Another Version Of The Truth (website)

Both views of the front page.

Discovery

At the February 12th, 2007 Nine Inch Nails concert in Lisbon, Portugal, a plain-looking USB flash drive was found in a bathroom stall. It was found to hold a single MP3 file with the title "My Violent Heart". In the ID3 tags of that file, a URL, http://anotherversionofthetruth.com, was found.

Website

On first glance, the website appears to be nothing more than a large graphic, with a simple, patriotic, (if somewhat propagandistic) American message, not unlike the kind frequently used by politicians, and it is labeled at the bottom as coming from the "US Bureau of Morality". Clicking and dragging over the image begins to reveal "another version" of the graphic, with the cheerful image replaced by a dark and bleak revision of the farm scene, and the text replaced with pessimistic and satirical messages. Once the new image is revealed, clicking the large bold words "Another Version of the Truth" takes you to a message board in which citizens of this particular setting are discussing many things about society, mostly involving resistance to the oppressive authority in place.

0 Pages

http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/

Found as a link in the Mailstrom Wreckage "Pain", a series of 0 pages have been discovered, each with a clue leading to the next.

The "merry" page links to http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/2699-012a-Sherer.htm

Every few pages there is another step in building a bomb:

(Page 1) Step 1: take a new gelled hydrogen power cell and swap it out for the old one in my machine. The point here is— --well, I’ll get to that in time.

(Page 5) Step 2: puncture the oxygen line into the power cell and cover the hole with a piece of masking tape.

(Page 10) Step 3: Affix a model rocket igniter and 10 second fuse to the masking tape. They have ‘em at any decent hobby store.

(Page 13) Step 4: Wire the igniter to a key…

Topics

The topics viewable on the message board are:

End of the World?

The discussion in this forum centers around The Presence and what it may be, if it in fact exists. It also contains, in a post, song lyrics: "Used to be the leader/ now comes the time to serve/ maybe we show some mercy/ maybe you get what you deserve." The lyrics are from the Year Zero song Meet Your Master.

Acts of Resistance

This forum mainly discusses an act of terrorism at a baseball game that is alluded to by a poster named BeTheHammer. It is assumed that this poster is the same as the author of the Be the Hammer website, which he links to.

Cops Murder Muslim Kid

This forum only has two posts, but does link to an MP3, nohurry.mp3, in which a media report is contrasted with a cell phone recording of what is revealed to be a police murder.

Violent Resistance

This forum centers around the debate which started in the "Acts of Resistance" forum over whether violence is useful in resisting the authority. It also contains a linked MP3, ballgameOver.mp3, in which an assassin, most likely BeTheHammer, talks about organizing the attack as it happens.

Opal/Cocaine

This forum begins with a link to another MP3, opalo.mp3, which contrasts a media report about the Colombian drug trade and a firstand account from a Colombian woman, indicating that cocaine's downfall is due to global warming and opal.

In Memoriam

This forum has only one post, a notice to other forum members that the poster's brother was killed and the circumstances surrounding it.

Missing in Action

This forum lists the names of people who have gone missing, and one post from "Shatter36" indicating he or she is fine; the implication being he or she is one of the people named as missing above.

The list of screennames on these forums is as follows: 8ballz, angelfood, AVT001, AVT019, AVT021, AVT80, AVT092, AVT666, Barnlikr (quoted), BeTheHammer, Che2, ChicagoAnon, fairisfair, Fiddler5Weather, giventake, Gradiosity, GrogeousGeorge, guiltfree, Haberdasher, HumanInterest, kidwithacam, KingdomCome, Lenguetaindia lovemonger, McLuhanDisciple, mitzvah, musiclover06, PaxHarmonica, pharlarope (quoted), Phil&Sophie (unsure about &), romeisburning, Shatter36, ShiHuang, Sunset Clause, ticktock9, Victor12, VoxIsMyCowboy

The last entry on any of the forums is 2/10/00 at 14:26, however, there appears to be evidence that dates were changed.

Evidence of date mismatch in AVT forum topic page. Click image for close-up.

The "glitched" date of the Violent Resistance topic, below the topics on the background image of the topics page, appears different than the text written one. The background shows "Started by AVT001 on 02/04/0000" rather than "Started by AVT001 on 02/10/0000". This same glitch occurs within the discussion threads. Also, the '0's each of the dates' 10s is one pixel wider than other zeros in this same font. Both details suggest that the original dates of these posts may have been altered. It is not yet known the significance of this alteration, however.

Art is Resistance

The Art Is Resistance website has a link to an archived thread, entitled "Artist Behind AIR Goes Missing". The thread mainly discusses the usefulness of art (as opposed to violence) as a tool for resistance.

In this thread one of the posters is named BanksyForDictator, which is a note-worthy allusion to the underground icon amongst stencil & graffiti artists worldwide. Art is an invaluable tool of the counter culture, & though many of his masterpieces are fun and light-hearted Banksy is a real world example of art's amazing power to transfer ideas and messages to those who would otherwise remain unaware. For more information on Banksy see www.banksy.co.uk.

Another important point made is by Philomela: "It makes it easy for you to think that the cops and the bankers and the soldiers are all Them. They aren’t. They’re us, too." The meaning behind this quote shows that despite a corporations & institutions being symbols of the enemy, the individuals within are not all necessarily enemies, but some maybe victims of circumstance.

Revisionism

Hidden page

Another page, [1], was found through the Survivalism lyrics pdf posted on yearzero.nin.com. Initially,it shows a page with a dated history of how America created a "new world order" in Year Zero. Similar to the splash screen of the AVT website, this is a propagandistic version, and there is hidden text which shows a contrasting, dissident view.

Clicking and dragging the left section of the page to the right, and the top section downward, until the two line up, one can reveal the alternate text. (It is also possible to open the flash file called road.swf. This new text shows how past, current and predicted future events lead to the world described in Year Zero.

Numbers

This website reveals the number 24.10.8. It can be found on the splash page right below the flash object. To reveal it choose "Select All" or press 'CTRL + A'.

The MP3 files linked on the AVT forum pages also each revealed a number as well.

Background Text

In the graphical "glitches" in the background of the AVT forum pages some backwards text was found, which, when combined with text from the backgrounds of other related pages, it was revealed was a passage from "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien:

"For your hospitality our sincerest thanks, and for your offer of professional assistance our grateful acceptance. Terms: cash on delivery, up to and not exceeding one fourteenth of total profits (if any); all traveling expenses guaranteed in any event; funeral expenses to be defrayed by us or our representatives, if occasion arises and the matter is not otherwise arranged for."

On the "revisionism" page, some background text can be found after the hidden text is assembled. The text that is then visible is a quote from "A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present" by Howard Zinn:

"Arawak men and women, naked, tawny and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island's beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of them in his log: They brought us...and many other things. They are well built, with good bodies and handsome features. They do not bear arms...With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

Unlinked Images

There has been 1 image found that was not linked in the HTML.