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Paul the psychic octopus is back!

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Paul the psychic octopus is back!

Today's Google doodle!
(Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.)

Oh Paul the psychic octopus… How we miss you and your uncannily accurate predictions of World Cup glory! And we aren't the only ones – Google is celebrating Paul in today's Google Doodle!

Paul, an English octopus then living in Germany, became world famous during the last World Cup when he picked the winner of all of Germany's seven matches, including their two defeats, and got the 2010 World Cup final correct too. Paul provided a welcome watery break between the matches, even though, as David Spiegelhalter's statistical analysis showed, he wasn't actually psychic after all.

Sadly, Paul can't help us predicting this year's World Cup – psychic or not. He died in October 2010 after living a full and happy octopus life. But you can read more about Paul's contribution to the 2010 World Cup in our article Understanding uncertainty: how psychic was Paul?.