How does Paul the octopus choose his world cup predictions?

Fucking magic.

Do you mean how he chooses, though? Because that’s just 2 tanks, one with the flag of one team, and one with the flag of the other.

He does not predict. He determines.

I have never heard of such…......
But if he could pick a Derby winner…..I’d buy him whatever he wants.

maybe he goes over the stats, watches the other world cup series, and gives that educated sportscaster forecast…...

I hear he consults with Dr. J first.

Video

@dverhey What do you mean 2 tanks?

@Mtl_zack within his tank they place 2 transparent containers containing mussels.
Each container or “tank” has the flag of one of the competing countries. He picks the food from the tank of the team that will win.

Has not missed yet.

@Dr_C ah now I get it.

Good old Paul, eh!

Eenie meenie minny moe?

A smart octopus would use two of his eight tentacles and empty both tanks of their mussels.
Making it a draw?

Based on his fear of ending up on plates covered in oil, vinegar or whatever dressing goes with the eight-tentacled poor mite!

Well he has a 50% chance of getting it right each time – he’s been lucky.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir lucky like a fox

I’m also curious as to how this all started. One day a marine biologist said “let’s put flags on his food and see if the outcome of the game matches his choice”. I doubt it. Was it an accident? Who first noticed the correlation?

The probability is merely 0.049%. The odds of being struck by lightning in a given year is 0.0002%. There are a lot of careless people, so it does happen. There are a lot of smart octopuses, so good guesses do happen.