I’ve been heavy into the research lately, which means I do nothing except run experiments on the laptop, eat (sometimes), listen to too much Radiohead (I’m afraid of Amnesiac), and take care of my wife’s dog.

Oh, and check the Net. I found a video of a flash mob I was in back in October 2005.

Here’s something I wrote about it at the time.

I was in a flash mob today. Outside the Art Museum in Perth, people were to bring pillows and start pummelling each other (gently) upon a pre-arranged signal. And then upon another pre-arranged signal, everyone was to put away the pillows and walk away as if nothing had happened. Very silly. Very Pythonesque.

So I caught the bus into the city after work to see what would go down.

I saw Postgrad Jeremy there with a friend. “You’re looking mighty suspicious,” I said.

“The cops are here,” said Jeremy. “Someone must have tipped them off.”

“Good,” I said. “I’ll take ’em. Us against the Man.”

There were seven of them.

“What would they charge you with?” wondered Jeremy’s friend.

“Aiding and abedding,” I suggested. “Assault with a comfy weapon.”

There were a couple of minutes left. I stood there with my green shopping bag bulging. A guy I didn’t know came up beside me and said, “Looks like a big turnout.”

I let a moment pass and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Then it started. A whistle blew. I ran for the centre. It was like a huge mosh pit. I couldn’t see how many people there were, but it looked like a lot from the inside. I clobbered everyone I could see.

Then the whistle blew again, and it became just another walkway, except for random piles of fluff.

I told a friend about this, and he said, “The police were probably concerned that you were terrorists. Some kind of sleeper cell.”