Metal Gear Prison Break Deja Vu

A friend of mine just posted a Facebook link to a Telegraph article about a French prisoner who escaped jail by packing himself into a cardboard box and more or less being shipped out of the prison. He then broke out of the box and jumped off of the truck that was carrying him, and the driver didn’t even notice anything had happened until he noticed the tarp that was over the boxes flapping in the wind.

When I read that, I immediately thought of the Metal Gear series and Solid Snake’s signature move of hiding under a cardboard box to evade guards. Kotaku ran an article about the incident with the same connection in mind.

The next thing that came to mind was another Kotaku article that I read last year, involving a Turkish prisoner in a German jail that similarly packed himself into a box and mailed himself out of prison.

So judging by this pattern it seems like prisoners in Europe play enough Metal Gear to be experts in cardboard box stealth. But the similarity in both stories still strikes me as odd. The details are basically the same for both escapes (except for the locations of the prisons): a guy packs himself into a box while working in the prison workshop and mails himself out of jail, jumping off of the truck as soon as the coast is clear. The driver is only alerted that something is amiss by the flapping of the tarp on the back of the truck.

If it weren’t for the fact that the most recent case involved one of France’s highest-profile prisoners (Jean-Pierre Treiber, “charged with murdering French actor Roland Giraud’s daughter Geraldine, and her friend Katia Lherbier,” according to the Telegraph story), I’d call this out as an urban legend.

Disney to buy Marvel

Marvel's next big crossover event.

According to a number of sources, media giant Disney is set to buy Marvel for $4 billion. This deal will give Disney ownership of all of Marvel’s characters and franchises, including both the comic book, animation, and film branches of the company.

There’s been no official word yet on how Disney’s ownership will affect some of Marvel’s existing mature-oriented series (like the Punisher or Deadpool), but I very much doubt they’ll be edited to become more kid-friendly. Fans would riot if that happened.

Also, if the Deadpool movie ends up not being amazing, I plan to plant all the blame firmly on Disney.

http://corporate.disney.go.com/news/corporate/2009/2009_0831_disney_and_marvel_entertainment.html

4chan back up-For Great Justice.

According to some updated articles, as well as the fact that I can now access the site, it seems that AT&T has lifted its block on 4chan. Apparently AT&T representatives confirmed the block, but explained only that they were just “following the practices of their policy department,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.

At any rate, the site is back up, and there hasn’t been any sort of retaliatory action against AT&T. So maybe I was wrong about how interestingly this would play out, but I don’t think this story is over just yet. We still have to wait and see how AT&T tries to justify or explain away their attempt to censor the internet.

I may have spoken too soon…

Either my earlier access to /b/ was a fluke, or AT&T only temporarily lifted and then re-applied the block. At any rate, attempts to access the site now result in the same timeout page once more, and this time the main 4chan.org page (which was accessible earlier even when /b/ wasn’t) is also down.

/b/ back up in Chicago

Just refreshed the page that was previously showing a timeout due to the AT&T block, and I now have access to /b/ here in Chicago. No word yet if the block has been lifted elsewhere, or what cause AT&T to have a change of heart. Or, for that matter, what made them block it to begin with.

More on AT&T and 4chan

Some quick links related to the story:

-Moot set up a blog to update users on the status of the site

-Coverage from the Daily Kos

-Coverage from Mashable

-”AT&T Blocks 4chan, Prepares Will”

I still don’t see what AT&T could possibly hope to accomplish by this. Not only is this kind of censorship a gross violation of the First Amendment, but it seems like an incredibly stupid thing to do. Of all the comunities to target with something like this, 4chan is probably the one that will strike back with the most vindictiveness. I can’t wait to see AT&T worm its way out of this…

Has AT&T declared war on Anonymous?

I just saw an alert on Facebook from Encyclopedia Dramatica that AT&T has blocked service to 4chan.

I know that, as a satire of Wikipedia and a mainly humor-based site, ED may not seem like the most credible source of news on the net, but it’s a well-known fact that they’re big supporters of 4chan and Anonymous, and the folks over there would take something like this very seriously. Seeing as AT&T is my own ISP, I decided to check for myself.

As of this post, http://b/ and http://img.4chan.org/ will not load on my AT&T connection. I personally see this as a serious attempt at censorship. 4chan is responsible for nearly the entirety of modern internet culture. It’s the main source of the Anonymous movement, which has managed to organize some large-scale action against the Church of Scientology and drawn the attention of major media outlets in the past. And AT&T seems to be attempting to directly block them.

I’m sure this thing will play out interestingly, as 4channers have not been known to play nice when other companies have tried to silence them. I have a feeling this block won’t last long.

Facebook got Konami Coded

Popular social networking site Facebook has apparently joined the ranks of websites that respond to the greatest code in gaming history.

Click on the background of Facebook and press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, B, A, Enter to activate a wicked lens flare whenever you click or type.

A similar thing was noticed on ESPN.com a few weeks ago, except instead of creating a lens flare it spawned unicorns and sparkly things.

Dead Rising 2 Trailer kicks it up a notch

Judging by the video above, Dead Rising 2 will be all kinds of exciting. Moments with chainsaws duct taped to guitars or motorcycles suggest customizable weapons to bring out the creative side of your inner zombie slaughterer.  Add to that the fact that newcomer Chuck Greene seems capable of some fancy tricks on his dirt bike and the fact that you get to slaughter the damned dirty undead in a fictional version of Las Vegas, and you’ve got a concept that seems incapable of failure.

The trailer also suggests that the sequel will have the same quirky sense of humor as the original, with a shot of Chuck wearing a moose head and charging a crowd of zombies, tearing them up with the antlers. I think this alone makes the game worth checking out when it comes out.

EGM’s Seanbaby now writing for Cracked

The writer responsible for EGM’s “Rest of the Crap” humor column has found a new home on the interwebs after EGM’s death as a columnist for  Cracked.com.  He posted his first article here on April 9th, and has been contributing new content in his “Flying Blind on a Rocket Cycle” column on a weekly basis ever since. You can also find more of his work at his personal website, seanbaby.com.