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Fractal of the Day
by Jim Muth
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Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image rates a 6 and is named "The Pit". I gave it this name when I had a vague impression of looking down into a pit while studying the image. The rating of a 6 seems fair. The parent fractal is no single fractal at all. It is a group of 2 large Mandeloids surrounded by fractal debris filled with baby M-sets. Today's scene is located in the East Valley of the large Mandeloid on the right. The rating of a nominal 6 and the render time of just under 11 minutes gives the image an overall worth of 55. Rendering may be avoided by downloading the completed GIF file from the FOTD web site at: As I stated in yesterday's discussion, I attended a Catholic elementary school, where I had the troublesome habit of asking more questions about religion than the nuns could answer. I failed to grasp such simple concepts as the reason God made his goodies, such as heaven, invisible. They told me He did it so that faith would be necessary, but then I failed to understand why faith was such a good thing. (One nun was particularly upset, and sent a note to my parents when I commented that eating the body of Christ made me feel like a cannibal.) I was also quite puzzled by things such as the existence of hell, which the nuns talked about frequently. It seemed grossly unjust. Only some kind of sadist could think of and create such a horrible place, and only infinite evil could deserve the infinite punishment of hell. No one person could possibly do infinite evil. To make matters worse there was the pesky problem of going to hell for eating meat on Friday. This insignificant offense deserves hell?, I asked myself. And then the church suddenly decided that it was no longer a mortal sin to eat meat on Friday. What then about those who were already suffering in hell for eating meat? Would God now let those offenders out of the fiery pit? If He did not, he was unfair; if He did, He was acting on a decision made by men. Did God actually obey the decisions of men? I could go on at great length telling the countless reasons I rejected Catholicism and turned to Atheism once I got out of that Catholic school. Basically, I rejected Catholicism, along with all the other denominations and organized religions that I was familiar with, because they simply made no sense. Their doctrines raised more questions than they solved. True, the religions brought comfort to those who had suffered loss, and in time of grief there was nothing wrong with a little self-delusion about meeting lost loved ones in heaven, but I was nearly a full grown man, a brave man who could handle grief without the crying towel and false hopes taught by religion. I remained an enthusiastic wannabe Atheist for several years. Atheism made things much simpler. To find answers, all one needed to do was observe the outer world with their senses. When the sensory limit was reached, the senses could be extended with instruments such as telescopes and microscopes. Then the observers could apply the methods of science to their observations and often but not always find answers. Sometimes certain puzzling questions of religion, when they were properly understood, proved to be non-questions. There is no question of why people suffer unfairly in hell when it is taken for granted that hell does not exist. But even as an Atheist I continued thinking. Could it all really be this simple? Could the reason we can not see heaven be the simple fact that it is not there? It seemed too easy an answer. Could the reason that we have failed to find God with our instruments be that He is not there? Could the reason that He acts as though He is not there be that He does not exist? Many unhesitatingly said yes. But I still wondered. Could the reason that all signs of an individual's personality vanish when his body dies be that the conscious personality ceases to exist at death of the body? Atheists were certain the answer is yes, others were just as certain that the consciousness continues beyond the death of the body, but out of range of communication. Could it be that all one needs to do to answer these great questions is to open their eyes and look? This is the first thing a child learns to do. I called myself an Atheist, but I never truly was one. As I progressed through my 20's, my troubles with the answers and non-answers of Atheism increased. And Atheism itself started to appear more like a religion, with the real physical world as its eternal god and the pronouncements of science as its religious doctrine. Gradually, I no longer felt so superior to those who still believed what I had considered the childish fairy tales of religion. To be continued for a long time to come . . . Warm sun and a temperature of 57F 14C made conditions near perfect for the fractal duo on Wednesday. The high point of their outing came when Tippy caught a late cricket on the porch and brought it to the door to show what he had done, while Thomas watched with little interest. Today is starting warm again, but the sun is lacking. We shall have to wait to see how the day goes for the duo. For me it looks like the usual routine of real work before fractal fun. The next fractal, along with more philosophical pontificating, will appear right here in only 24 hours. Until then, take care, and be of fractal cheer. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com |
START PARAMETER FILE=======================================
The_Pit { ; time=0:10:51.97--SF5 on a P200
reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm
formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1
center-mag=+0.01619997589430272/-0.253819825669100\
50/8.734958e+011/1/102.5/0 params=-1/1.2/2/-1.2/0/0
float=y maxiter=1200 inside=0 logmap=228
periodicity=10 mathtolerance=/1
colors=000IAAJAAKAALAAMAANAANAANCANEAOGAOIASJBXLBb\
OChRDmTDmXEm_FmcGlfHkiIklJjoKjrKkoNkmPlkRliUmgXme_\
mbbn`enZhoXkoVnoTqnYtmbwlgzklzjqzjvzhtzfszdqzbpzan\
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zp4zn6zl8zj9zhBzfDzdFzbGzeNzgUzi_zlfznlzpszryzafzL\
Pz57zA9zFBzJDzOFzSHzUIzVIzXIzYIzZIz`IzaIzcIzdIzeIz\
gIzhIzjIzkIzlIzlSzl`zlizlrziVzg8zeBzdDzcFzbHz`Kz_M\
zZOzYQzWTzVVzUXzTZzRazQczPezOgzFnz6tz0zz6zzGRzGSzG\
TzGUzGVzGWzGXzGYzGZzF_zEWzDVzCVzBVzAVz9Vz8Vz7Uz6Tz\
5Sz4Rz3QzKPz`ZzqTzoSznSzlRzkRziQzhQzgQzePzdPzbOzaO\
z_NzZNzYNzVMzSMzPLzMLzJLzHKzEKzBKz8Jz5Jz3JzQdzlzzi\
uzvpzvkzvgzvbzvYzvUzvPzvKzvGzvJzvLzvNzvPzvRzvUzvWz\
vYzv_zvazvdzvfzvhzvjzvlzvizvgzvezvdzvdzvczvczvbzvb\
zvazvazv`zv`zv_zv_zv_zvVz }
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 PARAMETER FILE=========================================
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times.
