Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
from Photographers Blog:
How a simple tentacle became a media star
Sometimes I hold seminars about journalism – photo journalism in particular of course. Most of the time I start talking about the journalistic rule number one.
What is rule number one? Journalism works very simply. When a dog bites a man – this is not a story. Dogs bite men. Unless the man is Prince Charles or the President of the United States, nobody is interested. But the opposite case - when a man bites a dog – that's a story. The story will be even bigger if the man who bites the dog is the U.S. President and the dog belongs to Prince Charles.
However, in the future I must change my seminars and change the picture from the dog to the octopus “Paul” -- better known as the “octopus oracle” at the Sea Life Aquarium of Oberhausen, a former coal mining and steel producing city in western Germany.
The two-and-a-half year-old octopus has become a star all over the world by predicting all six of Germany's 2010 World Cup games correctly - two defeats and four victories.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Sorry Germany, the oracle octopus has spoken
There are only three things that are certain in life -- death, taxes and the World Cup predictions of a British-born octopus in western Germany.
That being the case, there's hardly any point in playing Wednesday's semi-final between Germany and Spain -- the Spanish have got it won.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
World Cup 2010 quarter-finals podcast
Welcome to our latest Reuters 2010 World Cup podcast, as we follow the lead of the world's most famous psychic octopus and try to predict what will happen in the quarter-finals. Kevin Fylan is joined by Paul Radford, Jon Bramley, Ken Ferris and Mr Mark Gleeson.
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