Flash Mob

This has been big for a while now. People coordinate random acts of odd at set times in set places. This one is pretty interesting. Instead of random hugging or a Santa pub crawl, 207 people gathered at Grand Central station in NYC and stopped on cue. Whatever they were doing, whatever position they were in, they stopped cold - mannequin-style. People not in on the experiment were kind of stymied by it, touching the frozen folk to see if they were real.

Normally, this stuff is only mildly amusing to me. However, part of the way through the video, I realized that some interesting stuff comes up. First, people were taking pictures. Eh, how will they explain those? "These people were standing still. No not them, these two." Second, the folks that participated did an excellent job of blending in and looking like they were in the middle of a normal activity. Makes you consider what kinds of normal activities are happening at the train station. Third, it was well documented. Cameras were placed strategically and got a great cross-section of the event. Here it is: