What Is This Creepy Site Advertising?

October 2, 2006 6:20 PM

What the heck is "the purification dot org" all about? (I'm not linking to it directly because I have a hunch it's just a particularly enigmatic viral marketing ploy.)

(This came to me via a friend via IM. I haven't been able to ask him where he got it.)

The page is just a single flash movie with a countdown. I didn't work out the math exactly, but I think it's a countdown to November 15, 2006. There's five sub-countdowns that appear if you mouse over them. Going clockwise from the lower left-hand side, they appear to be pointing to Nov.9, Oct.19, Nov.6, Oct.23 and Oct.31.

The domain's registered to a guy named Wayne in Arkansas, using an AOL email address. Looks to be legit -- the address checks out in Google's phone listings, and an AOL user with his screenname posted a review of a restaurant in the town listed in the whois info. So if it's faked, someone's done their homework.

Just wondering if anyone knows anything about this. A game? A movie? Hopi prophecy? If it turns out to be some doomsday religious cult I'll be a little creeped out.

posted by sportbucket to grab bag (749 comments total)

Axe?
posted by onalark at 6:25 PM on October 2, 2006 [1 favorite]

At first I went to purification dot org, but that's a Scientology website. Yikes!
posted by evariste at 6:44 PM on October 2, 2006

UPDATE: The dude who sent me the link got it from The Ultimate Insult.
posted by sportbucket at 6:45 PM on October 2, 2006

I used a Flash decompiler on it hoping to find clues. The actionscript source code is pretty mundane and doesn't reveal much. You can have a look here.
posted by evariste at 7:13 PM on October 2, 2006

Two variable names puzzle me, but I'm unable to make sense of them:

"countertaos", and "fuso". "fuso" is equal to 25200000, but that doesn't divide evenly into 60*60*24.
posted by evariste at 7:20 PM on October 2, 2006

What is '__reg2' ?
posted by SirStan at 7:25 PM on October 2, 2006

This is a bizarre mystery.

Here's the registrant's MySpace, not much info.

He also posted to a website about the best pizza in Northwest Arkansas (search for ARNOLDW768). Odd thing to do over a year in advance if this was for a major movie.

I'm still digging and will reply back if I find more.
posted by saraswati at 7:26 PM on October 2, 2006

__reg2 equals server.time (obtained from a php script on the initial pageload) + getTimer(), a built-in Flash function that gets the number of seconds elapsed since the movie started.
posted by evariste at 7:27 PM on October 2, 2006

He's using a Spanish-speaking 3rd-party DNS provider (who also offer name registration services). Weird eh?
posted by evariste at 7:42 PM on October 2, 2006

This is even though he's registered the actual domain with GoDaddy.
posted by evariste at 7:42 PM on October 2, 2006

He's hosting the website with the DNS provider, too.
posted by evariste at 7:44 PM on October 2, 2006

Oops shoul've read the more inside on the restaurant thing. Sorry
posted by saraswati at 7:50 PM on October 2, 2006

Odd thing to do over a year in advance if this was for a major movie.

Not if whoever is running the show got some random employee with a common name to use an old email account.
posted by advil at 7:52 PM on October 2, 2006

Complete list of websites on the same IP address:

1. nonsleep.com
2. concellodesandias.com
3. absfilmcompany.com
4. aciertaservicios.com
5. aedocdigital.org
6. afinpa.com
7. ainesjoyas.com
8. albadelayos.com
9. aloeverareal.com
10. alvarodiaz.com
11. anadesanbartolome.org
12. andrewmcconochie.com
13. aradriel.com
14. asesoria-ramos.com
15. autobusespontevedra.com
16. baloncestomaristasalicante.com
17. canarivan.com
18. chakrasdisco.com
19. climafyg.com
20. coprodecyl.com
21. cusinets.com
22. dajuna.com
23. disparando.com
24. edutours.info
25. evaguasch.com
26. extrujado.com
27. fakiedesign.com
28. fernandezmiron.com
29. fernandoromeroterrel.com
30. festivaldecinedesevilla.com
31. giroves.org
32. golnord.com
33. guiaterapeutica.net
34. hcmolinsderei.com
35. icatseguretatinformatica.com
36. ilsoes.com
37. infodespieces.com
38. insomniapublimedia.com
39. irming.net
40. ist-sl.com
41. javierpardina.com
42. jlnavarropintor.com
43. juanshows.com
44. keramarmol.com
45. kinessan.com
46. kmb-elche.com
47. lamestarestaurante.com
48. leoplant-josemanuel.com
49. litosdistribuciones.com
50. manolinlao.com
51. marabbla.com
52. mentacontomate.com
53. michobranco.net
54. miguelinarivera.com
55. modacreativa.com
56. modaitalianaoutlet.com
57. murciac.com
58. museodelnaipe.com
59. musicasinplomo.com
60. musiclocated.com
61. n-foque.com
62. navarrocruz.com
63. nordicwalkingpucela.com
64. norticmotors.com
65. novhidro.com
66. ontxa.com
67. pedroferrera.net
68. pk2x.net
69. planetepi.com
70. primeguis.org
71. recambiosgalvez.com
72. restauranteelvalle.com
73. rmsystemmusic.com
74. santpacia.com
75. serbecat.com
76. sinergialab.org
77. soluciongrafika.com
78. spinsis.com
79. sport-class.com
80. stigmatoinc.com
81. successband.com
82. thepurification.org
83. tintatau.com
84. tofersports.com
85. toxicosmos.com
86. twelvetonecollective.com
87. unacajadecerillas.com
88. unionsurfera.com
89. untopic.com
90. vidalsaez.com
91. vigometropolitano.com
92. aguaparagilberto.com
93. xpresionfilms.com

Several film companies on there.
posted by evariste at 7:55 PM on October 2, 2006

25200000 is the number of seconds from the beginning of a year to Oct 19, 4pm, on that year. But it doesn't seem to be used anywhere other than being assignd to the variable 'fuso'.

It looks like on Nov. 15 at 5:20AM GMT, it'll go to frame 2 of the flash movie, but I don't know what's in frame 2.
posted by hattifattener at 7:59 PM on October 2, 2006

It looks like on Nov. 15 at 5:20AM GMT, it'll go to frame 2 of the flash movie, but I don't know what's in frame 2.

It's just the same graphic in frame 2.
posted by evariste at 8:02 PM on October 2, 2006

Because of the colors he's chosen, you can't actually read it, but there's a bunch of text it's trying to display.

All of the following is quotes from the source:

WHY

There are things worth saving. Worth treasuring simply because they are real, pure and true. The proliferations of glitz will not overcome those who believe. The purification will be our triumph.

Bitter Springs, AZ

WHEN

The clock ticks. The purification will bring the world the truth of purity. Watch the clock. Time is running out for that which is impure to control the lives of so many.

Woodward, OK

Lookout, WY

WHO

All who have forgotten what is true to the earth, the sky, and to heaven. You may be restored to the innocence you once possessed. You have but to believe it is possible.

WHAT

Earth. Sky. Heaven. They will all see a people renewed. Redeemed from the corruption of what was once held as sacred. This is the time of restoration for the many who once stood, immovable from truth.

Fort Hancock, TX

Take that for what it's worth. Two possibilities suggest themselves to me: some rather bizarre Christian group (or some other religion) is doing revival meetings on the road, or this actually is for some damned movie.

Bitter Springs, AZ (36.6266N, 111.6691W), is in the middle of the Navajo Indian Reservation. Woodward, OK (36.4385N, 99.3912W), Lookout, WY (41.6649N, 105.8069W) , and Ft. Hancock, TX (31.2998N, 103.8377), all just seem to be undistinguished spots on the map.

I would have included links to Google Maps for all those except that I can't figure out how to include the Lat/Long in a URL. But you can go there and "search" for those lat/long strings (which are approximate) and it will show you the locations. Not much to see in any of them.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 8:03 PM on October 2, 2006

Because of the colors he's chosen, you can't actually read it, but there's a bunch of text it's trying to display.

Where are you getting this? I don't see this in the HTML...
posted by sportbucket at 8:09 PM on October 2, 2006

Steven, out of curiosity, what program are you using to decompile?
posted by evariste at 8:15 PM on October 2, 2006

sportbucket, it's in the SWF file, not the HTML.
posted by evariste at 8:15 PM on October 2, 2006

Steven, if you connect the dots between the four cities do you get a nice diamond or square?
posted by evariste at 8:18 PM on October 2, 2006

Thanks evariste.

I had run the SWF through Flasm and Flare, but didn't see anything especially interesting. It's been quite a while since I've done any Flash development, so I'm not sure I'd know what to look for in a disassembly, but I definitely didn't notice any paragraphs or text. :)

Also, the text Stephen quotes sounds more pagan than Christian. I'm going to start plugging those SIPs into Google and see what I can come up with.
posted by sportbucket at 8:24 PM on October 2, 2006

Google Earth image of the four locations. Doesn't look like there's anything interesting in the middle of them, but they do make somewhat of a diamond.
posted by Pimonkey at 8:38 PM on October 2, 2006

I connected the dots in Google Map...If you use town names rather than the coordinates (exception being Bitter Springs, you get this:

posted by zerokey at 8:41 PM on October 2, 2006

Sorry..screwed up again (tiiired)
here!?
posted by zerokey at 8:45 PM on October 2, 2006

I don't know what the heck I'm talking about, but maybe it's something like (or even a part of) that Gold Rush thing on AOL?
posted by Durin's Bane at 8:47 PM on October 2, 2006

zerokey-cool! That's the same shape as the graphic in the swf. Now I wonder what the hell it all means...
posted by evariste at 8:49 PM on October 2, 2006

what's really odd is that Google (earth and maps)
has no knowledge of Bitter Springs, AZ
posted by zerokey at 8:55 PM on October 2, 2006

Another indirect Scientology reference -- this is roughly in the center of the diamond -- allegedly a Church of Scientology Sacred Vault Airfield.
posted by sportbucket at 8:56 PM on October 2, 2006

Is it possible this is part of some kind of ARG? It sounds a lot like tactics those players use -- embedding stuff in the source, bizarre front page stuff. Could it be a countdown to a launch date?
posted by theantikitty at 8:59 PM on October 2, 2006

ARG
posted by theantikitty at 9:00 PM on October 2, 2006

It means your chain is being yanked.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:00 PM on October 2, 2006

According to wikipedia, Bitter Springs is a census-designated place, not a proper municipality, so that's probably why Google doesn't think it exists.
posted by sportbucket at 9:01 PM on October 2, 2006

Ahh..thanks, sportbucket

I found another reference stating that Bitter Springs lies at the terminus of Rt. 89...I adjusted for that and it squares up the diamond a bit
posted by zerokey at 9:03 PM on October 2, 2006

If it's for a movie, take a look at the imdb list of upcoming releases. Cursory inspection reveals no obvious matches for movies coming out around November 15.
posted by roomwithaview at 9:23 PM on October 2, 2006

Is it a new ad for LOST or a spin-off? :P
posted by drstein at 9:23 PM on October 2, 2006

November 15th is the day the "In Cold Blood" murders were committed, but the new film based on the Capote story is being released in October, so that's probably not it.
posted by TochterAusElysium at 9:35 PM on October 2, 2006 [1 favorite]

And more 11/15 anniversaries...
posted by TochterAusElysium at 9:36 PM on October 2, 2006

Just a note, the number 25200000 is also the number of miliseconds in 7 hours.

Many measurements in Flash are in miliseconds. For example, the easiest way to measure durations of time is by calling the getTimer function which returns the number of miliseconds since the application started.
posted by Riemann at 9:49 PM on October 2, 2006

Ok, I've figured out what the decompiled code does. This app has 8 things on its stage. Each one has a countdown to a different time. Each one shows the countdown text on rollover until the time is reached. As the countdown time for each one is reached instead of showing the countdown text on rollover it shows the contents of its second frame.

I am grabbing the SWF now to use some custom tools and see if I can figure out what is on those second frames.

BTW: The 8 countdown times are (in miliseconds, scientific notation):

ct.counter0.eventMillisecs = 1.1613e+012;
ct.counter1.eventMillisecs = 1.16164e+012;
ct.counter2.eventMillisecs = 1.16182e+012;
ct.counter3.eventMillisecs = 1.16217e+012;
ct.counter4.eventMillisecs = 1.16243e+012;
ct.counter5.eventMillisecs = 1.16286e+012;
ct.counter6.eventMillisecs = 1.16312e+012;
ct.counter7.eventMillisecs = 1.16338e+012;

These correspond to:

Thu Oct 19 16:20:00 GMT-0700 2006
Mon Oct 23 14:46:40 GMT-0700 2006
Wed Oct 25 16:46:40 GMT-0700 2006
Sun Oct 29 17:00:00 GMT-0800 2006
Wed Nov 1 17:13:20 GMT-0800 2006
Mon Nov 6 16:40:00 GMT-0800 2006
Thu Nov 9 16:53:20 GMT-0800 2006
Sun Nov 12 17:06:40 GMT-0800 2006

Note these may be off by an hour either way depending on daylight savings settings.
posted by Riemann at 10:02 PM on October 2, 2006

Maybe the centre of the circle/diamond is what is of interest. If you take the average of the above lat/long values (that should give the centre right?) you get here, which doesn't seem to be much, but if someone can be bothered panning round the area they might find something.
posted by scodger at 10:11 PM on October 2, 2006

http://www.akajimmy.net/foo.swf

I made a shell SWF which loads a copy of their countdown SWF I copied onto my host, waits a couple seconds then fiddles with the internal variables to make it show the contents of all the objects.

The result shows the text printed above. It is all rather creepy.
posted by Riemann at 10:15 PM on October 2, 2006

On bothering - there is a town called angel fire about 5 miles to the south west. The name at least seems promising.
posted by scodger at 10:17 PM on October 2, 2006

I love this kind of puzzle. The phrase "earth, sky, heaven" is used twice.

"Among high caste Hindus, the morning begins with a prayer of praise known as the Gayatri Mantra:

Earth, Sky, Heaven,
we meditate on the lovely splendor of the Divine Sun.
May he inspire our minds."
posted by TochterAusElysium at 10:24 PM on October 2, 2006

According to here the first national vietnam memorial was erected outside angel fire.

According to its site -

On November 11, 2005, the David Westphall Veterans Foundation donated its Vietnam Veterans National Memorial to the State of New Mexico.

Maybe it has something to do with this? This is about the only thing I could find taking place around the times mentioned in Angel Fire (except a mountain biking meet).
posted by scodger at 10:38 PM on October 2, 2006

Evariste, I used Flashdigger.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:26 PM on October 2, 2006

God damn, you people are good.
posted by jmhodges at 12:04 AM on October 3, 2006

I got those four lat/long pairs out of "Streets and Trips", which does know about all four. The locations I gave are the base positions S&T lists for them. Here's how it looks plotted with S&T:



It's not a clean diamond, and none of the edges are the same length -- which may or may not mean anything.

Bitter Creek - Lookout = 470 miles
Lookout - Woodward = 500 miles
Woodward - Fort Hancock = 515 miles
Fort Hancock - Bitter Creek = 495 miles

Total length = 1980 miles

(Bitter Creek - Woodward = 680 miles,
Lookout - Fort Hancock = 715 miles)

What's interesting is that I'm not rounding any of those; they really are all multiples of 5.

And at the middle is, well, not damned much of anything. The nearest named spot on the map is "Tres Piedras" and it's the intersection of US Highway 64 and US Highway 285. It's eight and a half miles away.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:05 AM on October 3, 2006

SportBucket, that airfield is about a hundred miles from the center point. I don't think it has anything to do with this.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:15 AM on October 3, 2006

Other random things to add: Taos, NM and Wheeler Peak (13,100 ft) are nearby. There seem to be a lot of abandoned mines; ski areas, fishing. The local chambers of commerce call the immediate area "The Enchanted Circle". It's in the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) mountains. Our arrow is about 40-50 miles northwest of the Scientology vault site; something like 80 miles northeast of Los Alamos. It's the headwaters of the Rio Grande.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:16 AM on October 3, 2006

I made some minor adjustments to the end points, mostly to move them to reasonable intersections. The mark point for Woodward is now the intersection of US183 and US412. For Bitter Springs I moved it to the intersection of US89 and US89alt. For Lookout I put it at the nearest intersection on US30. For Fort Hancock I used the first intersection in the town southwest of where the railroad track crosses Texas148.

Anyway, after doing that, here's what the center looks like:



There just isn't anything near there. Angel Fire is 36.5 miles to the SE. Taos is 24 miles away. Tres Piedras is still more than 8 miles away.

It's at 36.69642N, 105.82338W.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:44 AM on October 3, 2006

(By the way, Scodger, the reason the center point I plotted isn't where you thought it was is that the Earth is round, not flat. You can't actually average the coordinates that way.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:58 AM on October 3, 2006

(Er, forget about that last comment. The reason is that it isn't a square. Oops!)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 1:00 AM on October 3, 2006

I mean the four points aren't the corners of a square. I think it's time I went to bed.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 1:09 AM on October 3, 2006

Do you get anything interesting if you superimpose the entire image (the diamond, the square, and the circle) on a map? Do the square points line up anywhere interesting?

I'm going to guess that they first decided they wanted a diamond and then picked the nearest spots on the map to those locations, so fitting a perfect diamond to it might be more useful than just drawing the actual lines.
posted by JZig at 1:32 AM on October 3, 2006

TerraServer has perhaps better imaging of the area. I can't figure out how to link, but you can get there from SCDB's coordinates. Just remember the W means you need to put it in as -105.82338 longitude.
posted by edd at 1:38 AM on October 3, 2006

What happens if you connect the same two pairs outside the rectangle instead of inside (i.e., going all the way around the earth along a great circle through the points). Where do the two lines meet then?
posted by louigi at 3:24 AM on October 3, 2006

The page seems to show a scientology website when I load it now...Hmmm....
posted by Jofus at 3:40 AM on October 3, 2006

Jofus, purification.org is the Scientology website, thepurification.org is the one talked about in this thread.
posted by keijo at 3:53 AM on October 3, 2006

Wow. Lucky I now don't look like a schmuck.
posted by Jofus at 4:08 AM on October 3, 2006

Actually, this smacks of a thing from about six years ago - www.twentythree.co.uk. (Or was it www.23.co.uk?). Anyone remember that?
posted by Jofus at 4:11 AM on October 3, 2006

What happens if you connect the same two pairs outside the rectangle instead of inside (i.e., going all the way around the earth along a great circle through the points). Where do the two lines meet then?

At 36.70 south, (180-105.82=) 74 east, that would put you somewhere in the Indian ocean, abouth a few thousand miles above the French Southern & Antarctic Lands. But I may have my spherical coordinates stuff all mixed up.
posted by swordfishtrombones at 4:15 AM on October 3, 2006

So, can some Vegas MeFite PLEASE go out there and start digging?
posted by Lucie at 4:58 AM on October 3, 2006

You guys are bad ass. This is a cool thread to wake up to.
posted by Lord_Pall at 5:11 AM on October 3, 2006

Are we ignoring the other shapes in the picture?

There's the aforementioned diamond, but there's a square inside the diamond, and a circle inside the square.

Is there anything close to the areas where those shapes might touch?

A cursory, eyeballed glance at ScDB's map above shows:

NW corner square + NW face diamond - I-70 on Utah/Colorado border

NE corner square + NE face diamond - I-70 in a eastern Colorado

SW corner square + SW face diamond - just east of the Arizona/NM border

SE corner square + SE face diamond - NM/TX border

This is so cool.
posted by mdonley at 5:21 AM on October 3, 2006

If scodger's Vietnam link is valid, perhaps this Vietnam protest on Nov 15, 1969 would be of interest.

My first thought was that this is a week after the U.S. Election Day.

Of course, theantikitty is right about this being very ARG-ish.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:40 AM on October 3, 2006

Can we look at the points made by placing a right-angled isoceles on each side? The square is possibly distorted by having to fit to some particular local, and this might give more likely places to look at, or at least some idea of the kind of size area we're looking at.
posted by edd at 6:04 AM on October 3, 2006

Mr. Gunn writes 'Of course, theantikitty is right about this being very ARG-ish.'

Agree, though there's nothing about this on unfiction - they're usually the first to spot these things and a lot of games are "seeded" via them.
posted by blag at 6:21 AM on October 3, 2006

i've seen that diamond>square>circle image before, but i can't recall it. i think it was something to do with some kind of cult.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 7:24 AM on October 3, 2006

Just a note: you are all my heroes.

If I ever have an unsolved crime, I am so posting it to AskMeFi.
posted by griffey at 7:49 AM on October 3, 2006

BTW, Ft. Hancock, TX is mentioned in "The Shawshank Redemption." A film buff might make this kind of allusion.
posted by mattbucher at 8:01 AM on October 3, 2006

The four bits of text are labeled “WHO,” “WHAT,” “WHEN,” and “WHY.” “WHERE” seems to be an obvious missing piece of this puzzle.
posted by ijoshua at 8:32 AM on October 3, 2006

From “WHY,” the phrase “real, pure and true” seems to have some connection to Rosicrucian initiation
posted by ijoshua at 8:37 AM on October 3, 2006

The 4 locations are at elevations that vary by as much as a mile:

Lookout, WY (2168m)
Bitter Springs, AZ (1559m)
Woodward, OK (589m)
Fort Hancock, TX (1095m)

2168 - 589 = 1579 meters (abt. 0.98 miles)

Additionally, I'd be curious to see if the diamond shores up at all when the distance is calculated through the planet using the elevation data, as opposed to using great circle distance. I've been trying to get this but the math is just beyond me. I know great circle distance does not usually count elevation.
posted by jwells at 8:39 AM on October 3, 2006

According to RCMO.org, an initiate should live near a “Circle of The Rose+Croix Martinist Order®” or be able to travel to one. Wyoming, Arizona, and New Mexico are mentioned.
posted by ijoshua at 8:41 AM on October 3, 2006

Oops, that last page was in a frameset. Here is the correct page.
posted by ijoshua at 8:43 AM on October 3, 2006

Has anyone emailed Wayne to ask him what it's about yet, or is that too obvious a sleuthing tactic? ;-)
posted by jack_mo at 8:43 AM on October 3, 2006

By any chance does this have anything to do with the new television series Jericho which airs on Wednesday evenings? November 15th. is a Wednesday. The show storyline focuses on a community in Kansas in the aftermath of a nuclear blast (or, possibly more) and has an apocalyptic tone to it.

At the end of the second episode (which you can view online at the website) the enigmatic character Robert Hawkins is shown placing push pins on various points on an American map -- with no explanation.
posted by ericb at 8:47 AM on October 3, 2006

jack_mo: Yeah, I e-mailed him, and added him to my buddy list. Nothing yet.

Not that I expect to hear anything, really. That'd be too easy. :)
posted by sportbucket at 8:50 AM on October 3, 2006

"Jericho -- Today is the Last Ordinary Day."
posted by ericb at 8:50 AM on October 3, 2006

"Robert has a map of the United States up and he places a red push pin in the following cities, Denver, Colorado; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Diego, California.
He also picked up 3 more push pins."
[source]

"And they did have that great closing scene, of Mysterious Black Guy...pushing pins into a map of the US representing (we assume) destroyed cities. The scene faded out with a close up of his fingers picking up push pin after push pin..."
[source]
posted by ericb at 8:55 AM on October 3, 2006

My first thought was that this is a week after the U.S. Election Day.

Well, duh. When you steal an election, you have to hide it somewhere...
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 8:55 AM on October 3, 2006

That'd be too easy. :)

If it is part of an ARG, though, the reply will likely be seemingly inoccuous, but containing a set of further clues, another website to look at, &c.

In fact, it might be worth calling the 'phone number in the WHOIS info too (fiver says it's a recorded message of a similar text to the one on the website, with enough key differences to set us off in a new direction!), though the street address seems to be fake...
posted by jack_mo at 9:04 AM on October 3, 2006

Did someone say there was a place called "Taos" near the center of that diamond? Because the variable in the SWF which contains the center countdown text is called "countertaos".
posted by Riemann at 9:13 AM on October 3, 2006

Folks, we have to solve this.

I am going to bed only very, very reluctantly. I would totally call in sick tomorrow and just keep hitting "refresh" if I had any more sick days left.
posted by mdonley at 9:18 AM on October 3, 2006

Did someone say there was a place called "Taos" near the center of that diamond?

Taos, New Mexico is near Santa Fe.
posted by ericb at 9:22 AM on October 3, 2006

"The Hum is a phenomenon involving a persistent and invasive low-frequency noise of a humming character and unknown origin, not audible to all people, reported in various geographical locations, including Taos, New Mexico, and thus it is sometimes called the Taos Hum: the lore of this phenomenon has become part of the appeal of Taos."

[source]
posted by ericb at 9:24 AM on October 3, 2006

I can't believe we all missed the Taos connection; sure enough, evariste's post way back when said that there's a variable "countertaos", and Taos is damn near the center of that diamond.

- Taos to Lookout: 364 mi
- Taos to Woodward: 344 mi
- Taos to Ft. Hancock: 353 mi
- Taos to Bitter Springs: 340 mi

Who knows if this matters at all, but it's something...
posted by delfuego at 9:46 AM on October 3, 2006

Taos is threeish hours away. Come up with a good enough reason and I can be convinced to go check it out.
posted by FlamingBore at 9:52 AM on October 3, 2006

To emphasise, this is what it's going to show when the countdowns are over
posted by riotgrrl69 at 9:55 AM on October 3, 2006

It sounds like some sort of doomday prophecy stuff. Or maybe a Harmonic Convergence.
posted by deborah at 10:02 AM on October 3, 2006

And to further emphasize on riotgrrl69's reminder, the order of the unveilings is:

- the "why" quote: "There are things worth saving. Worth treasuring simply because they are real, pure and true. The proliferations of glitz will not overcome those who believe. The purification will be our triumph."
- exactly four days later, the "when" quote: "The clock ticks. The purification will bring the world the truth of purity. Watch the clock. Time is running out for that which is impure to control the lives of so many."
- exactly two days later, the "who" quote: "All who have forgotten what is true to the earth, the sky, and to heaven. You may be restored to the innocence you once possessed. You have but to believe it is possible."
- exactly four days and 1 hour later, the "what" quote: "Earth. Sky. Heaven. They will all see a people renewed. Redeemed from the corruption of what was once held as sacred. This is the time of restoration for the many who once stood, immovable from truth."
- exactly three days later, Woodward, OK
- exactly five days later, Lookout, WY
- exactly three days later, Bitter Springs, AZ
- exactly three days later, Fort Hancock, TX
- finally, exactly two days and 11 hours later, the main countdown timer elapses and who knows what happens.
posted by delfuego at 10:03 AM on October 3, 2006

Yeah, the "where" is missing, but I guess we know that's Taos now.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 10:04 AM on October 3, 2006

Wow, I was there last summer. I can tell you from memory that the area between the gorge at Rio Grade and Rt. 285 is really flat and desolate. If youventure out there, it's BLM land, so it's pretty open, but do wear snake boots and cary lots of water.

The only real landmark close to there is the bridge over the Rio Grade on Rt. 64 which is a bungee-jumping hotspot. The area is old Apache land, so there's tons of petroglyphs on the rocks.

Hope this helps someone.
*cues creepy music*
posted by 1f2frfbf at 10:06 AM on October 3, 2006

Re: Riemann's date calculations for the various countdown clocks, I'm not sure they're perfectly right; just sitting here and comparing the clocks on the actual website with my own clock tells me that each will expire at the following times (all times Eastern, since I'm in Washington DC):

- the first (the "why" clock): 10/19/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the second (the "when" clock): 10/23/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the third (the "who" clock): 10/25/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the fourth (the "what" clock): 10/29/2006, 1:00 PM;
- the fifth (the Woodward clock): 11/1/2006, 1:00 PM;
- the sixth (the Lookout clock): 11/6/2006, 1:00 PM;
- the seventh (the Bitter Springs clock): 11/9/2006, 1:00 PM;
- the eighth (the Fort Hancock clock): 11/12/2006, 1:00 PM;
- the ninth (the final clock): 11/15/2006, midnight.

Does that jibe for everyone else?

Personally, I'm starting to think that the weird ones in there -- the "what" clock shifting off of noon, and the final clock shifting to midnight -- might be a clue worth pursuing.
posted by delfuego at 10:10 AM on October 3, 2006

The what clock shifts on the 29th--same day as daylight savings time. Indicates maybe that "real time" is more important than "clock time"?
posted by stray at 10:14 AM on October 3, 2006

Oh, I hadn't picked that up, stray -- but of course, then that means that the final clock ends up being the one that's a bit odd, since it'll fall at 11:00 PM rather than midnight.
posted by delfuego at 10:17 AM on October 3, 2006

FWIW -- ABC launches a new television series Day Break on November 15th. The storyline -- "an action-packed, thrilling re-imagining of the Groundhog Day concept" -- doesn't appear to jibe with this teaser website.
posted by ericb at 10:18 AM on October 3, 2006

Daylight savings occurs on October 29. So, if you "fall back" one hour then the time would be at noon.
posted by jefbla at 10:21 AM on October 3, 2006

There's a user named wayne at Youtube. He hasn't posted anything yet, been a user for over a year, but curiously, has 3 subscribers to his channel.
posted by jefbla at 10:29 AM on October 3, 2006

OK, so here are the dates and times of the countdown clock changes once daylight savings is taken into consideration:

- the first (the "why" clock): 10/19/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the second (the "when" clock): 10/23/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the third (the "who" clock): 10/25/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the fourth (the "what" clock): 10/29/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the fifth (the Woodward clock): 11/1/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the sixth (the Lookout clock): 11/6/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the seventh (the Bitter Springs clock): 11/9/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the eighth (the Fort Hancock clock): 11/12/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the ninth (the final clock): 11/14/2006, 11:00 PM.

Note that I've tried changing my system clock, and I don't get any change in the applet's countdown clocks, so it's synchronizing with some external source for its knowledge of what day and time it is.

Seriously, this is now killing me, even though I know the answer will end up being insane or lane, or better yet insane and lame.
posted by delfuego at 10:30 AM on October 3, 2006

From “WHY,” the phrase “real, pure and true” seems to have some connection to Rosicrucian initiation

Hmmm...since the Rosicrucian Order is a legendary and secretive order and we know that Dan Brown ("DaVinci Code") has an interest in secret societies, could this be a teaser for his new book 'The Solomon Key?' While the release date has not be announced people speculate it will come out in 2007. Could this be tied to it?"
posted by ericb at 10:33 AM on October 3, 2006

even though I know the answer will end up being insane or lane

"Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine."
posted by ericb at 10:35 AM on October 3, 2006

CatholicCulture.org?
posted by FlamingBore at 10:38 AM on October 3, 2006

FWIW -- The Da Vinci Code (Full Screen Special Edition and Widescreen Special Edition) DVD is scheduled for release on Tuesday, November 14.
posted by ericb at 10:39 AM on October 3, 2006

The source of the index page includes these comments:

"url's used in the movie"
"text used in the movie"

Regarding the variable name fuso in Frame_1.as, fuso means "spindle" in Portugese. fuso means fused in Italian. The word fuso is found in numerous translations of the phrase time zone. It appears, from this translation, that the word fuso is from the Galacian Language. You can translate the word yourself here. Given that the application deals in milliseconds, I've concluded that fuso refers to the time zone from GMT (-0700), not CDT.
posted by sequential at 10:40 AM on October 3, 2006

it seems to be a mountain called cerro del aire ... or by it, anyway

the significance of this escapes me, although the area is a volcanic plain ... and obsidian is plentiful in the area

there is a form of obsidian that is known as "apache tears" ... supposedly a group of warriors jumped off a cliff rather than be captured and their kin cried tears that dried up into these

well, i don't know
posted by pyramid termite at 10:40 AM on October 3, 2006

FlamingBore -- great find!
posted by ericb at 10:41 AM on October 3, 2006

Well, here's where the applet is getting its master time:

http://www.thepurification.org/gettime.php
posted by delfuego at 10:44 AM on October 3, 2006

It took me until just now to realize that it's purification, not putrification.
posted by grateful at 10:52 AM on October 3, 2006

There's a movie called Taos in post-production now, scheduled for release in 2006. It's the story of one man's personal spiritual journey in the desert outside Taos. Doesn't sound quite right (very small production, nothing apocalyptic), but maybe worth noting.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:52 AM on October 3, 2006

The comments about urls and text used in the movie are simply generated by publishing a swf + HTML in Flash. It's a part of the HTML template.
posted by ijoshua at 10:54 AM on October 3, 2006

And here's The Cry a small horror/thriller movie filmed in Taos this year. No details about plot on IMDB. Do its production credits match up with any of the film companies on the same server?
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:55 AM on October 3, 2006

The time, delfuego, is seconds since the POSIX epoch.

Thanks for the clarification, ijoshua.
posted by sequential at 10:56 AM on October 3, 2006

From my earlier link on 11/14/2006:

God will know how to reconcile His justice and His goodness in the purification of the last members of the human race, and to supply by the intensity of the expiatory suffering what may be wanting in duration.

Then working backward there's this for 11/12/2006:

He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood (Mark 12:41-44)."

Then 11/6/2006:

No one, however, can be received into God's friendship and intimacy without having been purified of the consequences of personal sin.

I'd lookup more, but need to make a conference call.
posted by FlamingBore at 10:57 AM on October 3, 2006

Cool stuff! I've been to Angel Fire and visited the war memorial; it's a pretty neat space, architecturally.

Taos is a small but interesting place, and has its fair complement of new agers.

There's not much inbetween except for a ski resort, I think.
posted by carter at 10:58 AM on October 3, 2006

The intersection of SDB's recalculated lines is even closer to Los Alamos. Coordinates: 35.883179° -106.302827°
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:06 AM on October 3, 2006

The Cry doesn't seem to be about the end of the world.
posted by gubo at 11:28 AM on October 3, 2006

I know this dosent add much, but in light of LobsterMitten's offering of Los Alamos...
This sites owner lists very little info on his MySpace profile; he does however include his astrological sign, Cancer. From Wikipedia:

Many modern astrologers consider it to be significant that Pluto was discovered on the longitude of 20 degrees Cancer and the first atomic bomb was detonated at the moment when Saturn reached this longitude. Saturn is said to become particularly malefic in Cancer and Leo, for they are opposed to Saturn's own domiciles. Richard Saunders writes in Astrological Judgement and Practice of Physick (1677) that Black Plague of 1593 has been caused by transiting Saturn in Cancer, breeding "Flegm, thin Water, and Melancholy mixt".
posted by paxton at 11:31 AM on October 3, 2006

UPDATE: The dude who sent me the link got it from The Ultimate Insult.
posted by sportbucket at 6:45 PM PST on October 2 [+fave] [!]

Has anyone tried tracing things back? Who posted that link at The Ultimate Insult and where/how did they find it?

Many times these things lead quickly back to the creator.
posted by vacapinta at 11:32 AM on October 3, 2006

In fact, it might be worth calling the 'phone number in the WHOIS info too (fiver says it's a recorded message of a similar text to the one on the website, with enough key differences to set us off in a new direction!), though the street address seems to be fake.

Also...has anyone done this?
posted by vacapinta at 11:38 AM on October 3, 2006

I mentioned this to my friend over lunch and she reminded me of the whole point of my trip to this area last spring: to visit hot springs sites (which are all over the place due to the afore mentioned volcanic activity). I mention this only because the Apache used them as a ritual purification site. Dunno if this adds to signal or noise, but that's just one more bean in the pot.

See here (pdf) (or here for html) for an interesting document I turned up using the terms apache, hot, springs and purification on Google, that actually references Taos.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 11:40 AM on October 3, 2006

Also...has anyone done this?

Yes. It appears to be his personal number or voice mail. The voice on the answering machine has a slight drawl, identifies itself as Wayne (which matches the registration), and makes no mention of the site. I did not leave a message.

How many other people are going to appear on his caller id?
posted by sequential at 11:50 AM on October 3, 2006

Just called the number on the site registration.

"Hi, this is Wayne leave your name, number and I'll call right back."

I did neither, but he sounds like a nice guy. Not nearly as sinister as I was expecting; I was ready to be frightened, maybe even leave work early out of sheer terror. My guess is that Wayne is releasing his new Country album in this general area.
posted by paxton at 11:51 AM on October 3, 2006

Hopi Nuclear Maiden. 10th paragraph down.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 12:03 PM on October 3, 2006

Poison Fire, Sacred Earth
posted by Mr. Gunn at 12:05 PM on October 3, 2006

Is the layout of the website itself a clue, in combination with the triggering/recording of the events?

- the first (the "why" clock): 10/19/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the second (the "when" clock): 10/23/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the third (the "who" clock): 10/25/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the fourth (the "what" clock): 10/29/2006, 12:00 noon;
= clockwise on the .swf

- the fifth (the Woodward clock): 11/1/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the sixth (the Lookout clock): 11/6/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the seventh (the Bitter Springs clock): 11/9/2006, 12:00 noon;
- the eighth (the Fort Hancock clock): 11/12/2006, 12:00 noon;
= counterclockwise on the .swf

I can't think of any clocks that are divided into eighths, but I'm curious why the first four events show up in one direction and the next four show up in the reverse direction. ... Is the visual layout a metaphor for something?
posted by Tuwa at 12:35 PM on October 3, 2006

I can't think of any clocks that are divided into eighths...

oh my god...it's TIMECUBE!!!
posted by Pastabagel at 12:47 PM on October 3, 2006 [1 favorite]

Gears of War for the XBox 360.
posted by stx23 at 12:57 PM on October 3, 2006

Wow, Pastabagel, that page is something else.
posted by Tuwa at 1:10 PM on October 3, 2006

LobsterMitten, that's not "closer" - that's very much Los Alamos. See the Google Map with those coordinates. Here's the Satellite Hybrid.
posted by FlamingBore at 1:16 PM on October 3, 2006

Astronomy searches yielded the only significant events are November 19, 2006, the date the Leonids will be visible, and November 8, 2006, the date of the Transit of Mercury. No eclispes or major phases of the moon seem to coincide.
posted by sequential at 1:18 PM on October 3, 2006

I called him

"Hello, dispatch?"

"Hi, is that Wayne Arnold?"

"This is Wayne yeah."

"Do you know anything about a website called ThePurification.org?"

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm interested in learning more about a website called ThePurification.org, do you know anything about that?"

"...I'm afraid you have the wrong number."

"OK, sorry to bother you. Thanks."

I guess I could have explained it to him but I was surprised he answered at all!
posted by riotgrrl69 at 1:20 PM on October 3, 2006

Oh I do love a good plot twist.
posted by FlamingBore at 1:24 PM on October 3, 2006

Poor Wayne, he's probably going to freak out b/c all of the sudden random strangers are calling and emailing him. Meanwhile....his baby's due on November 15th or its his 30th birthday or something.
posted by echo0720 at 1:29 PM on October 3, 2006

Oh, never mind, my preview didn't work correctly and I missed the past 2 hrs of comments.
posted by echo0720 at 1:30 PM on October 3, 2006

This new twist is easily as intriguing as any TV show in recent memory. Which means that probably this has something to do with lonelygirl15.
posted by Greg Nog at 1:31 PM on October 3, 2006

As posted in the comments on The Ultimate Insight: anyone up for some cracking?

http://www.thepurification.org/beta/

Someone should really call Wayne and verify his address and explain what's going on. There's no disputing the fact that his name and phone number were used to register the site, but it's very possible someone just used his info when registering the domain. As we've discovered, it's not all that hard to track him down.
posted by sportbucket at 1:34 PM on October 3, 2006

Wayne does not sound Hispanic. At all.
posted by riotgrrl69 at 1:35 PM on October 3, 2006

Re Hindu scripture and Los Alamos: Oppenheimer said he had the Bhagavad-Gita in mind while watching the Trinity test.
posted by davidfg at 1:36 PM on October 3, 2006

By getting the flash to point to my own copy of gettime.php, I can make it look like whatever at any point in time. Setting it to November 16th results in an all-white background, the same black diamond with a white square and circle in the middle, and all black text below that says: The Purification. The clock is gone.

Nothing else happens. It's possible the flash file will be updated between now and then to do whatever it's supposed to do, it's possible that the flash is trying to load another asset that I don't have, or maybe that's it.
posted by crawl at 1:41 PM on October 3, 2006

Oops... I forgot to go back and fill in that first link. It's up in one of the first comments, anyway.

Also intriguing from that site is this exchange:

Where did you find this link, Scott?
Comment by Mr. Gunn — 10/03/2006 @ 02:59 pm

I’m not sure Mr. Gunn, I don’t remember…. either some random linkdump or google. Dunno.
Comment by Scott — 10/03/2006 @ 04:12 pm

Scott's the one who originally posted the link that was then IM'd to me before I posted it here. The only other reference to this site I can find is in a post on Livejournal.

So much for tracing it back to its origins.
posted by sportbucket at 1:43 PM on October 3, 2006

From The Ultimate Insult:

Where did you find this link, Scott?

Comment by Mr. Gunn — 10/03/2006 @ 02:59 pm

I’m not sure Mr. Gunn, I don’t remember…. either some random linkdump or google. Dunno.

Comment by Scott — 10/03/2006 @ 04:12 pm

I find this very fishy, considering that Google has no records of any sites which link to the countdown. The Ultimate Insult may be the first seed.
posted by ijoshua at 2:02 PM on October 3, 2006

I love a challenge... this post got me to join MetaFilter. :)

I think the Spanish for the password prompt at /beta is a red herring - the site is hosted with Spain-based company (cdmon.com). There have been whois changes on the domain the last few days, but I only have a free membership at DomainTools and thus can't access them.

Checking a whois on askjimmy.net, though, reveals something more: the primary contact is a Matthew Owen in Seattle, and his e-mail address is at metastories.com - an online marketing firm of sorts. There is a phone number listed on the whois info, but I'm not in a place at the moment where I can make a call.

As an aside, I noticed that thepurification.com is also registered to Wayne, though it's simply parked with GoDaddy.

This is fun... :)
posted by theharmonyguy at 2:09 PM on October 3, 2006

Sorry, where did askjimmy.net come from?
posted by riotgrrl69 at 2:13 PM on October 3, 2006

theharmonyguy, the akajimmy.net version of the flash animation was done by a member here, to show what the time lapse reveals. It has nothing to do with the original on thepurification.org.
posted by Espy Gillespie at 2:15 PM on October 3, 2006

"Checking a whois on askjimmy.net, though, reveals something more: the primary contact is a Matthew Owen in Seattle, and his e-mail address is at metastories.com - an online marketing firm of sorts."

He's one of us. He cracked the "real" .swf to show what would happen in later stages of the countdown, and posted it to his site to share.
posted by sportbucket at 2:16 PM on October 3, 2006

Anyone up for some more phone calls?
posted by paxton at 2:16 PM on October 3, 2006

My bad - I meant "akajimmy.net," the site where the final .swf is hosted.

I'm really thinking this is Hopi-related - check out this site and search for "purification".
posted by theharmonyguy at 2:16 PM on October 3, 2006

DROP MATTHEW OWEN FALSE ALARM
posted by riotgrrl69 at 2:17 PM on October 3, 2006

Well scratch that last idea, sorry about that Mr Owen.
posted by paxton at 2:18 PM on October 3, 2006

Someone with guts should call Wayne, say "I expect you've been getting weird phone calls" and explain the situation. Which is, essentially, someone's been pretending to be him on the Internet and giving his phone number out. It seems.
posted by riotgrrl69 at 2:19 PM on October 3, 2006

Ah ok, sorry about that - I understand now. False alarm.
posted by theharmonyguy at 2:19 PM on October 3, 2006

LobsterMitten, that's not "closer" - that's very much Los Alamos. See the Google Map with those coordinates. Here's the Satellite Hybrid.
posted by FlamingBore at 4:16 PM EST on October 3 [+fave] [!]

Sorry for the misunderstanding, FB: I meant "the intersection of the lines is near Los Alamos. If you're interested to see where Los Alamos is, its coordinates are these (...)." So, yes, the coordinates I gave are the ones wikipedia gives for Los Alamos.
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:23 PM on October 3, 2006

This is going to be about some Da-Vinci-Code-type fictional work based on Hopi mythology.

In some Hopi prophecy, eight signs precede the end of the present age, the ninth sign, when a blue star falls to the earth. (google "white feather bear clan" for links, and note that there are nine clocks). The end of the world is called the Day of Purification.
posted by gubo at 2:26 PM on October 3, 2006 [1 favorite]

If this is going to be genuine advertising for a genuine marketable product, why on earth would they give the phone number of someone who works in "dispatch" as the owner? And if it's Wayne's personal fun project, why wouldn't he own up a little? I think this is something else. Probably someone screwing around and registering under a name they happen to find. It just doesn't seem commercial to me.
posted by riotgrrl69 at 2:32 PM on October 3, 2006

So the Smoking Man was right all along?
posted by paxton at 2:38 PM on October 3, 2006

Hopi Prophecy Rock
posted by ijoshua at 2:38 PM on October 3, 2006

More from wikipedia:
The Hopi, a Native American people, also describe that a great spiritual Teacher, known as the 'Elder Brother' or 'True White Brother', is coming as the "Rising Sun" to reunite the world's two streams separated in a far past (to rejoin the "stone tablets"). The Hopi have a complex and comprehensive view of the history and evolution of mankind, derived from oral tradition, and tend also to see history and evolution as cyclical (although this process is also conceived as a spiral process into higher stages of unfoldment). The True White Brother is expected to come after the two great wars, in order to inaugurate the future age: the "Day of Purification". The symbology described to be related to this event is as following: "this third event will depend upon the Red Symbol, which will take command, setting the four forces of nature (Meha) in motion for the benefit of the Sun."
posted by paxton at 2:46 PM on October 3, 2006

Yeah, I like the Hopi connection, too. In ijoshua's link, it describes the Hopi prophecy in detail, basically saying that the Purification will come about when China, Palestine, India and Africa begin WWIII by destroying the US with nuclear weapons. Only the Hopi lands will be spared, which are around Four Corners. Maybe you're not supposed to find the center of the diamond, but instead the diamond describes the area that will be spared.
posted by team lowkey at 2:49 PM on October 3, 2006

There have been whois changes on the domain the last few days, but I only have a free membership at DomainTools and thus can't access them.

I have an appropriate membership and the domain history doesn't show any significant changes. though it's only got three listings, curiously enough, one for each of the last three days.
posted by FlamingBore at 2:50 PM on October 3, 2006

Yeah, definitely working on the Hopi angle. gubo's comment seals that for me. Now for the details - book, movie, or what?
posted by Mr. Gunn at 2:53 PM on October 3, 2006

It seems like most of the stuff in ijoshua's link has less to do with actual Hopi lore than the creative interpretations of "Dr. Allen Ross."
posted by Espy Gillespie at 2:57 PM on October 3, 2006

I'd like to pre-emptively counter any accusations that I'm witholding information... "Hopi prophecy" is one of the things I mentioned in my "more inside" entry, and at the time it wasn't based on anything beyond a half-remembered episode of Nova or maybe the X-Files. Interesting to see it come back with some validity.
posted by sportbucket at 2:59 PM on October 3, 2006

Here's a link to the StumbleUpon user who submitted this link. Definitely the earliest reference I can find -- September 30.

http://magichal.stumbleupon.com/

He's 14, though. Tracking him down doesn't seem very ethically sound.
posted by sportbucket at 3:03 PM on October 3, 2006

sportbucket: I'd agree with you but how do you know he's really 14? This is his first post and he joined on August 11th. Is there some crazy search tool that would let us find out if that photo is being used elsewhere (stock photo, stolen from somewhere, etc.)?
posted by capndesign at 3:13 PM on October 3, 2006

Hey guys, just in case anyone is still wondering my domain at akajimmy is just something I use occasionally to host stuff for various roleplaying games I am involved in. I just stuck the SWF up there temporarily in order to "crack" it and see what it looks like when the timers run out.

BTW: Metastories was a content company, not marketing. And is now part of Brightcove.
posted by Riemann at 3:13 PM on October 3, 2006

capndesign: interesting point. I suppose even if he turns out to be 29, I still wouldn't want to publish is contact information everywhere.

Any StumbleUpon users want to help us get in touch with this guy?
posted by sportbucket at 3:17 PM on October 3, 2006

I just sent him a message asking him about it.
posted by bob sarabia at 3:26 PM on October 3, 2006

oops, i did too bob. Oh well. Well, hopefully he'll respond to one of us.
posted by capndesign at 3:31 PM on October 3, 2006

Here is what it looks like when the timer runs out. I put www.thepurification.org as local in my hosts file, created a gettime.php, and changed system time. Not that interesting.
posted by sanko at 3:38 PM on October 3, 2006

The stumbleupon user is named magichal, and he's apparently a fan of puzzles.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 3:38 PM on October 3, 2006

Sanko that image isn't loading for me.
posted by thirteenkiller at 3:41 PM on October 3, 2006

sanko: I did the same thing earlier. I'm thinking that either the Flash will be updated before then with something more interesting, or Flash is trying to load an asset that we don't have (or doesn't exist).

I might later sniff my network traffic and see if the Flash is requesting something over the network when that happens.
posted by crawl at 3:44 PM on October 3, 2006

Sorry, crawl, missed that. But I did examine my logs and it's not looking to load anything else, at least not from www.thepurification.org.

thirteenkiller - port forwarding was going to the wrong place.. should work now.
posted by sanko at 3:49 PM on October 3, 2006

There is no attempt in the code to load an external asset.
posted by Riemann at 4:03 PM on October 3, 2006

I'm IMing with Mr. Magichal as I type this. He's telling me all sorts of crazy secrets that I'll share with you guys - for a price.
posted by Item at 4:07 PM on October 3, 2006

All the tea.
posted by riotgrrl69 at 4:09 PM on October 3, 2006

Says his friend found the link and he doesn't know anything else about the site. Now he's babbling about Eon-8.
posted by Item at 4:11 PM on October 3, 2006

fwiw: If you google MagicHAL's name, you'll find many other social networking profiles. His Soundclick profile has a photo similar to his Stumbleupon photo. With a cursory glance, I noticed many of his other profiles were recently created -- several in August 2006.
posted by Hankins at 4:27 PM on October 3, 2006

OK, everybody.

Time to throw a mother of a spanner into the works...

[prev1] and [prev2]

Have fun!
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:27 PM on October 3, 2006 [1 favorite]

Huh, this Wayne guy lives in my town. Not familar with that street though. /me goes to find map
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 4:33 PM on October 3, 2006

UbuRoivas, is there any connection between the MayDay Mystery and this site other than that they're mysteries?
posted by riotgrrl69 at 4:38 PM on October 3, 2006

item - any word from Harry Potter about where his friend found the site?

It's funny, a 14 year old kid from england who looks just like harry potter and is into ARGs...tempting, but unless he can help us trace the site, I think it's a dead end. The guy is definitely real, and 14. It doesn't take long to figure that out, so I wouldn't want to dig more than that into his personal info.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 4:45 PM on October 3, 2006

riotgrrl69 - they're both set in / around AZ, for a start. Hints of similar subject matter, as well. I thought that might be enough to suggest a connection, outside of all these movie / publishing viral marketing theories.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:53 PM on October 3, 2006

The site admin of maydaymystery.org is registered in Cleveland, OH. I sent him an email inviting him to come join us if he had any info to share.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:14 PM on October 3, 2006

Computer virus countdown? Purifying teh noobs?
posted by vanoakenfold at 5:25 PM on October 3, 2006

The site admin of maydaymystery.org is registered in Cleveland, OH.

He's also one of our own.
posted by sportbucket at 5:27 PM on October 3, 2006

Maybe that connection to mayday was a bit tenuous, but it popped into my mind very strongly when I saw this new mystery, so thought it would be worth a shot.

The thing is that there is so much detail in mayday that there are likely to be points of coincidence, but just finding them could be a problem, let along evaluating their significance. Who better to assist than the "sysadmin and geek" owner of the mayday site?
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:33 PM on October 3, 2006

aw, christ, here we go ... (runs for hills)
posted by bhance at 5:33 PM on October 3, 2006

So is Robert Truman Hungerford just slightly nuts?
posted by riotgrrl69 at 5:37 PM on October 3, 2006

hance - I mentioned it in the MeTa thread, too. heh. come May 1, 2007 I'll post the ad to AskMe and see if y'all can tell me where the Freaks are meeting.
posted by carsonb at 5:42 PM on October 3, 2006

by the way, for anyone wondering if bhance is 'connected' to this purification thing, I can vouch that he is certainly not. (are you making babies yet b? how's cleveburg?)
posted by carsonb at 5:44 PM on October 3, 2006

So, um, how exactly does this fit in with mayday? Other than being bizarre, mathematical, and vaguely location/meeting oriented.

I'm not seeing the connection.
posted by Freen at 6:24 PM on October 3, 2006

thepurification.org bears no connection to the mayday mystery outside of the fact that they're both mysterious. that's what I was trying to say before. I apologize for having nothing to add in response to the original question.
posted by carsonb at 6:28 PM on October 3, 2006

You're just not looking hard enough, obviously.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:30 PM on October 3, 2006

Do enlighten us, Sherlock.
posted by Tuwa at 6:34 PM on October 3, 2006

Ok, not super likely, but I suppose possible: this releases the Friday after the countdown ends. Plot: "While trapped in a Twilight Zonish high desert environment, a hunted rock musician is forced to confront his whole past life when an eccentric, prophet tells him his has one night left to live. "
posted by TochterAusElysium at 6:51 PM on October 3, 2006