Indian Rupee gets a symbol ...(Too late)

In July 2010, the Indian Cabinet selected a new symbol for the Indian rupee. It is an amalgamation of Devanagari "र" (Ra) and the Roman "R" without the stem.

On March 5, 2009 the Indian government announced a contest to create a symbol for the rupee. During the Union Budget 2010 Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee mentioned that proposed symbol would reflect and capture the Indian ethos and culture.Five symbols had been short listed, and the Cabinet selected the definitive symbol on 15 July 2010.

The symbol is a blend of the Devanagari ‘र’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ without the stem. The parallel lines at the top with white space between them) make an allusion to the tricolor Indian flag and also depict an equality sign which symbolizes the nation's desire to reduce economic disparity.The Indian government will try to adopt the symbol within six months in the country and globally within 18 to 24 months.Prior to this, the most commonly used symbols for the rupee have been Rs., Re. or रू.

Mani the Parakeet

Mani the Parakeet (hatched 1997), also called Mani the Parrot, is a Malaysian-born Rose-ringed Parakeet who resides in Singapore. It has been an astrologer 'assistant' to M. Muniyappan since 2005, working from his Little India fortune-telling shop along Serangoon Road. M. Muniyappan is locally known to makes his predictions using a simplified form of cartomancy.

Mani became a celebrity in Singapore, and later internationally, when he picked the correct winners for all of the 2010 FIFA World Cup quarter-final ties, as well as the Spain-Germany semi-final. However, Mani failed to predict the Spain - Netherlands final by choosing Netherlands as the winner of the 2010 World Cup. At one point on July 5, 2010, a day before the Uruguay-Netherlands semi-final match, Mani topped Google's "Hot Searches" in Singapore.

Prior to his World Cup stint, Mani and his owner M. Muniyappan, used to see an average of 10 customers a day. Following his World Cup success, this increased to around 10 customers an hour.

While Mani typically assisted his owner Muniyappan in fortune-telling in day-to-day work, it was his predictions over the matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup that saw him gain widespread recognition.

According to Singapore's The New Paper, Mani's most contentious pick for the World Cup thus far was underdog Netherlands to beat Brazil.His prediction later proved to be correct.

The quarter-finals saw Mani guessing the four winners of the matches correctly – Spain, Germany, Uruguay and Netherlands.In the semi-finals, he predicted that Uruguay would beat Netherlands and Spain would defeat Germany, thereby leading to a Uruguay vs Spain final. Mani went on further to predict that Spain would be champions.

The Uruguay vs Netherlands prediction turned out to be wrong, with Netherlands progressing on to the final.As a result, Mani made a new prediction for the World Cup Final between Netherlands and Spain. It tipped a Dutch win over Spain. On the other hand, fellow oracle star Paul the Octopus of Germany went for a Spanish victory, resulted in some media outlets describing the game as an octopus-versus-parakeet showdown. However, Spain defeated the Netherlands 1-0 and Paul was proven to be triumphant.

Oracle Paul the Octopus

Paul Allen the Octopus or Paul Oktopus is a common octopus, used as an oracle to predict the results of German international football matches.

The octopus was allowed to choose between two boxes with food within, each one marked with the flag of a national team. The boxes are arranged left and right as per the FIFA arrangement of the flags of both teams. Paul is reported to have correctly chosen the box with the flag of the winning team in five of Germany's six UEFA Euro 2008 matches and in each of Germany's first six matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Octopus oracle Paul predicts Spain will beat Holland and win the World Cup.

Paul's pick was carried live on Friday on TV stations around Europe. The world-famous octopus could be seen sitting on a tank marked with a Spanish flag for only a few minutes before grabbing out a mussel and devouring it, while completely ignoring the Dutch tank — indicating a Spanish victory in Sunday's final match in the World Cup.

Paul correctly predicted Germany's wins over Argentina, England, Australia and Ghana and the country's loss to Spain and Serbia.

He also predicted that Germany will win over Uruguay in Saturday's match for third and fourth place.

wiki / Paul the Octopus