Paul the Octopus gets own memorial

Posted Wednesday, January 26, 2011 by Csmonitor.com

Paul the Octopus became an international celebrity after he accurately predicted Germany's 2010 World Cup outcomes.

A monument of Paul the Octopus is presented at the Sea Life aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany, on Jan. 20.

Three months after passing away, Paul the Octopus has received a memorial.

The eight-armed cephalopod, who died in October at the age of 2 and a half, gained fans around the world for accurately predicting the outcome of Germany's 2010 World Cup games, and one of Spain's.

The Sea Life Center unveiled on Thursday a six-foot plastic replica of the octopus oracle clutching a soccer ball in his arms. Inside the ball, Paul's ashes were placed in a gold-leaf urn, which also resembles the octopus.

During the World Cup last year, Paul's caretakers at the Oberhausen Sea Life Center in western Germany would place two glass boxes containing a mussel and a flag to represent each competing team. Paul would open the box of the winning team first. He did this eight times in a row, correctly picking the winner of each of Germany's seven matches, as well as the outcome of the final match. The odds of achieving the same results with a coin toss are one in 256.