Watch a Man Throw a Bucket of Water at the Olympic Torch and Miss

Every Olympic year, the Olympic flame begins its journey from Athens to the host city of that year’s Games. Said to represent the importance of fire to the ancient Greeks, the flame relay is a reliable, if slightly hokey, tradition.

In 2016 as the flame is currently on a 12,400-mile journey to Rio de Janeiro, the site of the Summer Olympics.

Before Rio, though, is a 300-city tour of Brazil. And it was on that tour, on Sunday, that the flame came under attack. Working on what he told police was a dare, a 27-year-old threw a bucket of water at the torch and its bearer, according to the BBC.

In the video above, you can see the perpetrator slowly wait for his moment, before tossing a not-inconsiderable amount of water the flame’s way.

Yet, all of that careful planning failed. The water-tosser, identified as Marcelino Mateus Silva Proença, missed, and was later arrested.

According to CNN, Proença seems to be enjoying the notoriety, posting stories about the water incident on his Facebook page and sharing a selfie of himself leaving the police station.

But he also hinted at political motivations behind the water throw, saying that while he might “have the torch,” he had no education, health, security, or quality of life.

The upcoming Olympics, which begin on August 5, have been beset by a variety of problems and controversies, so it seems fitting that the torch, the official symbol of the games, is encountering its own obstacles.

Comments

Why Do We Scratch Our Heads When We're Thinking?

Some people believe that certain automatic gestures — like scratching our heads when we're thinking — are natural motions that were passed down to us from our caveman predecessors. JOSE LUIS PELAEZ INC./GETTY IMAGES If you've ever had the distinct pleasure of sourcing stock photos for any reason, you've likely come across a whole lot of laughing women eating salads alone . But you've also probably stumbled upon a truckload of people scratching their heads to symbolize confusion, deep thought and/or perhaps a bad case of seborrheic dermatitis — dandruff. Scalp dryness aside, how exactly did the head scratch come to symbolize intellectual processes? Some people believe that certain automatic gestures are simply natural, expressive motions our caveman predecessors passed down to us. "One popular explanation for any hand-to-head movements is that they're frustrated aggression — a reversion to the natural movements of our rock-throwing ancestors," wrote Sa...

Jackie Robinson in Reverse, Eddie Klep Integrated Negro Leagues

WASHINGTON President Bush presented the Congressional Gold Medal to the family of Jackie Robinson this week, in posthumous honor of the man who broke through major league baseball’s racial barrier in 1947. Unmentioned and unmourned was the late Eddie Klep, who crossed baseball’s color line a year earlier in the opposite direction. Klep was the first white man to play Negro League ball. A short-lived pioneer, he washed out in his first season as a Cleveland Buckeye. A few years later he was wearing the uniform of the Rockview (Pa.) State Prison baseball team. In talent, character and impact, he was no Jackie Robinson. But Eddie Klep’s exploits, such as they were, serve as a reminder that integration is a two-way street. Beyond the brave tales of celebrated black breakthroughs, the path toward racial progress is also adorned with intriguing stories of white Americans willing to go where others feared to tread, everyday people distinguishing themselves with simpl...

Spotify announces new partnership with Samsung - Finally Spotify will pose like Apple Music

Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek There's a new collaboration in the works. Early Friday morning, Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek (pictured) revealed through an online Q&A session that the music streaming service is partnering with smart-phone makers Samsung to "create a seamless music listening experience together for the user that would be hard for either of us to build alone". The streaming service will now be integrated into future Samsung phones, and will be the brand's main music player app. Another feature that will be available will be the synchronizing of Spotify accounts across multiple Samsung devices, from phones to TVs, tablets, speakers and watches. Ek commented on the feature, saying, "As you move from room to room, your devices will be aware of your location and prompt you to effortlessly transition your listening between them". Ek further went on to comment on Spotify's integration with Samsung, revealing that the partn...

The Art of Reading

Search This Blog