No more worries about the Large Hadron Collider blowing up the world: The real-life Gordon Freeman is on the scene and he’s now officially ready to kick some ass if things get out of hand.
Some background: In September, prior to the activation of the LHC, someone who looked suspiciously like the famous Half-Life hero was photographed examining the particle accelerator in the company of other professorial types. Naturally, his appearance on the scene, in conjunction with the near-certainty that the world would meet a cataclysmic doom the moment the device was activated, sparked alarm among gamers worldwide and inspired the crew at Reddit (with help from Fark) to assemble a world-saving kit, which they promptly sent to CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) along with a note saying, “Get this to Gordon Freeman. He’ll know what to do.”
With the assistance of Katherine McAlpline, also known as Alpinekat of Large Hadron Rap fame, the package, consisting of a crowbar, a headcrab hat and a Half-Life strategy guide, actually made it into the hands of the Freeman lookalike, better known to his coworkers as Sandro Bonacini. All of which is well and good, but the crowning glory is found in what happened next: To express his appreciation, Bonacini/Freeman enlisted the help of friends, took a pile of photos and sent them to Reddit, which has in turn posted them online.
It’s reassuring to see Freeman is now properly equipped to save the world should the need arise, but let’s not throw a victory party just yet: While the good doctor seemed to keep things bottled up well enough in the original Half-Life, Half-Life 2 demonstrated that even his great effort at Black Mesa wasn’t enough to keep the world from being thoroughly demolished at the hands of a mysterious, malevolent alien power. In fact, should it become necessary to call the Freeman doppelganger into action, the great likelihood is that you’ll be dead anyway, or even worse, turned into some sort of horrifically deformed mutant zombie, trapped in a half-mindless state of eternal torment. Yes, there’s no doubt that the lucky ones will die quickly.
But until that happens, you may as well check out the full photo gallery here, and then do yourself a favor and learn a little more about the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN LHC website and through this very interesting and engaging talk by physicist Brian Cox at TED.com.
Published: Nov 25, 2008 12:50 am