"Flash Crowd" is a 1973 novella by science fiction author Larry Niven, one of a series about the social consequence of inventing an instantaneous, practically free transfer booth that could take one anywhere on Earth in milliseconds. One consequence not foreseen by the builders of the system was that with the almost instantaneous reporting of newsworthy events, tens of thousands of people worldwide — along with criminals — would flock to the scene of anything interesting, hoping to experience or exploit the instant disorder and confusion so created. In various other books, for example Ringworld, Niven suggests that easy transportation might be disruptive to traditional behavior and open the way for new forms of parties, spontaneous congregations, or shopping trips around the world. The central character in Ringworld, celebrating his birthday, teleports across time-zones to «lengthen» his birthday multiple times (particularly notable since the hardcover first edition had the error of the character heading the wrong direction, increasing that edition's value). from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Crowd