Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts:  

The ship that in yesterday's image was sailing space has foundered.  Someone has let the wind out of its solar sails.  It is stuck in the intergalactic doldrums, where it will remain forever, a derelict to remind us that our fondest dreams must remain unfulfilled.  And despite the technophiles' optimistic pronouncements, technology will never be able to match our ability to dream unfulfillable dreams.

Before we will be able to venture peaceably into space, we will need to solve the economic and environmental problems facing us on the surface of our planet.  The rest of the world is tired of seeing people in the U.S. and other advanced countries living lives of luxury at their expense.  They rightfully demand part of the material action.  They claim that it is time for all people in all countries to enjoy lives like we in the West have been living for a century or more.  The problem is that it would take at least four planet earths to supply the resources for this to be possible, and it would be politically impossible to squander resources to venture into space until the economic inequalities are solved one way or the other and we are able to live in peace.

Since this is not about to happen, we're stuck on earth, where we will continue to dream awesome dreams and watch them pop like bubbles.  The time could never be better to turn to fractals for distraction from this harsh reality.

Today's image lies in the center of the 'fan' of one of those 'double negative' parent fractals.  I rated it a 7-1/2 out of generosity.  Most of the color was created by the Fractint program, the DOS program that will not die, and might even outlive the PC it was written to run on.

The calculation time of 4-3/4 minutes is slow, but the web sites are still there.

Today produced a mix of clouds and sun, with more clouds than sun here at Fractal Central.  The fractal cat, realizing early that he would have little sun to stretch out in, spent most of the day eating and sleeping, wishing he could have lived back at the Old Fractal Central when it was the one and only official Fractal Central and the old fractal cats (now gone) spent their days outside, watching, chasing and occasionally catching birds and bugs.  The humans spent the day feeling down because of what we see on the declining news channels as the declining condition of our culture.

As for the next FOTD, it will be posted when the time comes.  Until whenever, take care, and what is the evolutionary advantage of the human ability to so vividly imagine so many things that, because of the body's limitations, we will be forever incapable of doing?

Jim (what a waste of imagination) Muth
jimmuth@earthlink.net


START PARAMETER FILE=======================================

Back_to_Earth      { ; time=0:04:45.00 SF5 at 2000MHZ
  reset=2000 type=formula formulafile=basicer.frm
  formulaname=MandAutoCritInZ function=recip passes=1
  center-mag=+2.744488223675127/-0.04951958592821827\
  /1.377578e+010/1/-140/0 params=-1/-11/-11/-1.1/0/\
  800/0/0 float=y maxiter=2400 inside=0
  logmap=364 periodicity=6
  colors=000hCNbJWXQdEKMHC2KSMKUcbUFUfb9RNCUWFXdI_mO\
  vqMls79zCJxHTvo14modcjjUfpJjGKf`580DOTFN_SlsQSTB`V\
  czUhRh`VmTZq9n_DjgHfnPqONid6G`BOgGWndwqYpsRitP_MNa\
  ci1BcBNXKZRUj557EHOISd16hBNoyfwddv`IHXNRTTaPYkavYT\
  liscTjc_abgTbnhp4`kMTfc_e2SzUm37oZmS_cQ`iNao60oBDq\
  GQshsorM7aVXk10dBFYKTRUgZG3UOMPWctCHAEHDKRGRaJNka8\
  ychzq`f`an9JmVX5G5SA4OGDiOJhVOgbUfiJMo82XUAEnHCjSA\
  gb7cm5_xB`wThvGaz8es00FcJYYQeRXmNL4MQIMUVLZhDYUH`g\
  rEUrLCaUZqD9iKL`QYTXiQXYN_iBLzGUwA1GJE_KRjoRTgU__X\
  gS_nFphX3CTFSPRf18rBOt`KwFa3HbMJbciCYbJcXQiRXoIknK\
  fr57zDYvRbdObmPHZNK0y8ykJwYTvETVHPcJelcFrXNsRbzLH9\
  LPQcIexUDFviIlosHoaSrzc3zdHzeVcahVUiRUmOUq6jLAkUEl\
  cImlknddohYpmRqq6rCBsSGtf_uUWv`SwgOxnsymgzpWzslzye\
  zxZzwSzvez1VzULz`LzgLzn6zrkzIYzaeztVzuczhczkczoczr\
  czsmztmzumzEmzTmzgzzWzzIzzVzzczzlzzDzz2zzUzzCzzZzz\
  KzzXzzizzYzzezzmzzuzzuzzu }

frm:MandAutoCritInZ {; 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 PARAMETER FILE=========================================