Pokémon Go Players Walk Off Cliff in San Diego

The San Diego County sheriffs department rescued two men who fell off the bluff in Encinitas near San Diego today, while playing Pokémon GO. They were not paying attention to where they were and evidently fell off the bluff down 50 to 100 feet.

The sheriffs department rescue them and took them to the hospital with moderate injuries.

The incidents come as law enforcement agencies across the nation are reporting a plethora of Pokemon-related attacks and odd happenings since the game was released last week.

On Wednesday, firefighters rescued two men who fell several stories off the crumbling sandstone bluff in Encinitas, according to authorities. The men, who were in their early 20s, were playing "Pokemon Go" at the time and likely were led to the cliff when they were trying to catch characters, said Sgt. Rich Eaton of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

In Anaheim a player was stabbed by a group of men in a park Wednesday night. They apparently took advantage of his inattentiveness.

Of course anytime people go outside they encounter other people. The 16th century philosopher LaRochefoucauld, said "all the problems of man arise from the fact that he gets out of bed in the morning." Nevertheless the game and it's inattentive players wandering around outside, appears to be creating a cottage industry for tort lawyers.

The Washington Post reports that In some corners of the Muslim world, the reaction to the game took on a particular moral valence. Earlier this week, my colleague Sudarsan Raghavan blogged about the 2001 fatwa against the original Pokemon game, issued by an Egyptian cleric, who said the game taught children gambling through the use of "Masonic and Zionist symbols." But now, the deputy chief of Cairo's Al-Azhar, the most important scholarly institution of Sunni Islam, has declared Pokemon Go to be as illicit as alcohol.

"This game makes people look like drunkards in the streets and on the roads while their eyes are glued to the mobile screens leading them to the location of the imaginary Pokemon in the hope of catching it," said Abbas Shouman, as quoted by Gulf News. He went on: “Will people neglect their work and earning their living and devote themselves instead to hunting for Pokemon?"

Mehmet Bayraktutar, the head of Turkey's union of imams, grumbled about Pokemon Go enthusiasts venturing to mosques and other sacred sites to find their Pokemon.

“This undermines the prominence and significance of mosques, which are the most beautiful worship places in Islam,” said Bayraktar, according to Hurriyet Daily News. He added: "I want it to be banned in Turkey.”

Meanwhile Donald Trump told the Washington Examiner that despite the fact that Trump Tower in New York City is a major Pokémon go hotspot, the Republican presidential candidate has not had time to play the game. "I wish I had time maybe when I'm in the White House," he told the Examiner newspaper.

It is uncertain whether Hillary Clinton has ever played Pokémon go, or what are the two major party candidates will debates its merits.

Pokémon Go says Wikipedia, is a free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic and published by The Pokémon Company as part of the Pokémon franchise. It was released worldwide in July 2016 for iOS and Android devices.

The game allows players to capture, battle, and train virtual Pokémon who appear throughout the real world. It makes use of GPS and the camera of compatible devices. Although the game is free-to-play, it supports in-app purchases of additional gameplay items. An optional companion Bluetooth wearable device, the Pokémon Go Plus, is planned for future release and will alert users when Pokémon are nearby.

The game received mixed critical reception. It was praised by some medical professionals for potentially improving the mental and physical health of players, but attracted some controversy due to reports of causing accidents and being a public nuisance to some locations. It was one of the most downloaded smartphone apps upon its release, and was a boon to the stock value of Nintendo, which owns a part of The Pokémon Company. Within a week of release, it became the most active mobile game ever in the United States with more than 21 million players