The Realm of the Verbal Processor

Fail Open Goat

Yesterday Rod Trent linked to an article on Robert Hensing’s blog about a less than well researched article in USA Today about Firefox 3. When I went to the site, I saw Robert’s blog’s tag line…”Home of the ‘Fail Open Goat’ Award”. That got me curious, so I searched his blog to find out what it was about. That brought me to this page on Robert’s blog.

There is a breed of goats called myotonic goats. They have a genetic abnormality that causes their muscles to lock up when they are frightened, startled, or excited. The effect it has is that their legs get stiff, and they typically fall over on their sides. They recover after a few seconds and everything is normal…until they are startled or excited again. It’s actually pretty funny to watch.

To quote Robert on his blog, “I call them “fail open goats” because, well, that’s what it reminds me of whenever I see one . . . a goat . . . failing . .. open.” He created the “Fail Open Goat” award to acknowledge instances of product security failure.

All last night and after waking up this morning, I am walking around chuckling at the phrase, “a goat…failing…open.” I just can’t stop laughing about it. So…watch the video below, and think about that phrase every time one falls over…especially when the entire herd falls over after having an umbrella waved at them. You just might start walking around muttering “a goat…failing…open”.

June 20, 2008 - Posted by Jarvis | comedy