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The Institute for Human Continuity a hoax!
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Buddha's head submerged in flood water
from Typhoon Morakot (AP Photo)
"End of the world" scenarios are big business, in religion and in trade, such as books, movies and so on. Christian Apocalyptic/Armageddon novels and videos have sold hundreds of millions of copies, especially during chronological milestones such as the year 2000—who can forget Y2K hysteria? Of late, as we approach the year 2012, we have seen an enormous proliferation in books, movies and websites touting Doomsday storylines of all manner. Naturally, movie studios have been salivating over the prospect of blocks-long lines waiting to see their latest disaster films, including and especially as concerns "2012."
One of these awaited movie is the fare set to be released by SONY studies in November, called—you might of guessed it—"2012." Naturally, SONY wants everyone in the world to see their movie—and to have the bejesus scared out of them, so they have evidently committed a grandiose hoax to drive the sheeple into those theaters in stampedes. I speak about a peculiar new website called "TheIHC.com," which has burst onto the small screen like the Flying Spaghetti Monster on steroids. When I first saw this strange website being advertised—on a kid's TV station, no less—I thought, who the heck has the money to be advertising such an odd site, which definitely declared that the earth would be destroyed in the year 2012 and that we puny humans could increase our chances of survival by joining a lottery offered at the site, which defaults to the domain InstituteForHumanContinuity.org.
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Homes collapsed in raging flood waters
from Typhoon Morakot (AP Photo)
Based on its claims concerning the year 2012—which has its roots in purported Maya prophecy of the "end of the world" (largely debunked)—I immediately thought this website must belong to some bizarre New Age group, but who would have the kind of money to put together such an enormously expensive ad campaign? Wealthy businessman Joe Firmage and his alien endeavors did come to mind at first. I finally took a look at the site and when I did a search for its principal "world-renowned scientists" such as "Dr. Frederic West" and "Dr. Satnam Tsuratani," claimed to have been putting together this world-saving organization for 30 years, they did not show up in the search engines, except on one site—and that wasn't even TheIHC.com! In fact, oddly enough, that site didn't show up at all.
It didn't take long to figure out this scam designed to terrify us into the theaters. One scan of the "whois" registry showed that the Institute for Human Continuity site is registered to SONY pictures in Culver City, California. Having lived a stone's throw away for many years, and having gone to the studios on a number of occasions, I knew the address well. The "SONYPICTURES" in the site's domain name servers didn't escape my acute detective skills either. (Tongue firmly planted in cheek, get it? Geez.) Of course, others have already discovered this hoax, recognizing the "scientists" as actors from the movie. (The "2012" link and copyright to SONY at the bottom of the site is overlooked by many people and doesn't show up in some browsers.)
Although TheIHC.com site is dramatic and exciting—and it may even be truthful to the extent that most markers point to the world being in deep trouble—it is not a real organization and is obviously designed to increase ticket sales for SONY's coming release "2012." A hoax, a fraud, a spoof and a farce, but clever marketing nonetheless, just like all the biblically based apocalypse merchandise
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