Ask HN: Connection timed out

Just out of curiosity... Can anyone explain what happened here: Hacker News was down for me and it had some interesting information.

Connection timed out

the initial connection between CloudFlare's network and the origin web server timed out. As a result, the web page can not be displayed.

(Then some other information such as IP and CloudFlare Location: Newark)

Did it go down for everyone? What is cloudflare doing? What is the benefit of having a "middle man" as it seems?