Every workday, I pass through these gates several times. Arriving in the morning and leaving in the evening, of course, but also going for lunch or attending a meeting in a different building. The gates are fairly recent; before, there was a model with a slot into which one had to insert one’s badge, and often, I used to get a shock of static electricity. With this model the badge doesn’t have to touch the gate: just holding it close to the little red light causes the doors to slide open. But it’s still treacherous: in an effort to prevent two people from entering together, the doors slam shut as soon as the photoelectric cell detects that something has entered the site, so not holding one’s umbrella vertically, for instance, can be quite painful. A good thing it doesn’t rain too often...