Saturday, July 10, 2010

The Oracle Of World Cup 2010

The eight-legged cephalopod at an aquarium in Germany turned into a World Cup phenomenon for correct picking winners of all six of Germany's World Cup matches, including two defeats by Serbia and Spain recently. Its name is Paul, the octopus that is considered by some people as the most intelligent of all invertebrates. Paul got the choice of picking food from two different transparent containers each marked with the flag of a national team lowered into his tank. Almost all its prediction is true including when Paul first developed his abilities during the 2008 European Championship, in which he predicted four out of six games involving Germany were correct. To sum up, here are 10 facts about Paul, the octopus oracle that cheers World Cup 2010.

01. Born:
He was hatched from an egg at the Sea Life Centre in England 2008, and then removed to Sea Life Centre Aquarium in Oberhausen Germany 2009.

02. Name:
The name was taken from the title of a poem by the German children's writer Boy Lornsen, "Der Tintenfisch Paul Oktopus".

03. Mascot:
Paul as the oracle is the most popular thing in Oberhausen now, a small city (according to Wikipedia) with an area of 77 square km and a population of 214 000 inhabitants. During this time, the city was only known for having the largest shopping centers in Germany.

04. Predictions:
Paul began to predict the outcome of the game since Euro 2008 with four of them right. He said Germany would win all the matches, in fact Germany lost to Croatia and Spain at final match. So far at the World Cup 2010, all Paul's prophecy about the German is 100% right including they lost to Spain.

05. Sushi's Wannabe:
His professionalism and accurately picked Spain to beat Germany brings bad news sometimes. Some Germans called for a public roasting of the oracle octopus, also newspapers and websites were filled with suggestions on how to cook and eat him after that.

06. The Finalist:
For the first time in his career, Paul had been tasked to pick a game in which Germany wasn't involved. Normally he only picks Germany matches, but for the final show he made an exception and picked Spain to beat the Netherlands in the World Cup match in a live television broadcast watched across Europe.

07. Trick and Rich:
Paul predicts the result of the game with the lid off one of two containers of food in the tank, without "something" was placed in one container. Everything the same in both containers except the flag and some people has become a new rich-man because of it.

08. Intelligent:
Octopus looks are intelligent animals and proved to have a strong memory to solve problems. Just like dogs can often sense what an owner wants before they vocalize it, or some animals can perfectly aware of what he is being asked. In Paul's case, this adaptability makes him feared predators in real habitat in terms of whether octopus learn from decisions they make. Or you may ask about it to SpongeBob later.

09. A Celebrity:
Paul became one of the most prevalent topics of conversation at social networking site. He has his own Facebook fan pages, also the phrase "Paul the Octopus" and "Pulpo" (Spanish) Twitter world top ten.

10. National Security:
On recently, Spain's Environment & Fisheries Minister Elena Espinosa on behalf of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero jokingly said, "On Monday I shall be at the European Council of Ministers. I shall be asking for a fishing ban on Paul the octopus, so Germans do not eat him!".(*)

4 comments:

tom said...

Enaknya memang dijadikan sushi doang, heran dehh.... Jerman kok bisa percaya ginian. Kerjaan bookie nih.

LIGA FANTASI said...

Paul meleset waktu final Eropah kemarin, bandar pasti panen gede. Sekarang doi bikin prediksi lagi di final dan gak ada Jerman. Mending gak perlu dipikirin, besok siapin 'Juhi' aja. Itu cumi bakar (bukan gurita) ato 'sotong pangkong' kata orang Pontianak ehehee

Anonymous said...

Yok pesta sotong pangkong hahaa...haaha

Anonymous said...

Long live PAUL the sushi!

Post a Comment

Thanks for comments