Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: 

Today's image is named "Four Calling Birds", the gift given on the 4th of the 12 days of Christmas.  The reason for such an unlikely name is that calling birds, whatever they might be, are as rare as actual material fractals.  This ambiguity is very strange, since the other 11 gifts, as unlikely as they are to actually be given, are at least easily identifiable.

Today's image is not ambiguous.  It lies in the parent fractal that results when 4 negative parts of Z^(-1.3) are combined with 0.8 negative part of Z^(-7.6) and (1/C) is added on each iteration.  The resulting parent fractal is a typical double negative thing with a north-south string of large bays and a large fractal 'fan' extending to the east.  There is a small but prominent Mandelbrot set at the eastern edge of the fan's blade, with a large connected ring extending on east beyond the M-set.  Today's scene lies in the East Valley of this M-set.

The art rating of an 8 is earned by the very feminine soft but subdued pastel colors of the image.  The math rating of a 6 is held down by the familiarity of the math tricks involved.

I am sometimes asked where my color palettes come from.  The answer is that I create them myself by working with the basic color palettes supplied by the Fractint program, just as an artist creates the colors of his paintings from the color pigments he buys at the art supply shop.

The calculation time of 3 minutes borders on slowness, but the time will pass quickly once the lovely pastel shades come into view.  Calculation may be avoided as always by checking the web sites.

A mix of clouds and sun with a high temperature of 34F +1C and a lighter wind made today reasonably pleasant here at Fractal Central.  The forecast is for heavy snow tomorrow however, so we shall see how long the pleasantness lasts.  The fractal cats had an average day, Jazzy wanting to play with Nico and Nico putting her off because he did not want to play.  The humans had a reasonably quiet day, but there are still those remaining gifts to find and purchase.

The next FOTD will be posted when it is.  For a more specific estimate, check back frequently.  Until whenever, take care, and the first person to tell me the scientific name of a calling bird and send a photograph will have a fractal named after them.  (I know that most birds call with their songs, but I want to know what particular species of bird the song 'Twelve days of Christmas' refers to.)

Jim Muth
jimmuth@earthlink.net


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

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frm:MandAutoCritInZ {; Jim Muth
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g=1/f, h=1/d, j=1/(f-b), z=(((-a*b*g*h)^j)+(p4)),
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END PARAMETER FILE=========================================