Decline of the American Empire

Two recent events brought home the fact that the United States in a state of decline. First, there was the abandoning of the shuttle program and manned space flight using our own rockets. Secondly, the wrangling in Washington about the national debt. Empires, like all entities, are born, grow, reach their peak, decline and die. The Romans ruled the world for a thousand years, but by the fifth century A.D. Rome itself was sacked by barbarians.

England ruled the seas for centuries; eventually it reverted to a minor European country. The Soviet Union lasted from 1918 to 1991. These are only three examples of the many great empires that have come and gone.

At the end of World War II, the United States reached its peak. We were the strongest, best armed and richest empire the world has ever known. Immediately after hostilities ended, we were able to rebuild the war torn countries, had the exclusive use of the most powerful weapon ever conceived, had troops stationed all over the world, had begun to build the superhighways that span the nation, started the space program and had more wealth and prosperity than ever existed before. The years from 1946 to 1963 saw an empire that was extremely powerful and wealthy.  

Although the years that followed were prosperous and innovative, the slide had begun. First there was competition from other nations in some of our most favored industries such as automobiles, electronics and clothing. Then came unpopular wars that caused us to switch from a citizen (drafted) army to a mercenary (all-volunteer) defense force. Recent events have shown that the decline is accelerating.

Some of these signs are an economy that is manipulated by greed, the neglect of our infrastructure, insane politics where reason gives way to dogma, a government debt that is out of control, growing personal debt, heads of great corporations who allow personal greed to override ethics and the welfare of their own companies, disdain of art, science and education and costly never-ending wars with no clearly defined purpose or conclusion.  

Haunted Chicago

Haunted Chicago

During a visit to Chicago, I went on a tour of places that are supposed to be haunted. Here is some of the history of the haunted areas. The tour is called Haunted Chicago.

1915 Eastland Disaster

On the morning of July 24, 1915, the lake passenger steamer Eastland cast off from the Chicago River dock at the Clark Street Bridge with 2,572 people aboard.

Immediately the ship listed away from the dock, righted herself, listed again and slowly rolled over on her side and settled on the mud of the river bottom.

Some of those on board, all Western Electric Company employees and their families, were able to jump into the water and swim ashore, but 844 excursionists lost their lives before rescuers reached them, making the Eastland disaster by far the worst in the city's history in terms of loss of life.

St Valentine's Day Massacre

For a city that is so filled with the history of crime, there has been little preservation of the landmarks that were once so important to the legend of the mob in Chicago. Gone are the landmarks like the Lexington Hotel, where Al Capone kept the fifth floor suite and used the place as his headquarters. But most tragic, at least to crime buffs, was the destruction of the warehouse at 2122 North Clark Street. It was here, on Valentine's Day 1929, that the most spectacular mob hit in gangland history took place -- the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

The building was called the S-M-C Cartage Company and was a red, brick structure on Clark Street. The events that led to the massacre began on the morning of the 14th. A group of men had gathered at the warehouse that morning, set up by a Detroit gangster who told Moran that a truck was on its way to Chicago.

One of them was Johnny May, an ex-safecracker who had been hired by George "Bugs" Moran as an auto mechanic. He was working on a truck that morning, with his dog tied to the bumper, while six other men waited for the truck of hijacked whiskey to arrive. The men were Frank and Pete Gusenberg, who were supposed to meet Moran and pick up two empty trucks to drive to Detroit and pick up smuggled Canadian whiskey; James Clark, Moran's brother-in-law; Adam Heyer; Al Weinshank; and Reinhardt Schwimmer, a young optometrist who had befriended Moran and hung around the liquor warehouse just for the thrill of rubbing shoulders with gangsters.

Bugs Moran was already late for the morning meeting. He was due to arrive at 10:30 but didn't even leave for the rendezvous, in the company of Willie Marks and Ted Newberry, until several minutes after that.

While the seven men waited inside of the warehouse, they had no idea that a police car had pulled up outside, or that Moran had spotted the car and had quickly taken cover. Five men got out of the police car, three of them in uniforms and two in civilian clothing. They entered the building and a few moments later, the clatter of machine gun fire broke the stillness of the snowy morning. Soon after, five figures emerged and they drove away. May's dog, inside of the warehouse, was barking and howling and when neighbors went to check and see what was going on... they discovered a bloody murder scene.

Moran's men had been lined up against the rear wall of the garage and had been sprayed with machine-guns. They killed all seven of them but had missed Bugs Moran. He had figured the arrival of the police car to be some sort of shakedown and had hung back. When the machine gunning started, he, Marks and Newberry had fled. The murders broke the power of the North Side gang and Moran correctly blamed Al Capone. No one will probably ever know who the actual shooters were, but one of them was probably Machine Gun McGurn, one of Capone's most trusted men.

In 1967, the building was demolished. However, the bricks from the bullet-marked rear wall were purchased and saved by a Canadian businessman. In 1972, he opened a night club with a Roaring 20's theme and rebuilt the wall, for some strange reason, in the men's restroom. Three nights each week, women were allowed to peek inside at this macabre attraction.

Even today, people walking along the street at night have reported the sounds of screams and machine guns as they pass the site. The building is long gone but the area is marked as a fenced-off lawn that belongs to the nearby nursing home. Five trees are scattered along the place in a line and the one in the middle marks the location where the rear wall once stood.

The garage was located at 2122 North Clark Street and the area is now marked by a fenced lawn and five trees. The center tree marks the area where Bugs Moran's men met their deaths.

Hull House

Hull House was constructed by Charles J. Hull at Halsted and Polk Streets in 1856 at a time when this was one of the most fashionable sections of the city. After the Chicago Fire of 1871, the "better classes" moved to other parts of the city and the Near West Side began to attract a large immigrant population of Italian, Greek and Jewish settlers. By the 1880's, Hull House was surrounded by factories and tenement houses and soon after, became one of the most famous places in Chicago.

Although it was never intended to be known as a "haunted house"... it would not emerge from its heyday unscathed by stories of ghosts and the supernatural.

Hull House has long been known as a pioneering effort in social equality. Jane Addams and Ellen Starr Gates opened the house in 1889 to educate and improve the lot of the newly arrived European immigrants. At that time, the overcrowded tenement neighborhoods west of Halsted Street were a jungle of crime, vice, prostitution and drug addiction. Jane Addams became the "voice of humanity" on the West Side, enriching the lives of many unfortunate people at the house.

Exiled criminals from other parts of the city sought refuge on the west side, attracting the "lowest of the lowly" hoodlums. Prostitutes beckoned openly from open doorways to the string of whorehouses that operated between Monroe and Lake Streets. In addition, cocaine, laudanum and over-the-counter patent medicines spiked with opium were available to purchase in district drugstores.

It was a horrible place, and amidst it all were the broken-down refugees and immigrants. It was to this people that Jane Addams' Hull House appealed.

Jane and Ellen took control of the property in September 1889 and opened the settlement house. Addams was granted a 25 year, rent-free lease by Hull's confidential secretary, Helen Culver, and by the heirs to the Hull fortune, who were enthusiastic about Jane's efforts on behalf of the poor. They soon began turning the place into a comfortable house, aimed mostly at women, but affording food and shelter to the homeless and hungry as well. The house also provided education and protection for many and the staff worked to better the lives of the local people for many years to come.

At the time when Jane Addams took over Hull House, several years had passed since the death of Mrs. Charles Hull, but this didn't prevent her from making her presence known. She had died of natural causes in a second-floor bedroom of the mansion and within a few months of her passing, her ghost was said to be haunting that particular room. Overnight guests had their sleep disturbed by footsteps and "strange and unearthly noises".

Earlier tenants of the house, which included the Little Sisters of the Poor and a second-hand furniture store, believed the upstairs of the house was haunted as well. They had always kept a bucket of water on the stairs, believing that the ghost was unable to cross over it.

Hull House received its greatest notoriety when it was alleged to be the refuge of the Chicago "devil baby". This child was supposedly born to a devout Catholic woman and her atheist husband and was said to have pointed ears, horns, scale-covered skin and a tail. According to the story, the young woman had attempted to display a picture of the Virgin Mary in the house but her husband tore it down. He stated that he would rather have the Devil himself in the house than the picture. When the woman had become pregnant, the Devil Baby had been their curse. After enduring numerous indignities because of the child, the father allegedly took it to Hull House.

After being taken in by Jane Addams, staff members of the house reportedly took the baby to be baptized. During the ceremony, the baby supposedly escaped from the priest and began dancing and laughing. Not knowing what else to do with the child, Jane kept it locked in the attic of the house, where it later died.

Local legend insists that a disfigured boy was hidden away on the upper floors of the house. On certain nights, the image of a deformed face could be seen peering from the attic window.... and that a ghostly version of that face is still seen by visitors today!

The Oriental Theatre

The alley behind the Oriental Theatre is supposed to be haunted. Our guide had us hold out our hands so that we could feel the vibrations from the spirits. Some people who took photos also had orbs on the pictures.

The Iroquois Theater Fire in Chicago, Illinois, claimed 602 lives on December 30, 1903. It is, as of 2008, the most disastrous single-building fire in U.S. history with the most fatalities, claiming 100 more fatalities than the Coconut Grove fire in Boston.   Over 1,900 people were in attendance at the Matinee showing of the popular musical Mr. Bluebeard.
 “Death Alley” can currently be found behind the Oriental Theatre, which replaced the Iroquois.  It’s said that, at times, you can smell smoke, hear screaming, feel cold spots and even actually see apparitions. This is where about 100 of those that perished jumped to their deaths. When they reached the window, they expected to see a fire escape but it hadn’t been installed yet.

Transylvania

Everything You Wanted to Know About
Transylvania  And Were Afraid to Ask

Most of you have heard of Transylvania from vampire and monster movies and books. But what else do you know about it? Where is located? Is Dracula's castle really there? Where is Dracula buried? Is the land dark and gloomy with dead trees all over the countryside? What is its history? I hope to answer some of these important questions and more in this blog.

Because of Bram Stoker’s decision to select it as the homeland of his fictional Count Dracula, it is invariably represented in fiction and film as a mysterious realm where the supernatural rules supreme. Its inhabitants are depicted as backward peasants who hold fast to their primitive and superstitious past, who hang garlic on their windows to keep vampires away, and who would never venture out at night without a crucifix in hand.

Since the publication of Dracula, the myth of Transylvania has been reinforced through films and fiction. The first movie, Nosferatu (1922), refers to Transylvania as “the land of phantoms.” Universal’s Dracula of 1931 established Transylvania as a land of eerie shadows, superstitious peasants and craggy mountains with a castle, enshrouded in fog, perched on a steep precipice. In this film, Count Dracula is portrayed by a Transylvanian-Hungarian actor, Bela Lugosi. Transylvania has been prime real estate for other vampire fiction ands film ever since. A voice-over in Hammer’s The Brides of Dracula (1960) intones: “Transylvania -- land of dark forests, dread mountains and black, unfathomed lakes. Still the home of magic and devilry.” In the comedy Transylvania 6-5000 (1985), the mayor wants to turn a Transylvanian town into a Dracula theme park for tourists. Daughter of Darkness (1989) concerns a woman who travels to Transylvania in search of her lost father (who, of course, turns out to be a vampire). Subspecies (1991) and its sequels were shot on location in Romania, as was Dracula Rising (1993). And who can forget The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) with its “Transylvanian Convention” and “sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania”? The very word “Transylvania” can be counted on to arouse a chill of anticipation.

Where is it located?

Transylvania is in the central part of Romania. It is bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, in the west by the Apuseni Mountains.

What is its history?

Transylvania has been dominated by different people and empires throughout its history. It was once part of the Kingdom of Dacia (82 BC–106 AD). In 106 AD the Roman Empire conquered it and systematically exploited its wealth. After the Roman legions withdrew in 271 AD, it was overrun by a succession of tribes, which subjected it to various influences. The Hungarians conquered the area at the end of the 9th century and established their control over it in 1003, when King Stephen I defeated the native prince. Between 1003 and 1526, Transylvania was a province of the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1571, it was transformed into the Principality of Transylvania (1571–1711). For most of this period, Transylvania, maintaining its internal autonomy, was under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire.

The Habsburgs acquired the territory in 1683. The Habsburgs, however, recognized the Hungarian sovereignty over Transylvania, while the Transylvanians recognized the suzerainty of Emperor Leopold I (1687). The region was officially attached to the Habsburg Empire. In 1699 the Turks legally conceded their loss of Transylvania. After 1867 the region was reabsorbed into Hungary as a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After the Austro-Hungarian Empire was defeated in World War I, Austria-Hungary began to disintegrate. The ethnic Romanian majority's representatives proclaimed union with Romania in 1918. Hungary protested because over 1,600,000 ethnic Hungarians people were living in the area, mainly in Eastern Transylvania, and along the newly created border. In August 1940, in the midst of World War II, with the aid of Germany and Italy, Hungary regained about forty percent of Transylvania. The territory reverted to Romania in 1945.

What has all this history have to do with Dracula?

Transylvania is often associated with Dracula (Bram Stoker's novel and its film adaptations), and the horror genre in general. The reason for this is that it is believed Stoker chose the cruel tyrant, Vlad Dracul, (known as Vlad Tepes which means Vlad the Impaler) as his fictional vampire. Dracul was infamous for executing his enemies in an especially cruel manner, by impaling them on sharpened poles.

Where is Dracula's Castle

Bran Castle was originally a fortress built by the Knights of the Teutonic Order in the year 1212. It was known by the name of Dietrichstein at the time. Later on, towards the end of the 13th century, it was taken over by the Saxons in that region in order
to protect the City of Brasov, an important trade center. Vlad Tepes used Bran Castle as headquarters for his incursions into Transylvania. This castle should not be mistaken for the actual Castle Dracula (now in ruins), which is located on the Arges River, at Poeinari. This is the real Dracula castle. Situated on an abruptly rising rock north of the village, Poienari can be reached by climbing 1400 steps from the hydroelectric power station  four km north on the road from the village Arefu. The castle is small, one third having collapsed down the mountainside in 1888. The prism shaped tower that remains was Dracula's residential quarters.

Where is Dracula's final resting place?

The general thought among historians that the body of Vlad the Impaler was entombed near the altar in a Snagov Monastery located on an Island in the middle of a lake accessible only by boat. His head was removed and taken to put on display in Constantinople. In 1931-32, archaeologist Dinu Rosetti, under orders from the Romanian Academy, visited the Snagov Monastery in hope of discovering the body of Vlad Dracul. What he discovered was looted graves inside the monastery, local legend told of how the body of Vlad Dracul lay one step in from the doorway of the monastery. Rosetti did not believe this legend, He went to the worn out and hammered tombstone in front of the altar. Rosetti found the grave beneath empty. He researched the floor in front of the entranceway and. found an unlooted unmarked grave of a nobleman. The clothes of the body pointed to a rich man. A ring was identified as a tournament ring of the kind given at Nuremberg. The skeleton however, had its head.

The monastery at Snagov suffers great humidity. Most of the remnants of bodies and skeletons in the monastery have decomposed and much that has been found was beyond recognition. If the body of Dracul was there, it probably rotted into the ground before anyone could ever see it for themselves.  (Unless it walked away under its own power.)

Is there any actual connection between Transylvania and vampires?

The word vampire is not of Romanian origin. It is Slavic, akin to the Serb “vampir” and Russian “upyr.” The territories that comprise Romania are mentioned only briefly in early accounts of vampires; Hungary, Poland, Moravia, Silesia and Serbia appear more frequently. During the nineteenth century, the connections became somewhat more pronounced. Joseph Ennemoser referred in The History of Magic (1854) to Wallachia as the land “where the blood sucking vampire hovered the longest, a superstition of the most revolting kind.”

Romanians usually deny the existence of vampire figures in their folk beliefs. To the modern Romanian, the word vampire refers to a supernatural figure that originates in Western culture and may be extended to describe bloodthirsty murderers. During the Communist regime (up to 1989), vampire fiction (including Dracula) was banned in Romania, as representative of the “decadent” West. In addition, there has been a determination to counteract the notion that Romania is the home of the vampire and that the world’s most notorious vampire (Dracula) bears the nickname of one of Romania’s national heroes. This has created a significant dilemma for Romanian tourism officials who are eager to capitalize on Dracula as a drawing card for foreign visitors, but who face strong opposition at home to presenting Stoker’s Count as a Romanian icon. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the dispute in Romania over a proposed Dracula theme park.

What is Transylvania really like?

The region is known for the scenic beauty of its Carpathian landscape, by far the most romantic and inspiring of Romania's provinces. Mountain peaks rise up to the sky above wooded valleys and sparkling streams, high-roofed wooden churches and legendary castles. It contains a diverse variety of landscapes, including open hillsides with wild flower meadows, rolling woodland pastures, deciduous and coniferous forests, dramatic gorges and mountains. 

The region is an elevated plateau entirely surrounded by the Transylvanian Alps, a range of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountains curve around the region like a wall and in various places spread over the land. The chief rivers are tributaries of the Tisza. The terrain is suitable for growing fruits, cereal grains, and sugar beets. Wine is also produced, and livestock is raised. Transylvania is rich in minerals, including gold, silver, salt, and coal.

Isaac Newton, Alchemist

One of the lesser known facts about Sir Isaac Newton, the man who is credited with formulating the theory of gravity, is that he was an alchemist. Although he wrote over a million words on the subject, after his death in 1727, the Royal Society deemed that they were "not fit to be printed." The papers were rediscovered in the middle of the twentieth century and most scholars now concede that Newton was first an foremost an alchemist. It is also becoming obvious that the inspiration for Newton's laws of light and theory of gravity came from his alchemical work. As a practicing alchemist, Newton spent days locked up in his laboratory. Some say that he succeeded in changing lead into gold.

Newton's private papers and alchemical treatises indicate that he was motivated by a notion that alchemical wisdom extended back to ancient times, that the Hermetic tradition -- the body of alchemical knowledge – had originated in the mists of time and to have been given to humanity through supernatural agents. Newton translated the Emerald Tablet, a famous alchemical work by Hermes Trismegistus. He also believed in keeping his alchemy principles secret.  

Scale Model of the Solar System

I thought that it might be fun to build a scale mode of the solar system. I decided to use the scale of 10 centimeter = 1 billion meters. I started by obtaining an enormous beach ball (1.4 meters or a little over 3 ft in diameter) as the sun. So I went to a softball field and placed the sun at home plate. Next came Mercury, a grain of sand 6 meters (18 feet) away, a third of the way to the pitcher's mound. Venus was 1.2 mm, a tiny pebble and was 10.7 meters from home plate, halfway to the pitcher's mound. Earth was about the same size 1.3 mm, another tiny pebble. I placed it 15 meters from home plate, three quarters of the distance to the pitcher's mound. Mars was a tiny, tiny pebble (0.6 mm) 22 meters from home plate, just outside the pitcher's mound.

At last I began to deal with some substantial planets. Jupiter was 14 centimeters in diameter, the size of a softball. I placed it 77 meters (253 feet) from home plate. I was now in deep centerfield.  Saturn was 12 cm (5 inches), a slightly smaller ball. I had to leave the field to place it 1.4 km (0.8 miles) away. Uranus was about 6 cm (2.5 inches) and was placed 2.8 km (1.7 miles) from home plate, Neptune was 4.9 cm (2 inches) and 4.5 km (2.8 miles) away. Finally there was poor little Pluto, the dwarf planet, a grain of sand, 5.8 km (3.6 miles away).

Of course, I did this exercise in my head and making calculations of paper. I couldn't be done in real life unless one had a large property such as a farm or an estate to work with. What I think this shows is that the solar system is a really big place.

Twelve Events that Will Change the World?

In the June 2010 of Scientific American there was an article with this title. Here are the events that the authors think will cause drastic changes to our society, and my own opinion concerning these events.

1. Cloning of a human being. Although it is illegal in many countries, sooner or later someone will do this. Personally I do not believe this will have much affect on anything. What is the difference between a cloned human and one born through the process of a fertilized egg by a sperm in a woman? Essentially none. At first there may be a great stir, but after a while, many people will accept the idea, just as did when In Vitro Fertilization and surrogate mothers were introduced. Of course one possible result is that males could become obsolete. This was one of the main themes in my novel The Bagod.
2. The discovery of extra dimensions of space by the largest particle collider. According to the article this would "alter our whole idea of what reality is." Maybe to a particle physicist, but I doubt whether a layman would even know or care.
3. Receiving a signal from an intelligent race somewhere outside the solar system. The likelihood of this happening is very small. I'm not saying that they don't exist. It's just that the universe is so large that communication with an ET is impossible. Let's say that an intelligent being in a star system a thousand light years away (in the neighborhood as stellar distances go). It would broadcast "Hello." By the time we received the signal, transmitted a reply and the ET received it, two thousand years would have gone by. Kind of a halting conversation.
4. Number four, a nuclear exchange, would definitely change the world,. Civilization would go under absolutely, if anyone survived at all. People my age have been living under this sword of Damocles hanging over heads since the nineteen fifties. So far we've escaped unscathed. My question is why do the leaders of nations even want atomic weapons. Is it a prestige thing like when I was a teenager growing up in the city, it was hip or cool to carry a switchblade knife? It strikes me that world leaders are a bunch of adolescents playing at mutual destruction much the same way as a game of chicken played with high-powered cars, except it is everyone's life they risk, not just their own.
5. Creation of life. Move over Frankenstein. Although this would give a comeuppance to those people who say only God can create life, most people would shrug their shoulders and say, "That's interesting," and go on with their lives.
6. Room-temperature superconductors. This would definitely help with our energy problems since electricity could be sent over long distances with little energy loss.
7. Machine self-awareness. Considering the state of artificial intelligence today, computers have a long way to go to reach this point. But some day they may. The question is would they run the world more or less logically than humans have. If my computer software is an early example, I would say less.
8. Polar meltdown. This is going on at faster and faster rate. The only solution is to do as Noah did and build an ark. Yet there are still many people who do not believe that the greenhouse gases we produce are causing global warming. It's not likely that our politicians are going to step up to the plate and do what is needed to stop it.
9. Pacific earthquake of tremendous proportions. This has already happened in Japan and has caused not only the loss of lives from the earthquake and tsunami that followed but also a nuclear disaster. A bad earthquake on our west coast would have similar results. And it is coming. I still cannot understand why my publisher moved from a nice safe place in the Midwest to northern California. 
10. Fusion energy. Yes, it would solve all our energy problems and environmental headaches. But is it possible? I remember a few years back a chemist claimed to have invented cold fusion. Of course, it was a false claim. Also, would we imitate the sun and change hydrogen into helium? What do we do with all that helium?
11. Asteroid collision. This is a real possibility and would be devastating to the human race and might even wipe out all life on earth. What are we doing to prepare for this catastrophe? Nothing! Sigh. You have to love politicians. When it comes to problems like this, they simply stick their heads in the sand and hope for the best.
12. Deadly pandemic. We've had a few scares in the past couple of years. There was the swine flu and the bird flu. Both of which turned out to not be very pandemic. I suppose a really pandemic could occur. Again, I do not see much movement to do anything to prepare for one. In this day of modern medicine, I doubt though that a pandemic would be as bad as past ones have been. But I am an optimist.

Thought Experiments

In a recent Scientific American, I came across an article with the title "Thought Experiments." I had read that Einstein had come up with his Theory of Relativity by using "thought experiments." Of course, his theory has been deemed correct by actual experiments. Until then, it was simply a theory.

What baffled me though about the article was the subheading which was "Some philosophers are doing more than thinking deeply. They are also conducting scientific experiments relating to the nature of free will and of good and evil." What!? This sounded like something I would read in magazine about philosophy or religion, not in a magazine devoted to science.

In the first place, a "thought experiment" is not science, but speculation perhaps bolstered by mathematics as in Einstein's case. This is the kind of thing philosophers, science fiction writers, futurists, prophets and other imaginative thinkers have been doing for thousands of years. One notable "thought experiment" is Rene Descartes' reasoning from "I think therefore I am" as the one irrefutable assumption to several other conclusions, all of which were refuted by later philosophers.

As to the "nature of free will," I believe psychologists have been doing actual experiments on this for some time without coming to any definite conclusions. Philosophers have debated "free will" to death. And then when the author throws in "good and evil" in the mix, these terms have no intrinsic meaning. Every person on this planet has a different idea of what is good and what is evil.

I read further in the article and find that persons the author calls "experimental philosophers" team up with psychologists and publish in journals. "They have spawned hundreds of papers and come up with surprising results and some strong opinions on every side." Note that he does not say that they have come up with any actual scientific facts.

The article blabs on this fashion for three pages, mixing "thought experiments" with some actual studies in psychology in this strange manner. He concludes with "... it can sometimes be helpful, and occasionally indispensable, to have a better understanding of the cognitive processes that give rise to these beliefs." Duh!

Shame on you Scientific American for printing such nonsense.