And today's Darwin Award goes to....

The woman who came up to the reference desk this evening and asked for help with printing. I told her that in order to pick up her print job, she would need to type or scan her library card number into the computer that manages the print queue. She then stuck her card under the scanner upside down. Then at right-angles to the scanner beam, which is easily visible as a flickering red beam of light. Then diagonally. "The barcode needs to go under the red laser light," I suggested. "Laser?" says she, and promptly stoops and tries to look up into it.

Sigh. How do these people manage to reproduce?

PS. Yes, I told her not to look into the laser.