Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts:

The name of today's image, "Etaoin_Shrdlu", is not nonsense.   Old-time typesetters, if any remain, will know at once what it means.   Anagram fans will also know.   I gave today's image this name when I was caught in a spate of nostalgia for the good old days, (which seem so good only now that they're long gone).

The rating of an imaginary 5 indicates that most of the image's worth is in its mathematical aspect.   The parent fractal is a somewhat distorted and oversized Mandelbrot set.   Today's scene lies in a tiny clump of debris floating in the center of the main bay of the parent.

On its surface, the image is near total chaos.   I call it sand.   This sandy effect is the first impression one gets of the area.   But just beneath the surface some strange things are happening.   The shadowy outline of a quadratic Mandelbrot set is the most obvious feature, but look in the upper left corner.   Yes, that is the edge of a cubic bud showing.   Other cubic minibrots are scattered throughout the image.

Perhaps the most curious things are the holes in the sandy layer where it lies over the outline of the M-set.   These holes are shaped like the Julia sets of the particular part of the M-set that they lie over.   Some of the holes in the Seahorse Valley area are most unusual, with totally unexpected lobes and spirals.   I might explore these holes in more detail in a future FOTD.

The calculation time of 6 minutes will pass in a slow flash.   But since the result might not be all that impressive, it could be a good idea to hop out to the FOTD web site at:and view the finished GIF image there.

Saturday featured lots of clouds here at Fractal Central, but enough sun filtered through to satisfy the requirements of the fractal cats.   The temperature of 66F 19C was near perfect for the start of May.   My day was fair enough.   The next FOTD will be posted in 24 hours.   Until then, take care, and help save the earth by living sensibly and ignoring all the commercial 'green' hype.


Jim Muth
jamth@mindspring.com
jimmuth@aol.com

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

Etaoin_Shrdlu      { ; time=0:06:03.69-SF5 on P4-2000
  reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=basic.frm
  formulaname=DivideBrot5 passes=1 float=y inside=253
  center-mag=-0.3306614681/+0.0152126363/9191.458/1/\
  12.5/0 params=3/3 maxiter=2500 periodicity=10
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frm:DivideBrot5   { ; Jim Muth
  z=(0,0), c=pixel, a=real(p1)-2,
  b=imag(p1)+0.00000000000000000001:
  z=sqr(z)/(z^(-a)+b)+c
  |z| < 1000000 }

END PARAMETER FILE=========================================