Wow, I get a little busy and I miss a million posts! This is very late, but way back up there, that sure DOES look liked a linked rubber mat. Now I'm no Tore, my experience with them is rather mundane. Just out of high school my family had a welcome matt that was just the same...linked strips of rubber, held together with metal pins. My girlfriend came over for New Years with her, uh, larger friend. The friend was the one who knocked on the door...so I opened it, and she stepped inside and her high heel caught in the gap between strips and she fell forward on top of me...I threw out my hands to both stop her from falling and stop myself from being knocked over, instinct...I caught her on both very large boobs, we twisted sideways and almost fell, and then all was well, but we were red faced and laughing. The basic effect was: open door, FALL OH MY GOD! GRAB! TWIST! STUMBLE!
Anyway, stupid mat.