Paul the Psychic Octopus correctly picks Spain as the winner of the World Cup
Here at TurboSquid, we wanted to give a shout-out to our fellow mollusk, Paul the Psychic Octopus. Paul, who lives in an aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany, correctly predicted the winner of Germany’s seven World Cup matches, as well as the Spain-Netherlands final. That’s as many games as Paul has legs!
And how, exactly, were these predictions made? Before each match, two transparent containers containing food, and adorned with the competing teams’ national flags, were lowered into Paul’s tank. Whichever one he chose first was deemed the winner. Paul, or rather his appetite, was right every time.
And while the game was a loss for the mussels who became his meal, Paul became an Internet sensation as his predictions generated heated emotions worldwide. He even has his own Facebook fan page. Fans of losing teams threatened to make Paul into sushi, which caused the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero, to request bodyguards for the octopus.
Since then, the idea of having Paul predict everything from elections to economic recovery has been bandied about, but our tentacled friend is now retired. His keepers, rather fittingly, have rewarded him for services rendered with a gold World Cup replica full of delicious mussels.