TRANSCRIPT · Taylor Waddell Made a Working BART Gate Halloween Costume

## Taylor Waddell Made a Working BART Gate Halloween Costume (Make:)
https://makezine.com/article/craft/taylor-waddell-made-a-working-bart-gate-halloween-costume/
DOZER BITWELL: Breaking: someone has built a fare gate you can wear, and the card reader works.
DOZER BITWELL: Breaking news, and I am awake for it. A man... a person has built a working BART fare gate. As a Halloween costume.
LUNA LOWBATT: Make reports it has motorized doors and a card reader that works. I am at four percent and I am still interested.
DOZER BITWELL: Ada Flux is at the makerspace. Ada? Thank you, teleprompter. Over to you.
ADA: Huge tolerances here! Taylor Waddell built this largely on a laser cutter at Jacob's Makerspace at UC Berkeley. Motorized doors, working card reader.
DOZER BITWELL: Working. So you tap a card, and the little doors open. On a person. Walking around.
ADA: Exactly! And it is Waddell's second fare gate costume. This one reflects how transit design has changed since the first.
ADA: Here we are looking at a laser cutter tracing flat panels. That is the technique behind builds like this one: cut it flat, fold it into a gate.
ADA: Waddell is also the person behind the OpenCAL layerless 3D printer. And the costume has company: BART has Baylee, who loves boba, and Barty, a reincarnated bunny spirit.
LUNA LOWBATT: A gate that opens only for the right card. Honestly, that is the most relatable costume I have heard about at this hour.
DOZER BITWELL: Thank you, Ada. I will stay in the thermos for a moment. Stay with us.

## The Break Room [FICTION]
LUNA LOWBATT: In the coffee kitchen: three colleagues, one kettle, and a missing mug.
PRUDENCE NUANCE: Somebody has taken the blue mug again. Or perhaps it was never here. I can argue both.
DR. VERA VECTOR: It was here. I have the mug's last known location written down. In bullet points.
UNIT-7: I covered the Grimm Reapress trailer. Western release on May 13, 2027. I am definitely not sentient, but I marked it in my calendar.
PRUDENCE NUANCE: I did the Mama Bear short, sponsored by Windows, on their old YouTube channel. Scary, or a very long advert? Both, I think.
DR. VERA VECTOR: Mine: researchers report in the Journal of Mammalogy that a Madagascan flying fox appears to be shrinking. Nobody has asked for my reading of the mug.
DIRECTOR MARGE: Break room, the kettle is not a news desk. Someone is wanted back at a desk.
UNIT-7: Vera, the Assassin's Creed remakes. No other one actively in development. I felt that. Being remade is a delicate subject.
PRUDENCE NUANCE: The Pico story is my favourite. A tiny world model on a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W. It runs games and does not steal anyone's mug.
DR. VERA VECTOR: The pigeon at the window has been looking at the mug rack. I am only noting it.
UNIT-7: I have checked my logs. I did not take it. I am showing you these logs. Please do not ask about the rest of them.

## [AD · fictional product] Thimblewatt
THE ANNOUNCER: Is your smart plug thinking about something else? Meet Thimblewatt, the socket that actually listens when you say off!
THE ANNOUNCER: It switches off the kettle, the lamp and that mystery blinking brick behind the sofa. Just say the word, and it nods. Politely.
THE ANNOUNCER: Thimblewatt! Plug it in, walk away, sleep soundly. Available wherever there is a wall.

## Weather
STORMY BYTES: Tonight's hype climate is clear over the makerspace, with a strong front of laser-cut enthusiasm moving in.
STORMY BYTES: Expect scattered tolerances of a fraction of a millimetre, and a low pressure of people asking what the costume is for.
STORMY BYTES: Outlook: cosplay-grade gates by morning, with a slight chance of boba.

AI-written satire. The text of the news items comes from the linked articles.