Olympic flame

The Olympic flame is a symbol of the Olympic Games. Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, where a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics. The fire was introduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since. In contrast to the Olympic flame proper, the torch relay of modern times, which transports the flame from Greece to the various designated sites of the games, had no ancient precedent and was introduced by Carl Diem at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

Usage

The Olympic Torch today is ignited several months before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games at the site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece. Eleven women, representing the Vestal Virgins, perform a celebration at the Temple of Hera in which the torch is kindled by the light of the Sun, its rays concentrated by a parabolic mirror. The torch briefly travels around Greece via short relay, and then starts its transfer to the host city after a ceremony in the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens.

Olympic Torch (hoax)

Olympic Torch is a computer virus hoax sent out by e-mail. The hoax e-mails first appeared in February 2006. The "virus" referred to by the e-mail does not actually exist. The only effect is that the warning email itself is widely circulated as a chain letter. The hoax e-mail warns recipients of a recent outbreak of Olympic Torch viruses, contained in e-mails titled "Invitation", which erase the hard disk of the user's computer when opened. The hoax email further purports the virus to be acknowledged by such reputable sources as CNN, McAfee, Microsoft and now Facebook as one of the most dangerous viruses yet reported. In reality, the Olympic Torch virus is non-existent, and generally has not been reported by the organizations quoted. A similar version of this hoax is the Postcard Image virus hoax which refers to another non existent virus known as POSTCARD. The Postcard variation has been in circulation at least since 2008 The virus was reported to cause one's hard drive to spin so fast that it caught on fire. Thus the name "torch."