OT: What is this affect?

How is this affect done? Talking about the black & white shots like this I have scene where the highlights are blown out and high contrast to bring out the blacks?

Koveh I'm certain that is called "high key"; see Josh Hardins post also.

It is achieved by control of contrast and some fancy lighting in a controlled
setting, otherwise it's overexposing just enough in natural light settings.

Yep, this is a type of a high key effect. Certain types of studio light setups can be done to achieve the effect in camera (the high contrast anyway not the BW/Color mix) or it can be done in Photoshop, as I suspect in the case of the cat example you posted. It appears to me like the background and the edges of the cat were "erased" or painted with white, the eye was selected in a layer and left in color while the rest of the image was desaturated to B&W and the contrast was bumped up quite a bit. Do a Google search for "high key photography" and you will get several hits with tips about how this can be achieved.

Edit: Looks like Chris just beat me to answering this.

i think that the erasing on the edges might be bleed around. for many high key studio situations you blow out the background, which can cause the light to bleed around the edges of the subject.

You can try this effect in post by cranking up the exposure and black point and adjusting to taste. No fancy lights necessary especially if there's a light background. This can work nicely on snowy scenes.

Interesting, thanks for the info all. I have seen this affect being put into use with occasional nature shots (most cases wildlife shots). I assume in those scenarios there is just a high contrast difference between the subject and the background and they blow out the background and enhance the shadows to bring out the shape of the animal. Interesting stuff, although not for normal day use.