Links to a few recently discovered (by me) items you may have missed.

First off scientists think it likely that redheads feel more pain than people with dark hair. Contrary to the implication of the headline this is not yet proven.

From which there is a logical progression to marriage — well sort of logical anyway. Betty Herbert rails against the arguments over same-sex marriage.

And in turn that brings us nicely to several catty articles. Yes, there seem to have been a little burst of cat-related items in the last week …

We thought we knew how cats survive falls from heights, but it seems they’re even more resilient than we thought.

In another piece of research it has been found that most animals don’t like our music. So what music do pets prefer? For cats it seems to be high pitched with a fast tempo, just like they are.

And if that isn’t bad enough, there is the suggestion that your cat is sending you mad, well crazy anyway. It sounds far-fetched, but it may not be, and it could explain a whole lot.

Lastly for this week here’s an absolutely stunning photo of Aoga-shima, a tiny volcanic island in the Japanese Izu Islands, south of Tokyo. There’s some information here and the inevitable short Wikipedia page. But it’s that aerial photo which is really stunning — you need to see it as large as possible!