(or
Why you should always consult a woman, depending on how you
read this)
In the
middle of the 1900s,
sometime in the 50s,
Raytheon, a
huge government and
defense contractor, was
experimenting with
microwave transmitters to send
data and
signals over
ranges. This caused a
problem, as they noted
severe signal loss after a
while, and
someone had to go up and
clean off the
tower. Dead birds mysteriously began to pile up on the towers, which worried
engineering greatly.
For the
longest time no one could
figure out what was wrong with them, and why they were
dying, until they took one down for an "
autopsy". It eventually
hit them. "Hey, these
birds are being
cooked!" So with a little convincing, people managed to form a team to
experiment with
microwaves to
cook food. This was the beginning of
Radar Ranges, as i
believe they were
called back then.)
So these
pioneers in
cooking eventually put together a
prototype, and it was time to show it off to
upper management. They decided they were going to
start with a
potato. The
proud engineers put it in and set the
timer with enough time to cook the potato.
Ten minutes go by, everything is perfect...
Twenty minutes go by, all is well... Half hour into it...
BOOM! The potato
ruptured in
glorious fashion. Needless to say, the
execs were not that
impressed.
Management refused to
sell a
box that
exploded food to
customers.
Dejected, one of the
engineers met up with one of the first
female engineers for
lunch. He told her his
tale of dismay. She
chuckled, and with a bit of
common household wisdom, her response was "Well did you
poke holes in it?"