; Date: Fri, 09 May 2008 22:42:17 -0400 ; ; To: fractint@mailman.xmission.com ; cc: philofractal@lists.fractalus.com ; ; From: Jim Muth ; Reply-To: Fractint and General Fractals Discussion ; ; ; Subject: [Fractint] FOTD 10-05-08 (Volcano [7]) ; ; Id: <1.5.4.16.20080509224511.2b7f7660@pop.mindspring.com> ; --------- ; ; FOTD -- May 10, 2008 (Rating 7) ; ; Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: ; ; Once again, the philosophy, or whatever it is, leads off the ; discussion. To reach the fractal stuff, skip ahead seven para- ; graphs. ; ; I recently watched a 'skeptical' (read Atheist) show supposedly ; devoted to debunking paranormal claims. Not surprisingly, after ; demonstrating that Madam Zucchini, the local psychic, could not ; predict the future, the topic soon wandered to the so-called ; 'delusion' of spiritual life after death. ; ; During the entire show, the announcer repeatedly stated that ; extraordinary claims, such as the existence of spirits of the ; dead, demand extraordinary evidence. ; ; So far, so good, but the point of the program was to show the ; viewers that ghosts are nothing more than images created in the ; brain and mistaken for reality, or else outright fabrications. ; ; But with legends of ghosts, etc. existing in every culture on ; earth, and with many of those who see ghosts aware of the possi- ; bility of mistaking a hallucination for reality, the claim that ; absolutely everyone who claims to see a ghost is either mistaken ; or inventing the story is in itself quite extraordinary. Accor- ; ding to the 'skeptics' own words, this claim also must demand ; extraordinary evidence. ; ; But such evidence cannot be found. The high (or low) point of ; the show came at the end, when the announcer said that, since it ; is impossible to prove a negative, there can be no scientific ; evidence that ghosts do not exist. And since there is so much ; admittedly non-scientific and anecdotal evidence that ghosts do ; exist, this totally negated the entire message of the show. ; ; The only thing the show convinced me of is that skeptics and ; Atheists are out to convert others to their belief system. IMO, ; this makes Atheism as much a religion as any other religion on ; earth. ; ; And now on to the fractal stuff. ; ; In today's image I see a picture of an erupting volcano as ; viewed from a few thousand feet directly above the crater, ; complete with billowing clouds of ash, zig-zagging lightning, ; and oozing lava. The name 'Volcano" is quite appropriate, since ; a volcano is currently erupting in Chile. ; ; The formula behind all the volcanic action adds straight Z to ; Z^(2.1) to create a parent fractal that is quite hard to ; describe. Perhaps the best description would be a disembodied ; Mandelbrot main bay with two lopsided sausages where the single ; large bud should be. ; ; A large field of scattered zig-zagging debris lies off to the ; west of the two sausages, with today's image located very deep ; in one of these zig-zags. It lies so deep in fact that the ; resolution is starting to break down. Luckily, this is hardly ; noticeable, but I did include the mathtolerance entry to assure ; that the parameter file calculates at the correct magnitude. ; ; The rating of a 7 is arbitrary, but the calculation time of 42 ; seconds is as fast as a photon. As always, the finished image ; is posted on the FOTD web site at: ; ; ; ; An all day rain and temperature of 54F 12C made Friday less than ; ideal here at Fractal Central. The fractal cats took one look ; at the water running down the sidewalk and returned to attack ; their catnip rats. ; ; My day was average. With any luck at all tomorrow will be the ; same. Look for the next FOTD in 24 hours. Until then, take ; care, and if I had not seen a ghost, I would never believe that ; they exist. ; ; ; Jim Muth ; jamth@mindspring.com ; jimmuth@aol.com ; ; ; START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Volcano { ; time=0:00:42.24-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandAutoCritInZ function=ident center-mag=-1.68679550605384600/-0.833917252303289\ 20/2.434378e+013/1 params=1/2.1/1/1/0/0/0/0 float=y maxiter=390 inside=0 logmap=132 periodicity=10 mathtolerance=0.05/1 colors=000670880A90CA0EB1GC2ID3LE3PG3UJ4YL4aO4eR4j\ T5pW5uX5zd5zf6zj6zo6zr6zo5zm5zi5zg5we5tc5ra5p`5nY5\ lX5jU5hT5fR5dQ5cWBbaGagL`mQ_sV_y_YtXXoUVkRUfOSaLRY\ JUzBbmVk`mmaloakqbjrbitcivchwcgydfzdezeezedzfczfbz\ fbqkM`p6LBxPDuTEsXFq`GodHmhIklJipKgtLexMczNazO_zPY\ zNVzLTzJRvHPsFNpDLmBJi9Hf7Fc5D`3Bc8FfCJhHMkLQmQUpU\ XsZ`ubdxggzkkzpoztrzqmzoizlezjazgXzeTzbPz`LzZHzXOz\ VUzT`zRfyPlvNksLjpKimIhjHggFgdDfaCeZAdW9cT7bQ6bSAW\ UEOP`URXRSUPTRNUOLVLJzdgy`ctY_oVWjRSeOO`LKZiFYbGOc\ qM`oKYnIVlGSjEPiQUpaYwlfrvompkckhUfdKaaAaLRa4fc7je\ 9mfBphDsjFvkHyXpoUqpSrpPspNspLtpIupGvpEvpRwgbwZnwR\ trbzmnzhztgtjfn_ehQdbGcYR`R`YKkVEuS7zP1zylzcnzJolN\ mYRl_TdaUXcWPdXHbUH`RHZOHYDJXLH_Y8ZVAYSBYQDXNEWKGI\ 0cK3_M6XO8UQBQSDNUGKOc0Q_3RX5SU8TRAUODVLFz4Ow6Ns8M\ oALkBKgDJcFI_HHuqRh_MZiqXWZL77OAARDCUGFhPMeNLcMKaL\ J_KIYJHOMzPLtQLnRKhNLJMJG } 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========================================= ; ; ; _______________________________________________ ; Fractint mailing list ; Fractint@mailman.xmission.com ; http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fractint