Yesterday, we told you about Paul the German Octopus who has correctly predicted the winner of Germany’s five 2010 World Cup matches so far.
Paul does so by selecting, and eating, a mussel out of two plastic containers in his aquarium. One of the containers has the German flag on it and the other the flag of the opposing team. The flag on the container from which the sacrificial mussel comes represents the predicted winner.
Over the weekend there was the false–fake–alarm that Paul had eaten the Spanish mussel in preparation for tomorrow’s Germany-Spain semi final. That would have of course meant that Spain would be victorious in the semi final.
Fortunately for the Germans, it was discovered that the “reenactment’ was a fake.
Today, however, the blogosphere and in fact a lot of the MSM are full of the sad news for Germany that Paul, the World Cup oracle, has eaten the Spanish mussel.
One headline reads:
An apparently psychic octopus has risked the wrath of his fellow countrymen by predicting Spain will beat Germany in the World Cup semi-final.
However, German fans haven’t yet given up hope.
The only time that the eight-legged prognosticator has been wrong is when it was faced with a previous Spanish vs. German mussel choice at Euro 2008. Then, he ate the German mussel but Spain went on to win, 1-0.
The fans are now hoping that the opposite will happen this time: that by eating the Spanish mussel, Germany will actually win tomorrow.
Here’s a stroke-by-stroke description of Paul’s fateful dinner selection:
Paul initially went to the Spain-marked container before moving around the tank and then hovered over the German box. But he eventually opted for the European champions.
A video of the action can be seen below.
If Paul the Octopus turns out to be correct again, I wonder if Germany has a witness protection program for octopuses.
image: courtesy csmonitor.com
UPDATE:
Paul the Octopus Gets it Right AGAIN!!!
Spain Defeats Germany in the World Cup Semi Final 1-0
