[From Rick Marken (990805.1510)]
I'm back after a nice CSG meeting in Vancouver and a romantic
vacation in the Canadian Rockies. I learned a lot at the CSG
meeting. I was particularly interested in the discussion of
counter control led by Tim Carey. Counter control is a form of
interpersonal control where person A is able to control the
actions of person B _because_ person B is controlling the actions
of person A. Some aspect of person A's actions is the variable
controlled by person B. If person A knows that person B is controlling
some aspect of his (person A's) behavior, person A can control
the actions person B is using to keep that aspect of person A's
behavior under control. This is a cute way for person A to deal with
being controlling by person B because the only way person B can
stop being controlled by person A is by giving up control of the
aspect of person A's behavior that he (person B) is controlling.
Although the CSG meeting was nice, the highlight of the trip for
me was our visit to the _Ogygopsis_ trilobite bed near the summit
of Mt. Stephen in Yoho National Park, B.C. This visit was a result
of my accidental discovery (as we were en route to the Rockies)
that Linda had booked us into the Emerald Lake Lodge which happens
to be in the shadow of the Burgess Shale (the subject of Stephen
Jay Gould's fascinating book _Wonderful Life_). I had read Gould's
book some time ago so I knew that the Burgess Shale was in B.C
but I had no idea it was within walking (well, strenuous hiking)
distance of a rather comfortable lodge in the Rockies.
Access to both the Burgess Shale and Mt.Stephen fossil beds is
strictly limited; you can go only with a Park service guide. We
tried to arrange a hike to the Burgess Shale one day before we
arrived at Emerald Lake but it was impossible; people from all over
the world want to see the Burgess Shale fossils and the Park service
hikes (which are done about twice a week and limited to about 15
people) are booked months in advance. But we were able to book a
hike to the Mt. Stephen trilobite beds and this proved to be an
extraordinary experience in itself. The hike to the Mt. Stephen beds
is only about 4 km but it's about an 800 meter elevation gain; so it's
a steep hike. But our efforts were rewarded with the most amazing
collection of fossils. There were trilobites everywhere, some
preserved in perfect relief. We could easily distinguish fossils of
molted exoskeletons (trilobites are like crabs; they slip out of
their exoskeletons periodically) from those of carcasses. We also
found fossil remains of some of the bizarre creatures that are also
found at the Burgess Shale; in particular, we saw the fossil
remains of _Animalocaris_, which looks like nothing that exists
today (because its phylum became extinct -- by accident, Gould
would argue).
Anyway, it was quite an extraordinary experience for Linda and me.
I had no idea that there were so many fossils in these beds (nearly
every piece of shale had one or more fossils in it) or that their
remains were so clear; and often in 3-D relief. Our guide was a
paleontologist turned geologist so she was able to tell us a lot
about the local geology and what was going on at the Mt. Stephen
bed 500 million years ago (it was mud at the bottom of the ocean).
I'm attaching a GIF image of a trace of a fossil trilobite carcass
that I made by simply rubbing a pencil over tracing paper that
covered the fossil. I'm sure any three year old could have done a
better job -- but the Mt. Stephen beds are on a pretty steep ledge,
so I was controlling for staying vertical with much higher gain
than for tracing accuracy.
Best
Rick
(Attachment tri.GIF is missing)
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--
Richard S. Marken Phone or Fax: 310 474-0313
Life Learning Associates mailto: rmarken@earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~rmarken