Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts:

When I saw today's image, my first thought was that the fractal cats had walked across the screen.  But no, it was not the cats.  The cat footprints are created by numbers, exactly as fractals, and perhaps the universe itself, are created by numbers.

In today's case the numbers are 0.45 part of Z^(2) and a tiny trace of Z^(-33), which are combined on each iteration before straight (C) is added.  This unlikely combination produces a somewhat oversized parent fractal with the outer shape of a Mandelbrot set, but the Mandelbrot outline is filled with patterns of overlapping flat disks of various sizes and shapes left over from the trace of Z^(-33).  Today's scene is located in what would be the Scepter Valley of the oversized Mandelbrot outline, though nothing at all of typical scepter elements are visible in the frame.

What we have instead is a pattern that might have been created by a cat with dirty feet walking across a fractal print before it dried, which explains the name "Kitty Paw Prints".  (It must have been a low-class alley cat.  The fractal cats would never spoil a fractal.)

The rating of 7 might have been higher if it had not been for the overall muddy appearance of the image.  But what the heck.  One person's mud is another person's art media.

The calculation time of 30 seconds will simply fly by even for those who do not appreciate the finer aspects of mud.

The steady rain moved out but the clouds continued here at Fractal Central today.  The un-winterishly mild temperature of 54F 12C kept the day from being a loss -- it made up for the clouds with the heating fuel money we saved.  The fractal cats spent the day just being cats, doing what they wanted to do, not what the humans wanted them to do, while the humans spent the day trying to have a merry pre-Christmas season, which is much harder to actually do than to talk about.

The next FOTD will be posted in 24 hours.  Until then, take care, and if we are truly immortal, as the religious believers claim, what could we possibly do to prevent the hell of eternal boredom?  Fractals might keep a soul occupied for a googol years or so, but what would the soul do during the googolplexes of years that would follow?

Jim Muth
jimmuth@earthlink.net


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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)),
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END PARAMETER FILE=========================================