Well, if we told you, we’d be super-psychic geniuses. Netflix still hasn’t announced the winner of its three-year long contest. But we have a hunch as to who it will be. Can you guess?

The Netflix Prize calls all brilliant minds to create a better algorithm for improving the accuracy of movie predictions based on customer preferences for the world’s largest online movie rental service.

Just a few days ago, a coalition of four teams calling itself BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos — made up of statisticians, machine learning experts and computer engineers from the U.S., Austria, Canada and Israel — declared that it had produced a program that improves the accuracy of the predictions by 10.05 percent.

Under the rules of the contest, Netflix said that other contestants now have 30 days to try to do even better. If they cannot, BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos will collect the $1 million.

We can’t lie. We’re proudly rooting for BellKor’s Israeli research member, Yehuda Koren, who also happens to be Senior Research Scientist at Yahoo! Research Israel.

Read the full New York Times story here, and stay tuned to find out who wins the big bucks!

Photo Credit: dolphinsdock on Flickr used under Creative Commons License

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Photo: Getty Images

Foods high in carbohydrates — like white bread — can be devastating to the health of your heart. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher can watch the damage as it happens.

Dr. Michael Shechter of TAU’s Sackler School of Medicine has come up with a new technique to “look inside” human arteries as food with a high glycemic index distends them for several hours. He says that his dramatic results can provide an effective new warning for people who need to change their diets.

“It’s very hard to predict heart disease,” says Dr. Shechter, a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. “But doctors know that high glycemic foods rapidly increase blood sugar. Those who binge on these foods have a greater chance of sudden death from heart attack. Our research connects the dots, showing the link between diet and what’s happening in real time in the arteries.”

So what can you do to stay heart healthy?

Dr. Shechter says to stick to foods like oatmeal, fruits and vegetables, legumes and nuts, which have a low glycemic index. Exercising every day for at least 30 minutes, he adds, is an extra heart-smart action to take.

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Dozens of Israelis marched together down New York’s Fifth Avenue yesterday as part of the 2009 Gay Pride Parade. They marched under the auspices of the Tel Aviv municipality to celebrate the city’s 100th anniversary and were joined by Tel Aviv Councilman Yaniv Waizman and singer Keren Peles.

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Omri Casspi, the 21-year-old small forward for Maccabi Tel Aviv, became the first Israeli basketball player selected in the first round of the NBA Draft.  Casspi was taken by the Sacramento Kings with the 23rd overall pick in yesterday’s draft.  We’re sorry we here (in New York) won’t get to see him play so often, but wish him best of luck in his new career in this elite league.

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As an 11-year-old fifth grader, Gilad Shalit wrote a story about a shark and a fish who strike up an unlikely friendship and who learn to live together despite their differences. Tomorrow, 25 June, we mark three years since this young man was abducted. As we go through our day, let us keep Gilad and his message of peace in our thoughts. Please take this opportunity to spread his story and message; for those on Twitter, you can use the hashtag #Gilad to remind your followers about this cause.

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People who suffer from amblyopia, more commonly known as “lazy eye,” have traditionally been given an eye patch to help correct their vision. Dr. Uri Polat has a different idea that looks more effective than the eye patch–and more fun. The researcher, from Tel Aviv University’s Goldschlager Eye Research Institute, has developed a video game therapy that can help correct the condition without invasive surgery and without an eye patch that, let’s face it, can be pretty embarrassing. The existing game features the appearance of random objects in order to keep the patient alert and expectant, but the goal now is to make a game that is more fun and will be better at treating kids (who really don’t want to sit and play a boring game).

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About 100 of the best European RS:X class windsurfers converged on the beaches of Tel Aviv over the past week for the European Championships. Haaretz notes that the location was a pretty good one for the competitors; the city provides a nice contrast to the out-of-the-way beaches where contests are usually held.  And in good news for the Israeli team, Shahar Zubari (who, you’ll remember, won bronze at last year’s Olympics) seemed to trounce the competition on his way to victory in the men’s event.  Hopefully, the competitors found the hospitality, if not the water and beach conditions, to their liking, as well.

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If you missed the event live, you can watch our streaming coverage of Tel Aviv Beach here.

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On June 17th, David Saranga (@DavidSaranga), Consul for Media and Public Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in New York (@IsraelConsulate), addressed the 140 Character Conference (#140conf) about the use of twitter in Public Diplomacy.

Twitter “allows us to reach people and segments of society that usually we don’t reach,” @DavidSaranga explained at the conference. “There is a lot of room to include dialogue between people.”

To read more about Saranga’s speech at the #140conf, click here.

At the conference, @DavidSaranga announced the launch of twt4peace, a dialogue on twitter encouraging the discussion of topics that concern everyone: environment, minority rights, and education.

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The State of Israel has some distinguished guests this week, courtesy of the Jewish National Fund.  Hollywood stars Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts brought their two young children, Alexander (Sasha) and Samuel, to Israel for the first time.  In addition to visiting the Western Wall (above), the family planted trees and sampled some of the hot Israeli social scene.  You can find pictures of their Israel experience on People, Popvine, and Transracial.

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