Tuesday December 26, 2006
Book 8: The Sharp End of the Stick — Part IV: Do You Mind if I Rewind?
Note: A double-blind study performed between 2462 and 2471 purported that males of several sophont terran species are over 73% less likely to consult instruction manuals than were females of the same species. The impact on public education was immediate, and the "why don't you ask for directions" jokes did not let up for almost thirty years.

The study was discredited in 2508 when artifacts in the raw data indicated that someone had mis-processed the genetic material analyzed. Ironically, this was due to a male researcher failing to consult the Gene-EE 3000's online help.

Transcript

Captain Tagon: What happened to "I think she's brilliant?"
Kevyn: I figured out how she did it.
Captain Tagon: Okay, then. . . How come you didn't figure out how to do it?
Kevyn: She read the instructions, Captain. I'm congenitally incapable of that.

I think it's a Y-chromosome trait.