There are two possible reasons. Firstly, they might just freeze. Secondly, if they actually think they're hitting the brake pedal, then the way to stop is to hit it harder, right? In either case, the car isn't doing what they expected and it takes time to work out why.

For a non-car example of someone just freezing up under pressure, see http://videosift.com/video/Accidental-take-off-of-Victor-Bob-Prothero-explains - the ground engineer drafted in to man the throttles didn't do so well under pressure.

I was quite sure I'd upvoted this already... oh well, upvoting now.

Why is TSG the only site with this story? The indictment is over, but the prosecutors could get in a lot of trouble over this, especially with an ongoing federal investigation.

EDIT: Damn, always Google further before commenting... There are lots of stories about this right now, just my homepage CNN doesn't have it. Maybe it's time for a new homepage.

EDIT #2: I think this is a decent summary of the prosecutor's reasoning for including her, as well as a checklist of why his decision was bad and, indeed, criminal: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/19/1353052/-Under-pressure-St-Louis-prosecutor-Bob-McCulloch-admits-he-called-witnesses-who-were-lying

Spellbinding.
Takes the strategic ability to see many moves ahead like chess, combined with the physical skill to execute it under pressure.

Via Liberty.me: The status of the police is bound up with the perception of the value of the entire public sector. The police are the “thin blue line,” long perceived as the most essential and irreplaceable function of the state. Now that this perception is under pressure from public opinion over what happened (and is happening) in Ferguson (and many many other places around the country), a shift in intellectual opinion that's been developing for decades is gaining traction.

What’s at stake here if not the very foundation of public order as we know it? If government can’t do this right -- if the police are accomplishing the very opposite of what they claim to accomplish, namely, to "protect and serve" -- if they are, in fact, undermining the public's security rather than providing for it, (and this is widely understood to be the case, time and time again), then we have the making of not only an ideological revolution, but an authentic turning-point in the history of politics.

Security is not the most essential function of the state; it is the most dangerous one, and the very one that we should never concede lest we lose our freedom altogether. The "night watchman" is the biggest threat we face because it is he who holds the gun and he who pulls the trigger should we ever decide to escape from their "protections" and provide for ourselves.

Lighten up mate, no one's taking notes, he's right in the spotlight and he's got to do something.. Right there, under pressure with all eyes on him and expectant, he didn't lose his wits and that's pretty much enough for the crowd to go for - they're already wired up because he's put the effort in to make them primed to laugh. I bet you're under 28 and you've never put yourself voluntarily into that kind of focus, where it matters.. you'd be surprised how hard it is just to be yourself, never mind be funny for someone else.

Or you could be one of the few it comes naturally to, and you should go make something of yourself and i should shut up.

@bareboards2 and ChaosEngine -

I actually spent a fair amount of time thinking about this after watching the video. The conclusion that I came to is that in bareboards2's situation, I agree that probably the "best" response would be make a scene / speak up / shame the guy. For a couple of key reasons:

First, there are two possible goals / longterm objectives to any response here. One, and the most important, is for the woman/person being harassed to get out of the situation as quickly as possible and suffer as little physical or psychological damage as possible. Second, ideally the person doing the harassing/assault ought to be discouraged from behaving the same way in the future.

Calling the assaulter out is probably, in most situations, the best way to optimize both of those outcomes. A physical response like taking the guy down / kicking him in the balls might do an OK job of accomplishing both goals also, but it is probably more risky in general. Also, the specifics of the situation might not play out in favor of it -- it might easily happen with a huge strong dude versus a woman with NO self defense training.

BUT, I also agree with ChaosEngine. Bareboards2, I'm not a psychologist or anything, but it seems like a lot of your regret and lingering bad feelings about your situation come as a result of deciding not to speak up OR respond physically with violence. While I agree that speaking up would probably have been the best response, I'd wager that you'd have felt better if you had socked the creep; or at least incapacitated him enough to fully get out of the situation. And he would (probably) have been less likely to do it again in the future if that had happened; but that is a far lesser concern than your physical and emotional state after the incident.

I guess what I mean to say is that sometimes when we are in a real-life situation, under pressure and caught unprepared, it might be the case that a less-than-ideal solution to the situation might be better than holding back and doing nothing. Maybe.

I hope I don't cause any offense with any of that, I just found this whole comment thread very interesting and find myself agreeing with different aspects of many of the differing opinions.

I don't get it. What is the fail exactly?
They sent hydrogen spraying under pressure at a flame. what other result did they expect here??

@newtboy

Well, you can buy silencers and barrels with the system integrated on them, and while the fit is slightly worse than a well-threaded silencer it is nearly airtight. The same basic system is used for high-pressure gas and water commercially so it must provide an airtight fit, even under pressure.

They tested a 3 lug system on the SOCOM pistol, but in the end they went with threads for the final product, but I understand it was a close decision.

I listened the hell out Power Windows, Presto, and Hold Your Fire also.
Not into counterparts... roll the bones had 1 or 2 that were short lasted. Grace Under Pressure was underwhelming. Now Presto is irritating as F#^&.

Your power is still out after all this time?? Forget what I said yesterday about it being fun...finding your way around by candlelight would get really annoying after a couple of hours.

My pleasure!! I thought it would speak to your inner attention whore. It is nice to be able to personalize your profile and stand out a bit. Haha, yeah, I can relate to the "invalid" color selections, and did you notice that they look a lot different when choosing them than how they display on your profile? It takes a bit to get the colors just right. Most of all though, I was hoping it would entice you to post more videos, and now that I have your oath, you can't back down. By the way, did you know that you can currently post 6 videos at a time? You can rule the sift with all those slots.

You didn't post that Aubrey Plaza one!!! What were you thinking?? If in doubt, post it. That's my motto. You can always *kill or *discard it later if it doesn't seem popular or if you change your mind about it.

Flying Spaghetti Monster! Ha! I was leaning towards that one. I was almost even thinking about betting those 2 shillings you gave me on that guess, but in case I was wrong, I didn't want to part with them. But do I really want to be touched by his noodly appendages? Hmmm...

Awwwwwww mannnnnnn, this video is blocked in Canada too!! This is one of the most awesome songs of all time though and I even have this one already so all I need to do is *add to playlist*. Queen is one of my all-time favorite bands and Bohemian Rhapsody is my favorite of their songs. I also really like "We Will Rock You", "Under Pressure" and "Somebody to Love". I'm on youtube now listening to all 4 of those Queen songs.

Seeing as I'm listening to them...I might as well attach them and spam your pretty profile page.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/David-Bowie-and-Queen-Under-Pressure

Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure (Vocals only) has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo on that post.

David Bowie and Queen - Under Pressure has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo.

Invocations (related=http://videosift.com/video/David-Bowie-and-Queen-Under-Pressure) cannot be called by Zawash because Zawash is not privileged - sorry.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/David-Bowie-and-Queen-Under-Pressure