Brody doth protest too much (Showtime)

These questions regard the second season premiere of Showtime’s Homeland. Please answer the prompts with specific examples from SUNDAY’S EPISODE, though supplementary material will be accepted as a secondary source. Please write legibly. No. 2 pencils only. You have an hour to finish this test. See below for questions and sample responses.

1. The title of this episode is "Q&A," and it is primarily taken up by an interrogation sequence. Compare this interrogation with one of the many famous scenes of interrogation in literature or film (e.g. King Lear, The Birthday Party, Marathon Man). How does Quinn/Carrie's line of questioning line up against the classics?

Obviously, the good cop/bad cop interrogation trope is one of the most famous tv/movie techniques used, and this episode did it extremely well. How does it stack up to other versions of this idea? Well, I feel like if you combine these two clips, you get last night's episode:

http://youtu.be/ky8BkclMXBY
2. When Carrie gives Brody water, she makes him dependent on her, bringing it up to his mouth, even though she is just about to unlock his cuffs. We've seen this same manipulative technique before, with Nazir. Does Carrie acknowledge this similarity? Conversely, when Quinn mentions that Nazir tortured Brody with electricity, it calls to mind Carrie's ECT, for which Brody is indirectly to blame. How do these echoes influence our understanding and appreciation of the interrogation scenes?
We saw how Carrie reacted to the ECT question the first time: I think Quinn's whole plan was to manipulate Carrie into feeling those ole' Brody-obsessive feelings. When Quinn brings it up, it's not to bristle her, it's to remind her that Brody and her share the same traumas. When Quinn stabs Brody, Carrie doesn't come in as the "Good Cop," because she would never be able to fake something like that, especially after harboring so much rage against him. He was stabbed, and Carrie went into overdrive. Her reflexes were maternal, protective. (Hence the water thing.) He was physically vulnerable, but could still withstand interrogation techniques. What his Abu Nazir brainwash couldn't clean out entirely was real compassion. The "I've been there, and I know who you are, and I love you anyway" that Carrie brought to the table.

3. Various events work out very conveniently in this episode. Rank the following in order from most to least likely: 1) Just when he needs to play "bad cop," Quinn has the best "good cop" he could ask for, preloaded and ready to go; 2) Dana's boyfriend Xander disappears in a puff of offscreen smoke, leaving the road open for Finn; 3) Brody suddenly finds himself able to tell Jessica (a version of) the truth when she demands it outright; 4) after being almost entirely absent for the entire season, Chris returns for long enough to remind us that the Brodys have a son, right before Nick admits that he thought of Aysa as his own child; 5) Brody's chief of staff is too dumb to ask Estes too many questions.

1.) Xander: High school boyfriends evaporate all the time. Sometimes they are run over by the VP's son. Sometimes they are abducted and held in a CIA torture camp. Sometimes they go up to cabins and have a double-crossed affair. You know, shit happens.

2.) Brody tells Jessica he works for the CIA: It's almost weird that he didn't try that line earlier ... he could have explained away the Carrie affair that much easier. And it's not like Jessica can check in with her contacts at Langley to make sure he's not lying.

3.) Quinn having Carrie as an interrogator: Well, that's not a coincidence. Carrie is the only reason anyone was even paying attention to Brody. She shot, tagged, and bagged that son of a bitch. The only thing that's unlikely is that Quinn happens to read people so well that he knew that his tricks would work. He's basically Abu Nazir using Carrie as Aysa.

4) Brody's chief of staff being a dumbass: Well, is he dumb, or scared shitless? When the CIA tells you that your boss is in trouble and hints that you might be next, you don't ask questions. Though he is dumb enough to seem as equally scared of Jessica as Estes. Grow a pair, you know.

5.) Chris showing back up: The most unlikely of the bunch, but only because they seem to have replaced Chris with a much older actor, who actually seemed to age as the episode progressed.

4. Dana ducks involuntarily when Finn drives his car under a low overhang. This reaction is known as an "escape reflex" or more specifically, a "withdrawal reflex." How do other characters display reflexes that might be characterized as "escape" or "withdrawal"?
1.) Brody flinching when Carrie tries to touch his hand.

2.) Dana completely shutting down mentally after the car accident.

3.) Mike. Mike is Jessica's escape reflex, especially since he doesn't have enough of a personality to be a person.

4. VP's son turning from a three-dimensional character into every stereotype of a hit-and-run perp. "LEAVE THE BODY! OH MAN, MY DAD IS GOING TO KILL ME! DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" Shit is so hackneyed.

5. In this episode, the word "monster" is thrown around a bit. Was this Homeland's version of a Halloween episode? (Questions to consider: Why is Brody still hiding two murders after being given immunity? Is it possible that, like Walker before him, Aysa is still alive?)
Well, Aysa isn't alive ... Brody carried his body out of the rubble and had it shrouded. I know he "saw" Walker die too, but kid would have to be a pretty good actor to fake being dead in front of Brody for a couple of days. The monster analogy is interesting, because it's actually Brody and Carrie who are the archetypal "monster" figures: She's like an emotional vampire, and he's like Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Dead-Eyed Neck-Snapper.

You’re credited with bringing burlesque back into the spotlight. How does that feel?

It feels pretty good! Not just to say it happened because of me, but because when I started making these funny little shows 20 years ago, I could never have imagined it would see this kind of resurgence. I’ve watched the way my fanbase shifted from being local people coming to see me in an underground strip club to something that is now mostly watched by women, which is amazing.

The black curls and red lipstick combo has become your trademark—do you ever ditch the beauty routine and hang out in sweats?

I really feel better when I’m wearing my red lipstick, just like some people do when they wear their favourite jeans, or have their hair the way they like it. It’s an easy thing, and it makes me feel better, so I always do it before I leave the house.

What does it feel like to be seen as a sex symbol?

I don’t think about it very often because most of my fanbase is female, but I think a lot of my fans want to emulate me because my look is very attainable. A lot of women can be like me and wear high heels and stockings, and paint their nails red to feel glamorous where maybe they didn’t before.

You had a modest upbringing—how does your family react to your Hollywood lifestyle?

My mother is really supportive and sees a lot of my shows, but my dad has a tendency to believe what he reads. Occasionally he’ll call me up asking about some inaccurate “news” article—and I’m just like “Dad, you can’t believe this stuff.” People can say anything on the internet, so I’m constantly having to tell my him: “no, that did not happen.”

Your marriage to Marilyn Manson took up a lot of column inches. How did you deal with that?

I was happy to step out in public with my husband and we were happy to talk about each other, but it’s a little bit weird now because you don’t want that attention when you’re trying to date someone.

You split your time between Paris and LA—can you ever see yourself moving to New York?

I have this big fantasy about having a second residence in New York, but I don’t know it very well, so I feel like it would be nice to start a real relationship with the city. I hardly know what counts as being uptown or downtown, so I’d need to study it first!

You’ve made a lot of money since you hit the big time, but when did you first find yourself in the spotlight?

It was after I was on the cover of American Playboy – it was at a time when it was still a really big deal to be on the cover, Drew Barrymore had just been on it, Naomi Campbell…it was a time before reality stars made the front of the magazine. It was a very striking look for Playboy and thrust me into the spotlight, and it was a big moment when people wanted to see more of me and what I was doing.

How do you look back on your time in soft core porn and fetish clubs?

I have more respect for people who go there than the people who pretend to go there. Putting on a black wig with bangs doesn’t make you have what Bettie Page had. Everything you do shapes you and makes you interesting for people to watch, and I have no regrets.

Hacker and wife. (Tequila Minksy)

In The New York Times opinion section on Sunday, CUNY professor Andrew Hacker asked readers a question: Is Algebra Necessary? Mr. Hacker eventually reasoned the answer was no. Hundreds of his readers across the country screamed back, “Yes!”

These opinion articles are predisposed to garner strong reactions. Close to 100 readers might comment on an opinion piece on a controversial topic such as American involvement in the Middle East. Mr. Hacker’s article drove 474 commentators to their computers before The Times stopped accepting the respondents.

They weren't to be halted; they then turned to the open platform of the web. Bloggers and mathematicians alike took to their keyboards to pile on the rage and some praise about the suggestion that algebra should be an elective.

Mr. Hacker, for one, is shocked. “My home computer is just about undergoing a seizure,” he told The Observer yesterday afternoon when we reached him over the phone. “I’ve been getting e-mails from Abilene, Texas! I’m surprised the gray old New York Times has infiltrated all of these places.”

While many of those who were driven to blog about the issue seem to vehemently oppose Mr. Hacker’s stance, he told us the e-mails and comments he has received have also been positive. His wife discovered a post on the the Facebook page of The Monkees band member Michael Nesmith defending Mr. Hacker’s stance on the issue after novelist Jane Smiley sent him a link to the op-ed. “Forcing me to learn school-taught algebra was like trying to teach a lion table manners,” wrote Mr. Nesmith. “Manners are useful, but not so much to a lion.”

“Then he got 600 more comments about me,” Mr. Hacker laughed.

Despite the outrage, Mr. Hacker remains firm as ever on his stance against mandatory algebra, and even more so against an abstract group of people he labels as “math people” or “math major."

He doesn’t agree that algebra skills are necessary. He then asked The Observer—reporters and likely holders of degrees not so numbers oriented—if we studied math at any point during college (we haven’t). “Math majors,” he tells us, “math majors have their minds so sharpened, that their opinions about Syria are more valid than your opinions about Syria because once you do math and algebra, your mind becomes superior and so do your opinions in every field.”

He does believe that algebra sharpens the mind, but he doesn’t feel this brain sharpening should be required. As a result, he tells us he has been called “anti-intellctual” and “anti-rigor.”

“I’m all in favor of rigor,” said Mr. Hacker. “Chess! Chess would be a marvelous way to sharpen minds. I don’t think millions of students should be mandated to play chess.”

This is not the first time Mr. Hacker has stirred the academic pot. His book about the “myth” of higher education decried tenure. But he insists that his intent is not to cause as much trouble as he often does. “Whenever you question a possession that people have, like money, tenure, math knowledge, they get very defensive,” he explained.

But that’s not going to stop Mr. Hacker from writing his opinions about what he sees to be fact versus what he asserts is fiction. “You know what? I’m a professor, I’m a scholar and I’m interested in the truth,” he told us. “If I see there’s myth, superstition and self-delusion I think, ‘Hey, there’s a thing called academic freedom, we’ll blow the whistle.’”

Dan Willingham, author of Why Students Don’t Like School and professor at the University of Virginia, presented a more typical argument to The Observer. “If you leave it up to an eighth grader or ninth grader, they’re probably not going to opt into algebra,” he said.

Mr. Willingham said the result might be stronger disparities between poor and wealthy families in terms of achievement and college educations, adding that tracking in this manner can be a problem because without the foundation algebra and the core principles it introduces, mathematics, in general, won’t be as helpful in the future. “You’re going to end up limiting the greater possibility of what kids can do.”

After reading the argument, Mr. Willingham penned his own opposition to the piece called “Yes, Algebra is Necessary,” on his personal website.

According to him, many of the comments supporting Mr. Hacker seemed to rely on personal experiences. “Everyone has individual stories,” he told us. “They know someone who hated math and hated being subjected to it. But there are lots of counter stories of kids who thought they hated math but ended up working through it and are glad they did.”

Many of the articles comments opened their arguments with phrases like “I thought this was satire” or “Seriously?” Mr. Willingham himself began his counter saying that when he saw the op-ed, he “mistook it for a joke.”

He recognizes that the argument got pretty heated. “It is actually a little personal,” he told us. “It’s obviously very provocative, calling for a major realignment as what we think of as standard curriculum. But also, as funny as it sounds, people love math.”

Meanwhile, the heartfelt criticisms have, if anything, made Mr. Hacker more certain his position is correct. He thinks the “math people” doth protest too much. “I have a hunch they know their case isn’t that strong.”

(Getty Images)

You’ve played Harry Crane on Mad Men since the first season and have two young children. What do you do to make ends meet?
You’re right. Kids are expensive, and I’m on basic cable, so you do what you can. I heard there’s a lot of money in plays, in doing the stage, so I thought I would come here and try that. I may have to try and squeeze in another play before Mad Men starts up again—the ends are still a good several inches apart.

Harry is the media buyer at Sterling Cooper. What’s your most hated TV ad campaign that you secretly love?
Those Sonic ads. I think on paper I should hate them, but the actors in them are so funny. I sort of roll my eyes when they come on, but I always laugh.

Ever do any ads yourself?
It’s been a long time, but that was truly how we made ends meet when we lived in New York. There was a Bud Light ad out there for awhile, a couple Sprint ads, Cingular, when that existed. And I did one for Stop & Shop.

You’re starring in Harvey on Broadway. Have you ever had an imaginary friend who was a Bunny, and was she a blonde, brunette or redhead?
Um, brunette.

By the way, how do they make Jessica Paré so lifelike?
[Laughs] She takes care of a lot of that on her own. I really like her.

Harry Crane almost joined the Hare Krishnas a few weeks ago. What cult would you join, and why?
I don’t know where the line between cult and religion lies. I knew somebody who was a new member of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and I was asking them what it was about. And I remember him telling me, ‘Some people are just evil, you can see it when you look at them. Like Stephen King, you don’t have to read his books to know he’s evil. Just look at a picture of him.’ I’m not sure if this person was such a good representative of the faith.

Personal question: Do you ever blame yourself for Lane’s death?
I would have to imagine Harry could have done something to stop it. He seemed pretty happy to vamoose when all the partners stuck around. I imagine he was like, ‘Office emergency—I’ll just go...’ I’m sure if Harry had done a better job as a media buyer Lane would still be alive. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to believe when your parents get a divorce?

Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban large drinks. What seemingly innocuous thing would you like to ban and why?
I would like to ban people being allowed to text while in a crosswalk. Because we usually live in LA, and certainly you can’t text when you drive, and since walking is the main transportation here in New York and you get two or three folks shooting a quick text as they slowly amble across the street. It is a very frustrating endeavor to get around them. Also, let’s ban being allowed to look above a 50 degree angle as you’re walking walking. Peoples’ speed tends to go down with each degree above 50. Keep your eyes on the prize, people!

Hola Newo Yorko! El stormo grande is mucho dangeroso!

A few thousand people on Twitter can't be wrong: The best thing about Hurricane Irene was the appearance among them of @ElBloombito, a sardonic, Spanglish-speaking caricature of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his earnest attempts at becoming fluent in Spanish. (This is actually a typical occurrence at pretty much every press conference, but how many people watch mayoral press conferences on a regular basis?)

The Observer reached out to Rachel Figueroa-Levin, the 25-year-old native New Yorker behind the Twitter feed—she put her main feed in El Bloombito's bio, never expecting either would become viral smashes—to find out who she was where she got this crazy idea.

Update I: Mayor Bloomberg Responds to El Bloombito >>

Update II: Rachel Figueroa-Levin Responds to Mayor Bloomberg Responding to El Bloombito >>

Like most things on Twitter, it started out as a joke. In an email, she told us, "I live in Inwood with my husband and nine-and-a-half-month-old daughter. I'm a stay-at-home mom and soap maker. We are in the process of buying a co-op in Inwood. (We close early September!) Soap making started as a hobby and turned into a mini business." What follows is an interview conducted this evening on GChat. (What, you thought we would do a phone interview with an Internet star?)

The Observer: Evening

Rachel: Hi!

The Observer: Where to begin. Are you dry? Is the baby O.K.?

Rachel: We are dry and the baby is doing well. Our dog probably suffered the most because his walk schedule is all messed up. The baby actually stood up for the first time yesterday!

The Observer: Wow. Mazel tov. Think it was weather related?

Rachel: Perhaps. My husband and I were spending so much time trying to prepare for the hurricane that maybe she stood up to get some attention.

The Observer: So, tell your probably well-into-five-figures-by-Monday-morning fans how El Bloombito came about.

Rachel: It started late last night as a joke between my Twitter friends and I. After his unfortunate Spanish attempt at that press briefing I started calling him “El Bloombito.” The twitter account was me trying to take that joke a little farther.

I didn't think it would take off the way it did!

Clear Skies for 9/11 Memorial: Hurricane Irene Actually Helped Ground Zero >>

The Observer: Why do you think that is? As my editor put it, you're way better than “the incredibly un-funny @hurricaneirene twitter.”

Rachel: Am I? I don't follow that twitter so I don't know. I'm still in shock that so many people are following an account I created to entertain maybe 15 people.

The Observer: Do you think you touched a nerve? There seems to be a certain amount of ambivalence toward the administration's response—sure, nobody died, but was it overblown?—or is there something else going on here?

Rachel: I think the Bloomberg administration handled everything very well. It's much better to prepare too much than to not prepare enough. My grandmother lives in an assisted living home in Sheepshead Bay. She was evacuated and is staying with my mother until the flood waters recede. What if she wasn't evacuated? She would be in a terrible situation.

All of the city agencies responded amazingly. My dad is the director of the NYPD Photo Unit (Hi, dad!) and has been at headquarters since last night—and won't be returning home until tomorrow night. The dedication and work ethic of everyone involved is inspiring.

I think El Bloombito struck a nerve because Mayor Bloomberg's Spanish is... well... laughable. I think that if he really wanted to get a message across to the Latino community he should have stepped aside and had someone who speaks Spanish fluently deliver the message.

The Observer: But isn't that the thing. Most mayors would never go this far out of their way, would they? I believe the mayor is fairly proud of his Spanish, in fact. To wit: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/nyregion/04spanish.html. Is it better to have misspoken than to never have spoken at all?

Rachel: I think it's great that he wants to speak Spanish. I also think that in a situation like this, he perhaps should have let someone else do the talking. His Spanish is funny. It gave me a laugh—which I needed being stuck in an apartment with a fussy baby.

The Observer: So where does El Bloombito come from?

Rachel: The name just sort of popped into my head. I'm a huge NY1 junkie and I'm a big fan of Inside CIty Hall. I sort of pictured Gerson Borrero saying "El Bloombito" the way he calls Mayor Bloomberg "Miguelito"

On Wettest Night of the Year, at Least One Spot Parties On >>

The Observer: Are there other inspirations?

Rachel: There are probably tons of other inspirations in my subconscience that I'm not aware of. I was picturing Adam Sandler's Operaman when I tweeted "No looto el bodega. Esta es Nuevo Yorko!" I was singing it in my head.

The Observer: Yes! That was my boss' favorite! I think mine was "Los cans del treasho por favor to turn them back overo. Gracias." Because that was such a funny detail, I remember him telling everyone not to yesterday, and now it's O.K. Like they really thought of everything this time.

Rachel: And I turned the corner trash can back over.

La Bloombita.

The Observer: That's the spirit! So, besides Adam Sandler, where did you hone your Spanglish? Does it have anything to do with growing up Jewyorican, as you named your other Twitter handle?

Rachel: My father is Puerto Rican and fluent in Spanish. My mother is Ashkenazi Jewish and despite being married to my dad for 30 years doesn't speak any Spanish at all. For me Spanglish is sort of a natural evolution from living in an English speaking country. Kind of like "Yeshivish" in the Jewish community. I grew up in an English only household but the languages of your ancestors have a way of sneaking into your vocabulary.

The Observer: Amen—or should I say ah-mein—to that. So tell us a little bit more about yourself? You mentioned your grandma out in Sheepshead Bay and your dad at the NYPD. You grew up in the city? Went to school here? What were you doing before you became an artisian soap maker?

Rachel: I grew up on Staten Island. In Willowbrook, within easy walking distance of that creepy mental hospital busted by Geraldo Rivera (another Jewyorican!!!). I moved to Manhattan when I moved in with my then-boyfriend (now husband/baby daddy). Before I was a soap maker I dabbled in opera (I'm a soprano), freelance graphic and website design, and writing. Now I make babies and soap. In a year or two I'll probably be doing something else. I'm so incredibly lucky that my husband has a "real job" that allows me to just be creative without worrying about money.

Otherwise I'd be one of those starving artists. I'm a well fed starving artist.

The Observer: With plenty of time for Twitter, too! Seriously, with a new baby, how do you find the time for social media?

Rachel: I can feed the baby with one hand and tweet on my phone with the other. I have to. Between not being able to go out much during my third trimester (and the baby was 2 weeks late), a very cold winter with a newborn, and hurricanes, I'm pretty much a shut in. Thank G-d the weather is nice again!

The Observer: Did you write before, or did the blogging and twitter (and wit!) sort of just happen?

Rachel: I have always enjoyed writing. The wit I credit to my late grandfather Bernard Samith. He was a master of one-liners.

Do Not Ride Your Bike in the Hurricane (But If You Do, Don’t Forget Goggles) >>

The Observer: Were you worried about being outed? Surprised? How'd that happen?

Rachel: I put my @jewyorican twitter handle on the Bloombito profile. So I wasn't outed... just discovered.

The Observer: Does that trouble, bother or worry you?

Rachel: Not at all. Like I said, I created this for friends so I wanted them to know that the profile was me. My personal twitter is public so anyone can see it. If people are really that interested in my daily happenings... that's O.K. with me.

The Observer: So, the obvious question: Have you been offered a book deal yet?

Rachel: I have not. Is this something I should expect? You aren't the first person to mention a book deal. I think it would be funny.

The Observer: It's a thing, I guess, from Shit My Dad Says to the rash of Tumblogs-to-books. I noticed in the Daily News you've got a cook book in the works, so maybe you could parlay it into something with that. How many followers did your main account get thanks to this? Also,

Rachel: The only "book" I have ever written was for NaNoWriMo two years ago. I got maybe 300 new followers on my personal account.

The Observer: You mentioned NY1 and Inside City Hall. Are you politically active?

Rachel: I don't know about active... I'm politically aware. I blog about it occasionally—but not much. I like political pundit shows—a little too much maybe. I'm also addicted to Hardball.

The Observer: Did you vote for El Bloombito?

Rachel: I did. To be honest, if he ran for a fourth term I'd probably vote for him again.

The Observer: Speaking of fourth terms, here are a few questions from Twitter readers (please respond in character):

Rachel: O.K., shooto.

The Observer: From @dsrbroadway, Is he seeking a quatro term?

Rachel: Yo no seeko un quatro term por que yo necesito to be paid more than uno peso per yearo. Tengo bills.

The Observer: From CFWard57, "Donde can yo vayo to learn Español as bueno as yours?"

Rachel: Watcho El Streeto del Sesame!

The Observer: From MikeZ37, "¿Quien es macho, Fernando Llama o Ricardo Montalban?"

Rachel: Ricardo Maltoban es el man.

This Transplanted Frank Lloyd Wright House Is About to Have a Very Ironic Weekend in The Hamptons >>

The Observer: All right. Back to you. What is your fondest non-El Bloombito memory of or experience from Hurricane Irene?

Rachel: My husband's birthday was yesterday. Blew out emergency candles. My daughter also stood up without holding onto anything for the first time. That was fantastic.

The Observer: What was your weirdest hurricane provision?

Rachel: Coconut toasted marshmallows.

The Observer: And the question that's on everyone's mind: With Irene gone, is this the end, or just the beginning?

Rachel: Everyone is telling me to continue El Bloombito. I will for now, as long as it stays fun.

The Observer: Anything else you'd like to add/plug for/let the world know?

Rachel: I run a hyperlocal website for my neighborhood Inwood, In the Wood. My neighborhood is amazing and very important to me. All you stranded Brooklynites should come up here! No flooding!

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Answer: Start a question and answer service. 

NY and NJ based Q&A app Opinionaided has just raised $1 million from General Catalyst, SoftBank Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson along with angel investors Mark Wachen of DreamIt Ventures and Jonah Goodhart of Point Ventures Group.

As the app's title implies, its not looking for factual answers, just opinions. Users can give a thumbs up or thumbs down to questions in the style of Hot or Not.

As any TV film critic or Roman gladiator will tell you, thumbs up and thumbs down are really the only responses you need to answer life's most important questions. For example, in response to the question "What's the best way to cure pneumonia?" Opinionaided users have voted two thumbs up, one thumb down and zero helpful answers of any sort at all.

It's possible that this app could be useful for getting the internet's opinion of whether or not those new jeans make you look fat, but for anything beyond that, the wisdom of the crowd seems like it may end up squandered. 

bpopper [at] observer.com | @benpopper

Over the past year, traffic to the Stack Overflow suite of Q&A sites has boomed from 7 million to 16 million. In part, this is because creators Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood have created a community of experts, to the point where Stack Overflow is regularly cited in academic papers and used as a reference on resumes for programmers and engineers.

So when Messrs. Spolsky and Atwood noticed users on Stack Overflow sites dedicated to disparate topics like coding, cooking, grammar and geography were all debating what to do about softball queries, they decided to make a change.

"Do we really want to spoon-feed (or even encourage in any way) users so lazy they can’t find obvious Wikipedia pages? Or do even the most basic research before asking?" wrote Atwood in a blog post this morning. "Allow your Q&A community to fill itself with enough 'General Reference' type questions and you’ll soon find no experts there at all."

For those needding further clarification, they included this handy flow chart from user borroO. 

bpopper [at] observer.com | @benpopper

Highbrow infotainment conference TED got in on the action this morning by announcing Conversations, a new Q&A platform that will let users interact with TED's roster of gurus, game changers and public intellectuals. 

TED has over 400 million views of its conference videos from 15 million montly visitors. Many of these users probably had something to say back to luminaries like Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall and Sir Richard Branston. Now they can get it off their chests--with a time limit. 

"We’ve built technology from scratch that fosters collaboration, sparks spirited discussion and allows the global TED community to more easily share ideas. A TED Conversation is like a dinner party--with a great group of diverse participants, provocative topics, and--importantly--a limited amount of time," says June Cohen, Executive Producer of TED Media.  

You know, one of those dinner parties where the host just turns off the lights when the conversation gets too boring. Brilliant!

Q&A seems like a smart format for TED, since its strength has always been ideas and arguments. But curating a community of intelligent questions is a lot harder than it sounds. Time will tell if TED can keep the trolls from spoiling the party.

bpopper [at] observer.com | @benpopper

Now this trove of knowledge will be integrated with upstart search engine Blekko, which is taking on giants like Google and Bing by offering users heavily curated results. 

Blekko's idea is to help users can cut down on spammy search results by adding "slash tags" to help sort the web. Users can sort by political fields like "liberal/conservative" or by verticals like "tech/sports."

Stack Overflow's army of power editors will now curate the results on programming-related slash tags like "Java" and "Linux." It's a welcome chance for many to earn reputation in a community that's become notoriously hard for newcomers to enter. 

"I'd be willing to help in the tags that I'm most active in," wrote user Tim Post. "I really like what Blekko is doing, and I love finding information that I need without having to sift through a mountain of crud."

Google is actually adopting a similar model, asking users to help it identify spammy sites it can block. But the Stack Overflow community is far more engaged and accurate than the masses on which Google is relying. 

bpopper [at] observer.com | @benpopper

The answers on Answers.com range from accurate to the patently ridiculous, drawing in more than 47 million unique visitors a month. "We're here to proudly proclaim that there is no such thing as a stupid answer," says the Answers.com blog. "Or is that a stupid question?"

Quora, the cool kid in the space, recently saw a surge in mainstream attention thanks to tech blogger Robert Scoble. GigaOm puts Quora's value at around $300 million based on investor interest. 

Meanwhile, New York's Stack Overflow has been crushing it, more than doubling in size during 2010 from seven million users to more than sixteen million.

Like Quora and Stack Overflow, Answers.com relies on its community of registered users to assess and improve the quality of its answers, which it matches with content from sources like Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and the American Heritage Dictionary.

Here, in no particular order, are 13 of the questions and answers that earned Answers.com its nine-figure price tag. 

bpopper [at] observer.com | @benpopper