Paul the Octopus Dies

The infamous Paul the Octopus has passed away today due to natural causes. If you don’t know by now, Paul is the sensational octopus that correctly picked the winners of eight out of eight matches from this past summer’s World Cup in South Africa. The odds of this happening were minimal to say the least…a 1 in 256 chance. His accuracy at picking the winners have deemed him a folkloric legend.

He is currently frozen in his home aquarium’s freezer and will be cremated in the next few days. The aquarium has even proposed to build a memorial in Paul’s honor. The passing of Paul is not unusual though. Octopuses are projected to live around three years. Paul was reportedly born in 2008 so he enjoyed a normal and fulfilling life, aside from the fame and glory of course.

Even before the World Cup, Paul correctly picked four out of five games for the German soccer team in the 2008 European Championship. His ability to go “undefeated” in his picks have brought the German based octopus world-wide fame. Soccer fans around the globe hung on his decision before matches intent on finding out from the “psychic” if their team would win.

The process that the aquarium used was to put up the flags on boxes of the two competing teams next to each other. They then placed a delicious mussel on each of the boxes and put Paul in the middle. Paul then made his choice by proceeding to mount the eventual winner’s box. He even picked the World Cup champions in choosing Spain over the Netherlands.

Not everyone enjoyed Paul’s ability though. The fans of the losing team, including his fellow Germans, blamed him for the losses of their team. His fellow Germans even joked around to the point of cooking Paul and eating him as calamari.

Regardless of the outcome of the games he predicted, Paul the Octopus will be missed for his phenomenal ability to predict the winners of soccer matches. Don’t be too sad though, because rumor has it that there is a Paul the Octopus II who has been trained by the original Paul himself. Keep your eyes peeled because you just might have a sure bet on some soccer games if Paul Jr. is anything like his predecessor.

Photos from Wikimedia