Stop the Idiocracy: Insects

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Drought’s harvest

A macabre editorial illustration depicts a dark-haired woman balancing barefoot upon a chair as enormous mosquitoes swarm around her in a parched, desolate landscape. Wearing a light summer dress, she raises an insect repellent aerosol while recoiling anxiously from the approaching insects. Stagnant pools and an ornate fountain provide breeding grounds, while crows and wading birds gather beneath twisted, leafless trees. A grotesque sun overlooks the scene as countless mosquitoes fill the dusty sky, transforming an ordinary summer nuisance into an ominous allegory of mosquito-borne disease and the expanding threat of West Nile virus.

image generated via ChatGPT

West Nile virus surges in #Murica; drought concentrates mosquitoes around shrinking pools of water, raising risk of transmission. {The Independent 18 August}

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/west-nile-virus-mosquito-cases-deaths-us-b3034893.html

Counter-intuitive though it may seem, drought increases transmission by concentrating mosquitoes and birds around ever-shrinking water sources.

FTA: The majority of cases occur in the summer, when warm and west conditions are at their peak.

While mosquitoes thrive in these conditions, experts say climate change-driven drought in Arizona and across the West has actually helped the disease spread.

Drought means that mosquitoes breed around smaller bodies of water, giving more opportunity for the virus to spread between them.

“Drought conditions can paradoxically increase West Nile virus transmission because it concentrates mosquitoes and birds (West Nile virus is a bird virus, first) around shrinking water sources, increasing transmission risk,” Matthew Aliota, a professor at the University of Minnesota, who specializes in these kinds of viruses, previously told The Independent.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, June 9, 2026

A symphony for the open range

A detailed fantasy illustration of resilience, innovation, and agricultural stewardship in the modern American West. Foreground standeth a confident ranch-inspired woman with flowing dark hair, a cream cowboy hat, and a sleeveless denim outfit with an ornate Western belt. One hand extendeth toward the horizon; the other cradlet a cluster of glowing golden lights—knowledge, technology, hope. Behind stretcheth a Texas cattle landscape of herds, ranch roads, windmills, and mesas. Luminous pathways connect ranchers, livestock, vehicles, and field stations. Above, floating cities, celestial whirlpools, and a colossal ringed planet create a progressive-rock dreamscape. Warm gold, cream, and sapphire tones blend Western iconography with cosmic fantasy—determination, cooperation, and the safeguarding of rural livelihoods amid extraordinary trials.

generated via ChatGPT

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins claims US food supply not at risk after second case of screwworm infection confirmed in Texas. {CNBC 8 June}

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/08/texas-screwworm-cases-food-supply-brooke-rollins.html

In other words, be concerned. Very concerned. Blind faith in institutions ends rather badly when those institutions cease deserving it. Absolutely nothing emerging from this regime should be accepted uncritically. Nothing. Every announcement, every assurance, every triumphant declaration: all are lies.

As for agriculture, I suspect we have scarcely glimpsed the beginning of the story. Our way of life is utterly dependent upon a stable and productive food supply.

Civilisations rarely collapse because people suddenly forget how to govern. More often, they discover that governing becomes considerably more difficult once harvests fail, supply chains fracture, costs spiral, and confidence evaporates. Food is not merely another commodity. It is the foundation upon which every other political, economic, and social arrangement ultimately rests. The health of a nation's fields frequently tells one more about its future than the speeches delivered in its capitals.

I am not a religious zealot, yet I confess to observing events unfolding across the world and finding myself wondering whether humanity hath become rather too pleased with itself. We are in an age of astonishing technological achievement, yet one of extraordinary arrogance. We often – too many of us, at least – behave as though every natural law has been conquered, every consequence postponed, every warning rendered obsolete. A society that ignores every warning because it finds those warnings inconvenient eventually discovers that reality is under no obligation to respect political narratives, ideological preferences, or comforting illusions.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈