It's a standard car handling test, simulating avoiding a Moose (a common problem in rural Sweden, or so I'm led to believe)

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Jeep-Grand-Cherokee-Moose-Test-The-Full-Story

I first heard of it from the Mercedes Benz A class Moose test failure referenced at the end of the vid above... in that case, many of the journalists rang in their stories (Lada beats Mercedes Benz) first before checking whether the driver was OK!

Actually, before 1997 it was known as “Undanmanöverprov”, Avoidance Maneuver Test, the name "Moose Test" was coined in the aftermath of the Mercedes Benz failure.

The first Mass Effect game had a fantastic writeup on combat in space, and why it was supposed to be a more anti-hollywood, incredibly boring event in that universe.
Most encounters could be resolved in seconds from hundreds of thousands of kilometers (well outside visual range), and it only took a single shot to end the encounter, either through instantly disabling critical systems, or overheating the heatsinks onboard (which were constantly venting excess cosmic and solar radiation as it was), causing any sort of energy shielding to be impractical for similar reasons.
Nearly all military encounters in space were ultimately stalemates, because things could be resolved so immediately and with such deadly finality, it forced the space-faring civilizations to ask questions first and shoot as a last resort. I can't remember the exact description, but essentially a "fight" in space was two or more opposing ships simply showing up and sitting around doing nothing until the situation resolved itself, or one side had clearly more guns than the other (but there may have even been reasons for why the latter result wasn't common either, but it's been so long I can't recall).
Regardless, I love that vision of space travel and hypothetical military maneuvers because it portrayed the reality of such events from a really hardcore scientific approach. Obviously the rest of the writing team was unable to work around those limitations, since the rest of that game and the rest of the series pretty much resorted back to the Star Wars formula almost immediately. I wish their writers had been as talented as the guy who constructed the universe and it's laws, because it was an amazingly refreshing take on sci-fi space travel.

That's true to an extent, as well as always having an escape route in mind, but what this guy was doing was approaching the car ahead so quickly that the driver couldn't possibly have seen him and anticipated his maneuvers He (or she) signaled, probably checked their mirrors for traffic, began the lane change at a safe rate, and suddenly there was a motorcycle there. Typically, the time the elapses between when I check my blind spot and then begin to shift lanes is about two or three seconds. Even if I saw a motorcycle in my lane in the rearview, I couldn't possibly be expected to to know he intended to pull into my lane.

The guy on the motorcycle (who is clearly an exceptionally dense and reckless case), was just treating traffic as though they were obstacles. There aren't many motorcycle riders *that* incompetent, even among the dudebros.

When I'm driving, and there is a motorcycle coming up on me, I always make a point to make eye contact (either directly or in a mirror) to let him know I know he's there. The motorcyclist in this video is just suicidally insane.

I'm very impressed with how interactive and alive they've made the world feel. The level of graphical detail here is reminiscent of The Witcher 2. The combat, while more action RPG than tactical isometric like Origins still looks like it has depth, but just more leans towards the Dark Souls variety with circle strafing to avoid enemy maneuvers and targeting specific boss weak points.

Guess we'll have to see how it turns out, but given how much they've willing to show and the fact that Bioware have proven they always deliver on the plot/storyline I'm pretty optimistic, even after what happened with DA:2.

All ships have rotational inertia, provided you turn off flight assist mode. Without flight assist, you can fly with close to full Newtonian movement, with some exceptions that were made to keep combat fun. (For example, there is a speed limit cap, to prevent dogfights from degrading into high speed flybys.) This means that with flight assist off, any movement you make, you must make a counter-movement for to stop. This includes all 6 degrees of movement, from translational to rotational. Often, players will disable flight-assist to get into an advantageous position when maneuvering, then re-enable it so they can aim more easily. There are a few, VERY good players that can fight with flight-assist off completely, and it's a sight to behold:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwVYc_iPAvg

In any case, E:D is looking very promising, despite getting a lot less attention than Star Citizen, and even No Man's Sky. Of all the upcoming space sims, this is the one I'm looking forward to most.

Preservers on under their macks and helmets would offer no substantial protection rather, they'd be a liability to field of vision and ability to maneuver.

I know of someone who was in a very large dump truck that flipped on it's side when someone pulled out in front of him, he swerved to avoid T-boning the old guy in the driver side door. Truck flipped on it's side, slid across the road and crushed the cab of the truck, killing the dump truck driver.

I do not recall if he hit the engine portion of the car or not that caused him to flip or the truck flipped due to load shifting, maybe a combination of both. But he would have smashed that old guy like paper and probably would have lived if he just ran him over.

So I can see why a truck driver would be very upset at someone being careless around them...besides it affecting their livelihood with any sort of damage they may take in any accident or avoidance of.

And I'd just like to say as someone who used to run some fairly heavy machinery, it bugged me every day when people were careless around me. Because I could have easily crippled if not killed people outright in seconds, and that was with a big loud machine and a blocked off work area people chose to ignore. Was the worst when they assumed just because you were slow moving that you could easily stop and maneuver. Luckily I never hurt anyone, but if I had it would have haunted me despite my having done everything I could do aside from not using the machines at all.

The rigid-hull inflatable uses the tube more as a stabilizer than flotation. They only become necessary in rough seas or hard maneuvering. The tubes are attached to a short-sided fiberglass or aluminium hull, which provides the buoyancy. At the end, you can see them slowly making towards home.

Smaller Zodiacs use the tubes as the hull, with just a sheet of rubber hanging between the tubes as a floor, so when the tubes lose air they completely collapse. In order to carry more than 3-4 people, you need a rigid hull for strength. Otherwise it would just flop all over the place like an inflatable life raft.

I assume he was waving a gun at the drivers to induce them to get out, locked or not.

Still...I'm surprised criminals still try to out-drive or out-run the police. Sure you might do a couple clever maneuvers to delay the inevitable...but that's all you're doing...just delaying.

I'm guessing they just don't know the copter is watching their every move.

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line,
Engines pumping and thumping in time.
The green light flashes, the flags go up.
Churning and burning, they yearn for the cup.
They deftly maneuver and muscle for rank,
Fuel burning fast on an empty tank.
Reckless and wild, they pour through the turns.
Their prowess is potent and secretly stearn.
As they speed through the finish, the flags go down.
The fans get up and they get out of town.
The arena is empty except for one man,
Still driving and striving as fast as he can.
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,
And long ago somebody left with the cup.
But he's driving and striving and hugging the turns.
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.

He's going the distance.
He's going for speed.
She's all alone (All alone!)
All alone in her time of need.
Because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse,
He's going the distance.

No trophy, no flowers, no flashbulbs, no wine,
He's haunted by something he cannot define.
Bowel-shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse,
Assail him, impale him with monster-truck force.
In his mind, he's still driving, still making the grade.
She's hoping in time that her memories will fade.
Cause he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,
And long ago somebody left with the cup.
But he's striving and driving and hugging the turns.
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.

Cause he's going the distance.
He's going for speed.
She's all alone (All alone!)
All alone in her time of need.
Because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
He's racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
He's going the distance.
He's going for speed.
He's going the distance.

Isn't it fascinating how much technique and consideration goes into what seems like just some random little maneuver?

Makes you look at a fight differently and really appreciate an expert pugilist like Rousey. I don't think it'd be an exaggeration to say she is the most skilled female grappler in MMA and that she's also more skilled than many (or most) male grapplers. (There's a reason they made her start competing with men when she was in Judo.)

As @xxovercastxx hinted, you should really check out her second fight with Tate in UFC 168. It was phenomenally impressive. (I've watched and re-watched it half a dozen times.)

I just wonder how she'll fair against Sara McMann in February. She's an undefeated beast.

Ode to the Picard Maneuver has been added as a related post - related requested by braschlosan on that post.

A buddy of mine came back from a Con years ago excited because Jonathan Frakes was on a panel and, prompted by fan comments during the questioning, he pledged to create his own 'double tug' version of the Picard maneuver to use in future episodes.

Hmm...apparently he did.

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