[vallismortis]

I was going to cite the USDA as my primary example. I have been hearing a lot of this from ARS, FSA and NRRL, and although their specific problems are different there is a definitely a common theme. The USDA NRRL type culture collection is currently slated to be autoclaved and shut down, which would destroy the only known publically available reference samples of many industrially and medically important microorganisms, including many that are critical to food safety testing and the original source of antibiotic compounds (the original source of pennicillin is in that collection).

[ska]

That sounds insane.

[vallismortis]

This collection has been in place since before World War II. As soon as the freezers are unplugged, there is no going back.

[ska]

> Insanity is the wrong term, because it would imply repeating something that has already failed.

However popular that aphorism is, it isn't actually the definition of insanity.

[mattkrause]

Dogs are mammals. Mammals aren’t dogs.

[laumars]

'Dog' and 'mammal' are two distinct terms, 'insanity' and 'insanity' are not.

[mattkrause]

“Doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results” and “insanity” are also different.

The former might be a form of the latter, but you can certainly be insane in other ways.

[vallismortis]

Fair point, I deleted the sentence.

[ska]

Canada did something similarly irretrievable with a bunch of scientific records during last federal conservative rule.

[laumars]

> Insanity is the wrong term, because it would imply repeating something that has already failed

No it doesn't. You might be thinking of that meme often miss-attributing that alternative definition as an Einstein wisdom; but that quote is about as accurate as the claim of who said it.

[deertick1]

Could you cite this? I'm not finding any evidence that this is the case

[vallismortis]

https://www.pjstar.com/news/20170523/trump-budget-calls-for-...

[louky]

Isn't that only in the trump budget, which is only a request?

[vallismortis]

It has been a part of every budget proposal since 2017. It was only removed from the FY2020 list this past March as part of a deal to get the budget passed:

https://lahood.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/lahood-...