; Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:57:28 -0400 ; From: Jim Muth ; Subject: [Fractint] FOTD 20-07-09 (Julia from the Side [8]) ; Id: <1.5.4.16.20090719195921.2b5fb61c@pop.mindspring.com> ; --------- ; ; FOTD -- July 20, 2009 (Rating 8) ; ; Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: ; ; Possible new formula alert! ; ; Today's curious image must take a back seat to an event that ; happened on this day 40 years ago, when a man first set foot on ; the moon. Yes, I know the exact date was July 21 in parts of ; the world, but why quibble? Back then, I was still in my wonder ; years, perhaps a bit wiser than a few years earlier, but I ; certainly had not yet realized the power of politics, nor had I ; reached my present state of cold cynicism. I thought I was ; lucky enough to have been born at the right time to see mankind ; actually begin the exploration of the solar system, just like in ; those stories I was reading and in the shows I was watching on ; TV. ; ; But something went wrong. After a few more dramatic journeys to ; the moon, the manned exploration of outer space (low earth orbit ; is not outer space) came to an abrupt end. Instead of expanding ; our exploration to the planets, we settled on developing a ; reusable shuttle that could do little more than enter low earth ; orbit. To ease the disappointment, we were told of all the ; scientific wonders that the shuttle program would bring, but so ; far, except for the Hubble telescope when it was finally brought ; into focus, the scientific wonders have been conspicuous only by ; their absence. ; ; Of course, the shuttle program gave us the international space ; station, a white elephant if ever there was one. It might bring ; some minor benefits eventually, though if so, I have yet to hear ; of them. And I now hear that once the shuttle program ends in a ; year or so, the space station will be considered junk, and ; unless Russia wants to take it over, it may be sent to burn up ; in the atmosphere over the ocean. It now looks like the space ; station was dreamed up only to justify the expense of the ; shuttle program by giving it something to do. What a waste of ; money! ; ; True, the dreamers are talking of men going back to the moon and ; even to Mars in a decade or two. Anyone who thinks this will ; happen should pay attention to the news. Where will the money ; come from? The current administration, which is very liberal ; with spending, can't even find the money for critically-needed ; health care reform, medicare and social-security, etc. Given ; the present dire economic conditions, what would voters think of ; spending trillions of additional dollars on a space exploration ; program? The answer is, 'don't even think of it'. ; ; I was not born too early to see mankind explore and colonize ; space, the sorry truth is that it will never happen, not in our ; lifetimes nor in the lifetimes of our descendants. An organiza- ; tion of space explorers exploring the galaxy in space ships is a ; fantasy. It always was a fantasy and always will be a fantasy. ; ; Some ideas are even more bizarre. Some say we could reach inter- ; stellar space by leaving our bodies behind like un-necessary ; baggage and making the trip with only our minds, which would ; need no life-support system, nor even a ship. ; ; It's too bad that this is also a fantasy. Would we ever spend ; money and effort trying to separate our minds from our bodies ; (astral projection) when science tells us that our minds are a ; function of our brains? And even if it were possible, how could ; astral explorers prove what they had discovered without people ; on earth wondering if the discoveries were mere fantasies of the ; explorers' minds? ; ; The things I say are negative and not at all hopeful, but they ; are fact. And one thing we must never lose is the courage to ; face the truth even when it is harsh and not what we want to ; hear. My one glimmer of hope is that some rational thinker will ; point out an error in my reasoning. ; ; Since no one is likely to do this, let's turn our attention to ; fractals, which don't really exist but can be explored anyway. ; I named today's image "Julia from the Side" because it's an ; almost-Julia set of an image created by the DivideBrot series of ; formulas, with a mixture of Z^101 and Z^2. The DivideJulibrot ; formula included in the parameter file might be posted for the ; first time in this FOTD. I'm not sure. ; ; The image is just different and curious enough to earn a rating ; of an 8. And the calculation time of an incredibly short 1-1/2 ; minutes only helps the rating. ; ; But as always, the most enjoyable way to see the finished image ; is to view it on the FOTD web site at: ; ; ; ; The near-perfect summer weather continued here at Fractal Cen- ; tral on Sunday, laying to rest any lingering fears about man- ; made climate change, AKA global warming, at least in this area, ; though I hear that the fears of warming are rising along with ; the temperature in Alaska. The high temperature of 81F 27C and ; blue sky filled with puffy white clouds made Sunday in the FC ; area seem like a holiday on one of the Hawaiian islands. ; ; Never having been to Hawaii, the fractal cats had no comment. ; My day was fair enough. FL was happy with the antique treasure ; she found in Benton yesterday -- a victorian lamp shade with ; lots of fringes. Unless we reach the stars within 24 hours, the ; next FOTD will be posted then. Until the next time, take care, ; and nothing negative I might say about space exploration will ; change the fact that I am certain that precognition does exist. ; ; ; Jim Muth ; jamth@mindspring.com ; jimmuth@aol.com ; ; ; START PARAMETER FILE======================================= JuliaFromTheSide { ; time=0:01:29.37-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=basic.frm formulaname=DivideJulibrot passes=1 center-mag=0/0\ /0.5883363/1/-37.5/0 params=89.9999/0/89.9999/0/\ -2.3155315/0/0/0/101/1.5 float=y maxiter=1500 inside=0 symmetry=none periodicity=0 colors=0000Hh3Hf6HdFHbGIbIJaLK`OLaTMcZPceWblbbpibt\ oawq`zs_ztZqaddJjfKigKhhKhjKgkKglKfnKeoKepKdrKdsKc\ tKcsTYraSqiMprGpzBrsGtlKufPw_TyTXzNazGezAiy9kv9mr9\ oo8qk8sh8ud7wa7yY7zV7zPAlJCXDEHCIIBMJAQKAUL9YM8aN7\ eO7hO8eT8cX9aa9ZeAXjAVnATrCVsEWtGYtIZuK_uMavObwQdw\ SexUfxWhyYiz_kzalzbmz`jyZhwXfuWdsUbqS`oRZmPXkNUiMS\ gKQeIOcHMaFK_DIYCGXGHVJITNJSQJQUKPXLN_LMcMKfNIjOHm\ OFqPEtQCwQBvPEvPHvPKuONuOQuOTuOWtNZtNatNdsMgsMjsMm\ sMorNkqNhqNepNaoNZoNWpMVpMVpLUpLUqKUqKTqJTqJSrISrI\ SrHRrHRrHRpKWnN_lPcjSghVkfXod_scawqadlgggmibskYymT\ zoZtudizbgw`ftZepYdmWciUbfSabR`_P_XNZTLYQKXMIWJGVF\ EUCDT9FP8HM8JJ8LG7ND7PA7RBBTBEVBIXCLZCP`CSbDWdDZfD\ bhEejEilElnFppFsrFvqJsqMpqPnqSkpVhpYfp`cpc`pfZqf_q\ f_qf`rf`rf`rfarfasfbsfbsfbsfctfctfdtfdtfdrjiqmnpqs\ otwnpvnmvmjvmgvmdvlaulZukVukSukPujMtjJtiGtiDtiAtjD\ vkGwlIxmLynNznQzoSzpVzqXz } 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========================================= ; ; ; ; _______________________________________________ ; Fractint mailing list ; Fractint@mailman.xmission.com ; http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fractint