Showing posts with label prediction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prediction. Show all posts

Monday, July 5, 2010

Paul the Octopus Oracle's Prediction A Fake

Update: The world-renowned psychic octopus, Paul, has now picked Spain to beat Germany during the World Cup semi-finals tomorrow. Watch the video here.


Paul the Octopus
Paul, a 2-year old octopus oracle residing in the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany has become widely popular with his predictions for Germany's WC games. Many believe this is a joke, however, Paul has so far predicted five of Germany's games and all of them are spot on--even Serbia's upset victory over Die Mannschaft.

The psychic octopus makes his prediction by choosing between two containers with food that are lowered into his tank. Both boxes are identical except for the flags -- one is with a German flag, the other, with the flag of the opponent. The box where Paul gets the mussel from is the winner.

On Sunday night, the blogosphere became abuzz when photos of Paul choosing Spain over Germany floated around. This caused quite a frenzy and some people actually thought it was real. Why do people say it's fake? Well, upon closer inspection, the image seems to be photoshopped as it is identical to the prediction image during the Germany versus Serbia pick. Also, unlike the previous picks, there was no video evidence available online to support this pick. Lastly, Paul usually makes his predictions the day before the game. Since Spain and Germany won't be meeting until Wednesday the 7th of July, it's safe to assume that the prediction will be released tomorrow.