Gearfuse

Back in October 2006, Netflix began their $1 million challenge, offering a cash reward to the development team whom could improve Cinematch, the company’s recommendation engine, by at least 10%. After nearly three years the winner has finally been compensated.

Netflix considered the million such a good investment that they’ve decided to start all over again. This time, Netflix will “present the contestants with demographic and behavioral data, and they will be asked to model individuals’ “taste profiles.”’ Unlike the past contest, there will be no minimum improvement required. $500k will go to the team leading after 6 months, the other $500k given to the team following 18 months. Netflix has found their new research tool and they’ve hired the public to do the job for them. I’m sure its cheaper than paying a full research team to do the same job.

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This won’t be the first time we’ve seen a goldfish trapped inside a small bag. Thankfully, this time the goldfish happens to be a small toy inside a bag of soap. Yes, that’s soap you see above, not water. It mimics the fish you’d get from playing a game of chance at the county fair. The kind you flush down the toilet hours later.

I will admit they do look pretty neat. At $17 for three bags, it’s not the cheapest hand soap in the world, but it’s a cheap gift you can get someone you hate.

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Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Americans Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien and Japan’s Osamu Shimomura discovered and successfully developed a fluorescent protein found in jellyfish. Jellyfish will glow under blue and ultraviolet light because of this protein which the three scientists have become known for.

It might not sound like much, but this jellyfish protein has been widely used to study the spread of cancer, how brain cells develop and bacterial growth. Still don’t think it’s a big deal?

The academy compared the impact of the protein on science to the invention of the microscope, saying that for the past decade the protein has been ‘a guiding star for biochemists, biologists, medical scientists and other researchers’.

Yes, this is a big deal.

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