This is nasty: I got halfway through the article and then got lightboxed into a signup form for an email list; the lightbox had no "close" button, and the now-background text no longer scrolled. FAIL.
Just press Esc to get out of the lightbox. The directions were underneath the image.
This is pathetic
I had clicked the link and got called away. When I got back the page was "blocked" by some stupid message. So I closed the page - always do - never coming back.
It shouldn't be that obtrusive at all, don't try to defend bad UI.