Psychic Octopus Has 8 Arms and a 6th Sense for Betting
Call him the eight-armed oracle of the deep, soccer's seer of the sea.
Or you can just call him Paul. Paul's an octopus with a special gift: He can predict winners of World Cup matches from his temple — OK, maybe it's just a tank — at the Sea Life aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany.
Paul's handlers place two glass boxes in his tank — one with a German flag, the other with the flag of an opponent. Then they place shells and other treats inside. The first box Paul picks is the winner — and he's pretty good at it.
The octopus picked Germany to defeat Ghana in Wednesday's game, no doubt pleasing the home crowd. You might call it pandering, but he'd probably tell you he's no panda — he's an octopus. Besides, Paul has an impressive history: He picked Serbia to beat Germany last week in one of the tournament's biggest upsets so far.
He also accurately predicted Germany would win its first match of the tournament, a 4-0 drubbing of Australia, so he's 2-0 so far. If Paul gets any better at this, he could have an incredible career as a telephone psychic — able to handle eight lines at once.
But for now, he'll keep picking World Cup matches. The aquarium says that as long as Germany's still in the tournament, Paul will keep making picks.
While Germany is not the tournament's favorite, it's not a long shot, either. Most two-armed bookies rank it fifth — behind only Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Holland — with roughly 10 to 1 odds, depending on where you place your bets.
No word yet on whether Paul has filled out eight betting slips of his own. Then again, bet-making octo-bookies face their own challenges. If he doesn't make good on his picks, he risks having his arms broken ... again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
From: http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/octopus-picks-winners-of-world-cup-soccer-matches/19526581
Sheriff Candidate Draws Winning Card
Voters had their say, but it was the nine of hearts that decided the Morrill County Sheriff’s race Monday night.
Milo Cardenas and Travis Petersen had tied on the night of the primary election with 379-379 in the Republican run for the Morrill County Sheriff’s race.
“After another recount and everything was tied again, I told them they could either cut a card or have their names pulled out of a hat,” said Morrill County Clerk, Kathy Brandt.
The men decided on cards. The canvassing board shuffled the deck of cards seven times and spread out the cards on the table.
“Cardenas and Petersen both drew at the same time,” she said. “Milo, drew a nine of hearts and Petersen drew a six of spades.”
Cardenas, Bridgeport’s police chief, had led Tuesday night by three votes but 10 provisional ballots still had to be counted.
When those votes were tabulated, Petersen, Keith County’s chief deputy, had gained four votes and Cardenas picked up one. The deadlock meant there would have to be a tiebreaker.
Cardenas will now advance to the general election, according to Brandt.
“Unless someone files as a write-in or petitions to get on the ballot, Cardenas will be the next sheriff,” she said.
She added that the person writing in or petitioning would also have to have the correct credentials to get on the ballot.
Brandt believes this is a classic example of getting the vote out. If more people had voted the problem would have probably been solved.
“It is one case where every vote really does count,” she said.
From: http://www.starherald.com/articles/2010/05/19/news/local_news/doc4bf36a6d3f5c3299506065.txt
Shame on You, George!
It’s a good thing they didn’t have background checks back when George Washington was running for president. Someone might have dug up a little dirt on him. That dirt: he had an overdue library book.
That book was still checked out — until yesterday!
The New York Society Library accepted a copy of "The Law of Nations" from the staff of Mount Vernon. Our founding father checked out the book back on Oct. 5, 1789. That would make it 221 years overdue.
Perhaps he lost it; perhaps he forgot about it; perhaps he just loved that book so much that he couldn’t stand to part with it. Whatever the case, he never returned it.
In fact, that original book may never be found. The folks at Mount Vernon heard about the missing book and looked everywhere for it. They finally found a replica online for about $12,000.
And so the great George Washington is no longer on the hook for that missing book. It’s a good thing, too. His late fee was about $300,000.
Lucky for his estate, the library waived that fee.
From: http://www.nbcwashington.com/around-town/events/Shame-On-You-George-94437129.html
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