Before they can bite your cat or dog, these little "itch hikers" make an amazing leap 100 times faster than the blink of an eye. So how do they do it?

DEEP LOOK is a ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small.---Spring is here, and with it, the start of flea season. With the warming weather, people and their pets are spending more time outside — which increases the chances of bringing home a hungry “itch hiker.”While pet owners curse the tiny insects and look for a way to rid them from their homes, it turns out fleas actually perform some remarkable athletic feats, like jumping 50 times their height — the equivalent of a human jumping 300 feet — or leaping so fast that they take off 100 times faster than the blink of an eye.No larger than a sesame seed and flattened side to side, fleas can slip through fur with ease. Their jump is so fast they seem to simply vanish and reappear somewhere else.“It's there and then it's gone,” said Gregory Sutton, a professor of biomechanics at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom.

--- What do flea eggs look like?After feeding on blood, adult fleas mate and lay eggs. The eggs drop out of their host animal’s fur or feathers and into their bedding or nest. The eggs are translucent white and very small. At 0.5mm the eggs are about the size of a grain of salt.

--- Why do fleas bite me?Blood is a protein-rich food for fleas. Adult fleas feed on blood before they can procreate.

--- Why does my dog/cat keep getting fleas?Fleas are nest parasites. Their eggs fall from the host animal into its bedding where they hatch. The worm-like larvae feed on organic debris (including the adult fleas’ feces) in the bedding. They then curl up into a cocoon and undergo metamorphosis into their adult form. Flea baths tend to kill the fleas currently on the pet, but there may still be flea eggs and larvae in the pet’s bedding. When those young fleas mature they may reinfest the pet.

Read the entire article on KQED Science:
https://www.kqed.org/science/1....957872/a-fleas-fanta

For more information:Why do Large Animals Never Actuate Their Jumps with Latch-Mediated Springs? Because They can Jump Higher Without Them. (Gregory P Sutton, Elizabeth Mendoza, Emanuel Azizi, Sarah J Longo, Jeffrey P Olberding, Mark Ilton, Sheila N Patek)https://academic.oup.com/icb/a....rticle/59/6/1609/554

The final update from Al Baydha Project Co-founder Neal Spackman, 9 years in. How desertification resulted from the loss of an indigenous land management system, and how the land has changed since all inputs to the project were ceased in 2016. Neal moved on from Al Baydha in 2018 and can now be contacted at https://regenerativeresources.co

The species that worked the best for us were Ziziphus Spinachristi, Moringa Peregrina, commiphora gileadensis, prosopis spp (though this one we likely won't continue planting in the future), and the local acacias.

Music by Faisal Alawi, and by Olafur Arnalds (performed by Voces 8).

معلومات عن نتائج مشروع البيضاء و الزراعة المستدامة التي اسست في جبال ٥٠ كيلومتر جنوب مكه المكرمة
موسيقة: فيصل علوي و الفور ارنالدز

Trees -- such as those of the Faidherbia genus -- are planted in fields or pastures as natural fertilizer. Intercropping with trees on farmland has now become popular. In Zambiamore than 160,000 farmers plant Faidherbia trees in their fields. Farmers in Niger have been able to make 4.8 million hectares of land greener and more fertile, thanks to these EverGreen Agriculture.

Dr. Susan Chomba, Regreening Africa Programme Manager from the World Agroforestry Centre (CIFOR-ICRAF), discusses agroforestry as a Nature-based Solution and on engaging communities in agroforestry programs.
Dr. Chomba is a social scientist with over 15 years of experience in governance, policies and institutions in forestry, agriculture and rural development in Africa. She works on climate change policies, land tenure, equity, vulnerability and gender.

As droughts occur more frequently in Niger, and access to water has become sparse. The centuries-old nomadic life of Fulani Wodaabe herders is now threatened by climate change.This is the third part of a special report on the Fulani people in Nigeria, Mali and Niger.

Namib: Surviving the Sand Sea is an independently produced natural history documentary about the adaptations of Namib Desert flora and fauna by Oliver Halsey
www.oliverhalsey.net

RAIN is all about rainwater harvesting, check http://www.rainfoundation.org/

Sufficient and safe water should be available to everyone. Unfortunately, many people don’t have access to safe water. How to change that? Harvest rainwater!

Since its foundation in 2003, RAIN has been working with its partners to develop, spread and implement rainwater harvesting systems.

The idea is simple. There is hardly a place in the world where it never rains. Rainwater belongs to everyone. And the methods to collect, store, use and reuse rainwater (to ‘harvest’ rainwater) are easy to apply. So why not spread those methods around the world?

Rainwater harvesting: for whom?
We aim to motivate and help as many people as possible to apply these methods in a sustainable and effective way, whether the water is for domestic, productive or environmental purposes.

Our focus is on making the concept and practice of rainwater harvesting (RWH) familiar to people in areas that lack sufficient and safe water sources.

Off grid water harvesting using ground gutters in regions of Kenya in Africa that get less than 12-13" of rain per year. Most of these are DIY systems that are custom made to specific regions.
Kenya Rainwater Association is engaged in the activity of helping water poor regions in Kenya harvest rainwater for farm and domestic use. This documentary shot in Baringo, Laikipia and Kiambu counties encapsulates its engagement with members of the communities in these areas.

⁣Every Rain Drop Counts: Women champions in promoting rain water harvesting and sanitation in Uganda.

Are there economic and political hit men operating across the continent? There exist a deeply worrying patten emerging of too many deaths amongst African Presidents and Top officials who have died supposedly of COVID 19 or a heart attack

This disproportionate over representative of deaths of African Presidents and top officials needs to be thoroughly investigated and closely examined in order to eliminate foul play.