  We present a status report on a discrete approach to the the near-equilibrium
statistical theory of three-dimensional turbulence, which generalizes earlier
work by no longer requiring that the vorticity field be a union of discrete
vortex filaments. The idea is to take a special limit of a dense lattice vortex
system, in a way that brings out a connection between turbulence and critical
phenomena. The approach produces statistics with basic features of turbulence,
in particular intermittency and coherent structures. The numerical calculations
have not yet been brought to convergence, and at present the results are only
qualitative.
