Paul, The Oracle Octopus, Dies; Nate Silver Devastated

Paul, the amazing psychic octopus, who became world-famous for predicting eight 2010 World Cup results in a row including the final, sadly, has died of natural causes. He was 2 1/2. Mourning Paul's loss was Nate Silver, the New York Times polling wiz-geek who had secretly contracted with Paul to predict the individual outcomes of the midterm elections, as well as which party will control the House and Senate. Nate was devastated and confused: "I don't know how I will carry on without Paul. I was still waiting on the final results when I got the news," said a crestfallen Silver. "I guess I'll just have to crunch the numbers and hope for the best," he added with a resigned sigh. "It's all guesswork," he confessed in a low voice, "and Paul was our best guesser." RIP, Paul. You will be missed.