function getMCModifiedDate() {

            $curl = curl_init($this->mcURL);

            //don't fetch the actual page, you only want headers
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_NOBODY, true);

            //stop it from outputting stuff to stdout
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

            // attempt to retrieve the modification date
            curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_FILETIME, true);

            $result = curl_exec($curl);

            if ($result === false) {
                die (curl_error($curl));
            }

            $timestamp = curl_getinfo($curl, CURLINFO_FILETIME);
            if ($timestamp != -1) { //otherwise unknown
                return $timestamp;
            }

      }