Awww! Ain’t he cute!

Via Emma, from Cu­teOver­load.com, a cornucopia of terminally cute animal photos.

A couple of months ago, the Science Times section of the New York Times had an article on the Cute Factor.

Scientists who study the evolution of visual signaling have identified a wide and still expanding assortment of features and behaviors that make something look cute: bright forward-facing eyes set low on a big round face, a pair of big round ears, floppy limbs and a side-to-side, teeter-totter gait, among many others.

Cute cues are those that indicate extreme youth, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, harm­less­ness and need, scientists say, and attending to them closely makes good Darwinian sense. As a species whose youngest members are so pa­thet­i­cal­ly helpless they can’t lift their heads to suckle without adult su­per­vi­sion, human beings must be wired to respond quickly and gamely to any and all signs of infantile desire.

And if you do overload on cuteness, head over to Dependable Renegade for some really snarky, political pho­to­blog­ging.