; Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:05:28 -0500 ; From: Jim Muth ; Subject: [Fractint] FOTD 25-03-05 (Very Deep in Seahorse Valley [7]) ; Id: <1.5.4.16.20050325120616.0d772704@pop.mindspring.com> ; --------- ; ; FOTD -- March 25, 2005 (Rating 7) ; ; Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: ; ; I have finally become annoyed with the silliness I have been ; seeing on TV these past few days, and have decided it's time to ; spout off. Those who wish to avoid the resulting political ; blather should skip to the sixth paragraph, where the fractal ; stuff starts. ; ; We're all brainwashed. We're being manipulated by the media, ; and it has little to do with fractals. The media decides it's ; time for us to become excited about the death of the left-over ; body of a person almost none of us ever knew, whose mind died ; many years ago. We, of course, wanting to see ourselves as ; caring and politically-correct, become obediently excited, right ; on cue, about the non-event, even to the point of outrage, and ; begin bleating like the obedient flock of sheep we have become. ; ; One of the Fractal Central customers, who is an administrator in ; a local hospital, tells me that such unconscious but semi-awake ; bodies are released from their vegetative state several times ; every year at the institution. And when it happens, it is con- ; sidered barely worth a passing comment among the hospital staff, ; who consider such animated bodies already dead. The current fuss ; is totally a creation of the media and politicians, who are ; taking advantage of the public ignorance and gullibility. The ; real questions under discussion should be, 'what is conscious ; life, when does it start, and when does it end?' ; ; Such media-induced hysteria has become part of our modern life. ; It reaches a peak when media coverage causes us to worry about ; insignificant health threats such as SARS and bird flu, which ; have killed perhaps a few thousand, and forget the every-day ; type of influenza, which kills several millions around the ; world every year. It's good to be prepared for the worst, but ; let's get our list of diseases to worry about in proper order. ; ; At the same time that the media is raising unnecessary alarm ; about contagious diseases, it is ignoring serious and very real ; threats to health such as the overuse of cellular telephones, ; whose radiation again and again has been shown to cause damage ; to the brains of test animals. In our ignorance, we routinely ; use these instruments as we go about our every-day activities, ; and give them to our children to use as toys and entertainment ; devices, so they can be like all the other kids at their ; schools. Then we complete the plot by placing our cell-phone ; antennas on the roofs of our schools. ; ; Every time I hear someone in his ignorance tell me that mobile ; phones have never been shown to be harmful to humans, someone ; who cries that they are now a necessary part of the modern life ; style, I shake my head in sympathy. This is a person, I think ; to myself, who has become fully and hopelessly indoctrinated by ; the media and has joined the vast flock of obedient media- ; controlled sheep. Cellular phones should be for emergencies; we ; obedient sheep who watch the phone company ads on TV, have made ; them a life style. ; ; END POLITICS========================================= ; ; I could go on, but this is a fractal forum and we have a fractal ; of the day to discuss. I have been having little luck in my ; exploration of the Elliptic orientation of the Julibrot, so I ; have decided to take a break of a couple days to give myself ; more time to find something worthwhile. In the meantime, there ; will be no shortage of fractals. ; ; It is said that the answers to the secrets of the universe lie ; at the point -0.75 of the Mandelbrot set. This is the point ; where the two branches of Seahorse Valley come together. Even ; with the fastest super-computers, it would be impossible to see ; what lies at the point where the two branches actually join, for ; the point is at a kind of infinitesimal infinity. But we can ; come as close to the mystical point as we wish, and see the ; wonders that lie there. ; ; Today's scene lies only 0.00009 from the X-axis. It is as deep ; as I have yet gone into Seahorse Valley. It is not the limit, ; for the valley has no limit, but it is near the limit of what is ; practical with my current machine. ; ; At this depth the seahorses have disappeared and been replaced ; by pinched-off leaves with scalloped edges. Due to the extreme ; broadening of the bands that the logmap feature causes in images ; of high iteration, it has become nearly useless. Today's image ; was rendered with a simple straight-forward setting of zero, or ; one-band-per-iteration. ; ; I find myself wondering what lies even deeper in the valley. I ; will eventually go deeper of course, but I suspect that when I ; do, I will find nothing other than a more extreme version of ; today's scene, with features pinched off even tighter. ; ; I named the image "Very Deep in Seahorse Valley". The name is ; nothing more than a description of the location. I rated the ; image at a 7, more for the mathematical interest than the ; artistic merit. ; ; The iteration count of the large elements in the image is around ; 300,000 and the maxiter is 25,000,000, which is still insuffic- ; ient to close all the spurious holes. This makes the image an ; extremely slow one, which takes over 8 hours to finish on my ; machine. But fret not, for I have sent the image on ahead to ; Paul at the FOTD web site at: ; ; ; ; from where it may be conveniently downloaded. ; ; The rain held off here at Fractal Central on Thursday, the ; clouds actually broke, and the temperature reached 48F 9C. The ; cats were quite happy as they enjoyed an unexpected pleasant ; afternoon in the holly patch. Only a small treat of tuna was ; needed to end their day on the up side. But this morning, the ; clouds have moved back in, with rain forecast for this after- ; noon. I'll try to get the duo to take their outdoor time before ; the rain arrives. ; ; For me, it will be work before play. The next FOTD fractal will ; appear in 24 hours, give or take an hour or two. Until then, ; take care, and don't get brainwashed by a fractal. ; ; ; Jim Muth ; jamth@mindspring.com ; jimmuth@aol.com ; ; ; START PARAMETER FILE======================================= VeryDeepInSeaVally { ; time=8:14:07.14--SF5 on a P200 reset=2004 type=mandel passes=1 center-mag=-0.74999999686431080/+0.000090001821412\ 78/8.89759e+010/1/-105.000076916183801/6.198188440\ 40109784e-005 params=0/0 float=y maxiter=25000000 bailout=9 inside=0 symmetry=none periodicity=10 colors=000VrbTobQlaOh`Le`Jb_G_ZBVYEXZHZZK`_Nb_Qd`T\ f`Yhacjailbkn_mpXopUqoUnlUkiHhf4ec6b`7_Y8XV9USARPB\ OMCPJEQGFSDGTAHU7IV4JT0FW1KZ1Oa2Sd2Wg2_j3dm3hp4ls4\ ps3vv4tu4rt4ps4nq4mp5ko5in5gl5ek5dj5bi6`g6Zf6Xe6Wd\ 6Ub6Sa7Q`7O_7NY7LX7JW7HV8FT8ES8CR8AQ88P87OBAODDOGG\ OIJOKLONOOPROSUOUXOWZNZaN`dNcgNejNglNjoNlrNouNqxNq\ zRnyUjyXey_axbXxeTxhOwkKwnFwqBvt6vw2vt4tr6rp8pm9nk\ BmiDkgEieGgbIe`KdZLbXN`UPZSQXQSWOUULWSJXQHZOF`NCaL\ AcJ8eH6fG6dJ6cL6bO6aQ6`S6_V6ZX6Y_6Xa6Wc6Vf6Uh6Tk6S\ m4Qq6Ro7Sm8Tl9UjAViCWgDWeEXdFYbGZaI__J`YKaXLaVMbUO\ cSPdQQePPfNOgMMhMKiNIjPGjRHiTIiVKhXMhZOg`QgbSfdTff\ VehXejZdl`dnbcpdcrfbthbvibxldwnewpcwmauj_sgYqdWoaU\ mZSkWQiTOgQMeNKcMJcNIcNHcNHcNHbOIaOIaOJaPJaPJdPKfQ\ KhQLkSLmULoWPnZUmaZldckghkkmjpoiznhwmgqlgmkfhjecid\ ZhdYgcZfb_ea_d``c``d_aeZafYbgYbhXciWcjVdkUdlUemTen\ SfoRfoRgnQhmPhlOikNikMjjL } ; END PARAMETER FILE========================================= ; ;