The Napoleon Dynamite Problem, one million dollars, and machine learning

I knew Napoleon Dynamite was a polarizing movie, but I didn't realize it would be costing people a million dollars.  Netflix has offered $1 million to the first person or group who can write a program that will make movie recommendations 10% better or more accurately than Netflix currently can.  It turns out that several people are very, very close, but Napoleon and Pedro are throwing them a curveball.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/magazine/23Netflix-t.html

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