DORIAN GEIGER
Sports Editor
It looks like the only thing that Paul the Octopus, the FIFA World Cup game predicting cephalopod, wasn’t able to foresee was his own death.
On Oct. 26 the famed octopus met his maker, passing on to animal heaven from his aquarium in Germany. Reports have indicated the death was of natural causes.
For those struggling to figure out why the hell the death of an octopus is being forced upon the sports section of a newspaper, let me explain: it all has to do with a little sporting event called the FIFA World Cup. Heard of it? It’s only the next biggest international sporting event to the Olympics.
During the 2010 FIFA World Cup that took place in South Africa this past summer, something of an anomaly happened — a curious miracle, if you will. An octopus named Paul 100 per cent correctly predicted the outcome of eight consecutive World Cup games. That’s an astonishing one in 256 odds or a three per cent chance. Similar to the run of luck one may experience in the event of a coin-flipping scenario, Paul’s success was based purely on chance but yet managed to attract attention from the globe-over.
Aside from chance, how exactly would Paul render his choices? Two crates of mussels were set up, adorned with each country’s flag involved in an upcoming match. The container which Paul would choose to feed from determined the winner of the forthcoming contest.
Some theories have been established to suggest potential biases for Paul’s choices. Though octopi are primarily colour-blind, they can detect hues in brightness and also have been known to be attracted to horizontal shapes. Any one of these elements could possibly explain the sea creatures’ perpetual tendency to select Germany, whose flag contains horizontal bars and a variety of shades from red, to yellow to black.
Seven of the games predicted involved Germany, with the eighth prediction coming from Paul’s correct selection of Spain as the victor over the Netherlands in the championship game.
The English-born octopus was reportedly hatched in January 2008 but was transferred to Oberhausen, Germany’s Sea Life Centre, hence the sea dweller’s almost exclusive psychic activity in games involving Germany.
Paul had his share of adoring lovers and fans, as well as his enemies — mostly those from countries that Paul predicted would lose. When Paul truthfully predicted Germany’s demise to Spain and the prophecy came true there were a multitude of death threats against the creature, many demanding it be boiled and consumed. The situation prompted Spanish Prime Minister José Zapatero to joke about sending Paul official state protection.
More bizarrely, Paul was accused of being an agent of capitalist propaganda, spreading the ways and ideals of Western civilization — at least that’s how radical Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad feels about Paul. Ahmadinejad publicly bemoaned the superstitious octopus during a speech in Tehran over the course of the World Cup on July 24 to 25.
The circle of life continues and it will be interesting to see what animal gains fame and fortune next in the world of professional sports prophecies.
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image: Wikimedia Commons