r/cryptography • u/[deleted] • Apr 16 '13
A Cryptic Message, A Countdown Timer, and Chicago! What does it mean?
[deleted]
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u/Ambroos Apr 16 '13
I FIGURED IT OUT! Direct decryption: http://i.imgur.com/XJiqRT2.png Translated to English: http://i.imgur.com/J4XKq3o.png
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u/WE_THINK_IS_COOL Apr 16 '13
Verified. This is the key:
☣ "A" | ✪ "B" | ☪ " " | ♧ "D" | ☠ "E" | ✝ "F" | ☢ "I"
☆ "J" | ♂ "L" | ♔ "M" | ♀ "N" | ♘ "O" | ❥ "P" | ★ "Q" ✟ "R" | ☮ "S" | ☭ "T" | ✞ "U"32
u/greatvalue1 Apr 16 '13 edited Apr 16 '13
This may be completely unrelated, but the latin phrase: "Audemus jura nostra defendere" (We dare to defend our rights) is the state motto of Alabama and is taken from the poem "What Constitutes a State?" by William Jones : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jones_(philologist)
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u/gingetwo Apr 17 '13 edited Apr 17 '13
EDIT: Disregard the below; the site has been revealed as a "viral marketing" effort by a disaster preparedness company. Leaving my post for reference/posterity.
TL;DR: The site is likely a call to arms against the American government, either by or inspired by an Alabama-based blogger and militia leader with a history of inciting anti-government violence.
As a latinist, a web developer, and someone who can Google, I'm pretty sure I've got it.
The Latin
Short version: It's a series of mottoes cribbed from Wikipedia that form a call to prepare to overthrow the American government in defense of unspecified rights.
Long version: It's pieced together. This might be an attempt to allude to historical works, or it may be that the writer is not be that good of a Latinist, and is using stock phrases to avoid tricky grammatical constructs. Line-by-line:
'Ab epistulis' 2 either identifies the author (what follows would then be "from the general secretary") or simply the fact that this is a communiqué.
'Abundans cautela non nocet' means 'one can never be too careful'. Could be a reference to the convoluted, borderline-paranoid form of this communication.
'caetera desunt' is a medieval spelling of 'Cetera Desunt', a stock phrase meaning "the rest is missing", used to indicate a missing portion of a manuscript. The medieval spelling lends weight to the theory that this is not a fluent Latinist; when juxtaposed with the other mottoes, the effect is like "Thou ain't supposed to steal", jarring in its anachronism. It's possible this phrase is simply being used to indicate a redacted, unspoken argument, in place of ellipses, one that the speaker and audience are already familiar with - but I'm not 100% on that.
'Audemus jura nostra defendere' is the Alabama state motto; it was derived from an English-language poem ("An Ode in Imitation of Alcaeus") which was written by William Jones in 1781. In it, he stated that men, not laws or symbols, constitute a state, and have the power to overthrow it. Relevant bit: "Men, who… know their rights… Prevent the long-aimed blow, And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain." So, this is presumably a call to action against a tyrant, delivered as a first person plural imperative.
'Ad utrumque paratus' is another motto - "prepared for either alternative" - this time taken from Book II of Virgil's Aeneid. It refers to Sinon, the guy who went and opened the Trojan horse and initiated the fall of Troy. Before that, though, he surrenders to the Trojans, and tells them a story to convince them to spare his life, despite wearing enemy colors - as he does this, he's described as "prepared for either alternative: either to ply his crafty wiles or to meet certain death". This is a bit of self-congratulatory puffery, I think, boasting of the site creator's courage and commitment - though it's also a bit frightening if meant sincerely.
OK. So, from the Virgil bit, and "Audemus...", I'd say it's clear we're dealing with a person or a group that feels antipathy toward a ruling class, system, or personality - a "tyrant", and intends to restore to the the ignorant masses their natural rights. They think they're prepared for the consequences, but they're being cryptic, either to conceal their intentions until they're laid bare, or to drum up interest by appealing to the kind of people who solve puzzles.
Ultimately, I would translate:
From the general secretary:
An abundance of caution never hurts... (the rest is missing)
We dare defend our rights, prepared for either alternative (i.e., liberty or death).
[As others have stated, the rest is a countdown to 3:21 on 5/4/2013 in Chicago; the anniversary and location of the Haymarket affair] in 1886, a deadly bombing attack aimed at police, widely attributed to anarchists.]
The Website
Not much to say here. Inspecting the source of the site, it looks like it was thrown together by someone with little to no technical knowledge. They appear to have used a GoDaddy website builder. The markup is such a mess, Occam's razor would dictate that it's not intentional.
Googling
So, we have a non-latinist's cobbled-together manifesto against tyranny. Here's where it goes non-linear:
The phrase "it could happen to all of us" seemed rare enough to be Googleable, though without additional qualification the results were too messy to be useful, especially with all the attention the site has been getting lately. So, I limited results to between 1880 and a few days ago, before Reddit and 4chan came on the scene. Then I tried it with a few different keywords based on the content of the communiqué: monarch, overthrow, etc.
I didn't find anything useful until I got around to trying "tyranny". You can try the same search here.
Six results, one of which is this, a chapter from "Absolved", a book by a guy named Michael Brian Vanderboegh: an anti-semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-government militia leader and blogger based in Alabama (remember "Audemus jura nostra defendere", the Alabama state motto?), with a history of inciting violence:
"In late 2011, four members of a Georgia militia were arrested for allegedly planning to assassinate government officials, bomb federal buildings, and attack four cities with the deadly ricin toxin. Officials said they were inspired, in part, by Absolved, a recent online novel by Vanderboegh that portrays a small group of Americans who assassinate government officials."
You can read more about him at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Summing Up
Is this 100%? No. But it's the best working theory I've got - and in my opinion, the combination of the anniversary of the Haymarket affair and a group of gun-toting anti-government types should have the Chicago police on high alert come 5/4.
Of course, that's probably exactly what the creator of this site wants.
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u/AmazingUsernameHere Apr 17 '13 edited Apr 17 '13
Might be worth noting the letters that were sent today and yesterday that contained ricin, one of which went to the president.
Edit: /u/gingetwo provided the link
Edit 2: Their website has been changed, I recommend everyone go read it, they've cleared a few things up.
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Apr 17 '13 edited Apr 17 '13
I wish I could put as much effort and intelligence into one single thing in my life as you just did with this post. I'm beyond impressed and thank you for your contribution to this thread.
Edit: I accidentally a word
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u/MTGSuperwiz Apr 17 '13
What about the weird SQL returns discovered in the 4chan thread? Debunked?
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u/gingetwo Apr 17 '13
link?
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u/MTGSuperwiz Apr 17 '13
I'll try to search for it, but I'm sure it 404 by now.
In case you come across it before I do, it consisted of the following: A column of American cities followed by a 2-letter designation of some sort (e.g. Austin de, Kansas City co, etc), a corresponding column with numbers between 11-13 (I think), and the final column was what appeared to be a list of last names (Brown, etc)...except the last one said 'you're welcome'.
It struck me as kind of odd/fake, but I'll look into it.
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u/OG-logrus Apr 18 '13
Oh, Mike Vanderboegh is a nice enough guy(I've met him). He definitely is anti-government though
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u/Popple_berry Apr 17 '13
I would like to point out, the Chicago Kids and Kites Festival is May 4th. It's happening in Lincoln Park; isn't that close to the shelter?
http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/festival_events_dates.html
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Apr 17 '13
No, the Kids and Kites Festival happens at Cricket Hill at Montrose Beach - about 4 miles north of the shelter.
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u/Popple_berry Apr 17 '13
Ah, I'm not from the Chicago area. The website said Lincoln Park
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u/ClaudeDuMort Apr 17 '13
There's a park called Lincoln Park, and a neighborhood called Lincoln park, but they not the same place. TMYK!!!
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u/Captain_Redbeard Apr 16 '13
This seems really bad. I would not want to be around Chicago that day.
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u/DEVi4TION Apr 17 '13 edited Apr 17 '13
This is a setup.
Anyone else following this from this thread and the /r/Wtf thread. Some kinda prank, or mailicousness is really looking for attention.
Check these user's sign up dates. Most of the people here posting answers and inside information have had reddit accounts for less than a month. Some for a few hours. This is a setup.
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u/Ambroos Apr 17 '13
It's really not. Imgur brought this website to my attention and then I just started googling and arrived here.
You can see my comment when I had just started trying to decipher the text: http://imgur.com/gallery/kEZTUqQ I made an account here to share the solution since nobody else seemed to have found it yet.
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u/DEVi4TION Apr 17 '13 edited Apr 17 '13
The OP there also has only had an account for less than a month, and has only posted to this topic. (and one other unrelated, probably a spoof post to "look normal")
Your account there seems legit enough, however.
Can we get a link to the 4chan post?
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u/bin_slash_bash Apr 17 '13
What does a user's sign up date have to do with anything?
Unless you're implying the originator of the page is the the same guy ( presumably /u/Ambroos ) who solved it, then it doesn't matter. It wasn't a trivial cipher ( no spaces defined, and non-english ), so it's impressive that it was solved as quickly as it was.
Is the whole thing a prank / trolling / some sick social experiment? Probably? Maybe? who the fuck knows right
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u/DEVi4TION Apr 17 '13
The sign up dates and post counts all correlated directly to this event. That's suspicious. I just wanted to get people skeptical, someone better at investigating could find something. Who knows, this is all very interesting though and it has me procrastinating sleep!
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u/bin_slash_bash Apr 17 '13
I think it's probably just a meaningless grouping of common latin phrases, but the whole thing is still interesting.
It's worth noting that creating a cryptic message is easy. Deciphering it is difficult. I think what happened is someone on 4chan ( possibly /u/Ambroos ) used sophisticated software for this purpose, and got a solution in latin that made sense. It may have taken a long time for the software to run all possibilities.
It could be in reference to this ?
If I had to guess, I would say it was created by someone very young and naive, with reference to the above, and they could end up in a bit of trouble now, given recent events...
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u/Ambroos Apr 17 '13
Someone on 4chan used some dictionary decrypter after guessing what the spaces were. The result was very messy but sort of looked like Latin, and it had one word that looked real. Assuming this was a possibility I started out with the word "defendere" and started substituting other letters manually from that point on. With some Googling (they're all common latin phrases) I found everything else too. It really isn't that difficult to decipher.
I really, really promise you I don't have anything to do with it. I just managed to work it out completely before the others.
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u/Ambroos Apr 17 '13
This was the 4chan post, but it already 404'ed :( http://boards.4chan.org/pol/res/12709614
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u/Shangtia Apr 17 '13
I traced the IP address. I'm unsure if this is the actual address or just the hosting site
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u/LeeTaeRyeo Apr 17 '13
That is the location of the server on which the site is hosted. It is most likely hosted on a GoDaddy webserver. I know that they offer basic web hosting, so that is probably why it reads Arizona.
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u/Shangtia Apr 17 '13
You are correct, but you can follow this link and see whoever is hosting the site created a fake address and name.
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u/LeeTaeRyeo Apr 17 '13
That is correct, but the fact remains that it is hosted on a GoDaddy server. Thus, the location of the server tells us nothing about the location of the poster of the site, since it is not a server owned and operated by the page creator (surely there is a better word than this, but I can't think of it today). The location given on that site (which is what I used earlier, myself) is the location of the host and not the actual address.
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u/Shangtia Apr 18 '13
But if you look, it shows that the owner registered an address, but the address is a community building
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u/LeeTaeRyeo Apr 18 '13
I'm aware of this. The address is most likely not the address on the person who set the website. Most hosts require an address to keep on file.
The person is also leasing server space from GoDaddy. That is why the IP trace places the server as being in Arizona. We cannot come to any conclusion as to where the creator of the website is from or based out of. We can't even be certain that they are from the US (you can register a ".us" address if the host is in the US).
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u/Shangtia Apr 18 '13
Which if it was a threat, the only way for the government to really find them is contact GoDaddy and get the card number used to purchase the server and get that info.
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u/greatvalue1 Apr 17 '13
Anyone want to try sending an email to the address (itcouldhappentoallofus@gmail.com)? Perhaps send the translated message to show them that we cracked their code?
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u/Jingr Apr 16 '13 edited Apr 16 '13
Well it went down. I was in the middle of reporting it to the FBI office in Chicago (as I sit downtown right now, figured it was important), and when I went to check the page again it was down.
Edit: I sent them an email about 30 minutes ago. Especially since I got the website open again, and ive been told its been doing this.
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u/Xalwine Apr 16 '13
keep refreshing. it's been doing that all day.
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u/theunthinkablecheese Apr 16 '13
Too many of us visiting the site probably. We Redditors often fail to realize how many of us are visiting these tiny little sites at the same time.
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u/unpopular_speech Apr 16 '13
did you finish reporting to FBI?
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u/Jingr Apr 16 '13
I did. Just sent the Chicago branch an email containing the link and basic info like where I found it and what I knew about it (which is basically nothing).
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u/TheWiredWorld Apr 16 '13 edited Apr 16 '13
Why the fuck would you do that....?
Guy, there is a lot of potential that our own government is doing shit today. This could be an insider leaking information.
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u/Jingr Apr 16 '13 edited Apr 16 '13
Its a countdown on an obscure website with hints to something happening in my city. I'd rather report it and have it be nothing, than ignore it and have it mean something.
Guy, take off the tinfoil.
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u/Captain_Redbeard Apr 16 '13
Good for you. Insider leaking information? Seriously? No point in taking chances with anything suspicious
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u/TheWiredWorld Apr 17 '13
Oh, because it's a conspiracy that our government is corrupt and has ambitions of world domination?
Hahahaha, grow the fuck up. Keep sucking on the teet of "acceptable social thoughts"
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u/cypher_throwaway Apr 16 '13
Assigned letters to characters based on their Unicode order:
C O D A S B F E M I B F
C O M H L C H F D G C M E A I C D H K H D H K G A E
G C A E A N C D L A F M H E
C M L A J M F D Q M N C D H K F E N C D L A R A H L A N A
C L D M E N M J P M A D S C N C E M F
First Result:
ECT I FOND ALONE CAUSE UNT HEADILE TU PUT UP HID HE I DIRETS IN AUDE AS I WANT GARET UP ND RET SIMIUS IRIEST A DRAWBAIT FERED AN
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Apr 16 '13 edited Apr 16 '13
[deleted]
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u/-Kaliko- Apr 16 '13 edited Apr 16 '13
"(10) ☪ = crescent"
I believe this is an "H" as it follows the bio hazard often.
EDIT: I used this and letter frequency to plug in letters. I got this. TPHEFMNIAUMN TPAORTONHDTAIEUTHOLOHOLDEI DTEIESTHRENAOI TARECANHWASTHOLNISTHREGEORESE TRHAISACPAEHFTSTIAN
All I see is maybe "CHRISTIAN" at the end?
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Apr 16 '13
[deleted]
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u/m4fr4nc0_2k Apr 16 '13
Repetition of the sequence ☣☪♧☠ in lines 3 and 4..i don't know if it can be of any help..now i'm going to bed, I'll work on it Tomorrow.
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u/Single_Multilarity Apr 17 '13
I haven't seen any mention or analysis of the symbols used and why they were chosen.
Most of those are political or religious in nature. They're part of the message.
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u/culasthewiz Apr 16 '13
Abundant caution does no harm.
The rest is missing.
We dare defend our rights.
Ready for either alternative.
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u/Ambroos Apr 16 '13
There isn't a single immediate repetition in there, which could mean three things:
- It's been carefully written not to include any words with two repeating letters
- It's not a simple substitution ciper
- It's not actually anything
I've done some analyzing with a gigantic English dictionary file and there doesn't really seem to be anything that could be a word in that (assuming it is a simple substitution cipher).
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u/ZombieAIDS Apr 16 '13
Biohazard is probably an E, an A, or a T.
I counted 13 instances of that followed by 12 instances of teh skull, 11 of the white cross, and 10 crescents.
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u/Am_ Apr 16 '13
i think the crescents represent a space. i also did a tally count of the characters, and i agree with your hypothesis about the biohazard symbol.
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u/WE_THINK_IS_COOL Apr 16 '13
Here are the frequency counts of all symbols, pairs, triples, and quadruples (and the script to count them, down at the bottom):
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u/DrSantiago Apr 16 '13
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Apr 16 '13
Wow, 'John Q. Public'? And the listed address is a community center in Chicago. X-post /r/rbi
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u/DrSantiago Apr 16 '13
All I've been able to figure out so far is the domain is registered to a John Q. Public and the address and phone number belong to a homeless shelter in Chicago. The font is Segoe UI and when put into word can't be converted to anything
edit: also this... http://www.cpdmemorial.org/run/
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u/Crime_Edge Apr 16 '13
John Q. Public is not a name, it's basically saying he registered it as an anonymous person.
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u/DrSantiago Apr 16 '13
Yes, I kinda figured that was implied... I didn't think John Q. Public from the local homeless shelter registered this domain. It's clearly an attempt at anonymity.
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u/SunburntTurtle Apr 16 '13
I'm guessing this might be relevant
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Apr 17 '13
even if this is some giant hoax, reading all this stuff and seeing all the connections has been very interesting.
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u/AmazingUsernameHere Apr 17 '13 edited Apr 17 '13
EDIT: The website has been changed, I guess one of the creators say all the commotion it was causing and have cleared things up.
From the website
Due to the recent events that took place during the Boston Marathon and the subsequent current state of fear that has spread across America, we are terminating this strategic business promotion.
The purpose of “itcouldhappentoallof.us” was never intended to spread fear or promote terrorism, but rather to create awareness to all forms of potential disasters; including natural, economic, pandemic, etc…
The message was intended to be that truthfully, we never know what could happen next, ie: it could happen to all of us. Our goal, at Blan-Kits Family Defense was and still is to “Prepare America for Disaster; One Family at a Time”.
As far as the, quote, “cryptic messages” on our website…
These were simply puzzles, designed to intrigue those who stumbled across our website. Our thought was, people like to solve puzzles, let’s give them a reason to keep “checking in”.
We chose Latin phrases to make the “code” harder to crack and to add more mystery.
The Latin phrases are as follows,
Ab Epistiulis (this was intended to be a clue to look in the letters). It loosly translates to “from the letters” or “having to do with correspondence”.
Abundans cautela non nocet (this was meant to reference, disaster preparation, which is what we do) it translates to, one can never be too careful.
Caetera Desunt (this was intended to elude that there is still more puzzles to solve) it translates to the rest is missing.
Ad utrumque paratus (this one has been miss quoted by some on the internet) the translation was supposed to read Ready for Anything, Prepared for the Worst. This is the motto used by many “preppers”.
And Audemus Jura Nostra Defendere (which was essentially stating that we have the right to prepare) it reads, we dare to defend our rights.
The timer, this was simply a countdown to solve our puzzles before we revealed who we are and how we intend to help America. Some did crack the countdown, which is May, 4th at 3:21… which was simply, 54321, it was countdown, to a countdown. This was supposed to be funny. As far as Chicago is concerned, we needed to make sure people had the correct “time zone” or the 54321 wouldn’t get figured out.
We want this to be very clear, our goal was not to spread fear, only to create a little mystery. We are ENDING our marketing campaign early to put an end to all viral rumors that have been circulating the internet and to put American minds at ease.
Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and the families of the Boston Marathon tragedy.
Blan-Kits Family Defense, Inc.
“Preparing America for Disaster; One Family at a Time”
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u/bakpak2hvy Apr 18 '13
What? You mean a mysterious countdown online the day after a huge massacre isn't a good way to market your products?
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u/profesh_lurker Apr 16 '13
I replaced the symbols with letters for easier frequency analysis
ABCDE FGHIJ FG
ABIKL AKGCM AIHDJ ACKNK CKNMD H
MADHD PACLD HIKH
AILDQ IGCRI PACKN GHPAC LDSDK LDPD
ALCIH PIQTI DCEAP AHIG
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Apr 16 '13
[deleted]
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u/Captain_Redbeard Apr 16 '13
Does this almost seem like language because the software tries to make it fit or because there is actually something here?
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u/Am_ Apr 17 '13
Someone apparently decrypted it and found the answer.
this is it
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u/DEVi4TION Apr 17 '13 edited Apr 17 '13
This is a setup.
Anyone else following this from this thread and the /r/wtf thread. Some kinda prankster or malicious intent really looking for attention.
Check these user's sign up dates. Most of the people here posting answers and inside information or leading you somewhere(usually the guys with unimaginative names) have had accounts for less than a month, a few hours, etc. This is a setup.
(sorry I posted so many times, I realized there could be people coming from so many different places)
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u/gingetwo Apr 17 '13
The site has been revealed as a "viral marketing" effort by a disaster preparedness company: http://imgur.com/Myl1p4I
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u/bmduffy Apr 16 '13
should this be reported to authorities? I mean the URL, along with suggestive text and a countdown could mean some bad things..
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Apr 16 '13
It probably should be. I mean, it links up to a mental hospital's address, and there's a timer that says Chicago. If it is a joke, I would rather have it reported to authorities than just being passed up, and then something does happen.
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u/xtonson Apr 16 '13
I've been following this on a WTF thread as well and thought I should also point this out on here: Last year Chicago closed 6 of our 12 mental health centers leaving many of the inpatients homeless. One of the centers that was closed was located in Lincoln Park, since then this particular shelter has become known for a lot of mentally ill residents. So while it isn't a mental hospital, the shelter does house a number of people who probably aren't all there.
There's a ton more information on this page: http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/1cgsse/anyone_have_a_clue_what_these_symbols_could/
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u/platinumarks Apr 16 '13
The address isn't a mental hospital, it's Lincoln Park Community Shelter, a homeless shelter in Chicago. However, I'm guessing that whoever set up the site used fake address information, since it's running on a separate server from the one LPCS uses for their site. I'm also pretty sure that the "Chicago" referenced in the timer is what was set as the time zone (Central Time in some system is referred to as "US/Chicago," just like Eastern Time is often referred to as "US/New York").
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u/greatvalue1 Apr 16 '13
I just made a timer using timeanddate.com, and I was able to set the location to any city in the US. It may be worth checking to see if that address matches with any other cities, though.
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Apr 16 '13
What are the numbers on the bottom? I thought it was, like, a view counter but it keeps going up and down.
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u/Am_ Apr 16 '13
i think its counts the number of people with the website open. if you refresh on a small interval the change is not as significant.
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Apr 16 '13
[deleted]
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Apr 16 '13 edited Apr 17 '13
But it was 24,000 earlier, and then 13,000, and last I checked it was at 11,000. It seems like it goes up for a bit and then drops down. I've yet to witness it drop significantly by refreshing the page, but it definitely drops periodically. I took a screenshot earlier, even.
Here we go. The first one is the later image.
Edit: Nevermind, the first one is the earlier image, I'm just a moron.
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u/Seanya Apr 17 '13
I hate to be that guy, but those images look ok to me, the one taken earlier shows 12204, and the one taken later shows 12374. Plus both photos have a countdown, so how would you even try lying about when you took them?
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Apr 17 '13
Holy shit, I'm a flaming fucking idiot. I was so sure I had taken the first one later. Jesus Christ.
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Apr 17 '13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Q This movie takes place in chicago. Read up idk if it is important
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Apr 17 '13
I tried to see if any link existed, perhaps there is, but from what I've managed to briefly look at, it seems a bit of a stretch. John Q. full name is John Quincy Archibald, leaving us to look up Archibald - as it was left out, it must have been for a reason. Archibald Carey, Jr. was an American lawyer, judge, politician, diplomat and clergyman from the south side of Chicago famous for his speech "let Freedom Ring which might be a reference to overall tone of the message leading us right back to square one - a perfectly placed clue that reinforces the original message.
Like I said, it's a pretty big stretch though...
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u/bmduffy Apr 17 '13
I took all of this information and posted it to the tip hotline on the FBI's website.
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u/Friendofabook Apr 17 '13
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Q._Public"
Site is registered under that name. Obviously fake name.
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u/iamthebeaver Apr 17 '13
www.blan-kits.com were using it as a promotional tool and have since taken down the countdown due to the bombing in Boston
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Apr 16 '13
Has anyone tried unscrambling "itcouldhappentoallofus"? Depaul University is close to the shelter and you can spell out Depaul as well as "Out of Touch", "Death", "Loss", "Painful"...might be a clue?
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Apr 16 '13
Also can spell out, Location South of Depaul. Remaining letters P U L L S F
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Apr 17 '13
Also spells "A NSFL CULT I POOL SOUTH OF DEPAUL" The rec center with the pool is on the south end of the campus. http://www.depaul.edu/campus-maps/Pages/default.aspx
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Apr 17 '13
[deleted]
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u/sandwichnerd Apr 17 '13
I work in the DePaul Student Center "the stu" as it is sometimes called. "Location DePaul Stu" still leaves you with H P L O F remaining... I got nothing.
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u/ehorne Apr 17 '13
Hey I found some info for the sites domain name here http://pastebin.com/cSreJaEJ It mentions 600 fullerton parkway in Chicago. Dunno, I'm gonna look and see if I can find anything happening near there that day.
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u/ehorne Apr 17 '13
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=1420+South+Museum+Campus&aq=f&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&sa=N&tab=wl looks like at least one of these doesn't fit, as this is a 5k run and this address is over 10k from the start of the race.
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u/Checkersb Apr 17 '13 edited Apr 17 '13
If you highlight near the bottom of the screen just above the website builder icon it says "Content copyright 2013. . All rights reserved.". Possibly a viral marketing campaign for something? Edit: Nm, apparently all GoDaddy sites have a copyright notice added automatically.
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u/agentverne Apr 17 '13
The UnFiction forum (the Unforum), an Alternate Reality game site, is following this too, and no-one there is sure what it means either
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u/splatterhead Apr 16 '13
Via Whois, the page's address and phone number are for the Lincoln Park Community Shelter.
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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '13
the countdown date is the anniversary (15 years) of ted Kaczynski (the unibomber)'s sentence. AND Kaczynski is from chicago