Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts:  

Today's image earns two ratings, a 7 for the artistic worth and a 9.5 for the mathematical interest.  The mathematical rating reflects the mystery of what is happening in the image.  The iterated expression subtracts 0.35 part of Z^4 from Z^3 and adds straight C on each iteration, yet the image features a lopsided cubic minibrot and a not-quite-critical-looking hexic minibrot, both lying side-by-side.  And to add to the mystery, the deeper we go into the image, the closer the minibrots approach the quadratic variety until nothing remains but the usual quadratic ones.

The parent fractal is not all that unusual -- a Mandelbrot set rotated 180 degrees with a hole at the terminus of every filament.  The hole at the end of the main spike, which in today's parent points east, is unusually interesting in that it has a well-defined valley along the positive X-axis on its east side.  Today's scene lies rather deep in this valley.

The artistic part of the image reflects my increasingly cynical and depressing view of the modern world we have created for ourselves.  As the years pass, I find depressing deep blue colors creeping ever more often into my images, such as those that abound in the outer parts of today's scene.

The name "Something is Wrong" expresses my feelings when I saw the two incompatible minibrots lying side-by-side in the same area of the parent.

The terraced effect was achieved by rendering the image with the 'outside' parts set to 'tdis', a setting that is quite effective at adding life to images that appear dead with the outside set to 'iter'.

The calculation time of 2-1/4 minutes might appear slow to those with only marginal interest in fractals.  The web sites can make fractals much more interesting for these few.

Early morning rain ended by 9am here at Fractal Central today, but the heavy clouds and fog hung on for most of the day, while the mild temperature of 45F +7C improved things only a little.  The fractal cat passed most of the day sleeping, an activity that is hard to make interesting.  The humans passed the day working, an activity that is equally uninteresting to report.

The next FOTD will be posted when it is ready, which most likely will be sometime tomorrow.  Until that glorious moment arrives, take care, and let's pass a law banning all disagreement.

Jim Muth
jimmuth@earthlink.net


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

Something_is_Wrong { ; time=0:02:15.00 SF5 at 2000MHZ
  reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=basicer.frm
  formulaname=MandAutoCritInZ function=ident passes=1
  center-mag=+0.4486436381/+0.00005502463/72716.29/1\
  /-107.5/0 params=1/3/-0.35/4/0/0/0/0 float=y
  maxiter=3000 inside=0 outside=tdis sound=off
  colors=00000D00E00G00H00J00F00D00B0090070050GV00B0\
  0D02F04H06J08L0AN0CP0ES0GV0IY0K`0Mc0Oe0Qg5SiAUkFWn\
  KYqP_tU`vZancaghc`mdUneTneSneSneRoeRoeQoeQoePoeOpe\
  OpmNpmNpmMpmMzm0zmDzmCzmCzmBzmBzmAzmArm9xm9vmDumGt\
  mJsmNrmQpmTomWzm_zmbzmezmhcmdWmaOmZRmYUmXXmW_mWbzV\
  dzUgzTjzTmzSpzRszQuzQtzPszPszOrzOrzOrzPrzQrzRrzSrz\
  TrzUrzVrzWrzXrzYrzZrz_rz`rzarzbrzbqz`qzZqzYqsWpsUp\
  tTptRptQotOotMouLouJnuHnzGnzEnzDfzOZzZRziWzm`zpezt\
  jzwozz6zoXzYwzHyzJvzqdznNzl5zj6ze7za8zY9NUARQBUMBX\
  IF`MIcPMgSPjVTnYWq`_ucbxf`naZdYYVTWLPUBKT2GRKmNQjJ\
  WgF`dLXUQTKWPA`L0C1IA7Q9DY7Je6PmWTkuXitabsfXrkRqpL\
  ptFptEqhGrYHrMJsBKs0Lh9UZHbPQkFYsH_rJ`qLapMboOcnQe\
  mSflrv_TglVhkXijZji_lhamgcnfeoefpehqdjscltbmuaov`q\
  w_l49m8BmBDnFEnIGnLHoPJoSLoVMpZOpaPpdRqhTqkUqnWrrX\
  ruZO3rQ6qR9pTCoUFnWHmXKlZNk_QjaSibVhdYhe`ggbfheejh\
  dkkcmmbnpaps`qv_aQ8bSAcUB }

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)),
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=========================================