ASK THE OCTOPUS

[defrog]

With the World Cup Final coming up in less than two hours, I guess I’d better get an obligatory World Cup Prediction post in before kickoff.

I’m calling it for The Netherlands.

And you can bank on my advice, because the World Cup has played out exactly as I predicted, except that none of the Latin American teams made it to the final.

But who are you going to believe – a guy who barely keeps up with football, or a precognitive octopus?

That said, I think Paul The Precog Octopus is the best thing about this year’s World Cup. There’s something useful in knowing that lots of people will still accept supernatural explanations over something that can be easily explained by probability.

But then who needs science when you have CNN?

Not that I’m blaming CNN for falling for the supernatural angle – I mean, a hook is a hook, and who in 2010 expects any cable TV news channel to let facts get in the way of a good story?

I just wish they’d get their terminology straight – Paul is precognitive, not psychic. Big difference. You’d think a news organization would get that much right.

Anyway, I’m going with Netherlands. So I’d be putting my money on Spain if I were you.

Place yr bets,

This is dF

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EDITED TO ADD [Ten hours later]: Told you.

Comments

[ellierachael.livejournal.com]

precognitive or not Paul is pretty cool :)

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

Oh sure. I don't want to steal his thunder or anything. I'm just saying.

[thelastaerie.livejournal.com]

see? you jinxed the Dutch! :P

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

We all have our talents. Some of us can see the future, some of us can put a magic hex on sports teams. Incidentally, I have never failed to pick a losing team. And people ask me why I don't really follow sports all that much.

[wiredwizard.livejournal.com]

My money's always on the cephalopod.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

Des got quite annoyed with me when I pointed out the odds of Paul getting them all right were much higher than she thought.

i.e we wouldn't have heard a thing if he'd got the first 3 wrong.

we're ignoring all the predictions he got wrong before.

we're ignoring the fact that he's choosing a flag that he recalls had food in it before "hey! it's that box again! dinnertime!"

and then there's the self-fulfilling prophesy bit "gee! the octopus thinks we're going to loose this game! *stress*"

She said I take the joy out of everything *sigh*