While cats have plenty of male admirers, and vice versa, this study and others reveal that women tend to interact with their cats — be they male or female felines — more than men do.

“In response, the cats approach female owners more frequently, and initiate contact more frequently (such as jumping on laps) than they do with male owners,” co-author Manuela Wedl of the University of Vienna told Discovery News, adding that “female owners have more intense relationships with their cats than do male owners.”

Cats also seem to remember kindness and return the favors later. If owners comply with their feline’s wishes to interact, then the cat will often comply with the owner’s wishes at other times. The cat may also “have an edge in this negotiation,” since owners are usually already motivated to establish social contact.

A stretch of Interstate 44 in Springfield, Mo., was closed for several hours over the weekend when a tractor-trailer crashed, spilling 20 tons of mayonnaise onto the road, the Kansas City Star reported Sunday.

Police closed the eastbound lanes of the section of Interstate while crews worked to clean up the 40,000 lbs of mayonnaise that spilled out Saturday after the driver of the tractor-trailer lost control and drove into the median.

Lt. Scott Leven of the Springfield Police Department said walking on the spilled mayonnaise was like walking on ice, but no injuries were reported.

This is one of those stories that hits a little close to home, as I have some experience with the subject matter:

Four Wal-Mart employees have been fired after management said they violated company policy by disarming an alleged shoplifter who had pulled a gun inside the store.

It’s really a tough story, because both sides have valid arguments.  On the Wal-Mart side, you can’t have employees acting like heroes.  If a shoplifter or a robber pulls a gun, you let them go.  Most businesses have similar policies- banks, restaurants, etc.  When untrained employees act like heroes, people get hurt.

On the other hand, no corporate policy can encompass every situation- especially situations like this.  The four men involved in this incident make the argument that based on the situation, they had no choice but to disarm the bad guy- there was nowhere to retreat to – and besides, they didn’t want to release an armed gunman into a store full of people.  That sounds pretty reasonable to me.

If you’re going to put employees into dangerous situations – like apprehending shoplifters – then you owe it to them to have reasonable policies to deal with situations that go bad.  “Zero-tolerance” policies don’t help anyone.  Instead, they harm loyal employees, and make your company look bad in the press.  A “Zero-tolerance” policy is a cowardly way of dealing with tough decisions.

Everyone has the same goal here- making sure nobody gets hurt.  Assuming the newspaper report is accurate (and that’s a BIG assumption), these were not the actions of rogue employees that thought they were cowboys.  They did the best they could in a bad situation.

Wal-Mart should do better.

The beverage is technically classified as a foodstuff for now, an anomaly that has allowed producers to avoid a sweeping new crackdown on alcohol advertising and night-time sales.

But a new Kremlin-backed bill that passed its first reading in the lower house of the Russian parliament on Tuesday will abolish beer’s special status, dragging Russian alcohol regulation into the 21st century.

“Normalising the beer production market and classifying it as alcohol is totally the right thing to do and will boost the health of our population,” Yevgeny Bryun, the ministry of health’s chief specialist on alcohol and drug abuse, said.

Debra Oberlin, 48, was arrested after she had difficulty on a field sobriety test. She registered a .234 and .239 on breath alcohol tests. Florida’s legal limit for driving is .08.

Last week, I showed you how Vice President Joe Biden is related to President John Adams. Today, I want to show you how George Washington, the first US President, is related to every other US President.

Liberals tend to set up equality as the highest good. Equality is the end goal of most liberal policy. The conservative asks, “Why does that idea become valued over all others?” Equality is certainly good, but as a highest end and goal, it can lead to devastating consequences.

Likewise, the pure libertarian (as opposed to those of us who have some libertarian leanings) sets up liberty as the highest good. Liberty is the end goal of all policy. The conservative looks to the libertarian and asks, “Why does that idea become valued over all others?” Liberty is obviously a great good, but as the highest end goal, it can also lead to devastating consequences.

The conservative argues that the greatest instructor on what laws should exist in a civil society is human experience. So, it would seem libertarianism hits its own walls when it ventures out of its world of make-believe theories and steps into the world of reality.

Worried that he might have mild Cerebral Palsy, Chase’s doctor ordered an MRI. The results were expected to take weeks.

The call came the next day.

“He said this is much more complicated than we expected, and very hard to explain,” said Heather Britton.

Chase appeared to have a condition that is at once incredibly complicated– and very simple: he was missing his entire cerebellum.

The cerebellum is the part of the brain responsible for motor control, balance, coordination, emotional control, and now, doctors believe, it plays a role in language and learning.

On top of that, Chase is also missing his pons, the part of the brain stem that regulates basic functions like sleeping and breathing.

The 16-year-old suspect clearly hadn’t heard that they only have seven-second memories. Or that they can’t speak.

He has been charged with animal cruelty and burglary, while two teenage accomplices aged 15 and 17 have also been charged with burglary.

The victims of the break-in, which occurred across the pond in Arlington Heights, Chicago, returned from a fire evacuation to find their fish floating dead at the top of their tank, which had been filled with mustard, ketchup and spices.

A local police officer explained the reasoning behind the assassination.

Sgt Mike Hernandez told the Daily Herald: ‘As a matter of fact, it’s a little disturbing. According to the police report, he looked at the fish tank and said: “We can’t leave any witnesses.”’

The trio allegedly pilfered video games, DVDs, jewellery, a safe and an air gun.