice' is what I say about something when I want to say something good but can't find any particular aspect to say something good about. I use the words frequently in my non-fractal life when I must decline customers' suggestions that I know will never work. The midget in today's image, with its vaguely familiar decorations, is 'nice' in a broad, generic sort of way -- In other words, it is interesting. Finding interesting midgets, or interesting fractals of any kind, can sometimes be a real challenge. Though the parent fractals may appear promising, all too often they hold no midgets, or if the midgets are there, they merely exhibit a duplication of features found in various parts of the Mandelbrot set. When I first saw the oversized parent fractal of today's scene, it did not even look promising, but something told me that a FOTD was hiding somewhere down in its depths. And indeed, my intuition turned out to be true. The midget lay very deep indeed, but it was there, waiting to be discovered and revealed to the world, or at least a small part thereof. The route down to the midget was long and quite eventful, and can be traveled in reverse by setting the logmap to zero and outzooming about 10 times. The formula itself, which adds 1/10 part of Z^(-11.1) to Z^(-1.11) then adds (1/C), is unexceptional, but in the world of fractals, unexceptional beginnings sometimes lead to exceptional ends. Undecided whether to rate today's image a 6 or a 7, I finally decided on a 6. It is a bit above average, though if I continue to produce fractals of this same quality, the average will rise, and I'll need to start rating them a 5. The render time of around 8 minutes on a run-down P200 machine is marginal, but the wait can be avoided by letting Paul and Scott render the image and then picking it up from their web sites at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> The fractal weather Friday here at Fractal Central was sunny and still very warm, but the temperature of 92F 33C and drier air was far better than the humid 106F 41C that was registered in the center of the city Thursday. The cats actually spent an entire hour outdoors in the shade of the dogwood tree, watching the starlings fly by. As for me, I'm planning another restful day. There's not too much work to be done, and I might actually get a chance to rest. But regardless, I'll return in two days on Monday, July 8, with another glorious (I hope) fractal to delight and amaze. Until then, take care, and don't let the fractals obstruct your view. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Interesting_Midget { ; time=0:07:51.48--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+49.36527881043839000/+30.4157556183393\ 0000/2.374188e+009/1/50/-9.25530275780669931e-005 params=1/-1.11/0.1/-11.1/0.5/0 float=y maxiter=800 inside=0 logmap=165 periodicity=10 colors=000EV0GY1JY6Nb9OdERgIViNXiQ_iTbiTdiTbiTaiT_\ iTYiTXiTTgTQfTNdTJbTGYTDXQlTLdNNXIJQEGI9BB48214000\ 000000000001204B08I0BO0EV0Ib1Li2Op4Rx6Vz8Yz9az9dzD\ azG_zJYzQXzQVzWRzXQz`OzbNzdLziIxlEqpDks9dw8Yz4Rz1T\ z0iz0zz0zz0zz0zz1zzDizOTtYJniOgtTbzV_zXVzYRz_NzaIz\ bEzd9zf6zg1zg0zd2za6z_BzXEwTJsRNpORkNVgJ_dGb_EgXBi\ T9iO6iL2iI1iD0q90z60zz0qz0iz0Tz0Dw40p90gE0aJ0TO0NT\ 0EY08b01g0Bk0Ln1Tq6bwBkzEtzJzzOzzRzw_zifzXnsJtk6za\ 0zT0zL0s00n00k00f00b01Y06V09Q1EN1II2NE2R94V64_16b0\ 6g08k08p09s09q0Bq0Dq0Eq0Gq0Iq0Jq0Jq0Lq1Nq2Oq6Qq8Rq\ 9TqBTn9Vk8Xg6Xd6Ya4_Y2_V2aR1aO0bL0dI0dE0fB0g80g40i\ 10i00k00l00l00n00n00p00p00p00q01q04q08q0Bs0Ds0Gs0J\ t0Nt0Qt0Rt0Vw0Yw0aw0bw1as1aq1_p1_n1_l2Yk2_i2ag2bf2\ dd2fb4g_4iY4kX4lV4nT6pR6qQ6sO6tN6wL6xJ8zL8zL9zL9zL\ BzLBzLDzLDzNEzNEzNGzNGzNIzNIzNIzNTzGdzBnz6kzbJzT0z\ L0zJOzVJzJEz89z04z08z0Bz0 } frm:MandelbrotMix4 {; 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, 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==================================