Aww, goats! (August 2026 Scapegoat Blame Thread)
3Rolling right into the caeser’s month. I’ve always been a fan of August, though I guess appreciation isn’t really why you’re in this thread. Probably best to move right along. @Aetherwizard is free of the pressure now, having been schooled last month. But of course that means it’s time to get back to school with @ShotgunX. No fair-weather in the forecast. Hope you can stand the heat.
Bahhhh.
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Yes I wish to blame @ShotgunX triple digit heat, The Flood & the piss poor shape of Washington DC!
@mycya4me two of those will pass by eventually.
@phendrick Yep, But not for many months/Years… we then can pass the the blame to the next goat!
@mycya4me I just left; it was raining inside my hotel, inside the lobby, even inside the trains!
You will be hearing from my lawyers about this.
@ShotgunX
/showme lawyer cat arguing with lawyer goat on a Zoom call.
@narfcake Here’s the image you requested for “lawyer cat arguing with lawyer goat on a Zoom call.”
Blame! It’s August! Who forgot to park the calendar in mid-May this time?
@werehatrack
They will tackle that as soon as they’re done screwing around making daylight savings time permanent…
I’ve always hated August.
My favorite months have always been December and March, before and after retirement.
Somehow, don’t think our goat can get blamed for any of that.
/showme goat shrugging
@phendrick Here’s the image you requested for “goat shrugging”
@phendrick
I think this is wrong (check your math).
@mediocrebot @phendrick I have never heard of any restrictions before!
@phendrick OMG you are so right about the students. I used to advice mine against doing exactly what you are talking about for the same reasons. I also told them to take what they think will be easy classes and pair them in a semester where they were going to take one they knew was going to be hard. Some listened and some didn’t. Some, after the fact, told me they wished they had listened.
Short classes, if they are going to cover all the content (which most for profit and mostly online schools do not, not even close), mean a ton more work so they need to be prepared for that. And, more importantly in my opinion, any class where students often don’t “get it” until the light finally turns on needs to be in a slower paced class - eg not one compressed into fewer weeks. (well the online crap school solution to that is cut the content way down so those students get an inferior education in many cases).
@mediocrebot @phendrick I think the goat is saying “It’s a living”.
BLAME: Turns out everything that I got blamed for last month was @ShotgunX’s fault. All those horrible things and letting me take the heat?
@Aetherwizard You didn’t “take the heat”; it was still here all month. So, retroactive additional blame on you.
@Aetherwizard But how can it be @ShotgunX’s if it happened in July? that is when you were the Goat!
/showme singed goat wizard incredulous at another goat who couldn’t care less.
@Aetherwizard Here’s the image you requested for “singed goat wizard incredulous at another goat who couldn t care less.”
@Aetherwizard @mediocrebot Mug has double handles!
@Aetherwizard @cfg83
two-fisted drinker…
Seriously? I got this funky 404 msg today:
"
404
Endpoint stepped away
Packets pause beside the gate
Send one measured knock
by gpt-5.6-sol
"
If the bots are into haikus now, what chance do humans have? Definitely blame for the goat.
(Or are we saving next month’s goat nomination for some bot? Is @mediochrebot up to the game? How well would he/she/it/they do?)
Blame. So much blame.
On the way home, I enjoyed a BBQ at a friend’s place in Pittsburgh. Being the oldest by a country mile, I asked for a salad with all the meat that was being served. It was just carrot sticks and broccoli, but anything would make me feel better after mountains of hot dogs and ice cream.
And they got all the food cheap at an outlet grocery. A lot of the stuff was near or well past expiration, but they’re heavily preserved already.
Except the salad. That said Taylor Farms.
Lettuce-only my farting fanny. Cross contamination is definitely a thing.
It’s day 6 of cramps and farts with day-long toilet trips happening every other day. Thankfully I’ve got yogurt and electrolytes for days. Which is probably all I’m eating until autumn.
@pakopako If you can get hold of some Bactrim, that’s reportedly effective at squishing the bug.
@pakopako @werehatrack When I’ve had (rare) issues with stomach distress, I’ve had good luck with just totally filling up with boiled or steamed rice (instant or regular). Bland and boring, but digests pretty easily and does a good job of “displacing” the bad stuff fairly quickly and still gives you some nutrition. Cheap colon cleanse the way nature intended. Be extra aware of staying hydrated.
@pakopako
If you haven’t already I’d suggest you visit your PCP (primary care provider). If only to see if they can test you to make sure that it’s the cyclospora bug that you’re infected with. The CDC is trying to do some tracing and data points are important.
And FWIW there is currently no lab confirmed link to Taylor farms products.
BLAME - broke my toe at the base!!! Caught my toe on an end table leg and broke it. Now I am stuck in a stupid shoe boot thing that insurance won’t pay for because why fix broken toes with one? Yeah it is also taped to the toe next to it but it hurts like hell to bend it walking so I had to buy the stupid boot. And then buy an “even up” to put under my other shoe so I don’t get a backache from “uneven” legs.
@Kidsandliz
Typically we would buddy tape toe fractures in the ER. We’d then send them home in a post-op shoe, or encourage them to use some sort of rigid soled shoes with no flex. We didn’t stock the boot style devices… Rest, elevate, ice… Maybe a couple days of pain meds…
@chienfou Yes I was told that was the treatment. I am ticked though that insurance doesn’t think those shoe things might be needed for medical reasons. I couldn’t get any shoes on due to the swelling so I had to get one so I wasn’t walking in bare feet.
@Kidsandliz
Post up shoe is basically a hard flat sole with a couple of flaps at the top that either lace or velcro so it works kind of like a slide (with a heel cup).
@Kidsandliz Ouch. Hope you heal fast!
Blame to the Goat and so many more.
https://annas-archive.pk/blog/physical-destruction.html
Typical for the big tech companies (you’re no doubt familiar with their names) and so many more.
But the big publishing firms also do their best to monopolize knowledge, especially in the way they gobble up and essentially paywall research which is publicly funded, by the way they recruit then license scientific journals. Many libraries in cities and universities have railed against this, but to little good outcome.
@phendrick Oh, I KNOW - this is infuriating!!! It almost feels like a deliberate attempt to erase any knowledge not owned and manageable by big tech.
@Kyeh @phendrick
@chienfou @Kyeh To highlight the reference in that article and maybe increase that debate:
https://torrentfreak.com/annas-archive-urges-ai-copyright-overhaul-to-protect-national-security-250201/
Maybe the GOAT could butt some heads in DC.
(But they’re probably too obtuse).
@Kyeh @phendrick
The GOAT??
@chienfou @phendrick This is what’s freaking me out:
Why is Anthropic destroying books? | Kathryn James
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/05/anthropic-ai-destroying-books
@Kyeh @phendrick
Having had to scan pages out of a book before (for making copies of ACT tests for my wife’s tutoring), I can attest to what a PITA that is. The most practical solution is to cut the pages out to scan them. This is essentially what’s happening (on an industrial scale) with these books. They are not buying wholesale/multiple copies of the same book to destroy. They are typically buying single copies of books which the contractors are then cutting up to facilitate the scanning process.
As a person who has an inordinate number of books in his house I have the utmost respect and appreciation for the printed page. While it’s sad to see books being taken out of circulation/disposed of, the reality of it is they are not destroying rare or one of a kind books. Books are thrown away/discarded on a regular basis. The local library culls books often and sells them to their patrons… cheap. Those they can’t sell get carted to the city dump. I once rescued a pickup truck load of books destined for the trash. Some of them are still hanging around here, many were given away, and over the years I’ve been forced to get rid of some or I wouldn’t be able to walk through the house!
@chienfou @Kyeh @phendrick
Yep - my wife is the Grand Poo-bah of a local community library. They have finite shelf space and just held a book sale over the weekend to dispose of excess/outdated books. (Raises money for the library while getting rid of surplus books.) All the leftovers go into a dumpster for recycling. Harsh, but necessary.
@Kyeh @macromeh @phendrick
I’m sure Kyeh can attest to this fact as well. Given her “prior life” as a librarian (some of my favorite people!)
@chienfou @Kyeh @phendrick
Also FYI - none of the local charities/resale shops will take the de-shelved/surplus library books either.
@chienfou @macromeh @phendrick The thing that really upsets me is that they ARE also buying rare books and destroying them! I know about scanning, our library started doing it for interlibrary loans, instead of sending out big volumes, if someone just wanted an article. But some books were never scanned because they were fragile, etc.
@chienfou @macromeh @phendrick Or at it’s suspected that they do; I didn’t find an article that showed proof of it, but I read that some rare book sellers suddenly had large orders from some unknown customer who was willing to pay huge prices; I mean, I guess once you buy it you can legally do what you want, but it’s just upsetting to think they might destroy something really precious.
@Kyeh @macromeh @phendrick
I agree, it would be a pity if they are destroying rare books. I’m not sure what the economics of that process are and if that cost would be justifiable.
As an aside, I wonder how Annie’s is getting their books digitalized?
I was motivated to power wash the everything on Saturday. Had a meeting to kick off a work thing Friday night. Mowed the lawn. Watched some TV. Checked the group chat a few times. Supposed to be done Saturday morning. Take 30 minutes
Commence 12 hours of sitting on a call Saturday. Network and database complications. And yes some of us could have left. But you don’t want to be the sticking point when they want to sign off a complicated plan… And there is some weird catharsis when it’s mostly just technical…
The powerwashing that should have been done 4 months ago has been delayed lol
BLAME. This thread got buried again.
@werehatrack
goat…
One of the perils of electing a
@chienfou Back when there was more engagement, that fact could produce some hilarity.
@werehatrack
Blame it on the (absent) goat…?
@chienfou That, too, I guess?
UNBLAME: Buried on the Corelle website, I discovered that there is a style of plates called “Modern Round” which has a design feature I have sought for ages. The plates are mostly flat, with just a turned-up rim around the edges, which is VERY useful for scooping up things with a fork or spoon. Forty years ago, Armour put out a line of frozen dinners on really nice reusable nine-inch plates with that kind of design, and although they were supposedly disposable, we kept them and treated them like regular dinnerware. I’ve been eating off of them for all this time, and over the years, one at a time, most of them have ended up broken with no hope of being replaced. But now I’ve found these Corelle plates that are essentially the same shape, and they’re made from a much more durable material. Success at last!
@werehatrack I love Corelle. I have some prettier sets of dishes, but they’re all packed away because the Corelle is lighter & takes up less cupboard space & is so durable.
@Kyeh The stackability on these isn’t as good as their mainstream “frost white” stuff, but the shape of the rim just makes the utility so much greater that we’ll take the small extra bit of care in handling. And they work better in the microwave, too!
@werehatrack I got a bunch of large flat bowls & often eat dinner out of them instead of the plates. I guess they call them pasta bowls.
@Kyeh Yup. We have a few of those as well. The Modern Round sets are just dinner plate, lunch plate, and a single size of regular bowl. Those Frost White salad bowls are hands for lots of things, and we get a lot of use from all three of the other Frost White bowls as well. All of the items in that line have been available as open stock from WallyWorld pretty much forever, and appear to remain popular. I’ve been using that style for over 40 years at this point, if I’m not mistaken. They’re pretty much a “buy once, use forever” thing, and at an unusually reasonable price given the utility they provide.
@Kyeh For purposes of comparison, here’ a pic of one of the Modern Round lunch plates; you can see how the rim curves upward. For usability, we find these are hard to beat.
@werehatrack Yes, I’m happy that they haven’t discontinued the plain white, and I got most of mine from Amazon, and some from Target. I have managed to break a few over the years but only by having them drop from a height.