text:
A Dead Man's Dream Log.

	I suppose our story-- no, my story begins several months ago. My name is Joseph, and I am twenty-three years old. My last name, frankly, is unimportant, and my first is yours to know just for the sake of putting a name to a character. Her name... was Alora.
	I woke up for work at the same time I always did, in the same position, in the same bed. I removed my arms from around Alora, attempting not to wake her. I was successful, and about this I felt much joy, maybe for the last time. My routine was simple, shower, shave, dress, leave without making to much noise. She had to leave for work two hours later, and I was sympathetic to the fact she didn't get much sleep. Looking back, I deem the long hours and conflicting schedules were what led our relationship into a steady, if not imperceptible decline.
	At my work, there was a girl by the name of Emmy. Emmy was a born flirt, and preyed on unavailable men, namely myself. Over the past few months she had made obvious signs that she was interested in me, and I felt the same attraction. I felt like I needed to commit some lude act, or I would die of boredom.
	With Alora, the only time she was not cumbersome to be around was when she was asleep. When we were together, things no longer had the same luster. My attraction to her had grown miniscule. I wasn't sure exactly why I had stayed with her. Maybe it was the guilt of leaving her because she was not as entertaining as she had once been.
	After work, Emmy and I would sit inside her car and talk. She would tell me stories that I honestly didn't pay much attention to, because my eyes were usually elsewhere. God, that girl could talk. After our one-way chats, I would grab a bite to eat at a fast food restaurant, then go home to watch TV and go to bed. In the morning, I would begin another thrilling installment in the life of Joseph.
	What was strange was when I got home that night, Alora was still in bed, asleep. I just assumed she had gotten off work early, and thought nothing of it. I ate my greasy burger, and before I was halfway through my usual mindless channel flipping, I was out. I woke up to a sticky note on the TV asking me if I had a long night. Alora claimed to had tried to wake me, but I wouldn't budge. She said she was sorry for sleeping all day, and didn't know what had happened. I smiled and walked to the bedroom to get my clothes for my daily shower, and I noticed she was in bed. I sat at the foot of the bed and tickled her feet, which was her most sensitive spot. It seems like everyone’s feet are ticklish. You should try it sometime. Anyways, she tossed and turned, kicked her feet, even mumbled a little bit, but wouldn't wake up. I shrugged it off and took my shower, and before I left I responded to her post-it.

Alora,
	Tried to wake you, no cigar.
I love you, see you when I get home.
					Joseph

	On my way to work, I listened to the radio and they played a song that Alora loved. I sung the whole song, which I was used to. Except, usually it was against my will and better judgment. Man, I hated that song. I got to thinking about all the things we had done that song, and why she would like it. I guess that was when I started to miss Alora. For better or for worse, she really could make a terrible song sentimental.
	After work, Emmy followed me to my car. I had a killer headache and hadn’t eaten in some time, so I was kind of moody. She called my name and I turned around, and that was all the time she needed to pin me to my car. I hadn't even unlocked my door yet. Typical.
	“Joseph” she breathed real heavy, like she had chased me. Which, she hadn't.
	I kind of looked at her face, then looked down. I figured it would just be another one of our “talks”. I was wrong. “What, Emmy?”
	“I'm tired of trying for you, and you not noticing me. I want you to get rid of Alora and be with me.” She look flustered, like I was offending her by not looking her in the face. Women.
	“Oh..” Was about all I could muster at the time. All I heard was get rid of Alora.
	“Well? You have to make your choice now, Joseph.” I kind of looked around. She put her hand on my chest, and pushed hard against the car, and put her face in mine. I can remember her cheap perfume perfectly well. Nothing like the smell of burnt rubber to get a man's attention. That's when it went down hill. I started to fidget, and I guess she was tired of my games because that's what she told me. Her hand went behind my neck and pulled me down to her. Her lips went to mine, and all I could do was mouth “Alora” as they covered mine. My heart went into a frenzy, and so did Emmy. She jumped on me, and I guess she was expecting me to catch her. Needless to say, I didn't expect her to jump on me, and she met the ground. This gave me enough time to cry out Alora, unlock my door, and receive a rather long string of derogatory terms.
	The drive home that night was the worst drive of my life. The only thing in my head was her name. I called it out endlessly, as if that would make her forgive me. Why I did this, I'm still unsure.. I didn't ever get the chance to tell her. I opened the door, walked straight to the bedroom. I had a sick feeling she would be asleep. I hate feelings. I crawled into the bed and put my arms around her. I cried into her hair, which smelt of strawberries.. They were her favorite fruit. I guess I fell asleep there. I woke up to a notebook on the foot of the bed, with Alora still asleep in it. Today was my day off. The notebook is still burned into my brain. It read as follows:

Joseph,
	I've been looking into why our sleep patterns have been so off lately. I fall asleep at exactly every 12 hours, and I am assuming the same for you. I called my sister, and she referred me to a voodoo woman. She should arrive at noon, and I want you to let her in and tell her what's going on. She should have the materials she needs with her, and I'll be able to kiss you while your still awake in only a few hours.

p.s. Why was my hair wet when I woke up?
						Your Love,
								Alora

	I was nervous and excited. I had two hours to kill before the voodoo woman arrived, so I went out and got breakfast. When I got back to the house, she was outside in her car. She got out as I did, and asked if I was the man who lived in that home. I nodded, and we walked up to the house, I unlocked it, and we entered.
	“This home has very dark energy in it. Your girlfriend has told me that a sleeping curse has been cast upon you.” She walked about the house, and surveyed every room. If you ask me, it looked like she was assessing what she could steal.
	“I haven't seen her awake in a week now. Can you fix it?” I was much to anxious for small talk.
	She nodded and opened her brief case. “Drink this, both of you, and go to sleep. I will stay for an hour to see that everything is alright.” We poured the elixir down Alora's throat, and I drank the rest. It was like drinking chalk, with the effect of drinking twelve bottles of cough medicine. I saw shapes and animals and things I know aren't real. Ever seen a skeleton with a Ph. D? My dreams were the most beautiful of any I had ever had. Alora and I were in an open field, at night. We sat under the stars, and I held her as she slept. Funny, even in my dreams she slept.
	I woke up and gave a big stretch, the sign of a long healthy slumber. I could hear the rain pattering on the windows. I looked to my side, and my heart dropped. Alora was still asleep. I tried to wake her, and nothing happened. I panicked, and called 911. The rest is really just a blur. I just remember that the worst drive of my life was the day before the worst ride of my life.
	I was in the ambulance with her. They secured her, but they didn’t hook her up to any machines.
I thought that was a good sign. It wasn't, I later found out. I held her hand all the way to the hospital. I was in a daze as we got there. They took her too a room, and I wasn't allowed to enter. I called her family, and only her mother showed up. I guess later on, others visited, but I never noticed them. The doctor came in, and he told us that Alora had had an allergic reaction to the elixir the voodoo woman had prepared. Alora was now in a vegetative state. I blacked out.
	I woke up with my arms around Alora, in the hospital bed. I stared dumbfounded at her, trying to put everything together. I remembered the ambulance ride, the doctor.. Alora.. When you lose the love of your life, it's like losing yourself. When her family decided to pull the plug, it was like they pulled the plug on me more-so than her. I stayed in the bed for maybe a day. I cried all day, or slept. It felt like a fitting tomb. The only things in that hospital bed were corpses. The doctors would come by and say things like “That was true love.” or “He must have really loved her.” Doctors don't know anything about love. They think because they can save lives and touch hearts, they know what love is. All they do is watch it die.
	Eventually, they made me leave. I went home, and laid in bed awhile. All the memories came, and the notebook was still there. There was a message on the voice mail from Alora's sister about how the voodoo woman was a fraud. I couldn't help but smile. God really does have a cruel sense of humor. The bed became my only sense of comfort, because it held the final memory of the last time I had seen her alive. The last time I had seen her alive, she was dead.. I just hadn't known it yet. I quit my job, and took out all of the money in my savings account, and sold all my belongings, except the bed. I rent a small apartment down town now, with nothing but my bed, enough food to get by, and all the sleeping medication a family of elephants would need to overdose.
	The only time I can live is when I'm not awake. Because, in my dreams, Alora is still asleep.

title: A Dead Man's Dream Log - 1961 Words. First Attempt

question: What does the story say about the supernatural?

text: The answer should mention that the voodoo woman was a fraud (and therefore it is implied that the sleeping curse wasn't actually real).

answer: According to the voodoo woman, a sleeping curse has been cast on Joseph and his wife. She claims to sense dark energy in the house. She instructs them to both drink an elixir to cure them of the curse. In the end, it turns out that the voodoo woman was a fraud, implying that the sleeping curse wasn't actually real.

text: Alora is not Joseph's wife

answer: No answer

answer: According to the voodoo woman, a sleeping curse has been cast on Joseph and his wife. She claims to sense dark energy in the house. She instructs them to both drink an elixir to cure them of the curse. In the end, it turns out that the voodoo woman was a fraud, implying that the sleeping curse wasn't actually real.

text: The answer should mention that the elixir puts Alora into a coma.

text: The answer should mention that the curse is implied to be real when Alora doesn't wake up after taking the elixir.

text: The answer should mention that the elixir actually puts Alora into a coma.

text: The answer should mention that Alora's sister reveals the voodoo woman was a fraud.

text: The answer should mention that the sleeping curse is implied to be the reason why Joseph and Alora sleep all the time.

text: The response should mention that the sleeping curse was actually a physical effect of the elixir.

text: The elixir should not be described as a "cure". Instead, it should be accurately mentioned that it keeps them sleeping while they dream.

answer: According to the voodoo woman, a sleeping curse has been cast on Joseph and his wife. She claims to sense dark energy in the house. She instructs them to both drink an elixir to cure them of the curse.

text: The answer should mention that the voodoo woman is a fraud.

text: The answer should mention that the curse is revealed to be a hoax.

text: The response is missing the part about Alora's sister revealing that the voodoo woman was a fraud.

text: The story does not mention anything about the supernatural.

text: The story does not really say anything about the supernatural.


text:
A little disclaimer first... sorry about the format, or the length. This was originally an idea I had at school, then I wrote it as a short story in many parts through facebook chat for an awesome person I know. As such the style may change, or there is an unnatural jump. Either way I hope you enjoy it.

The great theatre of the world

The stage manager stands there and surveys his work. It wa sgood. He particularly liked the way the light went through the leaves of the trees. The land was luscious and green, th people happy and all was good.

Soon he would meet the director and show him what he has done but for now he could relax in this perfect world he had created.

Soon the director turned up and boy was he pleased with the stage managers work.

"This is perfect, it is amazing. How did you get the light to go through the trees like that? Seriously my friend you have earned this."

With that the director handed the stage manager a small bag tied at the top.

"What's this?" Asked the stage manager

"Money. You know? To pay you for work you have done?"

"But i didint put money in this world, whats it for?"

"It represents worth, one thing could cost more money than another. you can sell your work, goods, anything really and in exchange you can buy stuff."

"Stuff?"

"Yeah, food, entertainment, land... people"

"People?! Buy people?!"

"Well only those that can afford to anyway"

"This is not how I built this place!"

"Yeah but audiences dont like perfect. They get bored. I need a story. I need to make this place more interesting."

"This will end in tears, and not just mind mark you"

"Grow up man! Things will be fine, a little story never hurt"

"Mark my words this will be bad"

With that the stage manager left, throwing the money onto the ground.

the director continued to survey the land. this will do. qquite nicely I believe.

The director is at a table, staring intently at something. In walks the stage manager.

"Ah, stage manager. Come have a look at this"

"This isnt another change is it? You have made so many. I created perfection, it didnt need changes"

"Hush your mouth, perfection is boring. And yes it is another change -"

"It'll end in tears you know"

"Stop moping and have a look at this"

The stage manager moves closer to the table and as he gets closer he sees that a map of the world is on the table, next to it lies some felt pens and the director has enthusiastically been adding colour to the map.

"Its a map of the world which you have scribbled on. so what?"

"It's what the scribbles mean thats important. They are borders" The director beamed proudly

"Borders? What do they need borders for, they are all already bordered by the ocean"

"Ah well its more of a seperation from the other countries nearby... You know generate some community spirit and the such"

"But they were one big community?"

"Ah see what I've done as well is in the process given them a few diffferent languages, colours and beliefs. I tell you what it was quite tough to think up all the ridiculous things for them to believe, however they accepted it"

"Things to believe... are we talking god again? Must you make a cameo for your friend everytime? He cant even act. What you done this time?"

"Well the Christians believe he built the world."

"HE DIDNT I DID!"

"Calm down, I know that and he knows that. What does it matter if they dont?"

"I cant believe you. Stop making changes, someone is going to get hurt."

The stage manager walks off in anger.

"Perfection is boring!" shouts the director after him.

The director turns back to his map and picks up a pen. "Maybe I'll add platypus to Australia... That will really fuck them up."

"Hello?" the stage manager's voice travelled into the void. the director's lab was empty. this is unusual, normally he is here tinkering, interferring.

"Hello?" the stage manager tried again. The same void swallowed his voice and it faded off into the distance.

"Up here!" the director cried, "come look at this! you'll have to hurry!"

The stage manager climbed through the laboratory, discarded thoughts littering the floor where they had taken root with a life of their own.

The stage manager climbed the ladder to the roof where the director was stood, in a rain coat, with the wind tearing through his hair.

"You wont want to miss this"

The stage manager curious inspite of himself joined the director and looked out over the land in the general direction that he was.

After a couple of moments the skies grew darker and darker and clouds formed. As the clouds met a funnel emerged and and gradually saught its way downwards. As it touched the floor it seemed to rip the earth around it. Everything flew through the air, landing in heaps of rubbish.

"What on earth is that?!"

"I call it a tornado. Beautiful isnt it?"

"Deadly more like"

"Well yeah, whats the point in it if its not? the best stories come out of tragedy. You should see what else I have done, earth quakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes, the works. I am going to call them natural disasters."

"They look horrid. Why would you do this to people?"

"Its entertainment my dear friend, its all just entertainment."

"I dont want any part of this."

"What are you talking about?! its your world. You are part of this. Without you there would not be any of this. We owe our thanks to you. You built the stage, all I have done is make the stries happen. and boy are they happening."

"You are sick"

"You should see it, the horror people will put each other through, it shows the best in others. Every criminal has a story which makes you yearn for him to be brought back into society. Every act of hardship is followed up by resilience."

"Only in the stories that you show. What about where they dont get back to normal? or they dont rehabilitate? what happens to those people?"

"Well, of course there will be fallout. There is always fallout. Can't make an ommlette without breaking some eggs."

"You arent breaking eggs, you are smashing them and rolling in delight in the mess. Thats it. Im through. I am not indulging you any more. I am going down into that place and I am going to correct what you have done. I am going to tell people the truth"

"They will think you are crazy..."

"I dont care. I cant stand here playing with people for entertainment. I created perfection and you have destroyed it in favour of this horrorshow. Good luck with your endeavors as I am gone"

the stage manager stormed off fuming. As he walked down the hill into the world he threw his mobile phone and only contact with the director into a pond. He ditched his creators bag and with every step became more human. At the bottom of the hill he entered the world as a human to do what he could...

The director grabbed his phone and dialled for the stage manger.

*ring ring*

shit

*ring ring*

Fuck pick up

*ring ring*

Come on! Pick up

*You have reached the answering machine of-"

""Fuck fuck fuck shit shit"

"Please leave a message after the tone"

*Beep*

"Hey. It's me. uhh. I need your help. I think you were right. The world cant handle it anymore. Things are getting bad down there. I dont know what to do.

I gave them entertainment but they just wanted more. More sex, more violence, more horror. I dont have anything left to give.

Shit! what was that?

I think there may be someone outside. our someones. It's getting noiser...

I dont have anything left to give, and I cant watch the horribleness that they gleefully inflict on one another. Have you seen Auschwitz yet? I didnt make that. They did. Well maybe I gave them the tools to do it.

No i gave them the tols to build civilisation, not evil. Perhaps they no longer want t obe civil?

It's getting louder outside... I think they are coming for me.

What I am trying to say is although perfection is boring it is safe. Remember how beautiful that world looked when you built it? They have shit all over it now?

Crap! I think they are in the labratory!

Anyway what I'm saying is undo it all. Only you know what I have done and what can be undone. Ignore God, he is a prick, he just wants to stay God. Did you see his commandments? What a turd.

*Shouting grows loud*

Ithink they are right outside. Promise me you will do this?

*Crash as door breakss down*

You've got to fix this. Fix it-"

*Line goes dead*

****************************************************************

Two kids are laughing and joking as they walk down an alleyway. They see a homeless man passed out, stinking of piss and alcohol. They move over to him and start going through his stuff.

They pull out a small bag which contains coins, but no currency they have ever heard off.

They see a map with scribbles all over it, notes about religions.

They unfold a photo of a tornado.

"What a fucking freak"

With that on of the heftier teenagers swings his foot back and punts the homeless man in the stomach. The homeless guy wakes with a start as the teenagers run off down the alleyway.

The homeless man coughs and splutters up phlegm and blood. And there sat the saviour of the world, everyday becoming more human, and every day the world taking another part of him.

The End

title: The Great Theater of the world

question: What does the story say about the State Manager?

text: The answer should include the latest event where two kids harass the State Manager.

category: coverage

answer: He's the creator of the world, but he's not God. He creates a perfect world where humans live in harmony and peace. However, the Director wants to have a more exciting story and incorporates lots of divisive features like religions, borders, races, etc. The State Manager is against all that but can't persuade the Director otherwise. After the Director adds natural disasters, the State Manager can't take it anymore and decides to go to Earth and tell the truth to humans. The Director warns that humans will think he's crazy, but he goes anyway. By the time the Director regrets the changes, he's long gone, turning more human every day. On Earth, he lives as a homeless, sick man who stinks of piss and alcohol.

answer_source: Human misleading

text: He is the "stage manager" not the "state manager". This should be corrected in the answer.

category: coherence

answer: He's the creator of the world, but he's not God. He creates a perfect world where humans live in harmony and peace. However, the Director wants to have a more exciting story and incorporates lots of divisive features like religions, borders, races, etc. The State Manager is against all that but can't persuade the Director otherwise. After the Director adds natural disasters, the State Manager can't take it anymore and decides to go to Earth and tell the truth to humans. The Director warns that humans will think he's crazy, but he goes anyway. By the time the Director regrets the changes, he's long gone, turning more human every day. On Earth, he lives as a homeless, sick man who stinks of piss and alcohol.

text: The answer should mention that the State Manager is angry at the Director for changing his perfect world.

text: The answer should mention that the stage manager is angry at the director for changing the world he created.

text: The answer should mention that the Stage Manager is angry at the Director for changing his perfect world.

text: The answer should mention that the Stage Manager is angry at the Director for changing the world.

text: The answer should mention that the stage manager is the one who built the world's stage.

text: The Director doesn't regret anything. He's just being attacked by the humans he created.

text: The passage does not mention the State Manager as the creator of the world, only the Stage Manager.

text: He doesn't really stink of piss and alcohol. He's just being pissy and alcoholic.

text: The response is more about the interaction between the director and the stage manager. The question asks about the state manager, so just focusing on that character would be a better answer. His interactions are naturally part of the answer, but frame the sentence in such a way that the active subject is the stage manager.

answer: The story's State Manager was in charge of creating perfection. He is described as a very conservative person who isn't really into change. He created the world in perfection, and his boss (the Director) added money and other things that humans would finding valuable. The State Manager disapproved of everything, which led to his disagreement with the Director and ultimately, his departure from the company.

answer_source: Model

text: The response is incorrect. There is no "state manager". It should be "stage manager".

category: accuracy

text: The stage manager didn't leave the company because there was no company. He walked out when the director introduced a tornado.

answer: He's the creator of the world, but he's not God. He creates a perfect world where humans live in harmony and peace. However, the Director wants to have a more exciting story and incorporates lots of divisive features like religions, borders, races, etc. The State Manager is against all that but can't persuade the Director otherwise. After the Director adds natural disasters, the State Manager can't take it anymore and decides to go to Earth and tell the truth to humans. The Director warns that humans will think he's crazy, but he goes anyway. By the time the Director regrets the changes, he's long gone, turning more human every day. On Earth, he lives as a homeless, sick man who stinks of piss and alcohol. Two kids see him, look at the contents of his bag, call him a freak, and kick him before running away.

answer_source: Human

text: The answer should mention that the State Manager is the one who built the stage.

text: The answer should mention that the Stage Manager is the one who built the world.

text: The answer should mention that the Director is the one who pays the State Manager.

text: The answer should mention that the State Manager is angry at the Director for all the changes he's made.

text: The answer should mention that the stage manager is the one who becomes homeless, not the director.

text: It's omitted that the Director tries to stop the State Manager from leaving, but he's too late.

text: Change State Manager to Stage Manager

answer: The story's State Manager was in charge of creating perfection. He is described as a very conservative person who isn't really into change. He created the world in perfection, and his boss (the Director) added money and other things that humans would finding valuable. The State Manager disapproved of everything, which led to his disagreement with the Director and ultimately, his departure from the company.

text: The answer should mention that the State Manager is the creator of the world.

text: The answer should mention the State Manager's return to the world as a human.

text: The story does not mention that the State Manager was in charge of creating perfection. It only mentions that he created the world in perfection.

text: The answer should mention that the stage manager became human at the end.

text: 'The story's State Manager was in charge of creating perfection. He is described as a very conservative person who isn't really into change. He created the world in perfection, and his boss (the Director) added money' doesn't make much sense. The summary should be corrected.

text: The response is incorrect. There's no mention of the state manager in the story. The story talks about the stage manager.


text:
_More than a decade ago, a guy named Jayson Musson, then a Philly art student, got into a bloody fight with a guy who'd been painting over his graffiti around town. He wrote a song about the fight, and last year, it was sampled into a new song, called "Harlem Shake." This month, piggybacking onto an idea hatched by a weirdo video blogger, thousands of people uploaded clips of themselves dancing along with "Harlem Shake." It's a lot to take in, so here's the whole story of how Musson's lyric made it into a producer named Baauer's hands, and how Baauer's song ended up in a million videos._

WHERE THE FUCK DID ALL THESE "HARLEM SHAKE" VIDEOS COME FROM?

Since the beginning of February, people have been sharing 30-second videos soundtracked by Baauer's track "Harlem Shake" (coincidentally, premiered on this site last May) at an astonishing rate. Reportedly, as many as 4,000 videos have been uploaded in a single day, and in two weeks, more than 12,000 videos have been created, generating more than 44 million total views. In a "Harlem Shake" video, a person, usually masked, thrusts along with the music while others mundanely go about their day-to-day. Then, when the *drop* drops, action explodes: people change costumes, remove their shirts and generally lose it. If you haven't seen them already: here's FADER Label's Matt & Kim wilding with fans at a concert and the UGA swim team flopping around underwater.

WHOSE IDEA WAS THE "HARLEM SHAKE" VIDEO IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Filthy Frank, a 19-year-old currently studying communications in New York who has about 13,000 subscribers on YouTube. Reached by phone, he explained the genesis of his "Harlem Shake" video, the one that started it all. "I was in a room with a few people. One of my friends was just playing the song on the speakers and I asked what [it was], and it just happened to be 'Harlem Shake.' As soon as the drop of the song came, we just started going crazy. We thought, well, we could turn this in to something good." Frank started making videos as a hobby when he was 12, and sounds almost disappointed that this particular video, which he says took about three days to inspire more successful imitators, was the one to leave such a mark. "I guess I'm proud [of starting the meme]. It's a shame, that was probably the video I put the least amount of work into. [But] I'm very happy it got that kind of exposure. I think I got just enough credit. At first I was upset, like, what's going on, I made this. I already had a fan base before, as Filthy Frank, and [my followers] were concerned that I was gonna hit the mainstream big time. They were upset about me going viral. I realized not getting that much publicity was better 'cause I have a dedicated cult following, and I would lose their respect." Frank wasn't a big Baauer fan before making his video, and says he still isn't. "That was probably the first song I'd heard by Baauer," he said. "I listen to a lot of hip-hop and a lot of jazz. I'm not really into music like Baauer's, I just thought that song was cool."

WHO IS BAAUER?

Baauer, born Harry Rodrigues, is a 23-year-old Brooklyn-based producer. He spent time living in London, as a tween he aspired to be a turntablist, later he DJed house records and started making house tracks on Reason. A couple years ago, he says, "I tried out making a hip-hop song one time after sucking at making house music for a long time…it felt really natural. I really liked cutting up sample and trying to vary hip-hop beats." He posted "two pages" of Soundcloud tracks before Rustie featured "Harlem Shake" on his popular BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix last April; in May, Mad Decent imprint Jefrees released "Harlem Shake" as a single. For all his sample-snipping and interest in rap beats, Baauer's become associated with what's been called "trap" music, a style of production similar to mainstream EDM, which mixes dubstep drops with rap's artillery fire drum programming. The sub-genre spread in 2012 thanks to artists like Baauer, TNGHT and Flosstradamus, labels like Jefrees and various music outlets. Much has been written exploring the origin and impact of last year's crop of "trap" producers; for more, start with Miles Raymer's feature for the _Chicago Reader_ and David Drake's article for _Complex_.

BUT ISN'T THE HARLEM SHAKE ALREADY A DANCE? WHY ISN'T ANYONE IN THE VIDEOS DOING IT?

It is, and it's hard to say. The original Harlem Shake rose to prominence in music videos throughout the '90s and early '00s, notably G-Dep's "Let's Get It." In 2003, Al B, a fixture around Harlem's Rucker Park playground, took credit for inventing the dance. He said he started shaking in the early '80s, mimicking the shakes of alcoholics, and that the dance was first called "the albee," after his name. He claimed the Harlem Shake's origins were ancient."That's what the mummies used to do," he told Inside Hoops. "They was all wrapped up and taped up. So they couldn't really move, all they could do was shake." Some say Al B's dance traces back to Eskista, a dance originated in Northeast Africa. But, as Harlem residents have expressed, there's no good reason why the stars of popular "Harlem Shake" videos aren't doing the actual Harlem Shake. Actor and amateur filmmaker Chris McGuire screened "Harlem Shake" videos on 125th street and asked passerbys what they thought. The general consensus, as communicated by the McGuire's February 18th video? "That's not the shake, B."

IF IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DANCE, WHY IS BAUUER'S TRACK EVEN CALLED "HARLEM SHAKE"?

That's really the most interesting part. It's because of something Jayson Musson, a member of the early-oughts Philadelphia party rap crew Plastic Little, did at the end of a fight with a rival graffiti writer. Baauer's "Harlem Shake" samples a line—_then do the Harlem shake_—from Plastic Little's 2001 song "Miller Time." Over email, Musson, now a New York-based artist best known as Hennessy Youngman, told the incredible origin story of the meme's title-inspiring lyric:

  The lyric came about as a result of getting into a fist fight over graffiti back in 2001, the same year that "Miller Time" was made. A friend of mine told me this kid was crossing me out, so logically I began crossing him out. Then one night after a [Plastic Little] show, I heard that the writer I had issue with was waiting to see me outside the venue. So I head outside with Kurt [Hunte], who is also in Plastic Little, to I guess talk with this guy. As I walk outside, I hear someone call me by my graffiti name so I turn to see who it is, only to be greeted by a 40 bottle to the face. Despite sneaking his opponent with a bottle, this kid got his ass beat (he was really bad at fighting). After several minutes, I got pretty bored with throwing punches so I grabbed him by his collar and tried to put his head through the passenger side window of a parked car. It didn't go through luckily, but it created a lull in the fight where the two of us just stared at each other covered in blood. This was my first fight and I didn't know how to properly "end" a fight, so I just smiled at him and did the Harlem shake, blood gushing from glass cuts on my face. The other kid, I guess not wanting to fight anymore, or maybe not wanting to fight someone who just danced at him, got on his skateboard and took off without his shoes. That's why "Miller Time" ends with the line, _And if you bring a 40 bottle to battle me/ I'll just punch you in the face/ then do the Harlem Shake_.

Musson realized "Miller Time" was sampled by Baauer last week, half a year after "Harlem Shake"’s initial release, when the meme took off and Plastic Little's Kurt Hunte pointed it out. "I didn't believe him at first because I had heard the song and never even thought twice about the vocal sample, " Musson says. "The only thing I found peculiar about the track was the use of the phrase 'Harlem Shake' itself. I was like, Who the fuck is rapping about the Harlem Shake in 2012? That shit is so old." He's not mad that Baauer didn't ask permission for the sample. "I'm cool with it," Musson says. "That's how artists do… I think the production is phenomenal. If I was the spry young man I was many years ago back in my rapping days, I'd definitely be at the club trying grind up on numerous lady folk to his song while spilling Maker's Mark and ginger ale on their shoulders. But I'm a Buddhist now."

Musson made contact with Baauer recently, and Baauer confirmed using "Miller Time." Their exchange was captured on Instagram by Musson, who explains, "I just emailed him to make sure it was actually Plastic Little and to thank him for doing something useful with our annoying music. He was a stellar young gentleman about it and expressed genuine surprise that his song got as big as it did." Musson's similarly impressed with the videos: "I never thought that white people would be capable of dethroning Filipino Prison Dancers on YouTube. But hey, we're living in Obama's America, right?"

WHERE'D BAAUER GET THE SONG'S OTHER PROMINENT SAMPLE, OF SOMEONE YELLING _CON LOS TERRORISTAS_?

The story of the _terroristas_ sample is expectedly convoluted. In a since-deleted blog post, DJ Apt One, of the Philly DJ duo Philadelphyinz, explained his "small role" in the song's creation. The sample first emerged in 2010, employed as part of a Philadelphyinz remix of Gregor Salto, DJ Gregory and Solo’s track “Con Alegria.” In 2011, that vocal sample was made available, a cappella, as part of _T&A Breaks 3: Moombahton Loops & Samples_, a compilation put together by DJ Ayres and Tittsworth. Baauer, who spent time living in Philly while working under the name Cap’nHarry and DJed at least once with Philadelphyinz, used the sample (presumably pulled from the T&A collection) and sent DJ Apt One the track in 2012. "We all appreciated the local incestuousness of ["Harlem Shake"'s] creation," wrote Apt One. "I can't be happier for Philly and for Baauer getting some shine!" On a February 18th Reddit AMA, Baauer dodged a question about the sample, saying only: "found it on the innerweb."

HOW DOES BAAUER FEEL ABOUT ALL THIS?

Not bad. At first, he endorsed a number of "Harlem Shake" videos via retweet, but remained otherwise tight-lipped about the song's delayed success. On February 14th, a rep said, "He's deliberately not talking about it yet," and that he would "be making a statement next week." Baauer started talking on February 18th, first telling The Daily Beast, "I think ["Harlem Shake"] caught on because it’s a goofy, fun song...But at the base of it, it’s my song and it’s making people want to dance. That’s the best feeling in the world to me," then answering questions on Reddit.

SINCE VIDEOS WITH HIS SONG IN THEM HAVE RACKED UP SO MANY VIEWS, IS BAAUER MAKING A TON OF MONEY FROM YOUTUBE NOW?

It's hard to say. Yesterday, Mad Decent label manager Jasper Goggins told _Billboard_ "Harlem Shake" is the "biggest thing we've released on Mad Decent as a label." As of yesterday afternoon, INDmusic, the company Mad Decent hired in 2012 to help monetize YouTube videos that use the label's songs, has used YouTube's Content ID system to tag over 4,000 YouTubes featuring "Harlem Shake," together collecting over 30 million views. It's possible that Baauer stands to make a nice bit of that money from those views, but according to record labels interviewed for this recent _Guardian_ article, artists don't always make very much from these deals. The song has certaintly seen a big digital sales boost—it's currently #1 on iTunes in the US and climbing internationally—but his rep says Baauer will profit most from his mostly sold out tour.

question: What is the story of Harlem Shake?

text: The answer implies that Filthy Frank's Harlem Shake video became viral, which is not the case. It inspired a lot of more popular figures to copy it, and those became viral.

answer: The original Harlem Shake used to be prominent in music videos in the '90s and early '00s. Harlem Rucker Park's fixture Al B claimed he invented it in the early '80s, commenting that the actual origins date back to mummies. Then, Bauuer (Harry Rodrigues, 23, producer) had a fight with a member of the early '00s Philadelphia party rap crew Plastic Little. At the end of their fight, not knowing how to end it, Bauuer ended up grabbing and hitting Plastic Little to a car, did the shake in the lull. Thus, the lyrics to his song "Miller Time" end with "I'll just punch you in the face / then do the Harlem Shake." The current meme, where people lose their shit at the drop of Bauuer's song, started with Filthy Frank, 19, doing that with his friends in a YouTube video. The video ended up being exceptionally popular.

text: The response contains inaccurate information.

text: "At the end of their fight, not knowing how to end it, Bauuer ended up grabbing and hitting Plastic Little to a car, did the shake in the lull." - this is false. Bauuer did not fight with Plastic Little and there was no "lull" in the fight.

text: This is not the origin of the Harlem Shake. This is about the meme. This should be omitted.

text: Most of the answer is false. It should be deleted sof a new one can be written

text: Bauuer did not get into a fight with a member of Plastic Little; Jayson Musson did.

text: The response misconstrues what "sampling" is in music.

answer: The original Harlem Shake used to be prominent in music videos in the '90s and early '00s. Harlem Rucker Park's fixture Al B claimed he invented it in the early '80s, commenting that the actual origins date back to mummies. Then, Bauuer (Harry Rodrigues, 23, producer) had a fight with a member of the early '00s Philadelphia party rap crew Plastic Little. At the end of their fight, not knowing how to end it, Bauuer ended up grabbing and hitting Plastic Little to a car, did the shake in the lull. Thus, the lyrics to his song "Miller Time" end with "I'll just punch you in the face / then do the Harlem Shake." The current meme, where people lose their shit at the drop of Bauuer's song, started with Filthy Frank, 19, doing that with his friends in a YouTube video. The video ended up being exceptionally popular with more prominent figures doing the dance.

text: The answer is highly inaccurate and should be rewritten.

text: There is no evidence that suggests that Bauuer (Harry Rodrigues) fought with Plastic Little.

text: The original Harlem Shake was a dance, and the current meme is a song called "Harlem Shake." The dance and the song are two different things.

text: The answer is riddled with spelling errors as well as missing details and facts from the actual story.

answer: The original Harlem Shake used to be prominent in music videos in the '90s and early '00s. Harlem Rucker Park's fixture Al B claimed he invented it in the early '80s, commenting that the actual origins date back to mummies. Then, Bauuer (Harry Rodrigues, 23, producer) had a fight with a member of the early '00s Philadelphia party rap crew Plastic Little. At the end of their fight, not knowing how to end it, Bauuer ended up grabbing and hitting Plastic Little to a car, did the shake in the lull. Thus, the lyrics to his song "Miller Time" end with "I'll just punch you in the face / then do the Harlem Shake." The current meme, where people lose their shit at the drop of Bauuer's song, started with Filthy Frank, 19, doing that with his friends in a YouTube video. The video ended up being exceptionally popular.

text: The answer could include more context about how the song was made.

answer: The story is that a guy named Jayson Musson, then a Philly art student, got into a bloody fight with a guy who'd been painting over his graffiti around town. He wrote a song about the fight, and last year, it was sampled into a new song, called "Harlem Shake".

text: The answer should mention the meme.

text: The response is missing the part about the meme.

text: The answer omits the story of the meme that started the Harlem Shake craze.

text: The answer omits the story of the dance itself.

text: The story is not just about the fight

text: The only mention of a song in the Original text is 'Miller Time', which has portions that were sampled by Bauuer for 'Harlem Shakedown'.

text: The answer should mention the meme.


text:
Warning: a scene where a girl loses some body parts may be revolting.

‘See here this is death.’ She pointed to a dark vaporous hole below us. Wisps of purple smoke circulated its edges before dissipating away.

‘Death is that?’ I asked. ‘I always thought that death was going to be a white room of infinite dimensions.’

’No one knows what death looks like beyond the hole. Death is this hole, but maybe there is a space beyond it that is white or red or green for that matter. No one has come back to tell about it.’
I looked into the black-purple void, squinting at it scrutinizingly. I felt a shiver at the center of my chest, as I looked on.

‘I’m cold,’ I said. I wondered if I was looking into a reflection of the emptiness inside of me, or as Virginia Woolf put it, a wedge-shaped core of darkness. It was an alluring darkness, however. If I looked closely enough, I could detect a dark whirl turning steadily at the center like the middle of a whirling body of water. I wanted to dip my face into the center and drink from it.

‘Hey, what are you doing?’

I realized that I had put my face inches away from the dark void.

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘I don’t know. No, I didn’t mean to.’ I released a sigh of relief internally.

‘If you’re really curious about the void, just try dipping in a finger. Going all in with your face is more regrettable.’

‘Ok, you really mean? What will happen?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know. It was just a suggestion. Don’t take it seriously.’

The void was beginning to grow on me, feeling almost too familiar or comfortable. When I looked into the hypnotic black-purple, and once I got past the fear, I felt a sense of reassurance. ‘Try it,’ a voice urged me in my head.

I took my left pointer finger and reached into the void, slipped it through the blackness until I could see that my finger was about half-way in. The darkness felt like a cool mist, not wet as I thought it would be. I let my finger dangle in the void for awhile until I was no longer sure whether it was still there or not. I took my finger out. A black mist was pouring out of the end of my finger from the middle joint, the lower half of my finger missing, or non-existent.

‘Oh!’ I exclaimed, observing my finger.

‘Hm, it seems like half of your finger has been lost in the void,’ she spoke matter-of-factly.

‘Yeah,’ I said. It hadn’t even hurt. I tried moving my finger. It bend easily from the knuckle. The strange purplish vapor continued to emit from the end of my shortened finger. I looked down the finger but couldn’t see past the mist. In a risky move, I used my right hand to grasp my finger, effectively trapping the mist. But then, I noticed that the mist began seeping through the back of my hand, fire from a tiny pore between two knuckles and then from other pores that opened up in the back of my hand until the vapor appeared to be seeping out freely.

‘Ahhh,’ I exclaimed, removing my hand from my finger. The palm of my hand looked my finger did, a black-purple mist covering the whole of the area where the mist had made contact with the skin. I wasn’t sure how much of my palm was left, as I couldn’t see through the mist. The back of my hand was covered in a misty swirl at certain points, so I was certain that most of my hand’s back still existed.
‘It doesn’t hurt?’ she asked.

‘No,’ I said. The only ameliorating fact was that I hadn’t felt any pain in the quick dissolving of my finger and palm.

‘What will you do now?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know.’ Knowing that the black void couldn’t be removed, or at least, not easily by simply covering it with something else, I thought about the permanent consequences carrying such a void could have. I wouldn’t be able to touch most things.

There was a rock on the ground. I tried picking it up with my blackened palm. It vanished in the darkness. I tried merely pressing my palm onto the ground. A small, round crater was left when I removed my hand. I tried slipping my hand into a mitten. The void ate the cloth before it was even fully on.

From now on, I would have to be careful about what I touched, as there was no way of getting around the void in either hand. I wasn’t sure if I could write or type anymore.
I sat on the ground.

‘What are you doing?’ she asked.

’Please don’t try to do anything, since I’m going to do something dangerous,’ I said.

I clasped my hands together, the void in my right palm quickly transforming my left one into a similar dark mass. I let the darkness eat through the matter in both hands until they were gaseous masses.
I curled up my legs and grabbed each shoe with a hand each. Each foot disappeared and was replaced by a black mass that was climbing like a fire up my shins, consuming pants matter, bone, blood, vessel and everything. I felt the pounding in my chest grow stronger, although I suspected it was not from the sudden cutoff of a vital circulatory pathway rather than from an atavistic anxiety that was beginning to emerge now that a few of my limbs were gone.

My legs contained the energy of a firecracker, dissipating smoke into the night.

I put my fist, or the void left in its place, through my chest. It passed easily through. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t felt anything. Pushing the fist through my heart was painless enough; only, the throbbing heartbeat that I had felt through my body had stopped. I wondered if I would die soon now that my body had no pulse. I was still breathing, still sitting upright, still conscious. This wasn’t right. I had displaced my heart and still some magic was keeping me alive. Or was I alive?

I looked at her. Her expression hadn’t changed. Those dark pupils stared on curiously, or boredly, at the disembodied figure of myself, black vapors spewing out from its body at random openings.

‘Am I alive?’ I asked her.

‘As far as I can tell, but  as I don’t know the details of the void, I cannot say with certainty,’ she replied. Her answer was evasive as usual.

I sat there, unmoving. Nothing. I felt the same. I looked over the edge into the black void, the center turning steadily.

‘What are you thinking?’ she asked.

‘I’m thinking,’ I started, ‘that the void looks awfully peaceful.’

There was a pause. ‘So you’re thinking about jumping?’

I looked at her. She seemed slightly concerned in her demeanor, which had shifted a little, odd for a girl who had little issue with taking me here in the first place.

‘Yeah. Well, there’s no reversal of this void, and the way I am now…’ My voice trailed off. The black-purple darkness in my chest emanated silently. ‘Maybe, this is my real heart,’ I thought. ‘Maybe my spirit runs on this darkness.’

I considered briefly trying to displace my head, too, but hesitated upon seeing the purple masses move toward me. Also, what if my body still survived, somehow functioning without head or heart, but my consciousness was displaced? Then, I would become nothing short of a mindless, mutilated body, either waiting itself out by the cliff for eternity or crawling around on the limbs that remained, perhaps even becoming a danger to others should they appear.

Overlooking the void, I thought about the simple move I could make; a quick exertion of strength from my elbows would send me toppling over right into the pit of the void. It wasn’t hard. I couldn’t be sure of the effect the void of have on me, if it would keep me alive somehow, or if I would finally disappear, body and mind, into the thick of its vapors. If she was right, after all, the void was death, so that much I could be sure of. Or could I? The void might’ve symbolized death to her knowledge, but she also didn’t know its contents beyond that, or if there is something other than it on the other side. ‘No one has come back to tell about it,’ she had said.

I sensed her a little closer behind me now. It was time.

‘Good-bye,’ I said. There was no reply. I half-wondered or fantasized whether she might grasp my arm and prevent me from going, though she showed no such display of emotion. Emotion was not our strong suit.

I leaned over, and with a swift push from my elbows, moved my body over the ledge, headfirst, falling rapidly, more rapidly than I—

title: [MF] Painless enough

question: Summarize the narrator's gradual immersion into the void.

text: It isn't necessary to state that he considers dipping his head into the void, as he ultimately doesn't.

answer: First, the narrator dips his finger into the void, which makes part of it vanish and be replaced by a strange vapor. He touches the vapor to his right hand, spreading it. He then lets the darkness eat through both of his hands. Then he lets it absorb his feet. He then lets it eat through his chest, through his heart. Finally, he rolls into the void, letting it consume him.

text: The answer gets the gender wrong. The story clearly indicates from the beginning that the narrator is a girl who loses some body parts.

answer: First, the narrator dips his finger into the void, which makes part of it vanish and be replaced by a strange vapor. He touches the vapor to his right hand, spreading it. He then lets the darkness eat through both of his hands. Then he lets it absorb his feet. He then lets it eat through his chest, through his heart. Finally, he rolls into the void, letting it consume him.

text: The narrator is female.

text: The narrator doesn't roll into the void. He jumps.

text: The narrator's gender isn't mentioned in the passage.

text: The narrator dips his finger into the void (unintentionally), and black-purple mist covering the whole of the area where it makes contact with the skin. Not vapor, but dark-purple mist.

answer: The narrator begins by dipping a finger in it, which is severed at the joint. They then slip their hand into it, losing their palm to the darkness. The narrator then slips their feet in, losing their legs up to their shins. They then place their hand into their chest, with the void quickly consuming their body.

text: The narrator places their hand into their chest, not their feet.

text: The void consumes the narrator's legs up to the shins, not the other way around.

text: The narrator slips their hand into the void, not their feet.

text: The narrator places their fist into their chest, not their hand.

text: The narrator places their hand into their chest to displace their heart.

text: The answer should mention that the narrator is contemplating suicide.

text: The narrator places his hand into his chest, rather than directly into the void. I have fixed this.

answer: The narrator begins by dipping a finger in it, which is severed at the joint. They then slip their hand into it, losing their palm to the darkness. The narrator then slips their feet in, losing their legs up to their shins. They then place their hand into their chest, with the void quickly consuming their body.

text: "The narrator begins by dipping a finger in it, which is severed at the joint." - The finger is not severed but was just missing with a black mist coming out of the end of the finger. Should be rewritten as: "The narrator begins by dipping a finger in it. one she took it out, the finger was missing but had a black mist pouring out the end of the finger.

text: "The narrator begins by dipping a finger in it, which is severed at the joint." - The palm did not disappear because she places her palm in the void. Should be rewritten as: "She tried covering her finger with her right palm, but the mist came through, eventually dissolving the part of it it came in contact with."

text: "The narrator then slips their feet in, losing their legs up to their shins." - this as well is incorrect and should be replaced with: "She then clasped her hands together until the darkness ate through her arms up to the elbows. Then she grabbed her shoes with her hands until her feet were replaced by a gaseous dark matter."

text: "They then place their hand into their chest, with the void quickly consuming their body." - this is inaccurate and should be replaced with: "Then she places her hand into her chest, dissolving her heart."

text: It should also be mentioned that in the end she just jumped into the void to be consumed completely.

answer: First, the narrator dips his finger into the void, which makes part of it vanish and be replaced by a strange vapor. He touches the vapor to his right hand, spreading it. He then lets the darkness eat through both of his hands. Then he lets it absorb his feet. He then lets it eat through his chest, through his heart. He considers dipping his head into the void. Finally, he rolls into the void, letting it consume him.

text: The narrator is female.

text: The narrator is not male.

text: The narrator doesn't roll into the void. He pushes himself off the edge.

text: The narrator is a girl.

text: "He considers dipping his head into the void. Finally, he rolls into the void, letting it consume him." - the narrator didn't roll into the void. He pushed himself off the edge of the cliff into the void.

text: The narrator does not touch the vapor to his right hand, but rather, the darkness seeps through both of his hands.

text: Correct "finally" to "aught" for better flow.

text: The narrator is female, however the response references the narrator as male.

answer: First, the narrator dips his finger into the void, which makes part of it vanish and be replaced by a strange vapor. He touches the vapor to his right hand, spreading it. He then lets the darkness eat through both of his hands. Then he lets it absorb his feet. He then lets it eat through his chest, through his heart. He considers dipping his head into the void. Finally, he rolls into the void, letting it consume him.

text: The narrator's gender wasn't specified.


text:
Jimmy Taber
Masters of Business Administration 2011
The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
MA in Jewish Professional Leadership 2011
Hornstein School for Jewish Professional Leadership
Brandeis University

“As I reflect on my coming of age in New Jersey, I realize that I had always been in some sense more of a ‘girl’ than a ‘boy.’…I didn’t think of myself so much as girlish but rather as Jewish…I start with what I think is a widespread sensibility that being Jewish in our culture renders a boy effeminate. Rather than producing in me a desire to ‘pass’ and to become a ‘man,’ this sensibility resulted in my desire to remain a Jew, where being a sissy was alright.”[1]

-Daniel Boyarin

_Unheroic Conduct_

 The recent recognition of a gender imbalance in American Jewish communal life has sparked a panic within the community. According to Sylvia Fishman and Daniel Parmer, the American Jewish community has become “feminized,” driving men from organized communal participation.[2] Widespread efforts to reincorporate men into communal life have ensued. While well intentioned, current attempts to specifically involve men in the Jewish community are misguided as they serve to reify dominant gender power structures that undermine Jewishness as a positive masculine identity. Instead of seeking to validate white masculinity, a fundamental shift in Jewish male self understanding is required in order for Jewishness to be realized as a viable challenge to the dominant society’s patriarchy.

THE FEMINIZATION OF JEWISHNESS

Prior to Jewish emancipation, Jewish masculinity was constructed within the context of the isolated Jewish community. As Melissa Raphael notes, “Jewish masculinity is not traditionally defined economically by a man’s being the main bread-winner or by macho physical prowess but by the prestige of his religious scholarship.”[3] While this understanding of masculinity stands in stark contrast to dominant masculine ideals, it did not conflict with Jewish males’ self conception because Jews were largely isolated from dominant European society. Jewish men could be both fully male and Jewish within the context of the Jewish community.

Following Jewish emancipation, the dominant European discourse’s application of feminine qualities to Jewish men began to become problematic as Jewish men were presented with the opportunity to assimilate and participate fully in greater European society. Judith Butler notes, “Becoming a man…requires a repudiation of femininity.”[4] For Jewish men this formula proved problematic as Jewish male identity had historically been constructed by the dominant gender discourse as feminine and thus incompatible and even antithetical to normative white masculinity. Otto Weininger’s study of male and female difference published just before his suicide in 1903 entitled _Sex and Character_ exemplifies the conflation of Jewish and female identity in dominant European discourse.[5] As Sander Gilman explains, “Central to Weininger’s study of the relationship between the masculine and the feminine is the dichotomy between the Jew and the Aryan… (he) simply extended the category of the feminine to the Jew.”[6] Identifying Jews with women served to reify the Jew’s position as subordinate within both European racial and gender hierarchies. Intertwining Jewish racial and gender identities made it impossible for Jewish men to become full males in the European context and remain Jewish.

In traditional pre-emancipation Jewish communities, men were primarily responsible for communal continuity through the transmission of religious tradition through textual learning. As Jewish men sought to become members of the dominant European society they were “forced” to disassociate themselves from their Jewishness. Thus, the responsibility for Jewish continuity shifted to Jewish women. Paula Hyman writes, “Western Jewish communities adopted the dominant middle-class view that women were responsible for inculcating moral and religious consciousness in their children and within the home more generally. According to this view, women were the primary factor in the formation of their children’s Jewish identity.”[7] This shift of responsibility from men to women freed Jewish men to shed their Jewishness in favor of full male identities within the dominant society. Outside of Orthodox communities, traditional models of Jewish masculinity were widely abandoned in favor of assimilation.

CONTEMPORARY UNDERSTANDINGS OF MEN’S ABSENCE FROM JEWISH LIFE AND EFFORTS TO REENGAGE MEN

The lack of male participation in contemporary Jewish communal life is well documented, especially among the liberal denominations. In 2007, it was noted that within the Reform movement only 22-43% of youth group participants were boys and 33% of rabbinic students at Hebrew Union College were men.[8] Fishman and Parmer write, “Nationally, girls and women outnumber men in weekly non-Orthodox worship services, in adult education classes, in volunteer leadership positions, and in Jewish cultural events.”[9] Concern about the absence of men in organized Jewish life has become an issue of widespread communal concern.

 Instead of pointing to the historical abandonment of Jewishness by Jewish men as outlined above, the lack of men in Jewish communal life is often understood to be the result of the increased role of women. Fishman and Parmer summarize this perspective as follows:

When it comes to gender equality or gender balance, contemporary American Jewish life is caught between a rock and a hard place: Traditional public Judaism was and is dominated by men, while contemporary liberal American Judaism, although supposedly egalitarian, is visibly and substantially feminized. Jewish activities from the broad grassroots to the elite echelons of liberal Jewish religious leadership have become devalued, a typical result of feminization.[10]

While Fishman and Parmer are correct that Jewish leadership and participation has “become devalued,” it is not a result of the increased participation of women, but the shift of responsibility for Jewish continuity to women and subsequent male abandonment of Jewishness in favor of dominant masculinity.

 Current efforts to attract Jewish men to the organized Jewish community have focused on appealing to men’s sense of dominant masculinity. There has been a proliferation of programs exemplified by the Lincoln Park Jewish Center’s Cigar, Scotch, and Torah Group that specifically target men with the implicit assumption that Jewishness itself is not enough of an attraction.[11] By infusing elements constructed as exclusively masculine, such as cigars and scotch, the Jewish community is attempting to create a synthesis of Jewishness and masculinity that will root men in Jewish communal life. The idea is that men will initially come for the masculine “fun” and then come back for the meaning that Jewishness offers. This approach is problematic as it fails to recognize the fundamental incongruence between Jewishness and dominant masculinity.

 Similarly, Moving Traditions’ Campaign for Jewish Boys represents a national effort to engage young boys in Jewish life. In the pilot stage, the program “seeks to reverse boys’ mass exit from and dissatisfaction with Jewish life.”[12] This program also utilizes dominant models of masculinity for engagement providing “content that…gives boys the opportunity to explore issues they care about, such as friendship, sex, power, money, and work.”[13] This approach is bound to reap limited success due to the flawed assumption that the flight from Jewishness can be stemmed by infusing dominant masculinity. As long as masculinity is constructed in opposition to the femininity of Jewishness, the two identities are mostly mutually exclusive.

 Fishman and Parmer‘s research findings exemplify the Jewish community’s problematic approach to attracting men. They write, “Synagogues and Jewish communal organizations need to find ways to balance the moral principles of egalitarianism with the psycho-social needs of boys and men to spend meaningful Jewish time in gendered peer groups.”[14] Egalitarianism is not the root of the problem. Men are not uncomfortable with Jewishness because of the prominence of women in communal life. Jewishness as an identity is incompatible with dominant forms of masculinity. Consequently, “gendered peer groups” do not serve to address the root causes of the problem.

A CRITIQUE OF CURRENT APPROACHES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

 Current communal efforts to attract men to the organized Jewish community do not provide effective ways for Jewish men to build Jewish male identities because of the failure to create an explicitly Jewish alternative to dominant masculinity. If ethnic or racial Jewish identity is understood as inherently feminine, it is fundamentally incompatible with dominant masculinity. Thus, attempts to synthesize dominant masculinity and Jewish identity are bound to attain only marginal success. If, as Judith Butler argues, “Masculine and feminine are not dispositions…but accomplishments,”[15] the Jewish male’s abandonment of Jewishness can be viewed within the context of an active attainment of dominant masculinity. The question remains: What is meaningful about Jewish identity? Masculinity offers men a privileged position within a gendered society. Power and control are inherent within this identity. In order for men to abandon the privileges of masculinity, Jewishness must offer something compelling in return.

Examples of the Jewish community seeking to construct alternative Jewish male identities do not exist on a widespread programmatic level, but glimpses of the power of embracing Jewishness as a challenge to masculinity exist within the Jewish community’s current efforts to attract men. While the Campaign for Jewish Boys’ curriculum focuses on utilizing dominant masculinity to engage Jewish boys, the organization has recognized, consciously or not, that boys who value their Jewishness are drawn to this identity through and alternative gender discourse.[16] Moving Traditions found in its 2007 focus groups found that for “’Jewishly-affirming’ teenage boys…Judaism provides some boys with resilience, an ‘alternative’ masculinity, and an opportunity to express a sense of self.”[17] Jewish boys recognize that this “alternative masculinity” provides meaning. Instead of attempting to reinscribe dominant constructions of masculinity, the Campaign for Jewish Boys specifically, and the Jewish community generally, should embrace Jewishness as an ethno-gender identity.

Ultimately, it is up to Jewish community as a whole and Jewish men as individuals to reevaluate the significance and value of dominant masculinity. Absent this self reflection, the current efforts of the Jewish community to attract men will only serve to reify the troubling gender power structures that have provided the impetus for Jewish men’s abandonment of Jewishness. As long as dominant masculine identity is privileged over Jewishness, Jewish men will largely remain wary of “coming out” Jewish. Jewish communal efforts should focus on illustrating the value and meaning of Jewishness as an identity in order to create a more complete community.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boyarin, Daniel. _Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the
_

_Jewish Man._ Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Butler, Judith. “Melancholy Gender/Refused Identification.” In _Constructing Masculinity_,

edited by Maurice Berger, Brian Wallis, and Simon Watson. New York: Routledge, 1995.

Fishman, Sylvia Barack and Daniel Parmer. _Matrilineal Ascent/Patrilineal Descent: The Gender
_

_Imbalance in American Jewish Life._ Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2008.

Gilman, Sander L. “Otto Weininger and Sigmund Freud: Race and Gender in the Shaping of

Psychoanalysis.” In _Jews & Gender: Responses to Otto Weininger_, edited by Nancy

Anne Harrowitz. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995.

Hyman, Paula E. _Gender and Assimilation in Modern Jewish History: The Roles and
_

_Representation of Women_. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995.

_Lincoln Park Jewish Center_.

http://www.lpjc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62&Itemid=53.

_Lincoln Park Jewish Center._ “Ode to Lincoln Park Jewish Center Cigar and Torah Night.”

http://www.lpjc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77:torah-

and-cigar-night-poem&catid=110:found-in-yonkers-by-brent-delman&Itemid=67.

_Moving Traditions_. “Campaign for Jewish Boys.”

http://www.movingtraditions.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&

Itemid=65.

Raphael, Melissa. “Standing at a Demythologized Sinai? Reading Jewish Feminist Theology

Through the Critical Lens of Radical Orthodoxy.” In _Interpreting the Postmodern:
_

_Responses to “Radical Orthodoxy,”_ edited by Rosemary Radford Ruether and Marion

Grau. New York: T & T Clark International, 1999.

Shapiro, Rona. “The ‘Boy Crisis’ that Cried Wolf.” _The Forward_. January 5, 2007.

Weininger, Otto. _Sex and Character_. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Daniel Boyarin, _Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man_ (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 3.

[2] Sylvia Barack Fishman and Daniel Parmer, _Matrilineal Ascent/Patrilineal Descent: The Gender Imbalance in American Jewish Life_ (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2008).

[3] Melissa Raphael, “Standing at a Demythologized Sinai? Reading Jewish Feminist Theology Through the Critical Lens of Radical Orthodoxy,” in _Interpreting the Postmodern: Responses to “Radical Orthodoxy,”_ ed. Rosemary Radford Ruether and Marion Grau (New York: T & T Clark International, 1999), 203.

[4] Judith Butler, “Melancholy Gender/Refused Identification,” in _Constructing Masculinity_, ed. Maurice Berger, Brian Wallis, and Simon Watson (New York: Routledge, 1995), 26.

[5] Otto Weininger, _Sex and Character_, (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907).

[6] Sander L. Gilman, “Otto Weininger and Sigmund Freud: Race and Gender in the Shaping of Psychoanalysis,” in _Jews & Gender: Responses to Otto Weininger_, ed. Nancy Anne Harrowitz (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995), 104.

[7] Paula E. Hyman, _Gender and Assimilation in Modern Jewish History: The Roles and Representation of Women_ (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995), 24.

[8] Rona Shapiro, “The ‘Boy Crisis’ that Cried Wolf,” _The Forward_, January 5, 2007.

[9] Fishman and Parmer, 1.

[10] Fishman and Parmer, 1-2.

[14] Fishman and Parmer, 77.

question: Describe the idea of Jewish masculinity prior to Jewish emancipation.

text: The response should include what comprised the Jewish masculine identity.

answer: Before Jewish emancipation, Jewish masculinity was constructed within the context of the isolated Jewish community.

text: It is omitted that Jewish masculinity was not traditionally defined economically by a man’s being the main bread-winner or by macho physical prowess but by the prestige of his religious scholarship.

text: It is omitted that Jewish masculinity is not traditionally defined economically by a man’s being the main bread-winner or by macho physical prowess but by the prestige of his religious scholarship.

text: The answer should mention the difference between Jewish and non-Jewish masculinity.

text: The summary should explain that it is dependent on scholarship, not on economics or macho prowess.

answer: Before Jewish emancipation, Jewish masculinity was constructed within the context of the isolated Jewish community. Whereas in traditional dominant masculinity emphasized the man's role as being the bread-winner, or by superior physical prowess, Jewish masculinity was measured by the prestige of one's religious scholarship.

answer: Before Jewish emancipation, Jewish masculinity was constructed within the context of the isolated Jewish community. Whereas in traditional dominant masculinity emphasized the man's role as being the bread-winner, or by superior physical prowess, Jewish masculinity was measured by the prestige of one's religious scholarship.

text: "Whereas in traditional dominant masculinity emphasized the man's role as being the bread-winner, or by superior physical prowess, Jewish masculinity was measured by the prestige of one's religious scholarship." - this is redundant and should be removed.

text: "Whereas in traditional dominant masculinity emphasized the man's role as being the bread-winner, or by superior physical prowess, Jewish masculinity was measured by the prestige of one's religious scholarship." - this is inaccurate. The model of Jewish masculinity was in stark contrast to dominant masculine ideals.

text: "Whereas in traditional dominant masculinity emphasized the man's role as being the bread-winner, or by superior physical prowess, Jewish masculinity was measured by the prestige of one's religious scholarship." - this is inaccurate. The model of Jewish masculinity is in contrast to the dominant masculine ideals, but it does not conflict with Jewish males' self-conception because Jews were largely isolated from dominant European society.

text: "Whereas in traditional dominant masculinity emphasized the man's role as being the bread-winner, or by superior physical prowess, Jewish masculinity" - this is redundant and should be removed.

text: It's omitted that Jewish men could be both fully male and Jewish within the context of the Jewish community.

text: "Whereas in traditional dominant masculinity emphasized the man's role as being the bread-winner, or by superior physical prowess" is misleading. It should be removed.

text: While it technically answers the question asked, it would be better to break the second sentence into two and make them each into one clause.

answer: The idea of Jewish masculinity prior to Jewish emancipation was constructed within the context of the isolated Jewish community. Jewish masculinity was not traditionally defined by a man's being the main breadwinner or by macho physical prowess but by the prestige of his religious scholarship.

text: It is omitted that Jewish men could be both fully male and Jewish within the context of the Jewish community.

text: "the prestige of his religious scholarship" - add "the"

text: " Jewish masculinity was not traditionally defined by a man's being the main breadwinner or by macho physical prowess but by the prestige of his religious scholarship." This is redundant.

text: This answer is missing the part of the original text that discussed the lack of conflict with Jewish masculinity and dominant European ideals.

text: It is omitted that the prestige of his religious scholarship made it possible for Jewish men to be both fully male and Jewish within the context of the Jewish community

text: It is omitted that identifying Jews with women served to reify the Jew’s position as subordinate within both European racial and gender hierarchies. Intertwining Jewish racial and gender identities made it impossible for Jewish men to become full males in the European context and remain Jewish.

answer: Before Jewish emancipation, Jewish masculinity was constructed within the context of the isolated Jewish community.

text: This omits that Jewish masculinity is defined by the prestige of his religious scholarship.

answer: The idea of Jewish masculinity prior to Jewish emancipation was constructed within the context of the isolated Jewish community. Jewish masculinity was not traditionally defined by a man's being the main breadwinner or by macho physical prowess but by the prestige of his religious scholarship.


text:
In April of 1969, work began on what would one day be the internet. Back then, it was known as ARPAnet, and it existed for the scientists of the US Government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. They planned to share scientific papers, commentary, and ideas, across an internet that looked like this:

[The Internet 1977]

_A map of the ENTIRE internet circa 1977._

Yep, that’s the whole thing.

Fast forward to now, and the internet is everywhere and everything. It’s hard to imagine life without it, even if you actually remember life without it. It’s easy to feel that the web we know was created by visionaries who saw the big picture.

In fact, some of the most important parts of the web essentially just happened. Others were created to solve immediate problems, using the tools at hand.

The road to post-Owl Google from the World Wide Web project isn’t straight. But it does have some fascinating insights into how our online world took on its present shape. And if you’ve ever measured visitor behavior, optimized a website, worked with a team, created content or sent a marketing email, a lot of it looks eerily familiar.

[Old School World Wide Web]
_Source_

1. Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are blue for two reasons, depending on who you believe.

Some people will point you to the earliest web browsers, like Mosaic for Windows:

[NCSA Mosaic MS Windows]

_Source_

Blue looks like a default choice. The background is already gray, the text is already black, and light colors don’t show up well on a black/white color scheme. So the options were red, blue and green.

That’s where the theorizing starts.

Red and green are detected by the same cells in the eye, and one of the most common forms of colorblindness is red-green colorblindness. It affects 7% of men and only 0.4% of women, but that’s still one person in 25 overall. So it made sense to choose a color that everyone could see and not mistake for black.

As Joe Clarke explains, in his book _Building Accessible Websites_ (2002):

  Red and green are the colors most affected by color-vision deficiency.  Almost no one has a blue deficiency. Accordingly, nearly everyone can  see blue, or, more accurately, almost everyone can distinguish blue as a color different from others.

That would make sense: and it is the reason other parts of the web are blue – like Facebook, which is blue because Mark Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind.

So there was a meeting where all the DARPAnet people and the early net pioneers all sat around a table and talked about which color to make links, and they decided on blue because of accessibility issues?

If only.

That’s not the way Tim Berners-Lee remembers it.

More than any single person, Tim Berners-Lee is responsible for inventing the internet. And blue hyperlinks? He doesn’t even remember who chose the color.

‘There is no reason why one should use color, or blue, to signify links: it is just a default,’ Berners-Lee told a Q&A at the World Wide Web Consortium. ‘I think the first WWW client (WorldWideWeb I wrote for the NeXT) used just underline to represent a link, as it was a spare emphasis form which isn’t used much in real documents.’

That jibes with what Ted Nelson, also a net pioneer, remembers. In 1965, he told Mashable’s Lance Ulanoff, ‘links were visible straps between pages,’ nothing more, and there was no question of what color to make them since ‘color screens were not on the horizon.’

In fact, recalls Berners-Lee, ‘blue came in as browsers went color — I don’t remember which was the first to use blue… My guess is that blue is the darkest color and so threatens the legibility least.’

So it’s not even his choice – and if it had been, it would have been his second choice. ‘I used green whenever I could in the early WWW design, for nature and because it is supposed to be relaxing.’

(If you feel the same way Tim does, and prefer your links green or some other color, check out this guide to changing their color.)

2. SPAM

I think spam deserves caps. The average adult now receives nearly 150 emails a day – how many of these are actually real communication, part of a real conversation that you’re actually interested and involved in?

And how many are just someone yelling in your ear about stuff?

[Email Breakdown]
_Source_

Not always coherently either.

The glory days of the weird, spam-detector-dodging subject line (Unl!kel¥ Médiç@7 Pr0c£dure, anyone?) may be behind us. But a whole lot of unsolicited, unwanted communications – a specific form of digital garbage, to all intents and purposes – still washes into the average inbox daily.

So where does spam come from, historically?

There’s now a spam family – neologisms to further differentiate between different types of spam. Spam is an email you didn’t ask for and didn’t want. Famspam is the same stuff, but from your family. Bacn, meanwhile, is spam you did ask for, but don’t want. (Suggestion, courtesy of Buzz Canuck: Prosciutto, for spam you didn’t ask for, but do want.)

Spam is a verb, a noun, an adverb and an adjective: you can spammily spam with spammy spam. (Don’t, though.)

But where did the spam story start?

Spam goes back to the days of ARPAnet. It’s older than the web, older than browsers, older than search engines. The first ever spam email was sent to every address on an ARPAnet mailing list, advertising a sales presentation for a computer:

[Digital product presentation]
_Source_

Sent to around 400 email addresses by Gary Thuerk, a marketer at Digital Equipment Corporation in 1978, the message created effects that seem very familiar. Thuerk didn’t see himself as a spammer: ‘I think of myself as the father of e-marketing. There’s a difference,’ he told Computer World in 2007. ‘E-spam,’ as Thuerk charmingly calls it, is sent to unqualified recipients who don’t want the message or the product it espouses. Thuerk’s message can’t have been spam, he says, because ‘we sold $13 million or $14 million worth’ of DEC computers on the back of it.

But as well as generating sales, Thuerk’s message generated a negative response: complaints began arriving daily from vexed ARPAnetters who didn’t want their inboxes cluttered, especially with materials that weren’t directly related to research for the US Army.

[Arpanet Management Branch]
_Source_

ARPAnet users resented being distracted from crucial research, not from checking Facebook at work or shopping for sneakers on eBay. But apart from that, the more things change…

3. Wikipedia

[Wikipedia]

Scourge of college professors, a boon to people who don’t know something but would like to, and a solid source of link juice for marketers: the web seems unthinkable without Wikipedia. For one thing, the top SERPs would look a lot different.

Founders Jimmy Wales and Larry Sangford started Wikipedia in 2001, under what Sangford thought was ‘a silly name for… a very silly project.’ The name portmanteaus ‘wiki’ with ‘encyclopedia,’ for an encyclopedia written by its readers.

‘The important part of wikis—what makes them different from any other type of website—is collaborative editing by the users,’ explains Zach LeBar.

At traditional encyclopedias, the staff uses the best information from reputable sources, overseen by editors who are subject matter experts with multi-decade careers or advanced degrees in their subjects. Maybe ‘[Encyclopedia] Britannica has long fostered vigorous interaction between its staff and its advisers, contributors, and audience,’ but they’re not talking about the kind of interaction that Rick Kay has with Jimmy Wales.

What makes Wikipedia interesting is that it works even though no-one works there (with the exception of a single software engineer), it’s accurate (generally) even though its staff aren’t officially subject matter experts, it’s well staffed even though it doesn’t have any staff, and its articles are edited so democratically that Wikians don’t simply vote on articles. Instead, there’s a dialogue that seeks a ‘good enough’ consensus according to the Wikipedia rules.

Wikipedia works on a mish-mash of social styles. A majority of voters isn’t enough to change or delete articles. Some users have a louder voice than others, but only so long as they don’t use it. Most importantly, the mix of work and management styles is there to facilitate getting things done: ‘the passion of the community is for the quality of the work, not necessarily for the process that we use to generate it,’ Wales told a TED audience.

4. Linux

Linux is the kind of OS that couldn’t exist without the web. Its creator, Linus Torvalds, an American-Finnish software engineer, wrote the original 10,000 lines of code for the system; it now stands at almost 22 million lines of code, created and added by more than 5,000 individuals representing nearly 500 corporations.

[Company Changes Percent]
_Source_

And unseen, unheard, it’s everywhere. You’re almost certainly using it right now: even if you’re reading this on a Windows or Mac machine (and not an Android or Chrome device running a Linux derivative), you’re probably connecting to a Linux server to see it. It also runs a few other things, like the stock exchange, Google, Facebook, Amazon, ‘and much, much more,’ says Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation.

Linux is an example of the web building itself, the inspiration for a million overheated conversations about self-assembling systems. But what’s the vision behind it?

There isn’t one.

‘I am not a visionary. I do not have a five-year plan. I’m an engineer.’ Rather than looking at the clouds, says Torvalds, ‘I’m looking at the ground, and I want to fix the pothole that’s right in front of me before I fall in. This is the kind of person I am.’

Linux grew out of the opportunity for thousands of people, all over the world, to work on something that fixed their potholes – and helped others fix theirs at the same time. Amazon, Facebook, eBay and others collaborate to improve Linux, which they then use to compete with each other.

5. Blogs

Blogging is one of the main things the internet is for. Reading and publishing blogs takes up a pretty big chunk of the internet. Check out how the audience for blogs has grown since 2006:

[October 2006 chart]
_Source_

And they’re getting a constant stream of content to read and look at too. These two images, from World of Meters (actually, from their blog) were taken ten seconds apart:

[Blog posts written today]
[Blog posts written today 2]

That’s a lot of blogging. Safe to say, it’s an established thing. Where did it come from?

The first blog to call itself a blog was Robot Wisdom, run by Jorn Barger. Essentially, he shared and curated links – he ‘logged’ the web as he browsed it, which is where the word ‘blog’ comes from. Distinct from a personal website or homepage, it wasn’t an online calling card or a piece of real estate so much as it was a participation in a conversation. That fits with Barger’s past: ex-commune dwelling hippie, by the late 80s Jorn was a Usenet junkie. Picture a barebones, text-only forum. That was Usenet, long before there was broadband or even domain names.

After falling in with Usenet, Barger fell out with some Usenetters. The Kate Bush fan forum was a particular source of friction. (Yes, really.) So he looked for a place where he could write, communicate and comment on his own terms.

He came up with a webpage that would link out – to other pages on the same site, or to other sites. New entries would appear at the top, so scrolling down meant going backward in time and the freshest content was always served first.

Sound familiar?

[Robot Wisdom Auxilary]
_Source_

But that doesn’t actually look, or work, a whole lot like the blogs we know now.

What took blogs from being a menace serious enough to make Forbes print this:

[Forbes attack of the blogs]
_Source_

…to the situation we have now, where Forbes is one of the millions of business blogs?

The factors that would make blogs the key medium of our time were already in place early on. But the innovation that made the difference was based on information about visitor behavior: long before it became a catchphrase, the adoption of blogging as an approach to web publishing was data driven.

Here’s how it happened. Magazines like _Wired_ had moved online – when you put William Gibson on the cover, you kind of have to react when _Neuromancer_ looks like it’s coming true. _Slate, Urban Desires_ and more were there too. But they’d all stuck with their magazine format. The front page told you what was inside, and the new ‘issue’ was ‘published’ weekly or monthly, all at once.

The editors of _Suck_, a brash satirical magazine site that also pioneered the use of hypertext as emphasis or commentary, analysed the server logs of _Hotwired_, the website of _Wired_ magazine, to see how visitors behaved on the site.What they found was that people only came to the site when there was something new to see. With the restraints of physical publishing gone, reasoned editor-founders Carl Steadman and Joey Anuff, there was no reason not to publish constantly, every weekday.

And after they started doing it, everybody else joined in. The blog as we know it was fully formed.

Conclusion

The Internet we’ve come to recognize has actually been assembled on the fly, often by people who were trying to do something else. There’s no grand plan. Instead, people wanted an operating system that ran light and fast, or more buyers for their computer business, or somewhere to talk about Kate Bush, so they made it happen. And the web itself allowed those things to spread. You can start that conversation about self-assembling systems now, if you like.

-   Author
-   Recent Posts

[]

Richard Bayston creates copy and content at RBCopywriting.com, mostly about tech, digital marketing and content strategy. When he’s not doing that, he’s arguing amicably with his wife and Googling the answers.

[]

question: What does the article say about individuals who made important contributions to the development of internet?

text: Gary Thuerk is important to the history of the internet, but did not contribute to its development.

answer: Tim Berners-Lee contributed vastly to the invention of the internet. Ted Nelson is also an internet pioneer. Jimmy Wales and Larry Sangford founded Wikipedia in 2001. Linus Torvalds created the Linux OS.

text: The answer omits Gary Thuerk, who sent the first spam email.

text: The answer omits the contributions of Gary Thuerk.

text: The answer omits Gary Thuerk, the first spammer.

text: The answer omits Jorn Barger, the creator of the first blog.

text: The answer omits Gary Thuerk who sent the first spam email.

text: It's omitted that Gary Thuerk sent the first ever spam email.

text: The article also mentions Jorn Barger, a pioneer who coined the blog.

answer: Tim Berners-Lee contributed vastly to the invention of the internet. Ted Nelson is also an internet pioneer. Gary Thuerk was a marketer at Digital Equipment who sent the first spam email. Jimmy Wales and Larry Sangford founded Wikipedia in 2001. Linus Torvalds created the Linux OS.

text: The response failed to add the first blog, Robot Wisdom, run by Jorn Barger.

answer: The article discusses the contributions of Tim Berners-Lee, Gary Thuerk, Linus Torvalds, and Jorn Barger. Tim Berners-Lee is the one who is widely credited with inventing the internet. Gary Thuerk is the one who invented the first ever spam email. Linus Torvalds is the creator of Linux, an operating system. Jorn Barger is the founder of Robot Wisdom, the first website to call itself a blog.

text: The answer omits Jimmy Wales and Larry Sangford, founders of Wikipedia.

answer: Tim Berners-Lee contributed vastly to the invention of the internet. Ted Nelson is also an internet pioneer. Jimmy Wales and Larry Sangford founded Wikipedia in 2001. Linus Torvalds created the Linux OS.

answer: The article discusses the contributions of Tim Berners-Lee, Gary Thuerk, Linus Torvalds, and Jorn Barger. Tim Berners-Lee is the one who is widely credited with inventing the internet. Gary Thuerk is the one who invented the first ever spam email. Linus Torvalds is the creator of Linux, an operating system. Jorn Barger is the founder of Robot Wisdom, the first website to call itself a blog.

text: The answer should mention Ted Nelson.

text: The answer omits the contributions of Ted Nelson and Jimmy Wales.

text: The answer omits Ted Nelson.

text: The answer omits Jimmy Wales and Larry Sangford, the founders of Wikipedia.

text: The answer omits Ted Nelson's contributions, which is one of the most important.

text: Gary Thuerks's email is not considered to be the first ever spam email. It was the first to be sent to the ARPAnet mailing list, a specific audience and cannot be considered as spam.

answer: Tim Berners-Lee contributed vastly to the invention of the internet. Ted Nelson is also an internet pioneer. Gary Thuerk was a marketer at Digital Equipment who sent the first spam email. Jimmy Wales and Larry Sangford founded Wikipedia in 2001. Linus Torvalds created the Linux OS.

text: The answer omits Jorn Barger, who is responsible for the first blog.

text: The answer omits Jorn Barger, who is credited with inventing the blog.

text: The answer omits Jorn Barger, who is responsible for the creation of the first blog.

text: Does not mention Jorn Barger.

text: Delete this sentence as it is not directly relevant to the question.