Bird Vs. Octopus

Well I told you about Paul the psychic Octopus who supposedly has a 100% accurate prediction rate when it comes to picking winners in the world cup series. It appears this cephalopod has a nemesis.

Mani is a bird that resides in Singapore, but what kind of bird you ask? Mani happens to be a parakeet. HAHA get it, a PARAkeet…ok maybe its not as funny as I thought. Anyway according to local media in Singapore, Mani had predicted all four games in the World Cup quarter finals correctly. News spread quickly through the streets of Singapore’s Little India District, and many showed up to watch the bird pick the card that bared the Netherlands national colors. I wouldn’t be surprised if many placed bets according to the parakeets pick, unfortunately it would be the time this psychic bird was wrong (who would have ever guessed that?). Turns out Spain beat Netherlands 1-0.

On the other hand someone did predict Spain would be the winner of the World Cup, and that was Paul. That is correct, Paul the psychic octopus, pulled through with a win. It just goes to show people aves are not match for cephalopods.

Still I do not think we needed to have “psychic” animals to predict winners for the World Cup, we probably could have done just as well flipping a coin.

References:

http://www.examiner.com/x-23020-Sports-Celebrity-Examiner~y2010m7d11-Spain-wins-World-Cup-Paul-the-Octopus-is-psychic-perfection

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100709/tod-psychic-parakeet-picks-netherlands-a-1066d3e.html

Psychic Predicts Winner of World Cup 2010

In the city of Oberhausen, Germany lives a psychic named Paul who seems to be getting much praise for correctly predicting who would win the World Cup 2010.  However, along with the praise, irate individuals also are blaming Paul for Germany’s loss in the World Cup. Many are sending him death threats. Some are even coming up with ways to cook and eat him. 

Yes you read that correctly, people are actually designing recipes to cook and eat Paul.  Argentine chef Nicolas Bedorrou posted on his Facebook: “We will chase him and put him on some paper. We will then beat him (but correctly!) in order to keep the meat tender and then put it in boiling water.”  Before you scratch your head and think WTF I think it’s time to let you know that Paul is actually an octopus (did I make you say WTF again?). 

Oliver Walenciak, Paul’s owner, said the way he makes predictions is by choosing a container filled with mussels.  2 containers are dropped into his tank one adorned with the German flag and one with that of their opponents.  Whichever container Paul eats from, that team will be victorious.  Unfortunately for Germany, Paul chose Spain to win the World Cup, but for the octopus it just added credence to his psychic credibility because Spain did indeed win 1-0. 

Oliver Walenciak, said before the match: “We know that all octopus have nine brains so we know he has exceptional powers.”  I did some research to see if an octopus really has 9 brains and the only thing I could find was an article from National Geographic titled Octopus Arms Found to Have “Minds” of Their Own, which only suggests that the octopus many inadvertently move its arms. 

“Since octopuses always use the same kind of movement to extend their arms, Hochner and his colleagues wondered if the commands that generate the pattern are stored in the arm itself, not in the central brain. Such a mechanism would further reduce the complexity of controlling a flexible arm.”

I even went as far as checking diagrams on the anatomy of the octopus and to my surprise (not really) it seems that this cephalopod only has, are you ready for this?  Wait for it, wait for it…ONE BRAIN!!! 

So sorry Mr. Walenciak I hate to break it to you, but while your precious Paul may seem rather intelligent, he only has one brain. As far as Paul being psychic, meh, I would say lucky guesses made by a hungry octopus.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/09/0907_octoarm.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/7878270/Paul-the-psychic-octopus-correctly-predicts-Germany-defeat.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/teams/germany/7877152/Germany-v-Spain-Psychic-octopus-Paul-unfazed-by-death-threats-says-keeper.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/7877034/World-Cup-2010-10-things-you-didnt-know-about-Paul-the-psychic-octopus.html