Providentia

South Korean Woman Killed by Mother and Brother Due to Demon Fears

A 25-year-old woman living in South Korea's Gyeonggi province was decapitated with a kitchen knife on August 19.  Police arrested the woman's mother and brother who allege that the victim had been possessed by an evil spirit.   The mother, a 54-year-old housewife, told police that she had been chatting with her son and daughter  in their living room when their dog began barking for no apparent reason.  Suspecting that the dog was possessed by a demon, all three family members took turns stabbing the dog with a knife and striking it with a baseball bat. 

After moving to the bathroom to clean up, the 25-year-old daughter's hands reportedly began shaking and she moved toward the mother in a threatening way.  Believing that the demon had exited the dog and entered the daughter, the other two family members forced her to lie down on the bathroom floor.  It was at this point that the mother stabbed her daughter in the neck with a knife while her brother struck his sister's abdomen and head with a hammer.  Realizing that they would face murder charges, the two then phoned the father who was working at his shoe repair business at the time.    Hours later, the father phoned the police and said the two suspects would be turning themselves in.   Autopsy results later determined that the daughter had died of neck and head injuries.

On arriving at the scene, police found the dead woman's head detached from her body.  When asked to explain what happened, the mother stated that she and her family had a history of belief in demons and shamanism.  She added that her grandmother had been a shaman but the mother had been unable to follow in her footsteps because "the spirits didn't inhabit her."   Both the mother and brother also told police that they hadn't eaten in four days though the reasons for this remain unclear. 

Police are still investigating.

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Snapchat Filters Allows Indian Rape Victims to Speak Out

"I was five years old when it happened," says one rape victim.   Another describes how she was tortured at home and not allowed to leave the house for any reason.   Though their faces are concealed by digital "masks", the pain and humiliation these women experienced comes through clearly enough.

While few of India's rape victims are willing to speak out publicly due to the stigma involved as well as laws banning public naming of victims, a new feature available through Snapchat is providing them with a way of telling their stories without being identified.  Though the face-masking filter that allows users to conceal their faces behind a variety of bizarre masks was originally intended as a goofy alternative to regular messaging, a Hindu journalist has recently started using the filters when interviewing victims of sexual assault.   According to 27-year-old Yusuf Omar, a journalist and editor at the Hindustan Times, the filters have become a valuable tool for investigative journalism.

"Mobile journalism has given us access to places that we would never have had before and has allowed us to tell stories in a far more discrete and intimate manner," Omar said in a recent interview. "Nobody who has experienced that kind of horror wants to have a big boom mix and huge lights and a camera waving in their face. It has to be far more subtle."   His Snapchat coverage of victim's  stories has been reported by media outlets around the world.   Not only do the filters allow the stories to be told, but the victims have become visible in a way that has never been possible for them previously.

"Broadcasters have been blurring out faces, using silhouettes, and I just feel like you lose so much information. Facial expressions are critical when trying to understand. For the first time, we got to see somebody whose identity was hidden, but eyes were visible. You could see the drop of the jaw, the expressions on her forehead. It's so much more intimate for a viewer trying to relate to the story."

While he hopes that Snapchat eventually provides the option for users to develop their own filters rather than relying on the ones provided,  Omar reports that rape victims feel empowered by being able to conceal their identities.  This has developed a bond of trust that makes them more confident in telling their stories.   Also, through choosing their own filters and deciding for themselves how much of their faces to conceal, they assume the role of narrators rather than as victims being interviewed by a journalist.

"They flicked until they found a filter that they thought best covered their faces," said Omar. "That made them feel empowered – it made them feel part of narrative. They were telling their own story. Even more so in the way they directed their attention at that camera. This was a selfie; they were holding the phone. I didn't even press the record button, I walked away. This was them looking at themselves in the eye and telling the most horrific story they could possibly recount."

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The Mad Bomber

On November 16, 1940, a crude pipe bomb was found by police in Consolidated Edison's office building in Manhattan.  Although the bomb hadn't exploded, a note attached to the bomb threatened further attacks against the company.  The second pipe bomb was found nearly a year later.   Police received a note signed "F.P" (meaning "Fair Play") announcing that the bomber was planning to suspend the bombing campaign due to "patriotic feelings" for the "duration of the war".   Sure enough, the next bomb wasn't found until March 29, 1950 at Grand Central Station.  Between 1940 and 1956, a total of 33 bombs were planted in different sites across New York City although no actual injuries would occur until 1953. 

The most devastating explosion was on December 2, 1956 when a bomb went off in a movie theatre in Brooklyn injuring six people.  The bomb had apparently been planted inside one of the seats after the bomber cut open the upholstery.  With the escalating violence of the blasts and the taunting letters sent by "the Mad  Bomber" (the name that the media had for him), police were desperate to solve the case.  Inspector Howard Finney of the New York crime then decided to follow the advice of a fellow police officer and consulted Dr. James Brussel.

As New York state's assistant commissioner of mental hygiene and a prominent forensic psychiatrist, Brussel had a modest success in solving previous cases but had never been consulted in a major case before.  Forensic profiling was still a largely experimental approach to solving crimes and police were reluctant to consider it.  Brussel examined photographs of the various crime scenes and the bomber's notes.  In one of the first uses of offender profiling,  he concluded that they were seeking a "rather ordinary-looking man, quiet, polite, proper, and well-dressed". He added that the bomber would be "between 40 and 50 years old, foreign born—probably central European (possibly Slavic)—a Roman Catholic, and fairly well educated, sexually abnormal, probably single, living with his mother or maiden sister in Westchester County or Connecticut and, when police found him, he would be wearing a double-breasted suit, buttoned".   Brussel persuaded the police to release the profile to the media in the hope that it would draw the bomber's attention.

The rationale behind the profile that Dr. Brussel developed on the Mad Bomber was straightforward enough.  He diagnosed the unknown offender based on his own clinical experience with similar offenders and also on prevailing theories relating to mental illness and physical build.  Since the bomber was likely suffering from paranoia, Brussel estimated that he would be around age 50 based on the year of the first bombing and the lifetime incidence of paranoid symptoms.  Brussel also stressed the "phallic" nature of the bombs and the likelihood that the bomber was suffering from an Oedipal Complex (the police were not too impressed with this conclusion).  His idea of publicizing the profile came from the bomber's eagerness for publicity but police knew that most of the leads that the profile turned up would be false (still a common problem with profiling).

In an unanticipated development, the bomber phoned Dr. Brussel directly and warned him to "keep out of this or you'll be sorry".  He then hung before the call could be traced.  After numerous false confessions and poor leads, Consolidated Edison searched its own records and turned up a name that appeared to fit the profile.   George Metesky was a 52-year old  bachelor who had worked for Consolidated Edison for several years before developing tuberculosis.  Metesky had apparently blamed his health problems on the company and had written several threatening letters after being denied a disability pension.  Those letters were still on file and they were quickly matched to the notes by "F.P."  When police came to his Waterbury, Connecticut home, he confessed immediately (while he was was wearing a bathrobe at the time, he did change into a double-breasted jacket before going to the police station)  

After Metesky's arrest, neighbours reported that he was a quiet man who lived with his sisters and had no visible means of support.  They noticed that he became friendlier and more animated after the Brussels profile came out but nobody suspected him of being The Mad Bomber.  Police found a complete workshop in his garage where he had built his bombs and he talked about his plans for an even bigger bomb that he would detonate in the New York Coliseum.   He would later claim that he had deliberately planned the blasts to avoid any fatalities.

Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, Metesky was declared legally insane and committed to Matteawan Hospital for the Criminally Insane at Beacon, New York.  He would never respond to treatment but was a model patient otherwise.  After being released in 1973, he lived quietly in his family home until his death in 1994. 

James Brussel's role in capturing the "Mad Bomber" propelled him to national fame and gave offender profiling a new respect that it never had before.  Brussel was frequently consulted in later cases but was best known for his role in the Boston Strangler investigation.  While he is still viewed as the "father of psychological profiling", his inferential approach to offender profiling has not held up over time.  Later critics have pointed out that only one of his profiles was ever validated and largely relied on his clinical experience and assumptions that were frequently incorrect.  His success in the Metesky case (and his presumed success with the Boston Strangler case) represent his most notable achievements despite being consulted in numerous other cases. 

Modern offender profiling, as practiced by most law enforcement agencies, has a multi-disciplinary focus combining medico-legal death investigation, criminalistics and psychology.  While commonly accepted standards have been adopted, changing demographics and increased publicity surrounding police procedures (including popular television shows) has made the profiler's task more difficult.  To this day, it remains an open question whether profiling is more of an art than a science.

Can Active Shooters Provide Clues of their Intention in their Writing?

Examining precursors that will aid in the discovery of individuals who may harm themselves or others has long been a focus of scholarly research. A new research study published in the journal Crisis sets out to determine if it is possible to use the legacy tokens of active shooters and notes left from individuals who completed suicide to uncover signals that foreshadow their behavior.  A total of 25 suicide notes and 21 legacy tokens were compared with a sample of over 20,000 student writings for a preliminary computer-assisted text analysis to determine what differences can be coded with existing computer software to better identify students who may commit self-harm or harm to others. Results showed that text analysis techniques with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) tool are effective for identifying suicidal or homicidal writings as distinct from each other and from a variety of student writings in an automated fashion. Findings indicate support for automated identification of writings that were associated with harm to self, harm to others, and various other student writing products. This work begins to uncover the viability or larger scale, low cost methods of automatic detection for individuals suffering from harmful ideation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Can the Zika Virus Affect Adult Brains?

While the potential role of the Zika virus on brain development in fetuses has raised fears among pregnant mothers worldwide, new research suggests certain adult brain cells may be vulnerable as well.  A team of researchers at the Rockefeller University and La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology has found that the Zika virus targets neural progenitor cells leading to loss of the brain's ability to form neurons.   In developing infants, this can result in microcephaly leading to smaller than normal heads and numerous developmental disabilities.  

Adult brains have previously been assumed to be less susceptible to the Zika virus due to being fully developed though the researchers have found this isn't necessarily the case.  Even in mature brains, certain niches exist containing neural progenitor cells.  Believed to be vital in learning and memory, lead researcher Joseph Gleeson, an adjunct professor at Rockefeller University, and his co-researchers used fluorescent biomarkers to demonstrate that adult neuroprogenitor cells could be infected by the virus as well.

"Our results are pretty dramatic -- in the parts of the brain that lit up, it was like a Christmas tree," says Gleeson in a press statement released by Rockefeller University. "It was very clear that the virus wasn't affecting the whole brain evenly, like people are seeing in the fetus. In the adult, it's only these two populations that are very specific to the stem cells that are affected by virus. These cells are special, and somehow very susceptible to the infection."   

Healthy adults are usually able to fight off infection but people with compromised immune systems may be vulnerable.  New neurons formed by neural progenitor cells are vital in neuroplasticity which allows the brain to change over time.   “In more subtle cases, the virus could theoretically impact long-term memory or risk of depression,” says Gleeson, “but tools do not exist to test the long-term effects of Zika on adult stem cell populations.”   Zika may also be linked to Gullain-Barre syndrome in which the immune system attacks parts of the nervous symptom leading to loss of motor functioning and paralysis in many cases.   Though the cause remains unclear, Gleeson and his colleagues suggest that the disease can occur due to Zika attacking neuronal progenitor cells in the brain.

While more research is still needed to measure the subtle effects that Zika can have on adult brain functioning, the public health risks are alarming.  Already widespread in Central and South America, the Zika virus seems poised to spread worldwide.    “The virus seems to be traveling quite a bit as people move around the world,” says Gleeson. “Given this study, I think the public health enterprise should consider monitoring for Zika infections in all groups, not just pregnant women.” 

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The Terror of Flight 350

It should have been a routine flight.

For the 166 passengers of Japan Airlines Flight 350 scheduled to fly from Fukuoka to Tokyo on February 9, 1982, the possibility that something might go very wrong likely seemed absurd.  Not only did Japan Airlines have one of the best safety records in the world, but weather conditions were about as ideal as anyone could imagine.

Unfortunately, nobody had any idea that the plane's captain, 35-year-old Seiji Katagiri, had  a history of psychiatric problems, including  episodes of depression and hallucinations.   He was also prone to rampant paranoia leaving him to believe that he was under frequent surveillance.  On one occasion, he had called police to his house in Tokyo due to his suspicion that his house had been electronically bugged by unknown enemies.   A police search turned up no evidence of anything out of the ordinary, however.  As for Japan Airlines, they seemed unconcerned about Captani Katagiri's mental state.   Aside from receiving four week's leave just months before for a "psychosomatic disorder", he had since been returned to full duty with no concerns being raised about his fitness to fly.   

On the fateful day of the flight, the plane, a DC-8-61 crewed by Katagiri, along with a first officer, a flight engineer, and five attendants lifted off from Fukuoka Airport on its way to Haneda Airport.   Suddenly, and with no warning being given, Katagiri turned off the autopilot as the plane was approaching Tokyo and then pushed the plane into a dangerous descent.  Though reports vary as to what he did exactly, it was still left up to the flight engineer and first officer to restrain Katagiri and try to stabilize the plane before it was too late.

Despite their best efforts, the plane pancaked into the water at 8:47 AM, just 300 metres (nearly a thousand feet) in front of the runway.   The force of the impact caused the plane's cockpit section to become detached from the rest of the plane before finally coming to a halt in the water.   Twenty-four passengers died in the crash and the death toll might have been higher had it not been for the more than 500 emergency workers arriving in boats to rescue the surviving passengers and crew.  

Rescue operations were hampered by the plane's remaining fuel being pumped out to minimize the risk of an explosion.  With this delay and the need to ferry survivors in boats, it would take eight hours to evacuate everyone on board, including the first officer and flight engineer who were both seriously injured.  Passengers later reported that the plane's air hostesses immediately took charge after the crash and told people to remain in the cabin as everyone was being evacuated.  As it happened, Seiji Katagiri was one of the first people to get to safety.    Apparently afraid of being identified as the plane's captain, he told rescuers that he was an office worker instead.   To help the pretense, he had even taken off his jacket and tie and put on a passenger's cardigan that had been within reach.  

Police initially stated that the pilot had died in the crash and Katagari managed to blend in with the injured passengers without anyone noticing.  Despite the other two flight officers being taken to hospital for severe injuries and the rest of the airline crew being preoccupied helping survivors, police eventually found him at a nearby hotel with other survivors who had been taken there for treatment.  He was then hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation.

All that remained was the investigation into what caused the first Japan Airlines fatal crash of the 1980s.   Since weather conditions had been good and with no sign of mechanical failure, investigators turned their attention to the pilot of that flight.   While  a voice recording showed Katagiri crying out loud in the cockpit before the plane made its descent, investigators had little else to go on except the testimony of the other flight officers.   Flight officer Yoshifumi Ishikawa,  who was still confined to his hospital bed, had difficulty describing exactly what had happened.  'The control lever was extremely heavy, although it could be easily pulled up usually,'' he was quoted  in newspaper accounts as saying. ''Therefore I thought that the captain had done something wrong and I shouted to him,'' he said, adding, ''It occurred so suddenly that I don't remember clearly what I said.'I was so absorbed in pulling up the control lever, I did not see what the captain had done."  His voice in the recording in which he asked the captain what he was doing was clearly audible.

As for Seiji Katagiri himself, he apparently had little to say to police at first.  In later testimony provided during his trial, he stated that "When I switched from autopilot to manual operation in order to land the aircraft, I suddenly felt extremely queasy. I was then overcome by an inexplicable panic and then almost fainted."   According to the copilot, Katagiri began sobbing loudly just before the crash and the court determined that he had deliberately crashed the plane as part of a suicide attempt,    Katagiri was then found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a psychiatric ward in Tokyo where he was diagnosed as schizophrenic.

Which still left the question of why a pilot with psychiatric problems had been allowed to fly in the first place.   Following the investigation into the crash, government investigators released a 246-page report stating that Katagiri crashed the plane while suffering from hallucinations.  The report also placed part of the blame for the crash on the inadequate medical checkup system that had deemed him fit for duty just three months before the crash occurred. 

In the aftermath of the crash, Japan Airlines appointed a special committee dedicated to reviewing “both the physical and mental health of flight crew for ensuring safe flight operations” to ensure that nothing like what happened to Flight 350 could occur again.  As for Seiji Katagiri, he was eventually released from hospital after several years though publicity from the crash would follow him and his wife for decades afterward.   Not only did he face the outrage of the families of deceased passengers,  he also had to deal with public scorn over his abandoning the plane instead of staying to help the passengers (a major breach given the Japanese sense of duty).   For years after the crash, "katagiri" became a common synonym for being egotistical and dishonorable.

Seiji Katagiri continues to live quietly with his wife in their home near Mount Fuji.  Supported by a generous pension, he is reportedly a recluse who avoids and mention of that long ago air disaster.   His exile was only interrupted in recent years by the 2015 crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 in 2015.  Much like Flight 350, the crash was caused by a suicidal pilot though, in this new tragedy, all 144 passengers and six crew members were killed when the plane crashed in the French Alps.   Katagiri refused all attempts at being interviewed and has managed to return to his quiet life.

Despite calls for tougher restrictions following the crash of Flight 350, it was only following the Germanwings crash that new regulations were passed ensuring that two qualified pilots remain in the cockpit at all times.   We can only wait and see whether this will be enough to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.

War of Words

It was a hard book to find.

First published in 1948, Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Linebarger is still the standard regarding the use of propaganda in warfare. Long out of print (the last edition was published in 1972), the few copies that are still on the market typically fetch prices running into hundreds of U.S. dollars. The copy that I finally managed to find on a university library shelf certainly looked ordinary enough: a relatively thin, battered book with no dust cover.Wedged in between much thicker books, it seemed hard to believe that it would be worth the effort.

While technical at times, the book represents an insider's view of the beginnings of modern psychological warfare in the 20th century as well as a history of propaganda use from ancient times right through to the Korean War. According to Linebarger, psychological warfare (psywar for short) is about seeking "military gains without military force" through the use of propaganda techniques to destabilize military troops and the infrastructure that supports them. The book provides an overview of the principles of successful propaganda and how they may be successfully applied.  It was a book that only Paul Myron Linebarger could write.

Born in 1911 to a highly unconventional family, his training in foreign cultures certainly began early (he was a godson to Sun Yat Sen and could speak six languages before he was college age). After earning his doctorate in political science at the age of 23, he quickly became well-known as an expert in Far Eastern affairs. With the start of World War II, Linebarger entered the U.S. Army as an officer and helped launch their first psychological warfare section.

In his book, Linebarger discussed the difficulty in getting the U.S. military to accept the legitimacy of psychological warfare. Prior to World War II, the formal study of propaganda and its effects was almost unknown to U.S. soldiers. As the war progressed, Linebarger expanded the role of his section along with other social scientists, including Leonard Doob, Hadley Cantril, and George Gallup. By the end of the war, he had attained the rank of major (he would eventually become a colonel in the reserves).  In describing the role that psywar had played in World War II, Linebarger would later state: "What made the psychological warfare of World War II peculiar was the fact that our enemies fought one kind of war (“warfare psychologically waged, ” or total war) and we fought them back with another. Theoretically, it is possible to argue that we had no business succeeding.  But we did succeed."

His quiet academic career was interrupted in 1947 when he was recalled to active duty to serve in numerous military conflicts including the Korean War. While he was known to have been actively involved in the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency, much of his work during the years when he was active is still classified.   As a "visitor to small wars", Paul Linebarger was actively involved in numerous counterinsurgency campaigns and acted as an advisor to different client states of the time including the Philippines, Guatemala, and Malaysia.  According to one source, Paul Linebarger successfully arranged the surrender of thousands of Chinese troops who would have otherwise fought to the death (surrender was considered shameful) through the leaflets that he had dropped onto enemy territory. He would later declare this to be the "single most worthwhile thing (he) had done in (his) life".

While less well-documented, Paul Linebarger also spent years in psychoanalysis for undisclosed psychological problems. There is a recurring rumour that he was the basis for the delusional "Kirk Allen" patient described in Robert Linder's book, "The Fifty Minute Hour" published in 1955. Whatever the truth, Paul Linebarger definitely had a life-long fascination in psychoanalysis which he incorporated into his own writing.

Although Linebarger refused to become involved in the Vietnam War (he considered American involvement in the war to be a grave mistake), he served as an advisor to Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.By the time of his premature death from a heart attack in 1966, he had helped train a generation of intelligence agents and political analysts. His books on psychological warfare and foreign policy are still considered required reading. Paul Linebarger is buried in Arlington Cemetery.

Strangely enough, his greatest claim to fame lay in another direction...

Beginning with his first science fiction story, "Scanners Live in Vain", which was published in 1949, the writer known as "Cordwainer Smith" quickly attracted a loyal following.  While not a prolific author, the novel and numerous short stories that Cordwainer Smith produced were tremendously popular.  Mostly set in a dystopian society thousands of years in the future, Smith's writing often dealt with complex social topics including religion, psychology, and political turmoil.  Although there was fervent speculation about his true identity by fans and fellow writers alike, the fact that Cordwainer Smith was actually Paul Linebarger didn't become widely known until after his death.

Paul Linebarger had a fondness for pseudonyms. In additional to his Cordwainer Smith stories, he also wrote several novels and poems under other names including "Carmichael Smith", "Anthony Bearden" and "Felix Forrest".  While admirers of Paul Linebarger/Cordwainer Smith have attempted to analyze his writing (both fiction and non-fiction) to reconcile the different faces that he presented to the world into one complex world-view, it seems almost impossible.   Few science fiction writers have been able to match Cordwainer Smith and his strange futuristic society populated by eccentric characters (human and post-human). That he still has a loyal following long after his death (myself included) is a fitting testimony to the power of his writing.

As for his other legacy, psychological warfare/psyops/psywar/sykewar remains a critical component of every modern military operation. Although the use of propaganda techniques remains controversial (and telling the difference between "propaganda" and "education" just about impossible), psywar is definitely here to stay.

Nontraditional Families and Relationship Success

Recent decades have seen a broadening of the definition of family in society at large, but the influence of family structure on offspring is yet to be fully understood. In a new study published in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, data from 313 emerging adults, all in couples, were used to examine indirect associations between family structure and emerging adults’ expectations of current relationship success through their attitudes toward cohabitation, nonmarital childbearing stigma, and current relationship quality. Results of path analyses revealed that emerging adults from nontraditional families demonstrated positive attitudes toward cohabitation. Acceptance of cohabitation was related to less support of the idea that having a child outside of marriage is stigmatizing. For its part, tolerance toward nonmarital childbearing was associated with higher relationship quality. Finally, emerging adults who reported greater union quality also demonstrated higher expectations of current relationship success. In summary, results indicated that emerging adults who were more accepting of nontraditional family forms, in part because they were coming from such families, reported that they are faring better in their relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Hong Kong Christian Groups Ask If Pokemon Go Is Satanic

Though Pokemon Go has taken much of the world by storm (despite mixed reviews and  attempts at making it illegal in many places),  religious debates over whether it is evil and dangerous seems to be brewing in many parts of to the world.  

After being launched in Hong Kong on July 25, for example, evangelical groups have warned that the game is addictive and potentially Satanic.   An anonymous message being circulated online asks Protestants to pray for Pokemon Go players since the characters were inspired by figurines from Japanese shrines.   Thus, playing the game might lead addicts to "play with evil spirits."   Even the very name, "Pokemon", has raised concerns given that it is an abbreviation of "Pocket Monster" and some of the characters include "flaming demons" that can be collected and trained to attack other characters.    

Along with warning that playing Pokemon could lead to gambling, some religious leaders are also protesting the apparent evolutionary message being pushed by the game's developers as well as the use of symbols deemed offensive to religious such as Islam.  For these reasons, an Islamic fatwa has long been in place for the old Pokemon card game whicihhas now been extended to Pokemon Go as well.   In handing down the fatwa, Islamic leaders denounced the Pokemon Go as  a "dangerous mania."

A recent article published on religious site, Charisma News, supports the idea that Pokemon Go is satanic and draws a comparison between the current craze and the Harry Potter craze years ago.  In much the same way that Harry Potter introduced children to the occult, Pokemon Go is seen as another powerful lure for the occult.  The article goes on the say that  "[Pokemon Go] conditions the child who plays the game into accepting occult and evolutionary principles. Haunter can hypnotize, eat a person's dreams and drain their energy. Abra reads minds. Kadabra emits negative energy that harms others. Gastly induces sleep. Gengar laughs at peoples' fright. Nidoran uses poison. The psychic type of Pokemon are among the strongest in the game. Charmander, Haunter, Ivysaur, Kadabra and many more evolve. The children are taught to use these creatures to do their will by invoking colored energy cards, fights and commands. Much of it is reminiscent of occult and eastern mysticism."  

But the game may have its positive side as well according to some religious commentators.  In an interview with South China Morning Post, Reverend Sam Chung Shu-sum, senior pastor at Assemblies of God West Post Church reported receiving warning messages about the game but still suggests that Pokemon Go can used to gain more converts for Hong Kong's churches.  “There are Christians talking about not playing the game ... and I agree that you can choose not to play it to avoid getting addicted,” Chung said. “But while new [trends] are always attractive or even potentially addictive, ­Christians could also make good use of them.”   This can include using "lures" to attract rare Pokemon which, in turn, can lead to more people coming to church services and possibly including religious messages into the game itself as a form of advertisement.

With an estimated 100 million downloads worldwide and the ongoing social media frenzy surrounding Pokemon Go, the religious debate over the pros and cons of playing the game will likely drag on for quite a while.  In the meantime, players show little interest in the religious furor their gaming inspires.  If Pokemon Go really does condition their minds to accept occultism and evolution, then at least they'll have some fun along the way.

 

Buying Eliza (Part Two of Two)

Continued from Part One

When William Thomas Stead  went on trial for orchestrating the kidnapping of Eliza Armstrong, he had no difficulty responding with the same showmanship that characterized his entire career as a journalist.  Though several other people involved in the kidnapping were charged as well, including Rebecca Jarrett and Bramwell Booth of the Salvation Army, Stead insisted that he was solely responsible for the entire scheme and that the others were simply his "unwilling agents."   Despite his efforts however, Rebecca Jarrett, and Booth went on trial as well along with midwife Louise Mourez (who had conducted the "virginity test" on Eliza). 

Just weeks before the trial began, public outrage, spurred by Stead's newspaper articles, had forced Parliament to pass legislation raising the age of consent to 16, something they had been delaying for years.  The Act also strengthened existing laws against prostitution and brothels, as well as greater protections for women believed to have been abducted for "white slavery."   For good measure, a last minute amendment also expanded existing penalties for homosexual relations between males (women were not affected by the act) and Oscar Wilde would be punished under this same Act just a few years later.    The forced passage of the legislation made even more enemies for William Stead, not only from the legislators themselves, but from other newspapers who resented his "scooping" them on the story.   All of which added a very political element to Stead's trial and guaranteed that prosecutors would do everything in their power to see him convicted.

The trial, which had already been generating headlines internationally, attracted hundreds of spectators who swarmed into the courtroom creating what one newspaper described as :a mass of human being wedged in almost inextricably."   Acting as prosecutor was the Attorney-General himself, Richard Webster, while Stead insisted on defending himself.  With Rebecca Jarrett, Bramwell Booth, and the others being represented by their own defense attorneys, the entire trial quickly became a media spectacle.   Just the way William Stead wanted it.

Even at the preliminary hearing which was held in September, 1885,  the adverse publicity provided by Stead's newspaper rivals meant that Stead and his co-defendants were targeted by angry protestors whenever they appeared in public.  Over the course of the five-day preliminary hearing, mobs  gathered outside the courtroom and all the defendants had to be escorted to and from the courtroom in a prison van that was familiarly known as "Black Maria."  

Reporters also eagerly wrote down all of the trial details, including the various outbursts provided by Eliza's mother.   Though Eliza seemed calm under cross-examination,  Elizabeth Armstrong was outspoken in denouncing Stead and attacking prosecutors and defense attorneys alike over how she was being portrayed, especially when her own fitness as a mother was carefully scrutinized.  Questions relating to her "character" focused on her previous convictions for public drunkenness and assault, and even one charge for her use of obscene language  (which she defended by saying "I swear a good deal").   She also emphatically denied being paid for her daughter or having any knowledge that Eliza was being sent to a brothel. 

But the main event took place with the trial which began on October 19.  While Stead did a decent job of defending himself, the prosecution had no difficulty establishing that Stead relied entirely on Rebecca Jarret's word that Eliza's mother had willingly sold her daughter.  There was also no written evidence of the payment Elizabeth Armstrong had supposedly received.  Despite the discrepancies between the testimony given by Stead and Rebecca Jarrett,  Stead justified everything that he did by saying that his actions had been intended to protect young girls like Eliza Armstrong.   As he said in his closing remarks at the trial:

Mr. Attorney General says we must protect the children of the poor. Was not that the object that I did all this for? You know it was, and you know that was why Jarrett did it, and Jacques did it, and Bramwell Booth did it. It was not in order to abduct a girl, but to rescue her from what we believed to be her inevitable doom; and if in the exercise of your judgement you come to the conclusion that you can take no note of motive, no note of character, no note of the intent and scope of our operations, all I have to say is, that when you return your verdict I make no appeal to any other tribunal. My lord has told me the question of motive may be considered afterwards, but if you find me guilty by your verdict, I shall make no appeal. By your verdict I stand or fall, and if in the opinion of twelve Englishmen born of Englishwomen, possibly the fathers of English girls, if they say to me "You are guilty", I shall take my punishment and I shall not flinch.

William Stead, Rebecca Jarrett, and Louise Mourez were all found guilty of abduction and procurement while Bramwell Booth and the others were acquitted.   Though Jarrett and Mourez were both sentenced to six months in prison, Stead only got three, something that many newspapers declared to be too lenient considering the nature of the crime.   Stead spent most of his sentence at HM Prison Holloway where was treated as a "first class misdeameanant" with his own cell, complete with a fireplace and a fellow prisoner who acted as his valet.  Louise Mourez died in prison while Rebecca Jarrett completed her sentence and vanished into obscurity afterward.   Much the same could be said of Eliza Armstrong of whom little is known despite reports that she later married and raised a large family.

While in prison, William Stead continued to act as editor of the Pall  Mall Gazette and even wrote a pamphlet describing his prison experiences.   He also wrote an essay, "Government by Journalism" in which he advocated greater involvement of newspapers in keeping corrupt politicians in check (something that would be a personal crusade following his release.   Even after his release, Stead was  allowed to keep his prison uniform (despite never actually being forced to wear it except occasionally) and he insisted on wearing it once a year on the anniversary of his sentencing.  

After resigning as editor of the Gazette in 1889, Stead remained a forceful writer and lecturer and embraced a wide variety of personal causes, covering everything from Esperanto to feminism.  Despite nearly bankrupting himself after launching his own newspaper in 1904 (which led to a nervous breakdown), Stead recovered enough to establish himself as an advocate of various peace initiatives during the Boer War and beyond.   He even envisioned an early version of the United Nations which he described as a "United States of Europe." 

It was his belief in spiritualism that caused his reputation to take its greatest hit however.  He became a believer after claims of receiving automatic messages from a deceased fellow journalist, Julie Ayres during the 1890s.   After his son Willie died in 1907, Stead actually set up what he called "Julia's Bureau" to pass on messages from the Beyond.  What this basically involved was having female mediums acting like stenographers to receive messages which they could pass on to grieving relatives.  Needless to say, it didn't work out.

Still popular at the ripe age of 63, Stead was invited in 1912 to give a lecture at Carnegie Hall.  Unfortunately, the lecture organizers chose to bring him over on the maiden voyage of the Titanic and Stead became one of the most well-known victims of its sinking.   There is a certain irony in his death by drowning considering that Stead had long been a critic of the lack of lifeboats available on modern ships.   He had even written a prophetic story in 1886 describing the sinking of a transatlantic steamer with massive loss of life due to there not being enough lifeboats.   He ended the story by warning that such a tragedy could  easily happen in real life. 

Even in death, William Stead had the last word.