Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts:  

Be warned!  Prepare!  The zombies are coming!  No one is safe!  They are being spotted more often in large cities such as New York, and I hear reports of scattered zombie outbreaks in other parts of the country.  These reports would be about as amusing as the reports of space aliens if the zombies were not real and did not have the unpleasant habit of arising at night to stumble around the neighborhood and feed upon any living beings they might find.  And we all know what happens when a living being is fed upon by a horde of zombies -- the being dies!

But the situation is not totally hopeless.  Protective measures are available.  A few days ago I spotted a hungry zombie stumbling along the street near FC in search of food.  Before I fled in terror, I managed to take a fractal photo of its gaunt face.  Today's image shows a close-up of the creature's face just as it pops from its grave.  So if you spot anything like this in your neighborhood, be aware that your life is in dire danger.  Do not try to fight it off.  You cannot kill it -- it is already dead.  Run, do not walk to the closest zombie shelter and start to pray.

Hey, maybe I'll make March fractal zombie month.

To bring the unworldly demon to light and warn the world of what is coming, I simply raised the escape radius of yesterday's image to 1,000,000, and there the monster was, in his full horror.

The name "Zombie Apparition" says it all.

Since ratings mean nothing to those who have been devoured by zombies, I did not bother to rate the scene.

The calculation time of 45 seconds is optional.  A shift to passes=g will cut the time notably but miss a lot of the smaller debris, while the shift to passes=1 will double the time but reveal all the zombie debris.

Lots of clouds, a brisk north wind and a temperature of 41F +5C kept today feeling like a midwinter one here at Fractal Central.  The fractal cat was unconcerned with the temperature, since he was on zombie watch all morning.  When nothing showed up by lunch time, he glommed my favorite chair and turned defiant, making me sit elsewhere.  FL had a bad day, with her flu bug hanging on longer than we think it should.

The next FOTD, hopefully zombie free, will be posted when the time is right.  (I couldn't be any more vague than that.)  Until whenever, take care, and if God is asleep, as I hear the ex-pope sometimes wonders, maybe someone had better wake up the Deity.

Jim Muth
jimmuth@earthlink.net


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

Zombie_Apparition  { ; time=0:00:45.00 SF5 at 2000MHZ
  reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=basicer.frm
  formulaname=MandAutoCritInZ function=recip passes=t
  center-mag=0.201835/0.00487195/0.4183674/1/103.75/0
  params=-1.4/-7.4/-7.4/-1.4/0/1000000/0/0 float=y
  maxiter=5000 inside=0 periodicity=6
  colors=000000000FDF00N00h01Q03l15T27p20_2Bt31d3Fx3\
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  zzqzzszztzzuzzwzzxzzyzzzzzwzztzzszzrzzrzzlzzgzzbzz\
  YzzTzzOzzXzzezznzzwzzuzzszzrzzpzzozzmzzlzz`zzYzzWz\
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  PBzIEzCCz2Jz1Jz1Jz1Gz4Dz6 }

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=========================================