Oracle octopus has company in the animals-picking-winners department
Paul, the oracle octopus, is in hot water in his native Germany after picking Spain to beat Germany in the World Cup semifinals.
Joining Paul is Mani, a bird in Singapore that has picked (pecked?) the Netherlands to defeat Spain in the World Cup final. Watch the shocking video:
By
Matt Bonesteel
|
July 8, 2010; 2:35 PM ET
Categories:
2010 World Cup
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Posted by: jayrockers | July 8, 2010 2:41 PM | Report abuse
The poll results were displayed in oranje. Does the Post have a pro-Dutch bias?
Posted by: BlackandRedRedDevil | July 8, 2010 2:46 PM | Report abuse
Apparently Mani does have a track record. According to the video he picked all of the semifinalists, but it doesn't say at what stage he picked them. And while they say he picked the Spaniards to win over Germany they don't say he picked the Dutch over Uruguay.
All that said I will stick with Paul.
Posted by: fedssocr | July 8, 2010 2:56 PM | Report abuse
How I miss hard soccer news.
On that note, Charlie Davies essentially admits he wasn't ready:
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/postcard-europe-davies-speaks-recovery
Posted by: benonthehill | July 8, 2010 3:07 PM | Report abuse
This video is for the birds!
Posted by: gallegoscot1 | July 8, 2010 3:12 PM | Report abuse
PAUL IS THE MAN - I MEAN OCTOPUS!
James Cameron will be filming his NIKE commercial .. ..
Posted by: Samminish | July 8, 2010 3:19 PM | Report abuse
There's a Facebook group to get Paul elected FIFA president
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=130405370330575
Posted by: fedssocr | July 8, 2010 3:31 PM | Report abuse
The bird also predicted that continued melting of the polar ice caps will create a new Arctic shipping lane, dramatically reducing sea travel distances between Europe and Asia while rendering Singapore commercially irrelevant (at least during the summer). http://tinyurl.com/2ahb3zv
But people only wanted to know about soccer.
Posted by: hungrypug | July 8, 2010 3:41 PM | Report abuse
I can't make this kind of decision! I need more information...have a komodo dragon choose to eat from dishes labeled "bird" and "octopus", and then I'll know which animal is right.
Posted by: jsm91 | July 8, 2010 5:02 PM | Report abuse
Even NPR has gotten into the act, joking this AM that Paul would soon be paella.
Posted by: paulkp | July 8, 2010 10:20 PM | Report abuse
This discussion is tempting me to hit the Costa Verde (Peruvian) in Arlington, which makes a toothsome saltado de pulpo.
Posted by: universityandpark | July 8, 2010 11:10 PM | Report abuse
Not all animals can predict the World Cup correctly. My Chihuahua named Pepe predicted that Mexico would win. I guess he is a little bias.
Posted by: fedster | July 9, 2010 9:10 AM | Report abuse
It's good you don't post anything about Mani's predictions! He originally said that Spain would win the world cup - but he also said that Spain would play the final match against Uruguay. Now suddenly he picked Holland and Singaporean media are so advertising this while conveniently neglecting that the bird was totally wrong in the first place :) Here's the photo of his original prediction: http://twitpic.com/22m044
Posted by: st_lucia | July 9, 2010 9:57 PM | Report abuse
Oh noes! You changed the article so now my post doesn't make sense. However, forget Mani anyway :)
Posted by: st_lucia | July 9, 2010 10:29 PM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.
Paul is good only for Germany games. Once he branches out and starts picking other games, I would suspect that the octo-mojo would disappear.
This bird, on the other hand, seems to be jumping on the bandwagon. You need a proven track record in prognostication to be taken seriously.
I wonder who Uri Gellar has?
Thx,
Jay!