Music helps us to make sense of the world. Through sound we can give an expressive shape to our experience. It is a pleasure and a joy for its own sake. The National Curriculum for music says, "As an integral part of culture, past and present, it helps pupils understand themselves and relate to others, forging important links between the home, school and the wider world."

Recent research emphasises the benefits of learning music:

• Music aids the development of speech. Singing simple songs teaches your child how language is constructed. According to Jessica Pitt from the Pre-School Music Association: "Babies seem to learn best when songs are experienced through their bodies. Movement and music greatly enhance acquisition of language."
  
• Music helps children to learn maths. "When children learn rhythm, they are learning ratios, fractions and proportions," says Professor Gordon Shaw, University of California, Irvine, after his study of seven year-olds in Los Angeles.
  
• Music enhances social skills. "Children who take part in music develop higher levels of social cohesion and understanding of themselves and others, and the emotional aspect of musical activities seems to be beneficial for developing social skills like empathy," says Dr. Alexandra Lamont, Lecturer in the Psychology of Music at the University of Keele
  
• Music enhances your child's intellectual development. Dr. Frances Rauscher, from the University of Wisconsin, says that music "helps improve children's ability to reason abstractly, by strengthening neural firing patterns of the brain that are relevant to both musical and spatial cognition."
  
• Most music teachers will tell you that music encourages self-expression and self confidence. As a non-verbal language, music can convey a complexity of emotions, and offers a means of expression to a shy or diffident child who finds it hard to communicate through speech

Playing by ear is the ability to play a piece of music (or, eventually, learn an instrument) by simply listening to it repeatedly. The majority of self-taught musicians began their education this way; they picked up their instrument and began playing an easy melody from a well-known song, slowly picking out the notes as they went along. And even after these musicians master their instruments or a particular song, playing by ear still plays a large role. Many pop and rock bands don't play or write their songs based on sheet music, they figure the songs out by playing by ear. It's even common among non-musicians. Ever sit down a piano and mindlessly pick out the tune to "Mary Had a Little Lamb"? What about grabbing a guitar and suddenly finding yourself playing the opening licks to "Smoke on the Water"? That's playing by ear. You're able to play part of the song just because you've heard it so often.

Since music is basically composed of 3 elements – melody, rhythm, and harmony, it is logical that there are also 3 basic steps to learning to play music by ear:

Charting the contour of the melody

Tunes move higher and lower – up and down – as the song progresses. Being aware of that movement is the first step. Once you mentally define the parameters of the melody, you can then begin to hone in on picking it out on your instrument. As an example, think of “Joy To The World”. We’ve all sung it a zillion times, but have you ever noticed that the melody moves down exactly 8 steps (an octave), then gradually moves back up in increments, then repeats the down movement, etc. The entire melody is contained within those 8 notes, so you now know the parameters of the song and can begin to pick out the melody intelligently.

Harmonizing the melody with matching chords

The second element of music is harmony, and you can harmonize any melody just by matching the supporting chords to that melody. For example, if the melody is a “G”, you can harmonize that melody by using a chord with G in it, such as the G chord (G, B, D), the C chord (C, E, G), or the Em chord (E, G, B), or the Eb chord (Eb, G, Bb) and so forth. By using your ear to guide you, you can learn to harmonize the melody of most any song using matching chords.

Using an appropriate rhythm that matches the feel of the song

This is usually the easiest part, since most people “feel” the beat and don’t have to do any mental gymnastics to come up with an appropriate rhythm for a song. But for those of us that might be “rhythmically challenged”, just by knowing that there are basically two meters available – duple meter and triple meter -- that can be combined in infinite combinations, we can give the song either a “3” feeling (likea waltz or a jazz waltz) or a “4” feeling (like swing or a march or a ballad).

Playing by ear is a valuable technique for many musicians; learning songs based solely on hearing them is a great way to understand song and chord structure. In fact, a great number of rock and pop musicians learned to play their instruments this way. Instead of picking up a book or taking lessons, they concentrated on figuring out the notes and rhythms to a song until it was mastered. Then they moved on to another song. And another.

Gradually, they learned their instrument just by playing by ear -- and in the process learned how to effectively structure a song in that particular genre. Playing by ear is also beneficial in helping a musician develop his or her own style; sure, they'll at first mimic the style of the song they're imitating, but the amalgamation of the music that they're playing by ear will help them create something distinctive, something indicative of them only.

Learning music by ear is done by repeatedly listening to other musicians and then attempting to recreate what one hears. This is how people learn music in any musical tradition in which there is no complete musical notation. Many people in cultures which do have notation still learn by ear, and ear training, often through a musicianship course at a music conservatory or college, is common practice among those who use notation extensively.

In the West learning by ear is associated with traditional and folk music, but many classical music forms throughout the world lack notation, and have therefore been passed from generation to generation by ear.

The Suzuki method of teaching music focuses on playing by ear from a very young age. In his book "Teaching from the Balance Point," Edward Kreitman, a US based Suzuki Teacher, clearly distinguishes "learning by ear" as a separate, completely different process from "learning by rote".

It is important to note that learning music by ear is quite different from playing music by ear: playing music by ear is a rare talent which few people possess, to listen to a musical work once and play it in its entirety, correctly.

Music affects our moods, it is the great mood enhancer. We may not understand the words, but instead recognize the expression of its musical beauty and power to de-stress. Music has been called 'The International Language' - a very simple thought with much meaning behind it. Even if you can't speak the language of a country, you can move, sway, dance and most of all, enjoy the music of the country. We may not understand the words of a musical selection but we do understand the beauty.

Have you ever heard the saying, 'Music soothes the savage beast?' It's true. Music can calm and revitalize us in ways even a lengthy nap can't. Music holds the power to elevate our moods above our worries and relieve debilitating depression. It can also perk us up if we use it with exercise or dance.

Try listening to classical music for a sense of power. Soft lullaby-like music to unwind. Medium-fast to fast selections for exercise and housecleaning.

Putting more music in your life is a powerfully enriching tool. But other than turning on the car radio in our busy lives, what other ways can we do this? One way to do this is to take advantage of your public library's collection of music. It's fine to have a personal favorite type of music such as rock, or jazz, but discover other music you may have not thought of. Try country music. And if you decide you don't like that, try opera or alternative music. You won't believe how many tyopes of music you're going to find once you start looking. You don't have to like it. Just learn to appreciate it on its own.

Give it a chance.

When listening to music, listen to the words and rhythms as well as the melody. You may find something to like about a type of music that previously you didn't like at all.

Learn about music. Find out who wrote the pieces you like to listen to and when. What was going on in the rest of the world at the time the melody was written? Does it reflect what was happening at the time or could it have been used as an 'escape' - a more pleasant alternative than what current events dictated?

What musical instruments are played? What do you know about those instruments? Experience new musical artists. Many worthwhile musicians and vocalists go unnoticed to the general public because of a 'stuck in a musical rut' listening technique of those that only listen to a certain genre of music.

Free musical events are listed in the local newspaper. Some may turn up with names such as 'brown bag' concerts or recitals. 'Brown bag' refers to the fact they will be held during the noon hour and usually in a public place such as a park where you can bring your lunch. Recitals are usually given by music teachers to showcase their student's budding talents and also an advertisement for the teacher's own abilities. Colleges sponsor several free musical events every semester and they are worth looking into.

Other ways to incorporate music into our lives are waking up to a musical alarm, bathing to soothing, relaxing music and even dining with soft music playing in the background. Listening to music is such a basic pure pleasure that many of us forget the tremendous value of it. And dance whenever you get the chance.

Organize a music appreciation group and post notices at the public library and other spots around town. These groups get together to discuss music and musicians, listen to music and go, as a group, to musical events together.

Volunteer to share your acquired musical knowledge with others. Do this by visiting hospitals and nursing homes, senior citizen's centers and organizing talks for elementary, middle and high schools. Special interest groups are always appreciative of speakers with interesting topics.

If you play an instrument, you'll find you've stumbled onto the best audience in the world. Go back often to visit and play. In this way, you've not only made the lives of other people brighter through your music, but you're going to find yourself in much better spirits.  

If you think music doesn’t affect you, you’ll be changing your tune after reading this. This is a true story of a recent study from Leicester University in England.

You’re off to the supermarket and decide to stop by some shelves offering French and German wine. You make up your mind to buy a bottle of the French wine.

While checking out, you’re asked why you picked the wine. You respond “The label looked great”, or “I liked the price”. Then you’re asked if you noticed the French accordion music that was playing when you took that bottle off the shelf. You say that you did. Did it affect your choice of wine today? No, of course not, you answer.

That’s funny because on the days that French music is played nearly 80% of shoppers chose the French wine. On the days that German music the Opposite happens.

In other words, this study found that if you bought some wine from their shelves you were 3 or 4 times more likely to choose a wine that matched the music than the wine that didn't match the music.

Guess what these wine-buyers responded when asked at the checkout if the music influenced their choice. Only 1 out of 44 customers said that the music was the reason they bought the wine. That’s 2%!

The influence of the music was Huge but the customers Didn’t Notice or Believe that it was affecting them. It only took a matter of minutes or seconds for music to get into these people’s brains in a powerful way.

Similar experiments have shown that classical music can make people buy more expensive wine.

Here’s another study to chew on. Most of us go out to eat at least once a week. Do you know which music makes you spend more when you’re at a restaurant?

In this study, a British restaurant played pop music, classical music and no music over the course of 18 evenings. Average spending prices per person were calculated for the following categories:

Appetizers, Main Courses, Desserts, Coffee, Drinks from the Bar, Wine, Overall Beverage Bill, Overall Food Bill, and Total Amount Spent

They also measured the total time people spent in the restaurant. Here’s what they found.

There was a Significant difference between evenings when classical music was played and no music or pop music were played. Classical music resulted in higher spending. Across the board in all categories. Other restaurants here and abroad have had similar results.

What does this mean? It’s pretty simple. Classical music relaxes and makes you feel good. And feeling good makes you want the best.

That’s why so many successful people listen to high frequency classical music. They know it helps them work better, think better, and get higher levels of energy. They know it won’t deplete them, get them distracted and raise their heart rates, like hard-hitting low frequency music does.

The amazing effect that music has on your mind and body is being proven in study after study. It’s information that should not be ignored. Especially these days, when we’re exposed to music anytime we enter a building.

Music can have many effects on the human body. It can be used for things like drowning out unpleasant sounds and feelings to encouraging the release of tension. Some of the many effects that music can have on the human body are:

• Masks unpleasant feelings and sounds

• Affects the blood pressure and pulse rate

• Affects respiration

• Regulates stress

• Reduces muscle tension and improving body movement and coordination

• Strengthens our memory and learning

• Boosts the body's immune system

• Enhances romance and sexuality

• Boosts productivity

• Generates a sense of well-being and safety

• Fosters endurance

This long list makes you start to see why music can make a large influence on many people.

Masks unpleasant feelings and sounds

Music can drown out or help mask unpleasant sounds and feelings in many ways. An example of this is the dentist. The dentist plays music in the background while he is using the drill. Although this does not drown out the sound of the drill, it gives the patient something else to focus on.

Affects respiration

The rate at which you breath can be affected by the music you are listening to. Slow music is known to calm you down. This calmness promotes a slower breathing rate.

On the other end of the scale is the fast music. This music will make you more awake and aware of your surroundings. This means fast music can increase your respiration rate.

Affects the blood pressure and pulse rate

This is similar to the affect music has on the respiration. As your breathing slows down when you are listening to calming music, your blood pressure and pulse rate also fall. This is simply due to you relaxing and taking things easy.

Fast music makes you want to get up an move. It is this extra movement that fast music promotes that causes your blood pressure and pulse rate to rise when you listen to faster music.

Reduces muscle tension and improving body movement and coordination

Slower music can reduce muscle tension and improve body movement and coordination. A study done at Colorado State University in 1991 showed that music has a direct affect on coordination. 24 undergraduate women had to complete a range of physical exercises including the striking of objects. When music was played, the women coordinated their movements and swings with the beat, instead of going at their own rate. The rhythm and timing of the music helped the women to know when to start their swings and gauge how fast to move.

Regulates stress

The calming effect of music can also help relieve stress. The simple act of listening to a relaxing piece of music helps you relax. This relaxation is the best method to relieve stress.

Finding music

Google is good for so many things, among which is searching for all sorts of files, including MP3's. Here's a quick primer:

Try it now. Just substitute the term "Nirvana" for any band or singer you might be looking for, and your search will lead you to open indexes that contain downloadable music files.

Running music

• U2’s “Vertigo”, “All Because of You”
• Pearl Jam’s “Do the Evolution,” “Push Me Pull Me”, “Not For You”, “Hail Hail”
• AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”, “Moneytalks” and “Are You Ready”
• Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” (Rocky III theme)
• Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” and “Born in the U.S.A.”
• Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”
• Cake’s “The Distance”
• Veruca Salt’s “Volcano Girls”
• The Offspring’s “Nitro (Youth Energy)”
• The Rolling Stones’ “Jumping Jack Flash”
• Tori Amos’ “Crucify”
• Beastie Boys’ “Sabatage”, “Fight for Your Right”
• Liz Phair’s “Supernova”
• Fatboy Slim’s “Right Here, Right Now”
• Neil Young’s “Freedom”
• Weezer’s “Buddy Holly”
• Moby’s “Run On”, “Bodyrock”
• Guns n’ Roses, “Welcome to the Jungle,” “It’s So Easy”
• Hole, “Violet”
• Brian Setzer Orchestra, “Jump Jive an’ Wail”
• Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, “Jumpin’ Jack”
• Meredith Brooks, “Bitch”
• Puff Daddy & the Family, “Victory”
• Tribe, “Joyride”
• Stone Temple Pilots, “Vasoline”
• Silverchair, “Lie to Me”
• Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
• Cracker, “Let’s Go For a Ride”
• Kool & The Gang, “Jungle Boogie” (on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack)
• Bush, “Everything Zen”
• Ian Van Dahl - Castles in the Sky
• ATB - Let U Go, Believe in Me (Club Mix), Killer 2000, 9PM (Til I come)
• Aurora - Ordinary World (Above & Beyond remix)
• Moby - James Bond Theme (dance mix)
• Ace of Base - Beautiful Life (ok stop laughing…but its got a good beat)
• Good Charlotte - Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
• Black Sabbath - Paranoid
• Bon Jovi - Run Away
• Bryan Adams - Summer of ‘69
• BT - Dreaming (Tiesto Mix)
• Chicane - Don’t Give Up
• Sanctuary - The Cult
• Space Age Love Song - Flock of Seagulls (no, really)
• Manic Depression - Jimi Hendrix
• Rock the Body - Moby (might have the title wrong here)
• Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen - Baz Lerhman
• Elevation - U2
• Searching - Luther Vandross
• I Feel Love - Donna Summer (the 8-minute remix)
• Bodyrockers - I Like The Way You Move
• Shakedown - Feel Much Better
• The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army (Adam Freeland Remix)
• The Killers - Somebody Told Me (Mylo Club Mix)
• Junior Jack - Stupid Disco
• Boogie Pimps - Somebody to Love (Remix)
• Kings of Tomorrow - Thru (Junior Jack Remix)
• Freestylers - Push Up

Known BPM

Here is some music where the SPM and BPM ratings are known:

• 144 SPM (36 BPM) - Hooters - Private emotion
• 144 SPM (36 BPM) - Snow Patrol - Run
• 144 SPM (72 BPM) - A flock of seagulls - I ran (so far away)
• 144 SPM (72 BPM) - Axel Rudi Pell - Cold as ice
• 144 SPM (72 BPM) - Hooters - And we danced
• 144 SPM (72 BPM) - Raven - Screaming down the house
• 144 SPM (72 BPM) - Steeler - Hunter or hunted
• 144 SPM (72 BPM) - The Donnas - Fall behind me
• 144 SPM (72 BPM) - Wolfsbane - I like it hot
• 146 SPM (146 BPM) - Members of Mayday - The day X
• 146 SPM (146 BPM) - Scatman John - Scatman’s world
• 146 SPM (73 BPM) - At Vance - Chained
• 146 SPM (73 BPM) - Axel Rudi Pell - Wanted man
• 146 SPM (73 BPM) - Blink 182 - All the small things
• 146 SPM (73 BPM) - Green Day - Holiday
• 146 SPM (73 BPM) - Lordi - The deadite girls gone wild
• 146 SPM (73 BPM) - Pretty Maids - One way to rock
• 146 SPM (73 BPM) - Rose Tattoo - It’s gonna work itself out
• 146 SPM (73 BPM) - Wilmer X - Cool tid ihop
• 147 SPM (49 BPM) - Gavin Rossdale - Adrenaline
• 148 SPM (37 BPM) - Sugababes - Stronger
• 148 SPM (74 BPM) - Cinderella - In from the outside
• 148 SPM (74 BPM) - Danko Jones - First date
• 148 SPM (74 BPM) - Eminem - White America
• 148 SPM (74 BPM) - Motorhead - Down the line
• 148 SPM (74 BPM) - Motorhead - In the name of tragedy
• 148 SPM (74 BPM) - Seether - I’m the one
• 148 SPM (74 BPM) - Static X - Push it
• 148 SPM (74 BPM) - The Nails - 88 lines about 44 women
• 150 SPM (150 BPM) - Razed in Black & Taime Down - Too fast for love
• 150 SPM (50 BPM) - Alice In Chains - What the Hell have I
• 150 SPM (50 BPM) - Evanescence - Tourniquet
• 150 SPM (75 BPM) - Danko Jones - We sweat blood
• 150 SPM (75 BPM) - Judas Priest - Turbo lover
• 150 SPM (75 BPM) - Magnus Uggla - Mitt liv
• 150 SPM (75 BPM) - Motorhead - Devil I know
• 150 SPM (75 BPM) - Rose Tattoo - Union man
• 150 SPM (75 BPM) - The Donnas - It’s on the rocks
• 150 SPM (75 BPM) - Wolfsbane - Fell out of heaven
• 150 SPM (75 BPM) - Y & T - Forever
• 151 SPM (151 BPM) - Axel Rudi Pell - Streets of fire
• 152 SPM (38 BPM) - Fjeld - Mother of devotion
• 152 SPM (76 BPM) - Bon Jovi - Runaway
• 152 SPM (76 BPM) - Dio - We rock
• 152 SPM (76 BPM) - Motorhead - Be my baby
• 152 SPM (76 BPM) - Sparks - Progress
• 152 SPM (76 BPM) - Tank - Stormtrooper
• 154 SPM (77 BPM - Bloodhound Gang - Along comes Mary
• 154 SPM (154 BPM) - Scooter - Let me be your valentine
• 154 SPM (154 BPM) - The Free - Children of the night
• 154 SPM (77 BPM) - ABBA - King Kong Song
• 154 SPM (77 BPM) - Motorhead - All gone to Hell
• 154 SPM (77 BPM) - Myofist - Double or nothing
• 154 SPM (77 BPM) - Rainbow - Can’t happen here
• 155 SPM (155 BPM) - Depeche Mode - Barrel of a gun
• 156 SPM (39 BPM) - Coolio - Gangstas paradise
• 156 SPM (39 BPM) - Megadeth - 1000 times goodbye
• 156 SPM (39 BPM) - Moby - Spiders
• 156 SPM (39 BPM) - Nas - If Heaven was a mile away
• 156 SPM (39 BPM) - Scorpions - China white
• 156 SPM (39 BPM) - Shawn Mullins - Lullaby
• 156 SPM (52 BPM) - Consolidated & Yeasty Girls - You suck
• 156 SPM (52 BPM) - Gina Jacobi - Upp igen
• 156 SPM (52 BPM) - Van Halen - Don’t tell me (what love can do)
• 156 SPM (78 BPM) - Axel Rudi Pell - Call of the wild dogs
• 156 SPM (78 BPM) - Motorhead - One night stand
• 156 SPM (78 BPM) - Petter - Fredrik Snortare och Cecilia Synd
• 156 SPM (78 BPM) - The Beatles - Paperback writer
• 156 SPM (78 BPM) - The Donnas - I don’t care (so there)
• 158 SPM (79 BPM) - Axel Rudi Pell - Firewall
• 158 SPM (79 BPM) - Cheap Trick - Mighty wings
• 158 SPM (79 BPM) - Raven - Hard Ride
• 158 SPM (79 BPM) - The Donnas - Take it off
• 158 SPM (79 BPM) - Wilmer X - Lyckliga hundar
• 158 SPM (79 BPM) - Wolfsbane - Kathy Wilson
• 159 SPM (53 BPM) - Di Leva - Ber om ljus
• 160 SPM (160 BPM) - Scooter - Move your ass
• 160 SPM (40 BPM) - Ice Cube - It was a good day
• 160 SPM (40 BPM) - Puff Daddy & Jimmy Page - Come with me
• 160 SPM (40 BPM) - Queensryche - Empire
• 160 SPM (40 BPM) - Sugababes - Follow me home
• 160 SPM (40 BPM) - Yellowcard - Only one
• 160 SPM (80 BPM) - AC/DC - Heatseeker
• 160 SPM (80 BPM) - Black Sabbath - Time machine
• 160 SPM (80 BPM) - Ministry - New world order
• 160 SPM (80 BPM) - The Donnas - Too bad about your girl
• 162 SPM (162 BPM) - Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood
• 162 SPM (81 BPM) - Kingdom Come - Do you like it
• 162 SPM (81 BPM) - Rose Tattoo - Motorbike song
• 162 SPM (81 BPM) - The Ramones - I wanna be sedated
• 162 SPM (81 BPM) - Wilmer X - För dum för pop
• 162 SPM (81 BPM) - Y & T - Don’t stop running
• 164 SPM (41 BPM) - Britney Spears - Born to make you happy
• 164 SPM (41 BPM) - Enigma - Out from the deep
• 164 SPM (41 BPM) - Eva Dahlgren - Jag är Gud
• 164 SPM (41 BPM) - Marc Anthony - You sang to me
• 164 SPM (41 BPM) - Moby - Beautiful
• 164 SPM (41 BPM) - Saxon - You don’t know what you’ve got
• 164 SPM (82 BMP) - The Donnas - Who invited you
• 164 SPM (82 BPM) - Axel Rudi Pell - Living on the wildside
• 164 SPM (82 BPM) - Wilmer X - Blind mans bluff
• 164 SPM (82 BPM) - Celtic Frost - They were eagles
• 164 SPM (82 BPM) - Rammstein - Mann gegen mann
• 164 SPM (82 BPM) - Sam - Club amnesia
• 164 SPM (82 BPM) - Scorpions - He’s a woman, she’sa man
• 164 SPM (82 BPM) - WASP - Mean man
• 166 SPM (83 BPM) - Flash and the Pan - Early morning wake up call
• 166 SPM (83 BPM) - Rose Tattoo - The radio said rock ‘n’ roll is dead
• 166 SPM (83 BPM) - WASP - Rebel in the F.D.G
• 168 SPM (42 BPM) - Björk - Army of me
• 168 SPM (42 BPM) - Black Ingvars - Genie in a bottle
• 168 SPM (42 BPM) - Eminem - Loose yourself
• 168 SPM (42 BPM) - Sheryl Crow - Steve McQueen
• 168 SPM (84 BPM) - At Vance - Broken vow
• 168 SPM (84 BPM) - At Vance - Only human
• 168 SPM (84 BPM) - Axel Rudi Pell - Tear down the walls
• 168 SPM (84 BPM) - Dr Feelgood - Milk and alcohol
• 168 SPM (84 BPM) - Sisters of Mercy - Doctor Jeep
• 168 SPM (84 BPM) - The Donnas - Not the one
• 168 SPM (84 BPM) - Tom Petty - Running down a dream
• 170 SPM (85 BPM) - Rammstein - Asche zu asche
• 170 SPM (85 BPM) - Savage Garden - Affirmation
• 172 SPM (43 BPM) - Seether - Gasoline
• 172 SPM (43 BPM) - Weezer - Beverly Hills
• 172 SPM (43 BPM) - Weird Al Yankovic - Couch potato
• 172 SPM (86 BPM) - Accept - Burning
• 172 SPM (86 BPM) - Foo Fighters - Monkey wrench
• 172 SPM (86 BPM) - Markoolio - Rocka på
• 172 SPM (86 BPM) - Pearl Jam - Brain of JFK
• 174 SPM (87 BPM - Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue
• 174 SPM (29 BPM) - Boney M - He was a steppenwolf
• 174 SPM (58 BPM) - New Order - Blue faith
• 174 SPM (58 BPM) - Style - Empty bed
• 174 SPM (87 BPM) - Bon Jovi - Last man standing
• 174 SPM (87 BPM) - Di Leva - Naked number one
• 174 SPM (87 BPM) - Raven - Seek and destroy
• 174 SPM (87 BPM) - Skid row - Riot act
• 174 SPM (87 BPM) - Status Quo - What you’re proposing
• 174 SPM (87 BPM) - Okänd Artist - Fotbollsplan
• 176 SPM (44 BPM) - 50 Cent - In da club
• 176 SPM (44 BPM) - 50 Pence - In da pub
• 176 SPM (44 BPM) - Disturbed - Down with the sickness (clean fix)
• 176 SPM (44 BPM) - Sam - She’s not
• 176 SPM (44 BPM) - Sam - Spectator game
• 176 SPM (44 BPM) - Silverchair - Anthem for the year 2000
• 176 SPM (88 BPM) - Billy Idol - Speed
• 177 SPM (59 BPM) - Bowling for soup - 1985
• 177 SPM (59 BPM) - Drain S.T.H - Alive
• 177 SPM (59 BPM) - Green Day - Whatshername
• 178 SPM (89 BPM) - Axel Rudi Pell - Land of the Giants
• 180 SPM (45 BPM - Rob Halford & Bruce Dickinson - The one you love to hate
• 180 SPM (90 BPM - Yellowcard - Miles apart
• 180 SPM (90 BPM - Yellowcard - Way away
• 180 SPM (45 BPM) - Baz Luhrmann - Everybody’s free
• 180 SPM (45 BPM) - De La Soul featuring Redman - Oooh
• 180 SPM (45 BPM) - Di Leva - Vem ska jag tro på
• 180 SPM (45 BPM) - Disturbed - Fear
• 180 SPM (45 BPM) - George Michael - Freedom
• 180 SPM (45 BPM) - Marie Fredriksson - Mellan sommar och höst
• 180 SPM (45 BPM) - Rose Tattoo - Who’s got the cash
• 180 SPM (60 BPM) - The Shamen - Move any mountain
• 180 SPM (90 BPM) - Gary Moore & Phil Lynott - Out in the fields
• 180 SPM (90 BPM) - Oz - Fire in the brain
• 180 SPM (90 BPM) - Y & T - Don’t tell me what to wear
• 182 SPM (91 BPM) - Cinderella - Hell on wheels
• 182 SPM (91 BPM) - Flash and the Pan - Captain beware
• 182 SPM (91 BPM) - Girlschool - Action
• 182 SPM (91 BPM) - Oz - Stop believing
• 182 SPM (91 BPM) - Saxon - Taking your chances
• 183 SPM (61 BPM) - Bon Jovi - Undivided
• 183 SPM (61 BPM) - Flash and the Pan - Opera singers
• 183 SPM (61 BPM) - Rammstein - Living in America
• 184 SPM (46 BPM) - Drain S.T.H - Simon says
• 184 SPM (46 BPM) - Girlschool - Back to start
• 184 SPM (46 BPM) - Kenneth and the Knutters - Man av dynamit
• 184 SPM (46 BPM) - Notorious B.I.G - Hypnotize
• 184 SPM (92 BPM) - Accept - Aiming high
• 186 SPM (62 BPM) - Future Sound Of London - Landmass
• 186 SPM (93 BPM) - HIM - Buried alive by love
• 186 SPM (93 BPM) - Ramones - Rockaway beach
• 188 SPM (94 BPM) - Markoolio - Nostalgi
• 188 SPM (94 BPM) - Rammstein - Feuer frei
• 190 SPM (95 BPM) - NG3 - The anthem
• 192 SPM (192 BPM) - Ministry - No W
• 192 SPM (96 BPM) - 220 Volt - Electric messengers
• 194 SPM (97 BPM) - Motorhead - Sword of glory
• 194 SPM (97 BPM) - Saxon - Freeway mad
• 195 SPM (65 BPM) - Marily Manson - Mobscene
• 195 SPM (65 BPM) - New Order - Blue Monday
• 196 SPM (98 BPM) - Die Krupps - To the hilt
• 198 SPM (66 BPM) - Man with no name - Floor essence
• 198 SPM (99 BPM) - At Vance - Now or never
• 202 SPM (101 BPM) - Motorhead - Trigger
• 204 SPM (102 BPM) - Sugababes - I bet you look good on the dancefloor
• 204 SPM (68 BPM) - Astral Projection - Zero
• 204 SPM (68 BPM) - Man with no name - Vavoom
• 204 SPM (68 BPM) - Scooter - We are the greatest
• 206 SPM (103 BPM) - Rob Halford - Made in Hell
• 207 SPM (69 BPM) - Astral Projection - Enlightened evolution
• 207 SPM (69 BPM) - E-Type - Olympia

Color Symbolism describes the use of color as a symbol throughout cultures and religions. Listed below are some common cultural (symbolic) connotations attached to colors in Western cultures, particularly in the United States. These are not necessarily consistent with color psychology:

Gray

Elegance, humility, respect, reverence, stability, subtlety, wisdom, anachronism, boredom, decay, decrepitude, dullness, dust, pollution, urban sprawl, water

White

Reverence, purity, snow, peace, innocence, cleanliness, simplicity, security, humility, marriage, sterility, winter, coldness, sterility, clinicism, surrender, cowardice, fearfulness, unimaginative, death, air, fire

Black

Modernity, power, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, style, evil, death, fear, anonymity, anger, sadness, remorse, mourning, unhappiness

Red

Passion, strength, energy, fire, love, sex, excitement, speed, heat, leadership, masculinity, power, danger, gaudiness, blood, war, anger, revolution, radicalism, socialism, communism, aggression, stop

Blue

Seas, skies, peace, unity, harmony, tranquility, calmness, coolness, confidence, conservatism, water, ice, loyalty, dependability, cleanliness, technology, winter, depression, coldness, idealism, obscenity, tackiness

Green

Nature, spring, fertility, youth, environment, wealth, money (US), good luck, vigor, generosity, go, grass, aggression, inexperience, envy, misfortune, coldness, jealousy, illness, greed, life, air, earth

Yellow

Sunlight, joy, happiness, earth, optimism, idealism, wealth (gold), summer, hope, air, liberalism, cowardice, illness (quarantine), hazards, dishonesty, avarice, weakness, greed, femininity

Purple

Sensuality, spirituality, creativity, wealth, royalty, nobility, ceremony, mystery, wisdom, enlightenment, arrogance, flamboyance, gaudiness, mourning, profanity, exaggeration, confusion

Orange

Buddhism, energy, balance, heat, fire, enthusiasm, flamboyance, playfulness, aggression, arrogance, gaudiness, overemotion, warning, danger

Brown

Calm, depth, natural organisms, nature, richness, rusticism, stability, tradition, anachronism, boorishness, dirt, dullness, filth, heaviness, poverty, roughness, earth

Various cultures see color differently. In India, blue is associated with Krishna (a very positive association), green with Islam, red with purity (used as a wedding color) and white with mourning. In most Asian cultures, yellow is the imperial color with many of the same cultural associations as purple in the west. In China, red is symbolic of celebration, luck and prosperity; white is symbolic of mourning and death, while "having a green hat" metaphorically means a man’s wife is cheating on him. In Europe colors are more strongly associated with political parties than they are in the U.S. In many countries black is synonymous with conservatism, red with socialism, while brown is still immediately associated with the Nazis. Many believe that blue is universally the best color as it has the most positive and fewest negative cultural associations across various cultures. The symbolism of colour can also be seen in localised religious divisions, in the UK and Northern Ireland for example, cities such as Liverpool, Glasgow and Belfast where Catholic and Protestant have a history of conflict, the use green (Catholicism) or Orange (Protestantism) are seen as almost taboo by opposing socioreligious groups.

Studies have shown most colors have more positive than negative associations, and even when a color has negative association, it is normally only when used in a particular context.

People in many cultures have an automatic negative perception of the color black, according to some researchers. Thomas Gilovich and Mark Frank found that sports teams with primarily black uniforms were significantly more likely to receive penalties in historical data. Students were more likely to infer negative traits from a picture of a player wearing a black uniform. They also taped staged football matches, with one team wearing black and another wearing white. Experienced referees were more likely to penalize black-wearing players for nearly identical plays. Finally, groups of students tended to prefer more aggressive sports if wearing black shirts themselves.

Criticism

Most evidence suggests the lack of a single, universal psychological reaction to a particular color. For example, death is symbolized by black in most Western cultures and by white in many Eastern cultures. Even members of the same culture from different age groups can act differently. Referencing colors with emotions is developed by every individual when they feel an emotion and then see a color repeated during this time. After the connection is ingrained, the referencing can go both ways.

Reasons for Color Association

Black is often seen as the color of death in Western culture. This is likely because when things die the rotting flesh will turn black. Black is also the color of wood after fire has completely consumed it. Likewise the association of white with death in Eastern cultures could come from the stark whiteness of bones and skeletons. Red is often a color representing violence, war, aggression, or passion; this is probably because red is the color of human blood.

PDD Not Otherwise Specified, PDDNOS or PDD-NOS is a pervasive developmental disorder in which some symptoms of autism or a similar pervasive developmental disorder can be identified, while other symptoms cannot be. Especially common is difficulty interacting with peers.

The PDD-NOS label is used when a child is considered to be on the autism spectrum, but who does NOT meet all 3 strict criteria for autism according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). These kids are most often considered high functioning because they frequently have IQ scores above 70 and who often have Average or better intelligence.

Some clinicians use PDD-NOS as a "temporary" diagnosis for children under the age of 5, when for whatever reason there is a reluctance to diagnose autism. There are several justifications for this: very young children have limited social interaction and communication skills to begin with, therefore it can be tricky to diagnose milder cases of autism in toddler hood. The unspoken assumption is that by the age of 5, unusual behaviours will either resolve or develop into diagnosable autism. However, some parents view the PDD label as no more than a euphemism for autistic spectrum disorders, problematic because this label makes it more difficult to receive aid for early intervention.

Pervasive developmental disorder

PDD-NOS is a Pervasive developmental disorder or PDD. A pervasive developmental disorder refers to a group of disorders characterized by delays in the development of multiple basic functions including socialization and communication. The most commonly known PDD is autism. Parents may note symptoms of PDD as early as infancy and typically onset is prior to 3 years of age. PDD itself generally does not affect life expectancy.

Symptoms of PDD may include communication problems such as:

• Difficulty using and understanding language
• Difficulty relating to people, objects, and events
• Unusual play with toys and other objects
• Difficulty with changes in routine or familiar surroundings
• Repetitive body movements or behaviour patterns

It has often been said that programmers are introverts. I find that this isn't true, in the majority of cases, but programmers usually do have a longer attention span and a greater ability to concentrate than the majority of the population, and these two things can cause the appearance of introversion. A programmer's ability to focus on a single task for long periods to the exclusion of all else has led some people to comment on similar behaviour in autistics (Asperger's Disorder), and to wonder whether most programmers are mildly autistic. I would be surprised if most programmers were autistic—our concentration is too easily broken.

Writing code is an act of creativity. It isn't science and it isn't engineering, although programmers are happy to apply science and engineering to the creative process, when possible. Therefore to be a programmer one has to be highly creative. This is one of the reasons programmers are happier working on new projects rather than maintenance projects. It isn't just that they don't want to get buried in the filth of the past (although that's part of it); maintenance doesn't offer them the opportunity to create.

When creative people work on making something new, they often enter a mental state where things just flow. This is a highly desirable state, both for the programmer herself and for the organization that profits by her labours.

Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of Chicago University, formerly the chair of the psychology department, has studied hundreds of exceptional individuals, from IT entrepreneurs to Nobel Prize winners, researching creativity. He has written many books and papers on the subjects of flow and creativity.

Csikszentmihalyi says: "For original ideas to come about, you have to let them percolate under the level of consciousness, in a place where we have no way to make them obey our own desires or our own direction. So they find their way, [through] random combinations that are driven by forces we don't know about. It's through this recombination that something new may come up—not when we try to push them directly."

Flow takes time to achieve, and it is fragile. If a programmer's flow is interrupted it can take a large amount of time for her to regain the state, sometimes up to an hour. That's an hour of lost productivity to your team. If a programmer is interrupted many times during the day she may never reach this state. Without this state, creativity is crippled.

Flow is fragile but, thankfully, it isn't as fragile as it first seems. Flow can only be broken if an interruption requires a programmer to mentally change contexts. This means that you can tap a programmer on the shoulder and ask them what they're doing, or even suggest a line of reasoning to them, and everything will be fine. But if you ask them where their time sheet is, you've broken it. I've heard this time and again from experienced pair-programmers, and they should know: Pair programming would be impossible if flow were any more fragile than it is. Flow is a context-dependent state in which you can mentally maneuver to perform different tasks, as long as they're all within context. Drop out of the context, and it takes a while to restore it.

Improving work flow

So how can you maximize the power of this mystical flow for your development team? The formula is fairly simple: provide adequate insulation for flow to occur, both mentally and in terms of time, and be flexible to the vagaries of individual work preferences.

Provide Adequate Mental Insulation

When a programmer is assigned a creative task of any scope, they should be allowed to complete it without out-of-context interruptions. Ensure that any meetings to which you (or anyone else) invite the programmer are absolutely necessary. Don't interleave any support tasks with development tasks. Do your best to arrange it so that the other people who work in the vicinity of a programmer are working on the same problem; if that isn't possible, you should isolate the programmer in his or her own room.

Provide Adequate Time to Recharge Creative Energy

If you want your programmers to repeat the mistakes of the past, fine, just drive them like dogs and give them no time to relax. If you want them to create innovative solutions, then let them have a rest.

Accommodate Reasonable Special Requests

In his research, Csikszentmihalyi cites the case of a famous computer researcher who made a lot of discoveries in the computer field who said that all his best ideas came to him in the shower. He said that he believed his firm lost several million dollars during his employment because it did not install a $14,000 shower in his office. "When he moved to a new firm that had a shower," wrote Csikszentmihalyi, "his ideas kept coming out."

I'm not proposing that you provide new showers for your programmers (not all of them, anyway), but you should stop treating them as pluggable units, each with similar capabilities. They're individuals, different from the others in many ways, each with their own rhythms and preferences. Most of them will know what it takes for them to get into their flow—and that's what you need to cultivate.

If a programmer tells you that they need a 15-minute nap at 2 p.m. every day, then provide the facilities; it only takes a couch in the coffee room or the breakout area (you do have a breakout area, don't you?).

Or, how about this one: rather than provide identical chairs and desks for the whole team, why not give each programmer a budget with which they can buy their own chair and desk? You'll lose the Martha Stewart look for your offices, but you'll gain an environment in which your programmers feel comfortable, which will inspire their creativity.

I know what you'll argue: Think of the expense! If that was the first thought in your head, then you've missed the whole point of this column. Start again at the top, and pay attention this time.

If you can't bring out the best in people then how can you bring out the best in your projects?

When you hire graphic designers to create the eye-candy on your Web site you probably give them the proper tools, environment, and flexibility to encourage creativity. You tolerate their character whims and buy them strange transparent computers. If you aren't thinking about the needs of your programmers in the same light, then you probably aren't getting nearly as much of your programmers as you could be.

Our job is to enhance people's talents, and hire enough diversity to cover the flaws. You should be trying to bring out the best in all the people you manage or collaborate with—if you can't bring out the best in people then how can you bring out the best in your projects?

I don't give a fig if this costs you more money; the potential benefits are huge. If you continue to view the world as a risk/value proposition then you'll continue to produce mediocre results. Your software is produced by humans; learning something about their psychology is a good idea.

• The koala is the world’s fussiest eater and feeds uniquely on eucalyptus leaves.
• An elephant's tooth can weigh as much as 12 pounds.
• In Alaska, it is legal to shoot a bear - but you'll break the law if you wake up a bear to take its photograph.
• Americans own 55 million dogs, and 60 million cats.
• Adult fleas can live for up to 2 years during which time the female can lay up to 1,200 eggs.
• Elephant seals are air-breathing mammals, but they can hold their breath for up to two hours while diving.
• Apart from humans the only land animal that cries is the elephant.
• The longest snake is the reticulated python, which can reach over 33 ft.
• In Lousiana, you can be jailed for ten years for stealing an alligator.
• Dragonflies have the largest eyes and sharpest eyesight of any insect. Each eye is made up of more than 30,000 separate rod-like units.
• Desert rats can copulate 122 times an hour.
• One of the many Tarzans, Karmuala Searlel, was mauled to death on the set by a raging elephant.
• A scientist at Michigan State University has calculated that the production of a single hens egg regquires about 120 gallons of water, a loaf of bread requires 300 gallons, and a pound of beef 3,500 gallons.
• Great Whites can swim at up to 25 mph. They must swim continually or they would sink, as they don't have a swim bladder to keep them afloat like a bony fish.
• The collective name for a group of frogs is an "army of frog"; in the case of their warty cousins, it’s a "knot of toads".
• Strands of spider web are stronger than steel wire of the same thickness.
• The collective name for a group of frogs is an “army of frogs”; in the case of their warty cousins, it’s a “knot of toads”.
• Dolphins are the only other animals besides humans that get pleasure out of sex. They are also the only other animals that have sex for reasons other than reproduction.
• Contrary to popular belief, biblical Jonah was swallowed by a Great White Shark, not a whale. It is thought that a shark may have been landed with a man's body inside, prompting the myth to arise.
• Not all polar bears hibernate; only pregnant females polar bears do.
• Most scientists agree that Great White Shark attacks on humans often stem from territorial aggression because of a perceived invasion of their space, and are usually non-predatory in nature.
• Naked mole rats are the only hairless mammals.
• One 15 foot great white was found with 200 plus crabs in its stomach.
• An armadillo can walk under water.
• House mice are able to drop vertically down 12 feet without injury.
• Goldfish history can be traced back over 1500 years to Ancient China.
• Only 2% of male red deer are seriously injured in their antler-rattling contests.
• An American Animal Hospital Association poll showed that 33 percent of dog owners admit that they talk to their dogs on the phone or leave messages on an answering machine while away.
• Frogs may be hypnotised by placing them on their back and gently stroking their stomach.
• The African driver ant Dorylus lives in colonies of up to twenty-two million workers. Their combined mass is more than fifty kilograms, and they feed off and protect a territory of a massive fifty thousand square metres.
• Twenty-eight species of anemone fishes are known, along with 10 species of anemones that act as hosts.
• The average body temperature of a sparrow is 105.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Sheep's milk is used to produce Roquefort cheese.
• A female donkey's milk is closest to human milk.
• Stone-aged people tamed dogs to help them track game.
• A seagull can drink salt water because it has special glands that filter out the salt.
• The difference in weight between a 'newborn' caterpillar and the fully grown larva is typically 1000-fold or even more.
• Snake venom is ninety percent protein.
• The hippopotamus has the world's shortest sperm.
• A rabbit's teeth never stops growing. They are kept worn down by gnawing on food.
• Scientists estimate that there are currently 1.4 million animal species known to science; with possibly as many as 30 million on the planet.
• The only two mammals to lay eggs are the platypus and the echidna. The mothers nurse their babies through pores in their skin.
• Kittens can clock an amazing 31 miles per hour at full speed, and can cover about three times their body length per leap.
• The tuatara lizard's metabolism is so slow they only have to breathe once an hour.
• Male bees will try to attract sex partners with orchid fragrance.
• The giant cricket of Africa enjoys eating human hair.
• The octopus's testicles are located in its head.
• The tuatara lizard of New Zealand has three eyes - two in the center of its head and one on top.
• It takes the deep-sea clam 100 years to grow to a length of one-third inch.
• The Venus flytrap can eat a whole cheeseburger.
• The porcupine's love for salt often leads the animal to roadways or walkways where salt has been sprinkled to melt the ice.
• Hamsters love to eat crickets.
• Dinosaurs lived on Earth for around 165 million years before they became extinct.
• The rare Hawaiian monk seal has been known to dive to about 1,650 feet.
• The female green turtle sheds tears as she lays her eggs on the beach. This washes sand particles out of her eyes and rids her body of excess salt.
• Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants.
• The color a head louse will be as an adult can depend on the color of the person's hair in which it lives.
• The kangaroo and the emu are the two animals found on the Australian coat of arms.
• Elephants and short-tailed shrews get by on only two hours of sleep a day.
• Urine from male cape water buffaloes is so flammable that some tribes use it for lantern fuel.
• One way to tell seals and sea lions apart is that, sea lions have external ears and testicles.
• Sharks can go up to at least 6 weeks without feeding. The record for a shark fasting was observed in an aquarium with the Swell Shark, which did not eat for 15 months.
• The shell of an egg constitutes 12% of its weight.
• In ancient Egypt, entire families would shave their eyebrows as a sign of mourning when the family cat died.
• The Sanskrit word for 'war' means 'desire for more cows'.
• Using its web-like skin between its arms, an octopus can carry up to a dozen crabs back to its den.
• Electric Eels can reach up to 2 metres in length and larger specimens can generate 500 volts of electricity.
• The zorilla is the smelliest animal on the planet. Its anal glands can be smelled from a half mile away.
• Sheep can survive for up to two weeks buried in snow drifts.
• Bats can eat from one-half to three quarters their weight per evening.
• It takes 24 hours for a tiny newborn swan to peck its way out of its shell.
• Certain fireflies emit a light so penetrating that it can pass through flesh and wood.
• The porcupine's love for salt often leads the animal to roadways or walkways where salt has been sprinkled to melt the ice. They will lick and gnaw on anything containing salt, such as saddles, canoe paddles and axe handles.
• There are more species of fish than mammals, reptiles and birds combined.
• When angered, the Tazmanian devil turns pinkish red.
• Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.
• When cornered, the horned toad shoots blood from its eyes.
• The walking catfish of Florida can stay out of water for a full 80 days.
• The Australian Brown Snake's venom is so powerful that only 1/14,000th of on ounce is needed to kill a human being.
• The tuatara's metabolism is so slow they only have to breathe once an hour.
• According to scientific studies, a rat's performance in a maze can be improved by playing music written by Mozart.
• A group of goats is called a trip.
• A baby platypus remains blind after birth for 11 weeks.
• Sharks can generate about six and a half tons per square inch of biting force.
• Sharks can live up to 100 years.
• Dogfish sharks are named for their tendency to attack their prey as a pack of wild dogs would.
• Found in Argentina, the ornate horned frog can eat an entire mouse with one swallow.
• The average Polar Bear stands about 8ft tall.
• Lions cannot roar until they reach the age of two.
• A blue whale's tongue is so large that fifty people could stand on it.
• The temperature of the saltwater crocodile's egg will determine the sex of the newborn crocodile.
• Tuna swim at a steady rate of nine miles per hour for an indefinite period of time - and they never stop moving. Estimates indicate that a 15 year old tuna travels one million miles in its lifetime.
• The dodo, extinct less than 100 years after being discovered by the Dutch in 1598, was not a prolific species. The female laid just one egg a year.
• Using their swiveling ears like radar dishes, experiments have shown that dogs can locate the source of a sound in 6/100ths of a second.
• It takes 11 truckloads of wood to make a proper funeral pyre for a full-size elephant.
• More than a third of the field mice in the Kesterton National wildlife refuge near Los Banos, California have both male and female reproductive organs.
• In Central America, a scientist caught over 500 different species of insects by sweeping a net through the air fewer than 2000 times.
• Tiny woolly bats, in West Africa, live in the large webs of colonial spiders.
• In Cleveland, Ohio, it's illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.
• A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.
• The female knot-tying weaverbird will refuse to mate with a male who has built a shoddy nest. If spurned, the male must take the nest apart and completely rebuild it in order to win the affactions of the female.
• A species of Australian dragonfly has been clocked at 36 mph.
• Native Americans never actually ate turkey: killing such a timid bird was thought to indicate laziness.
• Japan is the largest exporter of frog's legs.
• In Michigan, USA, it is illegal to chain an alligator to a fire hydrant.
• Sea sponges are used in drugs for treating asthma and cancer.
• Flamingo tongues were a common delicacy at Roman feasts.
• A full grown giraffe's neck can weigh as much as 500 pounds.
• Ninety-five percent of tropical fish sold in North America originate from Florida.
• The Weddell seal can travel under water for seven miles without surfacing for air.
• Due to a retinal adaptation that reflects light back to the retina, the night vision of tigers is six times better than that of humans.
• An adult giraffe's kick is so powerful that it can decapitate a lion.
• The flounder swims sideways.
• A baby octopus is about the size of a flea when it is born.
• Sharks can be dangerous even before they are born. Scientist Stewart Springer was bitten by a sand tiger shark embryo while he was examining its pregnant mother.
• In the US, it is reported that the 5 most popular dog tricks are - Sit, Paw, Roll Over, Speak and Lie Down.
• Dolphins jump out of the water to conserve energy. It's easier to move through the air than through the water.
• It takes a sloth two weeks to digest the food it eats.
• Almost every known dog except the Chow and the Shar Pei has a pink tongue.
• Anteaters prefer termites to ants.
• Tunas will suffocate if they ever stop swimming. They need a continual flow of water across their gills to breathe, even while they rest.
• Unlike most female animals, the female rice rat is the one that searches for and pursues a mate.
• Pekingese dogs were sacred to the emperors of China for more than 2,000 years. They are one of the oldest breeds of dogs in the world.
• Desert plants, like cactus, developed pointy spines as protection from animals.
• Sharks apparently are the only animals that never get sick. As far as is known, they are immune to every known disease including cancer.
• The Hirudo leech lays its babies within a cocoon; the Amazon leech carries its babies on its stomach - sometimes as many as 300.
• The declawing of a pet cat involves surgery called an onychectomy, in which the entire claw and end bone of each toe of the animal are amputated.
• Platypuses aren't the only egg-laying mammals on earth. Echidnas, which resemble a cross between a Hedgehog and Anteater, also lay eggs and produces milk for its young.
• A mole can dig a tunnel three hundred feet long in a single night.
• A baby beaver stays with its parents for a period of two years.
• The longest recorded life span of a camel was 35 years, five months.
• An average city dog lives approximately three years longer than an average country dog.
• A starfish can turn its stomach inside out.
• Desert snails can stay in their shell for up to three years.
• The male fox will mate for life and, if the female dies, he remains single for the rest of his life. However, if the male dies, the female will hook up with a new mate.
• Flamingos can live up to 80 years.
• Sharks sometimes eat other sharks. For example, a tiger shark might eat a bull shark, a bull shark might eat a blacktip shark and a blacktip shark might eat a dogfish shark.
• The common mousetrap was invented by the same guy who invented the machine gun — Hiram Maxim.
• There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are human beings on the entire earth.
• A rhinoceros beetle can support up to 850 times its own weight on it's back. That would be the equivalent of a man carrying 76 family-sized cars around on his back.
• The optimum depth of water in a birdbath is two and a half inches. Less water makes it difficult for birds to take a bath; more makes them afraid.
• Squirrels can climb trees faster than they can run on the ground.
• Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
• During the 1982 Falklands war British pilots reported that penguins toppled over backward while gazing at the planes. British navy pilots were then banned from flying low over penguin colonies. It led to a UK government study of the penguin-toppling effect. For seventeen days two helicopters were flown from varying directions and heights over the penguins. The result? Penguins do not topple over while gazing at aeroplanes.
• Dairy cows can produce 20 to 35 gallons of saliva a day.
• The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.
• Police detectives have used snapping turtles to help them locate dead bodies.
• No pearls of value are ever found in North Amercian Oysters.
• Mountain goats are not really goats at al. They are small antelopes.
• Only 4% of the lost cats that enter U.S. animal shelters are returned to their caregivers.
• There is no single cat called the panther. The name is commonly applied to the leopard, but it is also used to refer to the puma and the jaguar. A black panther is really a black leopard.
• Racehorses have been known to wear out new shoes in just one race.
• A cuckoo has four toes on each foot.
• Mice will nurse babies that are not their own.
• The Canary Islands were not named for a bird called a canary. They were named after a breed of large dogs. The Latin name was Canariae insulae - "Island of Dogs."
• Mongooses were brought to Hawaii to kill rats. This plan failed because rats are nocturnal while the mongoose hunts during the day.
• Unlike other four legged mammals, kangaroos cannot walk backwards.
• When a female horse and male donkey mate, the offspring is called a mule, but when a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny.
• Just like people, mother chimpanzees often develop lifelong relationships with their offspring.
• According to one study, plant and animal species are becoming extinct at the rate of 17 per hour.
• The cat lover is an ailurophile, while a cat hater is an ailurophobe.
• Orange and lemon rinds are offensive to cats. A light rubbing of orange peel on furniture will discourage your cat from using it as a scratching post.
• The largest pig on record was a Poland-China hog named Big Bill, who weighed 2,552 lbs.
• Cats have more than one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
• The biggest member of the cat family is the male lion, which weighs 528 pounds (240 kilograms).
• The mating call of a male toadfish, who are underwater, is so loud that it can be heard by humans above water.
• Cheetahs make a chirping sound that is much like a bird's chirp or a dog's yelp. The sound is so an intense, it can be heard a mile away.
• The male penguin incubates the single egg laid by his mate. During the two month period he does not eat, and will lose up to 40% of his body weight.
• Platypuses can consume their own body weight in food in a 24 hour period.
• The Kinkajou's tail is twice as long as its body. Every night it wraps itself in its tail and uses it as a pillow.
• As a general rule in the animal kingdom, the more complex or relatively big the eye in relation to the body, then the smaller the rest of the brain.
• If a male cat is both orange and black it is (besides being extremely rare) sterile. To have both the orange and the black coat colors, the male cat must have all or part of both female X chromosomes. This unusual sex chromosome combination will render the male cat sterile.
• Kangaroo rats never drink water. Like their relative the pocket mouse, they carry their own water source within them, producing fluids from the food they eat and the air they breathe.
• If you fill a standard 750ml wine bottle with live hornets, their angry buzzing will resonate at precisely the right frequency to shatter the glass.
• The giant cricket of Africa enjoys eating human hair.
• Nationwide, grandparents annually spend an average of $195.24 on their companion animals and $178.68 on their grandchildren.
• Fido, a name often given to pet dogs, means faithful in Latin.
• The turbot fish lays approximately 14 million eggs during its lifetime.
• Dogs that do not tolerate small children well are the St. Bernard, the Old English sheep dog, the Alaskan malamute, the bull terrier, and the toy poodle.
• If a cricket were the size of Mount Rushmore, it could jump to the moon.
• The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C.
• It would require an average of 18 hummingbirds to weigh in at one ounce.
• The female blue crab can lay up to one million eggs in a day.
• The term "dog days" has nothing to do with dogs. It dates back to Roman times, when it was believed that Sirius, the Dog Star, added its heat to that of the sun from July3 to August 11, creating exceptionally high temperatures. The Romans called the period dies caniculares, or "days of the dog."
• Most parrots are left-handed.
• A Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age, that weighs no more than 2 pounds.
• The grizzly bear is capable of running as fast as the average horse.
• In the past 60 years, the groundhog has only predicted the weather correctly 28 percent of the time. The rushing back and forth from burrows is believed to indicate sexual activity, not shadow seeking.
• Catfish are the only animals that naturally have an ODD number of whiskers.
• Nearly three percent of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.
• When subjected to an electric current of at least 50 volts, a cat's tail always points toward the north.
• Moths are unable to fly during an earthquake.
• The theobromine in chocolate that stimulates the cardiac and nervous systems is too much for dogs, especially smaller pups. A chocolate bar is poisonous to dogs and can even be lethal.
• Snakes do not urinate. They secrete and excrete uric acid, which is a solid, chalky, usually white substance.
• The fruit flys dna sequence is 180 million bases long, whilst a humans is three billion.
• Centipedes always have an uneven pairs of walking legs.
• Rattlesnakes gather in groups to sleep through the winter. Sometimes up to 1,000 of them will coil up together to keep warm.
• A mother dingo regurgitates food for her puppies.
• A mature male gorilla is called a Silverback. This refers to the silver-colored hair covering his back, which occurs when he’s about 10-12 years old.
• There are 701 types of pure breed dogs.
• A 20 inch jack rabbit adult can leap 20 feet in a single bound.
• A baby grey whale drinks enough milk to fill more than 2,000 bottles a day.
• The distance between an alligator's eyes, in inches, is directly proportional to the length of the alligator, in feet.
• The female pigeon cannot lay eggs if she is alone. In order for her ovaries to function, she must be able to see another pigeon. If no pigeon is available, her own reflection in a mirror will suffice.
• All dinosaurs walked on their toes.
• The honey badger can withstand hundreds of African bee stings that would kill any other animal.
• In their lifetime, house cats spend approximately 10,950 hours purring.
• A chicken with red earlobes will produce brown eggs, and a chicken with white earlobes will produce white eggs.
• The hummingbird, the loon, the swift, the kingfisher, and the grebe are all birds that cannot walk.
• Julius Caeser, Henri II, Charles XI and Napoleon all had ailurophobia, a fear of cats.
• The number of human ova necessary to repopulate the world could fit into a chicken egg.
• Cats are attracted to automobile antifreeze because of its sweet taste.
• Ireland has only about half the number of animal species that Britain has, including no snakes or toads (although there are some frogs).
• There are 15 puppies and 45 kittens born for every human in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
• The Saw-Scaled Viper is thought to cause tens of thousands of deaths annually in Africa and Asia. They don't have the most lethal snake venom but they are numerous and aggressive.
• A squirrel has no color vision. It seesonly in black and white. Every part of its field of vision, however, is in perfect focus, not just straight ahead, as with man.
• An elephant may consume 500 pounds of hay and 60 gallons of water in a single day.
• When a hippopotamus exerts itself, gets angry, or stays out of the water for too long, it exudes red sweatlike mucus through its skin.
• Cats have a third eyelid, called a haw, that is rarely visible. If it can be seen, it could be an indication of ill health.
• Camel's hair brushes are not made of camel's hair. They were invented by a man named Mr Camel.
• In 1740 a cow was found guilty of sorcery in France and publicly hanged.
• A newborn Chinese water deer is so small that it can almost be held in the palm of the hand.
• A 1,200-pound horse eats about seven times it's own weight each year.
• A butterfly has to have a body temperature greater than 86 degrees to be able to fly.
• The tsetse fly infests 36 African countries and a total of 9-10 million square kilometres of land.
• It takes 35 to 65 minks to produce the average mink coat. The numbers for other types of fur coats are: beaver - 15; fox - 15 to 25; ermine - 150; chinchilla - 60 to 100.
• Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike.
• About 600 species of plants are carnivorous. Most eat insects but also on the menu are frogs, birds and even small monkeys.
• The 1st buffalo ever born in captivity was born at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo in 1884.
• Squirrels are immune to rabies.
• Unlike a frog, a toad cannot jump.
• All racehorses in the U.S. celebrate their birthday on January 1st.
• The candlefish is so oily that it was once burned for fuel.
• The snow leopard protects itself from extreme cold when it sleeps by wrapping its 3-foot-long tail around its nose.
• Despite man's fear and hatred of the wolf, it has not ever been proved that a non-rabid wolf ever attacked a human.
• The venom of a female black widow spider is more potent than that of a rattlesnake.
• Lassie was played by several male dogs, despite the female name, because male collies were thought to look better on camera. The main "actor" was named Pal.
• All pet hamsters are descended from a single female wild golden hamster found with a litter of 12 young in Syria in 1930.
• A chicken once had its head cut off and survived for over eighteen months, headless.
• Octopus and squid are thought to be the most intelligent of all invertebrates.
• During warm weather hippopotamus's secrete sweat that is pink. This substance not only cools them down but also helps fight infections of the skin.
• By feeding hens certain dyes they can be made to lay eggs with varicolored yolks.
• A baby octopus is about the size of a flea when it is born.
• The female dairy goat is a doe; the male, a buck; the young, kids; and a castrated male, a wether. Their life span is eight to twelve years.
• In 1888, an estimated 300,000 mummified cats were found at Beni Hassan, Egypt. They were sold at $18.43 per ton, and shipped to England to be ground up and used for fertilizer.
• The anaconda, one of the world's largest snakes, gives birth to its young instead of laying eggs.
• In the 1800's cats were used to deliver mail. In 1879, in Belgium 37 cats were used to deliver mail to villages, however they found that the cats were not disciplined enough to do this.
• In a day, an elephant can drink 80 gallons of water.
• The name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box is Bingo.
• There are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones.
• Aphids are born pregnant without the benefit of sex. Aphids can give birth 10 days after being born themselves.
• More than 99.9% of all the animal species that have ever lived on earth were extinct before the coming of man.
• Asian tree frogs build nests in trees over water. When their tadpoles hatch, they drop directly into the water.
• It is estimated that a single toad may catch and eat as many as 10,000 insects in the course of a summer.
• In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
• The world's oldest known captive goldfish, Tish, died peacefully at home in his tank at the age of at least 43 in 1999.
• It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of its mouth. Then the frog uses its forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.
• Despite man's fear and hatred of the wolf, it has not ever been proved that a non-rabid wolf ever attacked a human.
• Goldfish lose their color if they are kept in dim light or are placed in a body of running water, such as a stream.
• On June 20th, 1782, the United States Congress made the "American Eagle" the national emblem of the United States.
• You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day than in any other weather.
• The 'Silverback' gorilla is 30 per cent taller and almost twice as heavy as the females in the group he dominates.
• The pom-pom cut was originally developed to increase the Poodle's swimming abilities as a retriever. The haircut allowed for faster swimming but the pom-poms were left to keep the joints warm.
• Before the enactment of the 1978 law that made it mandatory for dog owners in New York City to clean up after their pets, approximately 40 million pounds of dog excrement were deposited on the streets every year.
• A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
• The biggest pig in recorded history was Big Boy of Black Mountain, North Carolina, who was weighed at 1,904 pounds in 1939.
• When ants find food, they lay down a chemical trail, called a pheromone, so that other ants can find their way from the nest to the food source.
• There are more than 100 million dogs and cats in the United States. Americans spend more than 5.4 billion dollars on their pets each year.
• Snails produce a colorless, sticky discharge that forms a protective carpet under them as they travel along. The discharge is so effective that they can crawl along the edge of a razor without cutting themselves.
• A duck's quack doesn't echo anywhere, and no one knows why.
• Contrary to popular belief, dogs do not sweat by salivating. They sweat through the pads of their feet.
• The heart of a blue whale is the size of a small car.
• Lewis and Clark traveled with a 150-pound Newfoundland named "Seaman." This pooch was a respected member of the expedition team and his antics were included in the extensive diaries of the famous explorers.
• 'Zorro' means 'fox' in Spanish.
• For Stephen King's "Cujo" (1983), five St. Bernards were used, one mechanical head, and an actor in a dog costume to play the title character.
• A cat uses its whiskers to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through. The whiskers act as feelers or antennae, helping the animal to judge the precise width of any passage.
• The Venus flytrap takes less than half a second to slam shut on an insect.
• Brazil has the most species of mammals (524), fresh water fish, insects and parrots of anywhere.
• Dogs and humans are the only animals with prostate glands.
• The world record frog jump is 33 feet 5.5 inches over the course of 3 consecutive leaps, achieved in May 1977 by a South African sharp-nosed frog called Santjie.
• A 7-year study, which concluded in the summer of 2000, found that 33 U.S. deaths were caused by rottweilers, pit bulls were responsible for 27 deaths.
• The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth.
• German Shepherds bite humans more than any other breed of dog.
• Swans are the only birds with penises.
• Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than man.
• When the Black Death swept across England one theory was that cats caused the plague. Thousands were slaughtered. Ironically, those that kept their cats were less affected, because they kept their houses clear of the real culprits, rats.

• Some scientists think that 10% of the animal biomass of the world is ants.
• Scientists in Brazil have reported the emergence of a species of superflea; they are bigger than cockroaches and can jump 20 feet.
• The viper's venom is harmless as long as it does not mingle with the blood. Courageous experimenters have tasted, swallowed it, and yet afterward were no worse off than before.
• Squirrels are immune to rabies.
• A snail only mates once.
• Flamingos are not naturally pink. They get their color from their food -- tiny green algae that turn pink during digestion.
• Scorpions can withstand 200 times more nuclear radiation than humans can.
• Entomologists Dr. Yao and Dr. Yuan of China studied more than 378,046 common house flies and estimated that each carried no less than 1,941,000 bacteria on their bodies. Another source estimates that 33 million microorganisms may flourish in a single fly's gut.
• Only humans and horses have hymens.
• Flies have 4000 lenses in each eye.
• USDA sources reveal that flies contaminate or destroy 10 billion dollars of agricultural products each year.
• "J'embrasse mon chat sur la bouche" is French for, "I kiss my cat on the lips".
• Folklore has it that the tabby cat got the M on the forehead as a gesture of thanks from Mary, the mother of Jesus. She gave this to the kitties to show her appreciation for the kitties purring the baby to sleep.
• Houseflies watch each other constantly and follow each other to food sources. That's why there are always so many enjoying the same food.
• There are 6,500+ species of fly living in Britain alone. (There are over 16,000+ in North America)
• The weight of insects eaten by spiders every year is greater than the total weight of the entire human population.
• Experiments show that softly talking to kittens as soon as they are born results in their growing up to be more confident and independent adults.
• A crocodile can't move its tongue and cannot chew. Its digestive juices are so strong that it can digest a steel nail.
• Laika became the world's first space traveler. Russian scientists sent the small dog aloft in an artificial earth satellite in 1957.
• Cats can successfully navigate through mazes in complete darkness, but lose that ability if their whiskers are cut off (they wander aimlessly).
• After being petted, sometimes you will see a cat cleaning himself. He is trying to get the "person" smell off.
• Non-pedigree cats have an higher incidence of tabby markings than pedigree cats. Non-pedigree cats are also more often more robust than highly bred cats.
• A cat's brain is more similar to a human's brain than that of a dog.
• Female chickens, or hens, need about 24 to 26 hours to produce one egg. Thirty minutes later they start the process all over again. In addition to the half-hour rests, some hens rest every three to five days and others rest every 10 days.
• Dogs' eyes have large pupils and a wide field of vision, making them really good at following moving objects. Dogs also see well in fairly low light.
• Black cat superstitions originated in America. In Asia and England, a black cat is considered lucky.
• Who first thought of using dogs to guide blind people? At the end of World War I, the German government trained the first guide dogs to assist blind war veterans.
• The material to build the Taj Mahal was brought in from various parts of India by a fleet of 1,000 elephants.
• A fifteen year old cat has probably spent ten years of its life sleeping.
• A cat will almost never meow at another cat. Cats use this sound for humans.
• A cat in a hurry can sprint at about thirty-one miles per hour.
• An estimated 1 million dogs in the United States have been named the primary beneficiary in their owner's will.
• According to a recent survey, the most popular name for a dog is Max. Other popular names include Molly, Sam, Zach, and Maggie.
• Increased water consumption in animals is sometimes a sign of illness.
• Pets like the sound of laughter, and most know when you're in pain.
• Amazon ants (red ants found in the western U.S.) steal the larvae of other ants to keep as slaves. The slave ants build homes for and feed the Amazon ants, who cannot do anything but fight. They depend completely on their slaves for survival.
• Having your pet altered will not change its personality, but pets that have been spayed or neutered are less apt to fight or wander off.
• Brazoria County in Southeast Texas is the only county in the United States and Canada to have every kind of poisonous snake found in those two countries.
• Green plants - what biologists call autotrophs - are the basis for all life on our planet, at the beginning of nearly all food chains.
• Scandinavian lemmings are famous for moving in huge numbers over the countryside and jumping into the ocean. This is not an act of suicide; the lemming just sees rivers, lakes, cliffs, and oceans as something to cross in its search for food.
• Of all known forms of animal life ever to inhabit the Earth, only about 10 percent still exist today.
• Spider monkeys like banana daquiries.
• The calories burned daily by the sled dogs running in Alaska's annual Iditarod race average 10,000. The 1,149-mile race commemorates the 1925 "Race for Life" when 20 volunteer mushers relayed medicine from Anchorage to Nome to battle a children's diphtheria epidemic.
• The viscera of Japanese abalone can harbor a poisonous substance which causes a burning, stinging, prickling and itching over the entire body. It does not manifest itsef until exposure to sunlight - if eaten outdoors in sunlight, symptoms occur quickly and suddenly.
• Lovebirds are small parakeets who live in pairs. Male and female lovebirds look alike, but most other male birds have brighter colors than the females.
• If attacked by a person or coyote, its main enemies, the badger acts quickly. The badger digs itself quickly into a hole in a few minutes, throwing dirt and dust into its attacker's face.
• A large porcupine can have over 30,000 quills covering its body.
• There are more species of rodent than of any other animal group in the world.
• Dolphins sleep at night just below the surface of the water. They frequently rise to the surface for air.
• An albatross can sleep while it flies. It apparently dozes while cruising at 25 mph.
• Woodchucks use a whistling sound to warn one another of danger, so in some places the woodchuck is called the whistling pig.
• A female swine, or a sow, will always have a even number of teats or nipples, usually twelve.
• In parts of Northern Ontario, at their peak in numbers, there can be 3,500 snowshoe hares per square hectare.
• The pygmy shrew is the smallest mammal in North America and the second smallest mammal in the world. At 2.2 g, it weighs less than a dime and is only 7.8 to 9.8 cm long.
• The Sumatran tiger has the most stripes of all the tiger subspecies, and the Siberian tiger has the fewest stripes.
• A penguin only has sex twice a year.
• Cats can hear ultrasound.
• Shrimp can only swim backwards.
• Chickens that lay brown eggs have red ear lobes. There is a genetic link between the two.
• If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode.
• Polar bears camouflage themselves more completely during a hunt by covering their black noses with their paws.
• Octopi have gardens.
• A whale's penis is called a dork.
• The female ferret is referred to as a `jill'.
• Female orcas live twice as long as male orcas. The larger numbers of female orcas in a pod are because of the female's longer lifespan, not because the males have collected a harem.
• Other than fruit, honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life! What about milk, you say? A cow has to eat grass to produce milk and grass is living!
• Crows have the largest cerebral hemispheres, relative to body size, of any avian family.
• Most armadillos seen dead on the road did not get hit by the wheels. When an armidillo is frightened it jumps straight into the air.
• Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes and man all have seven neck vertebra.
• Police dogs are trained to react to commands in a foreign language; commonly German but more recently Hungarian or some other Slavic tongue.
• Reindeer like to eat bananas.
• A type of jellyfish found off the coast of England is the longest animal in the world.
• Armadillos can walk underwater.
• The Pug dog is thought to have gotten it's name from looking like the pug monkey.
• Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that may have blue eyes.
• The Madagascan Hissing Cockroach is one of the few insects who give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs.
• It is a misdemeanor to kill or threaten a butterfly -- so says City Ordinance No. 352 in Pacific Grove, California.
• When angered, the ears of Tazmanian devils turn a pinkish-red.
• Only one in one thousand animals born in the sea survives to maturity.
• Elephants and camels both have four knees.
• The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away.
• An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.
• Hamsters love to eat crickets.
• The "wild" horses of western North America are actually feral, not wild.
• Big Ben was slowed five minutes one day when a passing group of starlings decided to take a rest on the minute hand of the clock.
• A pig's skin is thickest at the back -- 1/6 of an inch.
• The word rodent comes from the Latin word `rodere' meaning to gnaw.
• The difference between male and female blue crabs is the design located on their apron (belly). The male blue crab has the Washington Monument while the female apron is shaped like the U.S. Capitol.
• Most snakes have either only one lung, or in some cases, two, with one much reduced in size. This apparently serves to make room for other organs in the highly-elongated bodies of snakes.
• Animals attend church services on St. Anthony's Day in Mexico. This popular saint, who is regarded as a healer of people and animals, is asked to protect pets, who are decorated with flowers and ribbons for the occasion. In rural areas, peasants also bring bags of insects and worms to be blessed in church, in the hope that this will prevent these creatures from damaging crops.
• Today's cattle are descended from two species: wild aurochs -- fierce and agile herd animals that populated Asia, North Africa and Europe -- and eotragus -- anantelope-like, Asian forest creature.
• The English Romantic poet Lord Byron was so devastated upon the death of his beloved Newfoundland, whose name was Boatswain, that he had inscribed upon the dog's gravestone the following: "Beauty without vanity, strength without insolence, courage without ferocity, and all the virtues of man without his vices."
• The calories burned daily by the sled dogs running in Alaska's annual Iditarod race average 10,000.
• The elephant, as a symbol of the US Republican Party, was originated by cartoonist Thomas Nast and first presented in 1874.
• According to tests made at the Institute for the Study of Animal Problems in Washington. Dogs and cats, like people are either right or left handed - that is, they favor either their right or left paws.
• A cat's arching back is part of a complex body language system, usually associated with feeling threatened. The arch is able to get so high because the cat's spine contains nearly 60 vertebrae which fit loosely together. Humans have only 34 vertebrae.
• The average adult male Polar Bear weighs between 850 and 900 pounds, but one was killed in 1960 that weighed 2,210 pounds. That is the weight of a small family car!
• Scientists have managed to mix a goat with a spider to create a goat that produces spider's silk in its milk. The goats look completely normal, and they are in fact only 1/70,000th spider. By inserting just one spider gene into a goat's egg, the adult goat produces milk that can be processed to create an incredibly strong spider's silk fabric. The 'Biosteel' fabric is estimated to be five times as strong as steel, and about the same weight as cotton.
• The small Darwin's frog, which lives in Chile's cool forest streams, nurtures its young in an unusual manner. After the female lays 30 or so eggs, the male guards them for two weeks and then swallows the surviving ones. In the male's vocal pouch, the offspring develop until they're able to survive on their own and hop out.
• The name 'raccoon' comes from the Algonquin Indians word Arakun, which is translated as "he scratches with his hands".
• Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots.
• If you have a tape worm, and you put your head over a pot of coffee with your mouth open the tape worm will crawl out of your mouth and extend toward the coffee, therefore you can just grab it and pull it out.
• Armadillos have four babies at a time, and they are always the same sex.
• You can hypnotise a frog by placing it on it's back and gently stroking it's stomach.
• A snail’s genitals are on its head.
• Marie Antoinette's dog was a spaniel named Thisbe.
• A dog was killed by a meteor at Nakhla, Egypt, in 1911. The unlucky canine is the only creature known to have been killed by a meteor.
• A well-fed polar bear's blood has 10 times more omega-3 fatty acid-- than in a fasting bear. Studies with human volunteers have shown that omega-3 fatty acids in the diet reduce cholesterol in the blood stream.
• Blood taken from Polar Bears during the seal-free season showed levels of cholesterol nearly 25 percent higher than blood taken while the bears had plenty of seal blubber to eat.
• You are more likely to be struck by lightning than to be eaten by a shark.
• Crowded together, 200 to a cubic-foot cage, male houseflies die after about 16 days. With 100 flies in the same cage, they are less agitated by their cagemates, fly about less and live 20 days. Put into a vial by themselves, the solitary (and probably bored) flies last 50 days.
• Hibernating ground squirrels' blood has four times the amount of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) than their blood contains when they are not hibernating.
• Barbara Bush's book about her English Springer Spaniel, Millie's book, was on the bestseller list for 29 weeks. Millie was the most popular "First Dog" in history.
• During the nineteenth century, mammoth finds were frequent enough in Siberia that some persons became professional mammoth ivory hunters.
• The last member of the famous Bonaparte family, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, died in 1945, of injuries sustained from tripping over his dog's leash.
• The Chinese, during the reign of Kublai Khan, used lions on hunting expeditions. They trained the big cats to pursue and drag down massive animals - from wild bulls to bears - and to stay with the kill until the hunter arrived.
• Cat scratch disease, a benign but sometimes painful disease of short duration, is caused by a bacillus. Despite its name, the disease can be transmitted by many kinds of scratches besides those of cats.
• If a normal mouse is forced to overeat, it becomes obese. When the force feeding stops, the mouse won't eat as much as normal until it loses the excess weight it gained.
• The top knot that quails have is called a hmuh.
• Cats in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have a very high probability of having six toes.
• Lions are the only truly social cat species, and usually every female in a pride, ranging from 5 to 30 individuals, is closely related.
• Felix the Cat is the first cartoon character to ever have been made into a balloon for a parade.
• The male Californian sea-otter grips the nose of the female with his teeth during mating.
• The ice worm, less than an inch long, lives on the pollens, insects, minerals and bacteria blown onto the surface of glaciers by the wind.
• The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th Century England. During heavy downpours of rain, many of these poor animals unfortunately drowned and their bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents that raced through the streets. The situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs" and led to the current expression.
• The only way to stop the pain of the sting of the flathead fish is by rubbing the slime of the belly of the same fish that you were stung by on the wound that it inflicted upon you.
• Giraffes were at one time referred to by Europeans as "cameleopards," believing giraffes were the offspring of camels and leopards.
• The smallest fish in the world is the Trimattum Nanus of the Chagos Archipelago. It measures 0.33 inches.
• There is a species of cat smaller than the average housecat. It is native to Africa and it is the Black-footed cat (Felis nigripes). Its top weight is 5.5 pounds.
• Back in the late 1940s in Buenos Aires, a black female cat climbed a 40 foot tree where she resided for six years. Her name was Mincha and she wasn't lonely for companionship. She had three litters while living in the tree. The local Argentinians fed her by putting her food on poles.
• There are 18 species of Piranha, and 4 of those species are dangerous to man.
• George Washington's favorite horse was named Lexington. Napoleon's favorite was Marengo. U.S. Grant had three favorite horses: Egypt, Cincinnati, and Jeff Davis.
• Just .016 mg of the toxin produced by the Poison Frog can kill a 180-pound man.
• The blowfish or fugu is a highly sought after and expensive delicacy in Japan, but it can also be lethal. Its liver is deadly poisonous; it is the gourmet equivalent of Russian roulette. Chefs have to be highly trained and licensed to serve the fish, yet despite this precaution at least a hundred people die each year, most from ingesting unseen traces of liver tissue.
• Many animals seem to be able to detect the Earth's magnetism. The Arctic Tern's migratory route follows the Earth's lines of magnetic force. Many other animals such as caribou, sea turtles, whales, birds and fish may also use the Earth's magnetism to find their way.
• Peru has the greatest bio-diversity and density of birds with 1780 species representing 18.5% of all bird species on Earth.
• According to ancient Greek literature, when Odysseus arrived home after an absence of 20 years, disguised as a beggar, the only one to recognize him was his aged dog Argos, who wagged his tail at his master, and then died.
• The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was formed in 1866.
• The expression "three dog night" originated with the Eskimos and means a very cold night - so cold that you have to bed down with three dogs to keep warm.
• The "caduceus" the classical medical symbol of two serpents wrapped around a staff - comes from an ancient Greek legend in which snakes revealed the practice of medicine to human beings.
• A pioneering technique using dogs to detect prostate cancer is being developed in Cambridgeshire.
• In 2002, a peasant in China (where alcoholic drinks containing preserved snakes are quite popular) uncorked a liquor bottle - and was bitten by the snake (which had been trapped for a year). The porous stopper had allowed enough air into the bottle for the snake's continued survival.
• A Bloodhound can distinguish and identify several scents at the same time.
• Bulldogs were originally bred to bait and fight bulls and bears.
• Smartest dogs: 1) border collie; 2) poodle; 3) golden retriever. Least smart: afghan
• The earliest fossil finds of dogs date back to 10,000 BC.
• The "Dingo" is the wild dog of Australia.
• The smallest of the recognized dog breeds, the Chihuahua, is also the one that usually lives the longest. Named for the region of Mexico where they were first discovered in the mid-19th century, the Chihuahua can live anywhere between 11-18 years.
• Developed in Egypt about 5,000 years ago, the greyhound breed was known before the ninth century in England, where it was bred by aristocrats to hunt such small game as hares.
• A cat will clean itself with paw and tongue after a dangerous experience or when it has fought with another cat. This is believed to be an attempt by the animal to soothe its nerves by doing something natural and instinctive.
• Korea's poshintang - dog meat soup - is a popular item on summertime menus, despite outcry from other nations. The soup is believed to cure summer heat ailments, improve male virility, and improve women's complexions.
• Flattened out, the rat cortex would be the size of a postage stamp, that of the chimp would be the size of a piece of standard typing paper, while the human brain would be four times greater still!
• In Norfolk, Virginia, it is unlawful for chickens to lay eggs before 8AM and after 4PM.
  
• The peacock is the national bird of India.
• Methane gas can often be seen bubbling up from the bottom of ponds. It is produced by the decomposition of dead plants and animals in the mud.
• Dogs only see shades of grey and most of them are short-sighted.
• At present even the most powerful PCs cannot process as many instructions as the .1gm of a goldfish brain.
• Young giraffes can grow an inch a month.
• 60-65 million years ago dolphins and humans shared a common ancestor - the Mesonycid.
• The saddleback tortoise has evolved a long neck and an arched shell in order to reach leaves a staggering 5 feet above the ground.
• Cleopatra used a mixture of horse teeth, bear grease, burnt mice and deer marrow in her attempt to cure Julius Caesar's baldness (it didn't work). Hedgehog urine was also thought to be beneficial.
• The fox, the coyote, and the hawk often follow badgers in order to catch animals that it has discovered.
• The Ancient Egyptian word for cat was mau, which means "to see".
• The normal temperature of a hibernating opossum falls from 95 degrees Fahrenheit to 50.9 degrees.
• Spider silk is a protein that is formed as a liquid by silk glands and squeezed out of spinnerets like toothpaste from a tube. The liquid thread hardens as it leaves the spinneret and some types of such thread become stronger than a steel thread of the same diameter.
• Spiders are believed to have existed for more than 300 million years.
• Never give your cat aspirin, unless advised to do so by your vet. Aspirin can cause hemorrhaging in the gastorintestinal tract. It can also depress bone marrow activity, which makes red blood cells and may also damage the kidneys.
• A group of cats is called a clowder; a group of kittens is called a kendle.
• Cats lose almost as much fluid in the saliva while grooming themselves as they do through urination.
• Cats roll on their backs to show affection. They expose their bellies like this only when they feel totally secure.
• Cats with long, lean bodies are more likely to be outgoing personalities than their stockier cousins. They are also more protective of their home and more vocal and demonstrative.
• There are an estimated 2,500 collisions between birds and planes each year in the US.
• Tree crickets are called the poor man's thermometer because temperature directly affects their rate of activity. Count the number of chirps a cricket makes in 15 seconds, then add 37. The sum will be very close to the outside temperature!
• If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
• The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
• A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
• Spiders have noses on their feet that can pick up the odours of possible prey, predators, or mates.
• The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint - no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.
• Wolves may howl messages to each other from a mile or two apart.
• Reptiles were responsible for such body part innovations as fur, feathers, claws, differentiated teeth, water impervious skin, water impervious eggs, and the penis.
• Spot, Data's cat on Star Trek: The Next Generation, was played by six different cats.
• The typical American eats 263 eggs a year.
• A typical hen lays 19 dozen eggs a year.
• The left leg of a chicken in more tender than the right one.
• Crocodiles and alligators are surprisingly fast on land. Although they are rapid, they are not agile. So if you ever find yourself chased by one, run in a zigzag line. You'll lose him or her every time.
• Pigs can cover a mile in 7.5 minutes when running at top speed.
• Many hamsters blink one eye at a time.
• The average human will eat 8 spiders while asleep in their lifetime.
• Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
• Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
• Mosquito repellents don't repel - they hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
• Livestock excrete 130 times as much waste as people.
• African elephants are the largest mammals living on solid ground. They reach lengths up to 7.5 m and weights up to 7500 kg.
• A mole can dig 60 feet of tunnel or more per day. This is equivalent to a five-foot woman burrowing the length of two football fields, while pushing two-ton objects out of her way.
• The dinosaurs became extinct before the Rockies or the Alps were formed.
• More types of fish swim in Brazil's Amazon River than in the entire Atlantic Ocean.
• The owl can catch a mouse in utter darkness, guided only by tiny sounds made by its prey.
• The Golden mole is one of the strongest animals by size of body weight. A captive Golden mole was able to exert a force equal to 150 times it's own weight.
• The camel first evolved in North America. It died out in the ice ages, but some had emigrated and survived in South America, Eurasia, and North Africa.
• Dogs cannot see as well as humans and are considered color blind. A dog sees objects first by their movement, second by their brightness, and third by their shape.
• The sperm of a mouse is longer than the sperm of an elephant.
• The East Alligator River in Australia's Northern Territory was misnamed. It contains crocodiles not alligators.
• The largest recorded flea is the North American Hystrichopsylla schefferi, measuring 12mm in length - almost 1/2-inch!
• If left to her own devices, a female cat may have three to seven kittens every four months. This is why population control using neutering and spaying is so important.
• Squids can commit suicide by eating their own tentacles.
• The typical housefly cruises at 8 km/hr.
• Kittens are born with both eyes and ears closed. When the eyes open, they are always blue at first. They change colour over a period of months to the final eye colour.
• Recent studies have shown that interacting with companion animals may speed recovery from illness, reduce stress, and promote family bonding.
• Cats are pure carnivores. They need a high level of protein in their diets - around 30% - and lack the digestive equipment to do well on a diet of grains, fruits or vegetables. Hence although dogs do just fine on a vegetarian diet, cats do not.
• A young male gorilla (about 8 to 10 years old) is called a black jack. He’s almost as big as a Silver Back, but his hair has not turned silvery yet, and he still has a lot to learn.
• Ants are said to never cross a chalk line. So if you've got ants, draw a line on the floor with chalk or wherever the ants are coming in and see for yourself! They won't cross the line. Baking soda works, too!
• Coral reefs are massive limestone structures that provide shelter for over 25 percent of all marine life.
• The most popular marine aquarium saltwater fish is the clown fish. Other popular saltwater aquarium fish include angelfish, royal gamma, hamlets, spotfin, yellowtail damsels, and blue tangs.
• Siamese kittens are born white because of the heat inside the mother's uterus before birth. This heat keeps the kittens' hair from darkening on the points.
• All dogs are probably descended from an animal called Tomarctus. This animal lived approximately 15 million years ago.
• To purr, cats use extra tissue in the larynx (voice box). This tissue vibrates when they purr.

• The fastest dog, the Saluki, can reach speeds of up to 43 miles per hour.
• The greyhound was known to exist in ancient Egypt 6,000 years ago.
• One 15 foot great white was found with 200 plus crabs in its stomach.
• The air is so polluted in Cubato, Brazil, that no birds or insects remain and most trees are blackened stumps. It's Mayor reportedly refuses to live there.
• In its entire lifetime, the average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey.
• The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers.
• A cat cannot see directly under its nose. This is why the cat cannot seem to find tidbits on the floor.
• On average, there are only about 100 shark attacks each year and only 10 of those result in a human death.
• You're more likely to be a target for mosquitoes if you eat bananas.
• If you could count the number of times a cricket chirps in one minute, divide by 2, add 9 and divide by 2 again, you would have the correct temperature in Celcius degrees.
• Rats are omnivorous, eating nearly any type of food, including dead and dying members of their own species.
• Howler monkeys are the noisiest land animals. Their calls can be heard over 2 miles away.
• Great White Sharks can live for 30 to 40 years.
• A capon is a castrated rooster.
• One in four animals on our planet is a beetle!
• Because of the fact that food is sparsely distributed, many creatures of the deep such as the umbrellamouth gulper eel have extendable mouths and stomachs so that they can swallow prey bigger than themselves.
• The penalty for killing a cat 4,000 years ago in Egypt was death.
• Cat's urine glows under a black light.
• Over 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles worldwide are killed by plastic rubbish every year. Marine life, in particular turtles, is prone to mistaking plastic bags for jellyfish, ingesting them and dying of intestinal blockage.
• On a beach holiday, you are more likely to die from a coconut falling on your head than a shark attack.
• Infant beavers are called kittens.
• There are about 100 breeds of cats.
• It's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands in Kansas.
• The most common name for a goldfish is "Jaws."
• The animal with the highest normal blood pressure is the giraffe. However the animal with the highest peak blood pressure is the flea, whose blood reaches a pressure of 10 atmospheres just before take off for a big jump.
• Male flies only gather at the base of bright lights as they are having a mating assembly.
• The pet ferret (Mustela putorias furo) was domesticated more than 500 years before the house cat.
• Whales annually feeding in the Bering Sea rework at least 120 million cubic metres of seabed sediment.
• Left to their own devices, pearls grow naturally only once in every 20,000 oysters.
• Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex.
• The average adult male ostrich, the world's largest living bird, weighs up to 345 pounds.
• Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.
• The average garden variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.
• The normal temperature of a cat is 101.5 degrees.
• Macaroni, Gentoo, Chinstrap and Emperor are types of penguins.
• A shrimp's heart is in their head.
• Ants don't sleep.
• The Mola Mola, or Ocean Sunfish, lays up to 5,000,000 eggs at one time.
• Basenji dogs and Australian dingoes are virtually identical.
• The only two animals that can see behind itself without turning it's head are the rabbit and the parrot.
• The two-foot long bird called a Kea that lives in New Zealand likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows.
• It is possible to lead a cow upstairs... but not downstairs.
• Baby seals are called pups, but they're also referred to as "weaners."
• Prairie dogs are not dogs. A prairie dog is a kind of rodent.
• Of the million-plus species of insects on earth, 3,000 of them are mosquitoes. More than 165 of those live in the United States.
• Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the deaths of their cats.
• The average laying hen lays 257 eggs a year.
• A cockroach breaks wind every 15 minutes.
• The American alligator is a member of the crocodile family, whose members are living fossils from the Age of Reptiles, having survived on earth for 200 million years.
• All porcupines float in water.
• Reindeer milk has more fat than cows milk.
• Some butterflies are poisonous. When a predator, like a bird, eats one of these butterflies it becomes sick, vomits violently, and quickly learns not to eat this type of butterfly.
• Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink".
• Every night, wasps bite into the stem of a plant, lock their mandibles (jaws) into position, stretch out at right angles to the stem and with legs dangling, fall asleep.
• Goldfish history can be traced back over 1500 years to Ancient China.
• A scallop has 35 blue eyes.
• The black widow spider can devour as many as twenty 'mates' in a single day.
• Between 1902 and 1907, the same tiger killed 434 people in India.
• The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F.
• Boxers are named for their playful habit of using their front paws in frolic.
• Of people with companion animals, 18% sleep with them.
• A cow's only sweat glands are in its nose.
• Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.
• Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
• Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray.
• The closest relative to the manatee is the elephant. Scientists think the elephant crawled back into the sea to become a manatee.
• About 22% of the world's catch of tuna goes into cat food in the United States.
• The fastest moving land snail, the common garden snail, has a speed of 0.0313 mph.
• Elephants can communicate using sounds that are below the human hearing range: between 14 and 35 hertz.
• Bird droppings are the chief export of Nauru, an island nation in the Western Pacific.
• Yak milk is pink in color.
• A male moth can smell a female moth from 100 yards away.
• An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes.
• The female flea consumes 15 times her own body weight in blood daily.
• Each day in the US, animal shelters are forced to destroy 30,000 dogs and cats.
• When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food.
• A cow produces 200 times more gas a day than a person.
• 26% of all electric cable breaks and 18% of all phone cable disruptions are caused by rats, 25% of all fires of unknown origin are rat-caused, and rats destroy an estimated 1/3 of the world's food supply each year. The rat has been called the world's most destructive mammal-other than man.
• Chinese Crested dogs can get acne.
• When a dog licks you with a straight tongue, he's saying "I Love You."
• Cat's urine glows under a black light.
• It was once against the law to have a pet dog in a city in Iceland.
• Cats can have freckles. They can appear anywhere on a cat's skin and even in its mouth.
• Siberian tigers are the largest of all of the tiger subspecies. Their size and extra thick, long coat help them survive temperatures as low as -49 degrees Fahrenheit.
• A female mackerel lays about 500,000 eggs at one time.
• The badger is the best digger of all meat-eating or carnivore mammals.
• The grey whale migrates 12,500 miles from the Artic to Mexico and back every year.
• The tallest bird in North America, the whooping crane stands 5 feet tall with a long, sinuous neck and long legs. The wings measure about 7 feet across.
• The bald eagle is truly an all-American bird - it is the only eagle unique to North America.
• It can take a deep-sea clam up to 100 years to reach 0.3 inches (8 millimeters) in length. The clam is among the slowest growing, yet longest living species on the planet.
• Most lipstick contains fish scales.
• Male and female rats may have sex twenty times a day. A female can produce up to twelve litters of twenty rats a year: one pair of rats has the potential for 15,000 descendants in a year.
• Mayflies live for a year or more as larvae, but as adults they live for only a few hours.
• Did you know that at Disneyland they have like hundreds of wild domesticated cats running around the park? They never come out during the day because there's too many people, but the reason they're there is to catch the mice.
• Polygerus ants in the Chirivhaua Mountains in Arizona have been known to raid nearby nests, kidnap the pupae and return home with their triumphant prizes. The enemy infants are raised as their own offspring and turned into 'slaves' who work 'willingly' for the good of their new hosts.
• Scientists found a whole new phylum of animal on a lobster's lip.
• A dairy cow drinks 20-50 gallons of water a day - about as much as a full bathtub.
• A polecat is not a cat. It is a nocturnal European weasel.
• Of the approximately 200 eggs laid by a female leatherback sea turtle an average of two will survive their youth and grow to sexual maturity.
• The slightest touch on a cat's whiskers will make its eyes blink.
• Elephants can detect the aroma of ripening fruit from over 20 kilometres away.
• The fastest bird is the Spine-tailed swift, clocked at speeds of up to 220 miles per hour.
• Stag beetles have stronger mandibles than humans.
• The Whale Shark can get up to 50 feet long and weigh over 16 tons. Its mouth can open as wide as five feet.
• A bird requires more food in proportion to its size than a baby or a cat.
• Amphibians’ eyes come in a variety shapes and sizes. Some even have square or heart-shaped pupils.
• Fish cannot live in the Dead Sea because the water has too much salt in it.
• A cat's tongue consists of small "hooks," which come in handy when tearing up food.
• The average outdoor only cat has a lifespan of about three years. Indoor only cats can live sixteen years and longer.
• Cats purr at about 26 cycles per second, the same frequency as an idling diesel engine.
• A quarter of the horses in the US died of a vast virus epidemic in 1872.
• The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.
• The cheetah is the only cat in the world that can't retract its claws.
• Catfish have 100,000 taste buds.
• A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
• Only 2 out of 10 kittens born in the U.S. ever find a life-long home.
• The mouse is the most common mammal in the US.
• The turkey was named for what was wrongly thought to be its country of origin.
• Dachshunds are the smallest breed of dog used for hunting. They are low to the ground, which allows them to enter and maneuver through tunnels easily.
• The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards.
• A baby bat is called a pup.
• When a dolphin is sick or injured, its cries of distress summon immediate aid from other dolphins, who try to support it to the surface so that it can breathe.
• Cats cannot survive on a vegetarian diet.
• Owls have eyeballs that are tubular in shape, because of this, they cannot move their eyes.
• The world's largest rodent is the Capybara. An Amazon water hog that looks like a guinea pig, it can weigh more than 100 pounds.
• When a domestic cat goes after mice, about one pounce in three results in a catch.
• The poisonous copperhead snake smells like fresh cut cucumbers.
• Herons stamp and peck at mosquitoes around their feet up to three thousand times an hour. This behaviour prevents more then 80 percent of the mosquitoes from feeding on the heron's blood.
• French poodles did not originate in France. Poodles were originally used as hunting dogs in Europe. The dogs thick coats were a hindrance in water and thick brush, so hunters sheared the hindquarters, with cuffs left around the ankles and hips to protect against rheumatism. Each hunter marked his dogs' heads with a ribbon of his own color, allowing groups of hunters to tell their dogs apart.
• The Antpitta avis canis Ridgley is a bird that looks like a stuffed duck on stilts and barks like a dog. The bird was discovered by ornithologist Robert S. Ridgley in the Andes in Ecuador in June 1998. Thirty of these long-legged, black-and-white barking birds were found. It apparently had gone undetected because it lives in remote parts and, of course, doesn't sing. The size of a duck, it is one of the largest birds discovered in the last 50 years.
• A cockroach will live nine days without its head, before it starves to death.
• Almost 65% of Central America has been cleared to create pastureland for grazing cattle.
• The greatest number of dogs ever owned by one person were 5000 mastiffs owned by Kubla Khan.
• Ancient Chinese royalty carried Pekingese dogs in the sleeves of their royal robes.
• The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.
• A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second.
• A newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in length.
• Catnip can affect lions and tigers as well as house cats. It excites them because it contains a chemical that resembles an excretion of the dominant female's urine.
• In Ventura County, California, cats and dogs are not allowed to have sex without a permit.
• A 42-foot sperm whale has about 7 tons of oil in it.
• Mosquitoes prefer children to adults, and blondes to brunettes.
• Ducks on the outer edges of a group sleep with one eye open. Those in the center of the group confidently close both eyes.
• Cats have better memories than dogs. Tests conducted by the University of Michigan concluded that while a dogs memory lasts no more than 5 minutes, a cat's can last as long as 16 hours - exceeding even that of monkeys and orangutans.
• Hummingbirds are the smallest birds - so tiny that one of their enemies is an insect, the praying mantis.
• Eighty-five percent of all life on Earth is Plankton.
• The Maine Coon cat is America's only natural breed of domestic feline.
• A crocodile's digestive juices are so strong that it can digest a steel nail.
• The Kiwi, national bird of New Zealand, can't fly. It lives in a hole in the ground, is almost blind, and lays only one egg each year. Despite this, it has survived for more than 70 million years.
• Mockingbirds can imitate any sound from a squeaking door to a cat meowing.
• Mosquitoes dislike citronella because it irritates their feet.
• Only full-grown male crickets can chirp.
• A female oyster over her lifetime may produce over 100 million young.
• House mice are able to drop vertically down 12 feet without injury. Mice can jump straight up 12 inches.
• The male platypus has venom strong enough to can kill a small dog and cause excruciating pain among humans.
• The bloodhound is the only animal whose evidence is admissible in an American court.
• The average human eats eight spiders in their lifetime at night.
• It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
• The largest cockroach on record is one measured at 3.81 inches in length.
• The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people.
• A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana.
• Koalas have been known to make extremely loud and agressive growling noise.
• Certain frogs can be frozen solid then thawed and continue living.
• The venom of the stonefish can kill a human in two hours.
• Polar Bears cannot be detected by infrared cameras, due to their transparent fur.
• The mouse is the most common mammal in the US.
• If a shark doesn't continually swim, it will sink.
• A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites.
• Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they can’t find any food.
• Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph.
• A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue.
• Worker ants may live seven years and the queen may live as long as 15 years.
• Tapeworms range in size from about 0.04 inch to more than 50 feet in length.
• You should not eat a crawfish with a straight tail. It was dead before it was cooked.
• The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.
• The animal responsible for the most human deaths world-wide is the mosquito.
• One square mile of rainforest has more types of butterflies than all of North America.
• A newborn giant panda is only the size of a stick of butter.
• A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.
• Neutering a cat extends its life span by two or three years.
• It may take longer than two days for a chick to break out of its shell.
• A rat can last longer without water than a camel can.
• A female dog, her mate and her puppies can produce 12,288 dogs in five years.
• Snakes are immune to their own poison.
• The cockroach is the fastest animal on 6 legs, covering a meter a second.
• Large kangaroos cover more than 30 feet with each jump.
• The honeybee kills more people world-wide than all the poisonous snakes combined.
• Each year, insects eat 1/3 of the Earth's food crop.
• It would require an average of 18 hummingbirds to weigh in at 1 ounce.
• Moles are able to tunnel through 300 feet of earth in a day.
• A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.
• The first bird domesticated by man was the goose.
• Cats respond most readily to names that end in an "ee" sound.
• Beaver teeth are so sharp that Native Americans once used them as knife blades.
• A woodchuck breathes only 10 times during hibernation.
• The blood of mammals is red, the blood of insects is yellow, and the blood of lobsters is blue.
• Rats like boiled sweets better than they like cheese.
• A chameleon's tongue is twice the length of its body.
• Honeybees may collect pollen from as many as 500 flowers, all of the same species - in a single trip.
• The largest eggs in the world are laid by a shark.
• Most brands of lipstick and some kinds of fruit drinks are tinted with extract from the cochineal insect.
• The hummingbird's brain, 4.2 percent of its body weight, is proportionately the largest among birds.
• The dog equivalent of catnip is called Stinking Goosefoot, a foul-smelling plant.
• In Knoxville, Tennessee, it's against the law to lasso a fish.
• The world's most endangered cetacean is the Baiji, or Yangtze River Dolphin.
• The practice of eating insects is called entomophagy.
• Generally, flies are abundant in the immediate vicinity of their breeding site. Under certain conditions, they may migrate 1 to 4 miles, but are usually limited to one-half to 2 miles.
• Hibernating ground squirrels' blood has four times the amount of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) than their blood contains when they are not hibernating.
• In Kingsville, Texas, it is against the law for two pigs to have sex on the city's airport property
• An alligator has about 80 teeth in its mouth at one time. An alligator can go through 3,000 teeth in a lifetime.
• The hippopotamus has skin an inch and a half thick - so solid that most bullets cannot penetrate it.
• In 1997, the record for the highest skydive by a dog at 4,572 feet was established by a dog named Brutus.
• If a lobster loses a claw or an eye, it is usually able to grow another, although the new one is usually smaller.
• Ticks can be as small as a grain of rice and grow to be as big as a marble.
• Most birds will incubate nearly any round object. Similarly, ground-nesting birds tend to roll round objects into their nests.
• Almost 50 percent of North American species of cricket were discovered only by their different songs, they are that similar to each other.
• About three new species of bird are discovered each year.
• In certain species of seals, like the elephant seal, males may be several times larger than females because larger males can better defeat their rivals in territorial fights and so acquire larger harems.

• You can tell if a skunk is about if you smell only .000 000 000 000 071 ounce of its spray.
• When a dolphin is sick or injured, its cries of distress summon immediate aid from other dolphins, who try to support it to the surface so that it can breathe.
• The Albatross has a wing span of up to 14 feet and only needs to land once every couple of years to breed. They can travel hundreds of thousands of miles each flight.
• Certain Chinese and American alligators can survive the winter by freezing their heads in ice, leaving their nose out to breath for months on end.
• Sea Otters use so much energy that they need to eat as much as one-third of their weight each day.
• The biggest bird in the world is the ostrich, which can grow up to nine feet tall.
• According to hospital figures, dogs bite an average of 1 million Americans a year.
• The sailfish, the swordfish and the mako shark have all been clocked at swimming over 50mph.
• Montana mountain goats will butt heads so hard their hooves fall off.
• It takes around 10 dump-truck loads of wood to make a proper funeral pyre for a full-size elephant.
• The notion that cats and dogs are natural enemies (suggested by the phrase,"fighting like cats and dogs") is overstated, if not simply false. Generally speaking, cats and dogs get along better than cats and cats or dogs and dogs.
• The last animal in the dictionary is the Zyzzyva, a tropical weevil.
• Honeybees have hair on their eyes.
• The only continent without reptiles or snakes is Antarctica.
• There's a "meow" in the middle of "homeowner."
• According to a survey by the American Animal Hospital Association, 53 percent of pet owners vacation or travel with their pets.
• The Dalmatian breed of dog originates from the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia.
• Surveys show that 62 percent of dog owners admit that their dog owns a sweater, wintercoat or raincoat.
• Cats prefer to eat their food at 86º F, which is why they don't immediately gulp down the half-eaten can of food from the refrigerator.
• In 1987, cats overtook dogs as the number one pet in America.
• A frightened dog puts it's tail between it's legs because it covers the scent glands in the anal area. Since the anal glands carry personal scents that identify individual dogs, the tail-between the-legs behavior is the canine equivalent of insecure humans hiding their faces.
• At least 63% of dog owners admitted to kissing their dogs. Of these, some 45% kissed them on the nose, 19% on the neck, 7% on the back, 5% on the stomach and 2% on the legs. An additional 29% listed the place they kiss their dog as other!
• The frog was an ancient Egyptian symbol, later adopted by the conquering Romans. The Frog-headed goddess Hekt was the goddess of birth and fertility, and later also of resurrection.
• The study of ants is called Myrmecology.
• One in 5,000 North Atlantic lobsters are born bright blue.
• The biggest ant colony was found on the Ishikari Coast of Hokkaido: 306 million worker ants and 1 million queens lived in 45,000 interconnected nests over an area of 2.7 square kilometres (1,7 square miles). A worker ant will live for up to 5 years; while a Queen will live up to 25 years.
• Newfoundland dogs are strong swimmers due to their webbed feet.
• Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they can’t find any food.
• The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.
• Fleas have changed history. More human deaths have been attributed to fleas than all the wars ever fought. As carriers of the bubonic plague, fleas were responsible for killing one-third of the population of Europe in the 14th century.
• The Dalmatian is the only dog that gets gout.
• A tiger's paw prints are called pug marks.
• A dog was once the King of Norway for 3 years during the 11th centurey AD. The Norwegian King, angry his subjects once deposed him put Saur on the throne, demanding that he be treated regally.
• Rabbits love licorice.
• Emus have double-plumed feathers, and they lay emerald/forest green eggs.
• The tallest dog on record was named Shamgret Danzas. He was 42 inches tall (at the shoulder!) and weighed 238 lbs.
• To figure out your "true dog's age" in human terms, count the first full year as 15 years, the second full year as 10 yeas and all the following years as 3 years. In other words, a 5 year old dog would be: 15+10+3+3+3=34 years old.
• Great Danes can eat up to 8 1/2 pounds of food a day.
• Slugs have 4 noses.
• The first dog show was held in England in 1859.
• A cheetah can reach a top speed approaching 70 mph.
• Greyhounds can jump a distance of 27 feet.
• More than 5 million puppies are born in the United States each year.
• As of 2001, there are around 44 million sheep in New Zealand, a country of around 4 million people.
• Dolphins sleep with one half of the brain at a time, and one eye closed.
• Cat whiskers are found on the face and on the back of the forelegs as well.
• A hippo can run faster than man.
• In North America, a black cat crossing your path is thought to bring bad luck. In Great Britain, a black cat crossing your path is thought to bring good luck.
• A white cat sleeping outside your home on your wedding day is said to bring lasting happiness.
• The Rottweiler makes an excellent family pet. They are especially good with children and a fantastic guard dog.
• The average cow produces 40 glasses of milk each day.
• The membranes in a dog's nose, if unfolded and laid out, would be larger than the dog itself.
• Sir Isaac Newton invented the cat door.
• Current domestic cats were the result of genetic mutation so that they would be tame at birth.
• A Panda's diet is 99% bamboo.
• When two dogs approach each other, the dog which wags its tail very slowly is in charge.
• Some lions can mate over 50 times a day.
• If you lift a Kangaroo's tail off the ground it can't hop - they use their tails for balance.
• For every person there are rougly 200 million insects.
• Polar bears can swim 60 miles without pausing for a rest.
• The leech has 32 brains.
• The Galpagos Tortoise has a potential life span of 200 years.
• At the end of the Beatles' song 'A Day in the Life,' an ultrasonic whistle, only audible to dogs, was recorded by Paul McCartney for his Shetland sheepdog.
• The praying mantis only has one ear.
• A purring cat doesn't always mean a contented cat. Cats will also purr if they are in pain.
• Dachshunds were bred to fight badgers in their dens.
• A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
• You are more likely to be killed by a Champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.
• On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
• Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
• Small dogs usually live longer than larger breeds.
• 40% of all cats are ambidextrous. The other 60% are either "right-pawed" or "left-pawed".
• The Chihuahua is the oldest breed of dog native to North America.
• Many cat lovers believe cats are intuitive. That's because they are right-brain dominant.
• Cats spend 30% of their waking hours grooming themselves.
• Cat's can't taste sweets.
• The smallest dog in history was a tiny Yorkie from Blackburn, England. At two years of age and fully grown he was only 2.5 inches tall by 3.75 inches long and weighed only 4 ounces.
• Not all dogs eyes reflect green in the dark, some reflect orange or red.
• White cats with blue eyes are usually deaf.
• Cats rarely meow at each other. Meowing is reserved for "speaking" with humans.
• The only dog in the world that cannot bark is the Basenji, an African wolf dog.
• The membranes in a dog's nose, if unfolded and laid out, would be larger than the dog itself.
• About 600 species of plants are carnivorous. Most eat insects but also on the menu are frogs, birds and even small monkeys.
• If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from the town.
• A group of owls is called a parliament.
• Dogs and humans are the only animals with prostates.
• A flea expert is a pullicologist.
• A pig is a hog -- hog is a generic name for all swine -- but a hog is not a pig. In the terminology of hog raising, a pig is a baby hog less than ten weeks old.
• Ancient Romans ate flamingo tongues and considered them a delicacy.
• All elephants walk on tip-toe, because the back portion of their foot is made up of all fat and no bone.
• A rhinoceros's horn is made of hair.
• Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.
• Elephants have been found swimming miles from shore in the Indian Ocean.
• The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.
• "Eat like a bird?" Many birds eat twice their weight a day.
• Dogs have about 100 different facial expressions, most of them made with the ears.
• Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.
• All swans and all sturgeons in England are property of the Queen. Messing with them is a serious offense.
• Kiwi birds are blind, they hunt by smell.
• Rhinos are in the same family as horses, and are thought to have inspired the myth of the unicorn.
• Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occuring, relax and correct itself. At about that height it hits maximum speed and when it hits the ground it's rib cage absorbs most of the impact.
• The Honey Badger can withstand hundreds of African bee stings that would kill any other animal.
• Giraffes have no vocal cords.
• The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
• During World War II, Americans tried to train bats to drop bombs.
• Roosters can't crow if they can't fully extend their necks.
• The leg bones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk.
• When opossums are playing opossum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.
• The placement of a donkey's eyes in its head enables it to see all four feet at all times.
• A full-grown bear can run as fast as a horse.
• If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die, as they need gravity to swallow.
• A donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule won't.
• The penguins that inhabit the tip of South America are called jackass penguins.
• Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils.
• Human birth control pills work on gorillas.
• A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down.
• A dolphin's hearing is so acute that it can pick up an underwater sound from fifteen miles away.
• Chickens absorb vitamin-D through their combs from sunshine.
• The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infra-red and ultra-violet light.
• Blue Whales weigh as much as 30 elephants and are as long as three Greyhound buses.
• Butterflies taste with their hind feet.
• Birds do not sleep in their nests. They may occasionally nap in them, but they actually sleep in other places.
• A snail can sleep for three years.
• More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.
• Lobsters can live up to 50 years.
• Male flies only gather at the base of bright lights when they are having a mating assembly.
• In 1939, a shower of tiny frogs fell on the English town of Trowbridge. Strong winds had carried them aloft from streams and ponds.
• Bees have five eyes. There are 3 small eyes on the top of a bee's head and 2 larger ones in front.
• The fruit flys DNA sequence is 180 million bases long, whilst a humans is three billion.
• In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
• Cows do not have upper front teeth.
• A female oyster over her lifetime may produce over 100 million young.
• Mosquitoes are attracted to the colour blue twice as much as to any other colour.
• Spider web filaments were used in gun sights as the 'cross hairs' until the early 1960's.
• No two zebras have the same markings.
• Some male songbirds sing more than 2000 times each day.
• There are more chickens than people in the world.
• The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.
• Killer Whales (Orcas) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
• Hippos have killed more than 400 people in Africa - more than any other wild animal.
• A baby elephant calf can weigh up to 260 pounds when it is born.
• Pandas in China have been given Viagra to help them mate.
• Polar bears are the only mammal with hair on the soles of its feet.
• We share 98.4% of our DNA with a chimp - and 70% with a slug.
• Oysters can change from one gender to another and back again depending on which is best for mating.
• A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
• A bee must visit 4,000 flowers in order to make one tablespoon of honey.
• The common Black Ants and Wood Ants have no sting, but they can squirt a spray of formic acid. Some birds put ants in their feathers because the ants squirt formic acid which gets rid of the parasites.
• The wingspan of the Indonesian fruitbat equals the height of filmstar Sylvester Stallone.
• Ticks are second only to the mosquito as the most dangerous parasites to humans.
• By swallowing water, the Pufferfish becomes too big for other fish to swallow.
• According to one study, plant and animal species are becoming extinct at the rate of 17 per hour.
• The larva of the polyphemus moth consumes 86,000 times its birth weight in its first 56 days.
• Mayflies live for a year or more as larvae; but as adults they live for only a few hours.
• Great White Sharks can go as long as three months without eating.
• Mexico is the world's pig tapeworm capital with estimates that about 4 percent of all Mexicans have the adult tapeworm in their intestine.
• A bee can see the colours green, blue and ultra-violet - but red looks like black.
• Shrimps' hearts are in their heads.
• It takes 3000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of American Footballs.
• Bats always turn left when leaving a cave.
• Polar Bears cannot be detected by infrared cameras, due to their transparent fur.
• An elephant herd can move fifty miles in a day.
• The biggest shark species has the smallest teeth. The 12 metre long whale shark has more than 4,000 teeth, each only 3mm long.
• As a general rule in the animal kingdom, the more complex or relatively big the eye in relation to the body, then the smaller the rest of the brain.
• A large swarm of locusts can eat 80,000 tons of corn in a day.
• The female lion is a much more efficient hunter than the male.
• Giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands weigh up to 225 kilos and can live for over 150 years.
• Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of a blue whale.
• A newborn giant panda is only the size of a stick of butter.
• An Animal Hospital Association survey revealed that 62 percent of dog owners sign letter or cards from themselves and their dogs.
• The hydra - a close relative of jellyfish and sea anemones, can regenerate or grow back if it's cut in half.
• Coyotes are a close cousin of all pet dogs. The coyote's scientific name (Canis Latrans) meands 'barking dog'.
• The Dodo was first discovered in 1507 - 100 years later it was hunted to extinction.
• Female fleas consume fifteen times their weight daily.
• Mosquitoes have been found to prefer biting people with smelly feet.
• A rhinoceros beetle can support up to 850 times its own weight on it's back. That would be the equivalent of a man carrying 76 family-sized cars around on his back.
• The silkworm moth has eleven brains.
• Americans spend more money on dog food each year then they do on baby food.
• The Australian Sea Wasp or Box Jellyfish which is found off the coast of Queensland causes death within 3 minutes if medical aid is not administered.
• When a giraffe's baby is born it falls from a height of six feet, normally without being hurt.
• A dragonfly can spot an insect moving 33 feet away.
• Giraffes can clean their ears with their half metre long tongue.
• There are an estimated five million, trillion, trillion bacteria on Earth.
• The world's smallest winged insect, the Tanzanian parasitic wasp, is smaller than the eye of a housefly.
• Inbreeding causes 3 out of every 10 Dalmation dogs to suffer from hearing disability.
• When a flea jumps, the rate of acceleration is 20 times that of the space shuttle during launch.
• Over 10,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows.
• Despite its reputation for being finicky, the average cat consumes about 127,750 calories a year, nearly 28 times its own weight in food and the same amount again in liquids. In case you were wondering, cats cannot survive on a vegetarian diet.
• The remains of diatoms, algae with hard shells, are used in making pet litter, cosmetics, pool filters and tooth polish.
• When a queen bee lays the fertilized eggs that will develop into new queens, only one of the newly laid queens actually survives. The first new queen that emerges from her cell destroys all other queens in their cells and, thereafter, reigns alone.
• The cat was domesticated over 4,000 years ago. Today's house cats are descended from wildcats in Africa and Europe.
• Many fish can change sex during the course of their lives. Others, especially rare deep-sea fish, have both male and female sex organs.
• Cats step with both left legs, then both right legs when they walk or run. The only other animals to do this are the giraffe and the camel.
• The stuff (allergens) that people are allergic to in cats is a protein in cat saliva. When the cat grooms and the saliva dries it can become airborn. This protein is 1/3 the weight of ordinary housedust, so it can travel farther. You can find this allergen where cats have never been.
• An adult lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away, and warns off intruders or reunites scattered members of the pride.
• The oarfish, Regalecus glesne, is the longest bony fish in the world. With its snakelike body_sporting a magnificent red fin along its 50-foot length_horselike face and blue gills, it accounts for many sea-serpent sightings.
• Camel milk does not curdle.
• Australian termites have been known to build mounds twenty feet high and at least 100 feet wide.
• The first house rats recorded in America appeared in Boston in 1775.
• A father sea catfish keeps the eggs of his young in his mouth until they are ready to hatch. He will not eat until his young are born, which may take several weeks.
• Animal gestation periods: the shortest is the American opossum, which bears its young 12 to 13 days after conception; the longest is the Asiatic elephant, taking 608 days, or just over 20 months.
• A cat sees about six times better than a human at night because of the tapetum lucidum , a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.
• The Pacific Giant Octopus, the largest octopus in the world, grows from the size of pea to a 150 pound behemoth potentially 30 feet across in only two years, its entire life-span.
• Horseshoe crabs have existed in essentially the same form for the past 135 million years. Their blood provides a valuable test for the toxins that cause septic shock, which previously led to half of all hospital-acquired infections and one-fifth of all hospital deaths.
• Cats respond better to women than men. One reason this might be is that women have higher pitched voices than men.
• The cat's brain needs so much energy to function that over twenty percent of blood that the heart pumps goes immediately to it.
• The male penguin incubates the single egg laid by his mate. During the two month period he does not eat, and will lose up to 40% of his body weight.
• A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.
• A group of herring is called a seige. A group of jelly fish is called a smack.
• The domestic cat is the only species able to hold its tail vertically while walking. Wild cats hold their tail horizontally, or tucked between their legs while walking.
• The catgut formerly used as strings in tennis rackets and musical instruments does not come from cats. Catgut actually comes from sheep, hogs, and horses.
• Penguins "fly" underwater at up to 25 miles per hour.
• The oceans contain 99 percent of the living space on the planet.
• Both humans and cats have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion.
• According to experts, whale songs rhyme.
• Electric light or light from your TV set will make your cat shed her fur.

Many business owners think that salesmanship and marketing are enough to succeed in business. Bzzzt! Wrong answer! There's another level to which all businesses should aspire: Creating a brand.

Branding is not marketing. Rather it is an integral part of your marketing strategy. It's also an important part of how you interact with clients, prospects, vendors, employees, and anyone else with whom you come in contact. Branding creates an image.

Proper branding creates loyalty. For example, what soda do you drink? What supermarket do you use? What's your favorite brand of gasoline? Take this exercise a step further. What image comes to mind when you think of the Sears? Neiman Marcus? Wal-Mart? Chances are that, unless you've had a bad experience at one of these stores, your perception is a result of branding strategy.

There are said to be 5 levels of brand recognition:

Brand rejection

If someone associates your brand with something negative, they will purposely avoid your product. Have you ever experienced bad service somewhere and swore you’d never return to that chain? Have any of your customers said that about your business? Create a logo and slogan that is filled with great benefits to your customer and put that on everything. If public opinion is turning against you or your product, launch a campaign to alter it.

Brand non-recognition

This is where your customers simply don’t recognize your brand… probably because it is not clearly differentiated from competitors. Boldly state your product or service’s benefits. Always include the full trademark name whenever you refer to your product. Be willing to create brand names for your products or services, just like you’ve done for your own business. Find the differences in value between your product and your competitors and highlight that difference mercilessly.

Brand recognition

This is a good stage to aim for if you don’t have any recognition at all. Brand recognition will help people lean toward your product when given the choice between your product and one they have never heard of. At the same time, though remember that your competitors are also working on brand recognition, which means their brand could be more recognizable. Continue to differentiate yourself and be sure to add value to your product in order to get to the next stage.

Brand preference

This is where customers – given a choice between two brands – will choose yours over someone else’s. It often is the result of a sense of differentiation and that your product or service uniquely serves their needs. As well, you can be sure that any value-added products or services you include help them to choose yours over your competitors. Even though this is a great stage to be in, it’s not the final stage. The stage you absolutely want to be in with your brand is…

Brand loyalty

This is where customers will choose your brand time and time again, even if they experience the occasional poor service or if another product comes along that seems to be better suited to their needs. To achieve brand loyalty, you need to provide a product that is highly differentiated, with plenty of value added, but also you need to offer them remarkable service at a level they will not get anywhere else. Providing this level of service will ensure that they will never switch.

How To Create An Effective Brand Name

One thing you'll notice about many of the most widely known brands is that they're simple and easily remembered, often consisting of just a three-letter acronym such as: IBM, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, BBC, etc.

Others are equally as memorable because they use words we already know such as: Apple, Windows, Brother, Cannon, etc.

However, there are also many more obscure or made-up words used to create brand names. Words such as: Xerox, Compaq, eBay, Yahoo, etc.

This shows that, when it comes to branding, "it ain't what you got, it's the way that you use it" that matters. 

The Logo

Just like brand names, the most effective brands have very simple, easily identified logos. A simple rule of thumb is that if you can't look at a logo for just 10 seconds then draw it with pen and paper -- it's too complex. Good examples of simple but very effective logos are those used by Mercedes, McDonalds, and the Yellow Pages.

If people can't remember what your logo looks like, they won't recognize it and they won't remember your brand. In its simplest form, your logo can simply be the brand-name itself, usually rendered in a tasteful font using contrasting colors.

And don't underestimate the importance of colors -- some companies have even trademarked the colors they're using as part of their branding!

IBM isn't called "Big Blue" for nothing -- and surely you've heard of "The Golden Arches" that identify McDonalds?

In fact, the whole process of designing the shape and color-scheme for a logo can be so critical that you might want to fork out good money to pay an expert to do the job. 

Choosing a name for your business is one of the first major decisions you'll make. Dreaming up one may come easy for some, but others struggle with the task. The name needs to be right as the wrong name can actually be the end of your wonderful business plan.

Easy to remember, easy to spell

Obviously, your potential customers and clients need to be able to remember your business name. They also need to be able to find it easily if they’re looking for it in a phone book, directory or online. Choosing a business name such as “Crychalwellyn” is a bad idea. Unique is good but difficult spellings are a bad idea.

Try to avoid words that can be written more than one way. When someone is telling you a name watch out for variations:

• Two can be confused with 2, To and Too
• You can be confused with the letter U

Create a visual element

What popped into your head when you read “Crychalwellyn”? Anything? Most people don't visualize anything when they read this business name that I invented. But generally we are hard-wired to “see” images when we read or hear language, and incorporating a visual element into your business name can be a powerful aid to customers’ memory (and a powerful advertising tool).

So you want your business name to have a strong visual element to it. The catch is that...

Include information about what your business does.

Chances are good that your new business is not going to become an international brand. It certainly isn't instantly going to become as well known as Nike. So you need to be sure that your new business name at least gives your potential customers or clients some clues about what you actually do. That is why you see so many landscaping businesses that have the word “landscaping” in their name, and hair styling businesses that include words such as “salon” or even “hair designs” in their names.

Including information about what your business does in your business name also makes it easier for potential customers and/or clients to find your business in phone books and directories (both off and online).

Keep your name short

Once again this is vital because you want customers and clients to be able to remember your business's name (and be able to tell other people what it is)! But it is also important for promotional purposes. You want a business name, for example, that will fit well on a business card, look good displayed on a sign or in an ad, and perhaps even a business name that will serve well as a domain name and show up well in search if you have an online business. So keep it as short as possible.

Quick tips

Being specific

There really is nothing better than making it obvious what you do. Economy Car Hire, for example, also suggests value for money

Positive associations

Link the name to something well known that is in common usage (so not copyright). E.g. Capability Brown's Garden Store.

Top of the list

Whilst Aardvark Roofing might get you pole position in the Yellow Pages, it'll be suspiciously obvious that you’ve done it on purpose. Better to create a happy coincidence, such as Abbey Roofing.

Generics

You would remember a business called ‘Wellington’s Boot Store. Also, if people are searching for you online, generic names help.

Benefits

Clearly the more your name alludes to a benefit, the easier it will be for people to remember. ‘Sparkling Windows’, suggests just that.

Homophones

These are words that sound the same, but have different spellings. They stick in the mind. The Sauce Source Ltd

Numbers

Adding numbers passes in and out of fashion. Unless there is a good reason (M25 Auto Recovery), numbers are usually best avoided.

Your name(s)

Although Messrs Marks, Spencer, Ford and Woolworth are amongst the best known exceptions, it usually shows a lack of imagination to simply call your business by your name.

Domain name

The internet is becoming more important. Check out the available domain names before committing yourself.

Second opinion

Hours of hard work will lead you to some stunning ideas for names. But, before deciding, ask others for their view.

When you are trying to impress a lady, there are some things that have less effect than most guys think:

• How you carry yourself
• How you project your thoughts
• How you are feeling

These 3 things are thought to be the best way things to work on if you want to impress a lady. The solution is a bit more simple than that.

Women are attracted to men who can handle things by themselves and are not needy.

By seeming to be needy, you are effectively turning women off you straight away. Even if you highly valued in the social circles, being needy is disastrous and can give off a vibe that is incongruent and strange.

The first step you need to take to attract a woman is to eradicate all traces of neediness and negative mannerisms and then work on adopting the correct body language signs. Just by eliminating the four negative body language signs, your ability attract a woman feels increases exponentially.

Nervousness

Nervousness is a sign that you are not comfortable with the current situation, and are not in this situation very often. If you are on a date, she may start to think that you do not go on dates very often. There are many simple body cues to this like:

• Fidgeting around nervously
• Moving your body, hands, and head too fast

The type of signals that you want to give off are:

• Being totally relaxed
• Relaxed shoulder
• Relaxed movements
• Relaxed thinking
• Slower movements

So starting right now:

• Slow down all your movements to at least half speed
• Nervousness can be felt in your voice, so slow down your rate of speech
• Not slow motion, but rather a speed that shows you are in no hurry to get your point across

Showing Off & Trying Way Too Hard

Women don't like men who take themselves too seriously. Men who don't laugh, smile, or who aren't fun typically don't get laid. You do not want to give or seem:

• Too business like…
• Too sophisticated….
• Too restricted…
• Answers to questions that are  long and  come across as too scientific… a total turn off.

All that these signals do is show her that you lack social skill and are trying to hard to impress her. Leave all sense of seriousness at home and remember, you are going out to socialize and have a good time, not to show off.

Eagerness / Puppy Dog Syndrome

• How many guys have you seen eagerly waiting for a woman when she says she's going to the bathroom?
• How many guys have you seen going after a woman after she walks away from him?
  
• How many times have you found yourself eagerly answering her questions as soon as she asks them, or telling her all kinds of things about yourself… essentially giving her your resume before you have to?

This is the dreaded puppy dog syndrome that makes a guy seem too eager. The problem with this is that it does do give the woman any challenge at all. Think back to how many times you were talking with a woman and got interrupted, only to go back to the same topic at the first chance you get?

It is like wanting to connect with someone who really hasn't earned it yet. 

• Why the eagerness?
• Why the desperation?
  

Next time you’re talking with a woman, check your non-verbal communication.

• Are you totally facing her with your body before you should? 
• Are you eagerly leaning into her space, and not leaning back, relaxed? 
• Are you nervously telling a joke and laughing first before she gets a chance to process it?

If you are, recompose yourself and get back in the correct mindset.

Imagined Inferiority

Your unconscious beliefs about who you are and what you deserve in life instantly come across to a woman on an unconscious level. Feelings of inferiority can be seen in anything…

• from being obnoxious on the opener,
• to approaching when you know it is impossible to get her given the circumstances, 
• to acting rude or mean if they snub or reject you.

Men with inferiority complexes give too many explanations and excuses for their behaviours, words, and even situations in life… like outright saying something like, "I used to have lots of money… but my business was not doing well… now I work at a food mart. Really, I've realized that money is not the most important thing."

Or if they're short, they say stuff like, "Don't you find short men sexy?"

It is overcompensating because somehow you feel inferior or insecure. Don't make it an issue out of these or even bring them up. The same thing goes for excuse,  if you are not in a talkative mood (why are you going out then), don't say that you’re usually a talker. If you're tired, don't SAY you’re tired.

Another manifestation of an inferiority complex is not turning your back on a woman and talking to another woman or walking away, when she does something to you that you wouldn't accept from another guy, or some obese woman.

Next time you go out, watch yourself and make sure you are not giving excuses for yourself.

These four adjustments to your non-verbal communication will improve your performance instantly. By working on these areas, you can relax while sequencing her through states without worrying about her cutting off the interaction prematurely by sensing your neediness and desperation.

There are so many ways to save money, and the least effective one is finding things on sale. We have to learn how to find and use what we already have. It's a talent lost in our present culture of wanting more. Find a few ideas below to stimulate your own creativity to do what fits for your own family and household.

We have been recycling paper for many years, as many others have, but we've found that most folks don't think about using the paper before recycling it. Do you realize how much junk mail passes through the home or office that has printing only on one side? We keep it and use it in our printers. Most of what we print is for ourselves and for our files, so we save having to buy reams of paper.

We also do this when we print something for somebody else that we know, so it will be a topic for conversation, which gives us the chance to teach that recycling and concern for the environment is important....and that frugality can be fun and not embarrassing. We set the example and that opens the doorway to teach that it's okay to choose voluntary simplicity instead of "keeping up with the neighbors."

While we're discussing paper for printers, you must check out the refill options for those ink cartridges... it's much too expensive to keep buying new ones.

We also save all those envelopes included in junk mail. It costs more for a label than it does for an envelope, so it's not frugal to use them in place of envelopes for mailing and the post office doesn't like it either. However, we've used envelopes for sorting things, dropping off a night deposit at the bank, passing a note or a check payment to somebody. We cross off the address with a squiggly, creative flair and write the name of the person we are giving it to. You can file cancelled checks in them, or coupons by different categories. I'm sure you'll think of more uses for them. This also sends a message of "waste not, want not" to our nation of in-debt families.

If you like spiral notebooks because of the hard surface, find a pocket portfolio and put junk mail in it to use. It's actually nicer than the spiral since you can arrange the papers/notes in any order you want and still have them orderly in the portfolio.

We never buy note paper. We have little boxes sitting by the telephones and put any scraps of paper that we find with a clean side up to write on. You can lay sheets by the phone and while you're on one of those long conversations, you can tear them into note size making good use of your time while listening to a friend.

Some paper isn't the right size for a printer. There are all kinds of different scraps of paper to provide for your note paper box: extra deposit slips, the backs of receipts, small junk mail envelopes, the backing on check pads, etc. Just begin the process and you'll find many opportunities for free paper and you'll feel good about saving money and trees. Feel good using some of the junk mail instead of just recycling it!

Do you know that many people have eliminated trash pickup by recycling garbage in a compost pile and recycling almost everything else they use. You can keep a large trash can outside with a plastic bag inside that will take a month to fill... and then you can haul it off to the community dumpster which is free, or take it to the landfill yourself, thereby eliminating trash pickup fees which have really become high in most towns.

Since we decided Voluntary Simplicity is the way for us, we have also been concerned about being frugal with the environment. That has required some choices where we had to choose between frugalities for conservation reasons or the pocketbook. It's been an interesting journey which began when I read the following: "If every household in the US replaced just one roll of 500 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissues with 100% recycled ones we could save: 297,000 trees, 1.2 million cubic feet of landfill space (equal to 1400 full garbage trucks), and 122 million gallons of water (a year's supply for 3500 families of 4)" It doesn't take much to make a difference!

We began using recycled toilet paper, tissues, napkins and paper towels. They cost a little more, but somehow they give us a really deep feeling of satisfaction for helping the world God made for us to enjoy. Most recycled papers are not bleached with chlorine which is beneficial to the environment and our health also. I like the absence of dyes and fragrances, yet another elimination of chemicals in our homes. The toxicity of our environment does not go unnoticed by our physical bodies since research has shown that as chemicals increase so does cancer.

Since we use herbs and vitamins we make sure we recycle those bottles, but first we like to use them for something. We enjoy making snacks from dried fruits and nuts, so we use the bottles for them instead of plastic baggies. You can use them for many things if you get a little creative. Our herb bottles have a 2" wide opening, so they're great to put in drawers to organize paper clips, tacks, rubber bands, buttons, etc. and can be used for pencil holders and flower pots for beginning seeds.

You not only feel good about doing more with what you have, but you'll be surprised at how much more time and money you have when you don't have to spend gas and time shopping. You'll also find that you can reduce your car insurance if you put fewer miles on your car each year.

I firmly believe one of the main reasons the lives of our ancestors were so much more peaceful is because they didn't shop every day or week. Get rid of the "have it now" mentality and make lists of what you need. Schedule a time weekly at first and eventually less often to shop. It will happen automatically as you stir your creativity to find things you can substitute that are already in your home.

Let's allow our minds to become creative again as they were in older days when "things" weren't so available and our nation didn't have a disposable mentality. Frugality begins in finding use of the things we already have in our possession, not just saving money on obtaining more things.

Make your money last longer - you can have more fun times with your family, and you can give more to the organizations for which your heart cries. 

Hardcore trance, is a hybrid of Trance music and Happy Hardcore with House elements. The style focuses largely on fast 4/4 beats with uplifting leads, looped vocals and extended builds leading to frantic crescendos, before 'dropping the beat'. BPM range is 165 to 170 or more. Well known DJs and producers include Scott Brown, Hixxy, and Breeze & Styles. Although the style follows rigid musical structures and is beat lead there is sufficient diversity for niche genres, hence the confusing number of names which refer to a musical sound many outside the scene might think to be the same genre. Hardcore, or Happy Hardcore, was the 'original' sound of the genre, with very basic beats, often containing 'zany' sound effects and the common 'chipmunk' pitch-shifted vocal.

As Happy Hardcore evolved it lost its 'Crazy' and frantic characteristics and turned softer and then into Hardcore as we know it today, a little over produced in some places.By over-production, we mean too many sounds and elements to make up the song. Recently a lot of producers like Dougal, Seduction and Gammer have been turning back to the basic oldskool Piano, stabs and Hoovers formula, stripping the sound to a less dense and more 'primitive' audio landscape, attempting to bring back some of the 'hard' sound which has been lost since new audio technology has lead to an over produced sound. Such dj's such as Sy and Unknown on their own Quosh label, are doing very well in producing one single a month, with either a original on the B side or a remix as per usual. Unfortunately this has also led to a very similar sound record, release in, release out. Build ups, break downs and verse structure being almost the same. Raver baby are also a huge act, with more lighter style tracks, possibly more euporic but less bouncy. Scott Brown is also another artist on his Evolution, which caters for the darker side of Hardcore.These are the higher releasing ones.

In 1946 Clarence Leo Fender began building guitar amplifiers in Fullerton, California. He first targeted country players, and spenta lot of time in consultation with musicians to improve his designs. He initially trained as an electrical engineer, and was never much of a musician, so this process of consultation was his main guide through the years to development of his designs. As we shall see, it often lead to truly significant improvements to amplifier design, although it occasionally lead him down the wrong path. All of Leo's designs were based on the research developed and released to the public domain by Western Electric in the 30s, and used vacuum tubes for amplification. A much more detailed description of the individual amplifiers is available atThe Fender Amp Field Guide.

After a few prototype amps, he began building his first big series of amplifiers in 1948. These were known as tweed amps because they were covered in the same kind of cloth used for luggage at the time. These amps varied in output from 3 watts (the Champion or Champ) to 75 watts (the high power Tweed Twin). They were characterized by a warm clean tone-with more harmonic complexity than the input signal, and a gradual onset of a sweet to raunchy distorted tone. They introduced Fender's first use of Tremolo-a rhythmic variation in the volume of the amp. This is often mislabelled Vibrato by Fender.

In the interests of more clean headroom (volume before distortion) to please his country players, Fender moved to the brown and blond amps in 1960. These were named for their harder plastic covering (DuPont Tolex) colored off-white, pinkish or darker brown. There is often a lot of overlap between series of amps. You'll see brown amps with tweed internals and tweed amps with some of the innovations that went into brown amps. These amps were higher powered than their tweed counterparts. In general, they have a cleaner clean tone with slightly less harmonic complexity, and a similar overdrive tone. To achieve more volume, Fender also started using JBL speakers at this point-much more efficient and louder than the original Jensens. JBLs were usually available on most higher-powered models on custom order. Fender also began using Oxford, Utah and CTS speakers interchangeably with the Jensens; generally the speaker that could be supplied most economically would be used. Jensens and Oxfords remained the most common during this period by far, however. The Jensens offer a more traditional Fender sound and are preferred by most collectors. The Brown/Blond amps also introduced an effect sometimes known as "harmonic vibrato," a phase-shifting tremolo system that required two and one half 12AX7/7025 tubes but had a sweet swirl that has been imitated but not improved on in 40 years. Much of this tremolo's character results from the fact that it separates the low and high frequencies and applies the tremolo effect to each separately and out of phase.

By 1963 Fender wanted more power, less distortion and less cost, so the amps changed to what is commonly known as "blackface" cosmetics. These amplifiers had a black Tolex covering, silver grille cloth, and black forward-facing control panel. By reducing the amount of midrange frequencies in the signal, Fender was able to increase volume without increasing distortion. This resulted in the classic Fender "sparkle"-a bright clean tone most beloved by Fender's favorite country players. The blackface era also brought the widespread use of reverb, which uses springs to bring a sense of space (or in the case of surf music, a crashing wash of echos) to the sound. The tremolo was changed to a simpler circuit based on an optical coupler and requiring only one tube. The amps still spanned the spectrum from 4 watts to 85, but the difference in volume was even larger due to the improved clean tone of the 85w Twin. One of these, with JBL speakers, can be absolutely deafening, even in a big room.

In 1965 Fender was tired and ill, he sold the Fender musical company to CBS. As a large conglomerate, their management seemed more interested in making money than in making the best amplifiers money could buy, so over the next 18 years the quality of Fender amplifiers gradually went downhill. These are the Silverface Fenders, and can vary from almost identical to the Blackface version (prior to 69) to completely different (in the late 70s). Some of the "innovations" that were tried include pull knobs for increased volume, master volume controls, ultralinear transformers for more clean output, increased power outputs-to 100 watts for the twin and 135 watts for the Bassman 135, the Super Six Reverb and the Quad Reverb, and other circuit changes to reduce distortion. The cosmetics of these amps are similar to the blackface amplifiers, but the forward facing control panel is silver with blue block lettering instead of black with white script lettering.

In the early 80s, under the supervision of Paul Rivera and others, there was a resurgence in R&D at Fender, resulting in a short run of very desirable amps. These range from the two channel Superchamp, putting out 18w, through a channel switching version of the Twin. They are the last amps Fender made in which discrete components were connected by point to point wiring, a method now replaced by use of printed circuit boards.

After this brief period, Fender began building amps similar names to the older versions, but without a lot in common. They are not of much interest to vintage amp lovers, although there are certainly still people playing with 80s model Fenders, particularly the "red knob Twin" of 1987 onwards. In the early 90s Fender reissued some of its most beloved amps-the Twin, the Deluxe Reverb and the Super Reverb-these tended to sound brighter than the originals but have met with some success. More recently, they've come out with Fender Custom Shop handwired amps which more closely match the tweed and blackface amps for their sound and specifications.

The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, initially named the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, was founded by Clarence Leonidas Fender in 1946, and is one of the most widely recognised manufacturers of electric guitars, electric basses and guitar amplifiers, while it also manufactures acoustic guitars and other audio-related products.

Fender is particularly important because of its role in bringing solid body electric guitars to the masses. Fender offered the first mass-produced solid-body Spanish-style electric guitar, the Telecaster (originally named the 'Broadcaster', 'Esquire' is a single pickup version); the first mass-produced electric bass, the Precision Bass (P-Bass); and the enormously popular Stratocaster (Strat) guitar. While Fender was not the first to manufacture electric guitars, as other companies and luthiers had produced electric guitars since the late 1920s, none were as commercially successful as Fender's. Furthermore, while nearly all other electric guitars then were either hollow-body guitars or more specialized instruments such as Rickenbacker's solid-body Hawaiian lap steel guitars, Fender had created a versatile solid body electric guitar.

Other popular and/or notable Fender instruments include the Mustang, Jazzmaster, Jaguar, Starcaster, Duosonic, and Bronco guitars; basses such as the Jazz Bass, the 'Telecaster Bass' reissue of the original 1950s Precision Bass; a line of lap steels; three models of electric violin, and the Fender Rhodes electric piano.

Its headquarters are in Scottsdale, Arizona, with manufacturing facilities in Corona (United States of America), Ensenada (Mexico), Korea and Japan.

History

Origins

The company began as Fender's Radio Service in late 1938 in Fullerton, California, USA. As a qualified electronics technician, Leo was asked to repair not only radios, but phonograph players, home audio amplifiers, public address systems and musical instrument amplifiers. (Technical note: at the time, most of the above were simply variations on a few simple vacuum-tube circuits). The business also sidelined in carrying records for sale and the rental of self-designed-and-built PA systems. He became intrigued by design flaws in current musical instrument amplifiers, and he began custom-building a few amplifiers based on his own designs or modifications to designs. By the early 1940s, he had partnered with another local electronics enthusiast named Clayton Orr (Doc) Kauffman, and they formed a company named K & F Manufacturing Corp. to design, manufacture, and sell electric instruments and amplifiers. Production began in 1945 with Hawaiian lap steel guitars (incorporating a patented pickup) and amplifiers, which were sold as sets. By the end of the year, Fender had become convinced that manufacturing was more profitable than repair, and he decided to concentrate on that business. Kauffman remained unconvinced, however, and they had amicably parted ways by early 1946. At that point Leo renamed the company the Fender Electric Instrument Company. The service shop remained open until 1951, although Leo Fender did not personally supervise it after 1947.

Sale to CBS

In early 1965, Leo Fender sold his company to the Columbia Broadcasting System, or CBS. This had far-reaching implications. At first, the sale was taken as a positive development, considering CBS's ability to bring in money and personnel. However, on hindsight, the sale is now looked back upon unfavorably, due to the reduction of the quality of Fender's guitars while under the management of CBS. In the early 1970s, the usual four-bolt neck joint was changed in favor of using only three. This change was made in an effort to save money, but it also resulted in a greater propensity toward mechanical failure in the guitars. The culmination of this "cost-cutting" occurred in 1983, when the Fender Stratocaster received a short-lived redesign without a second tone control and a bare-bones output jack. In addition, previous models such as the Swinger (also known as Musiclander) and Custom (also known as Maverick) had been little more than attempts to squeeze profits out of factory stock. The so-called "Pre-CBS cult" refers to the popularity of Fenders made before the sale.

After selling the Fender company, Leo Fender designed products for Music Man and later founded the G&L company which manufactures electric guitars and basses designed by Leo Fender

Current

In 1985, in a campaign initiated by a company employee named William Schultz (1926-2006), the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company was bought from CBS by its own employees, and renamed Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.

Behind the Fender name, the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continued to grow, retaining Fender's older models along with newer designs and concepts.

While Fender mantains extensive production facilities across the world, its highest quality models are manufactured in the factory in Corona, California, United States of America. From around the world, it owns manufacturing facilities in Japan, Ensenada (Mexico), China, Indonesia (under Cort) and Korea (under Cort), such that most novice guitarists will be able to afford a new guitar with the Fender brand name. The older and American-built guitars are by far the most favoured, but pre-1990 Japan-made Fender guitars are now highly regarded as well. Fenders built in Ensenada, Mexico took over the role of the Japanese factory to produce the majority of Fender's guitars, while Japanese Fenders are now meant for the Japanese market and with only a small number marked for export.

Squier was previously a string manufacturer bought up by Fender, but has been used since 1982 to produce inexpensive variants of Fender guitars to compete with the rise of strat copies, as the Stratocaster was slowly made popular. Later, production facilities were moved to India (for a short time) and then Korea, for budget versions of Fender designs, of varying manufacture of good quality, especially the Squier II, with its 1962 neck profile and guitars with the VN serial numbers, some of which were alder body guitars, some VN Squier guitars were made of plywood. The name adorns many inexpensive guitars based on Fender designs but with generally cheaper materials and hardware. Many Squiers made from 1987 through the mid-1990s featured plywood bodies irrespective of where they were made.

Early Japanese and Korean Fender and Squier Stratocasters are well-regarded (and where the model is the same except for the decal), and are now traded on the used-guitar market as JV, which stands for 'Japanese Vintage', and equates to the prefix of the serial numbers of some of the 1982-84 Squier guitars. The earliest 1982 Squiers had the big Fender logo with 'Squier Series' written in script on the ball of the headstock, which was changed by the end of 1982 to the big Squier logo. However, the 'big Fender, little Squier Series' decal has featured on some 1990s Korean and Mexican (usually using up superceded parts, or seconds) guitars.

The core of its instrument line, the Telecaster, Stratocaster, Precision Bass, and Jazz Bass, remains largely unchanged from the 1950s and 1960s originals. On nearly every stage in the country, small or large, featuring blues, country and western or rock and roll, it is common to see a Fender guitar or bass in the hands of one or more of the musicians, plugged into a Fender amplifier. Fender guitars have been the instrument of choice for many noted artists including Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Richie Sambora, John Frusciante, Eric Clapton, Buddy Holly, Yngwie J. Malmsteen, The Edge, David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, John Mayer, Billy Corgan, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ritchie Blackmore, Hank Marvin, Joe Walsh, Pete Townshend, George Harrison, and Keith Richards. In addition, at least two artistes, Freddy Fender and The Fendermen, have named themselves after the company.

In recent years, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has branched out into making and selling acoustic guitars, and has purchased a number of other instrument firms, including the Guild Guitar Company, the Sunn Amplifier Company, and other brands such as SWR Sound Corporation. In early 2003, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation made a deal with Gretsch, and began manufacturing and distributing new Gretsch guitars.