Today’s dose of cute comes from this Baby Albino Wallaby:
A three-month Wallaby albino eats beside its Red Necked mother inside their enclosure of the Buenos Aires’ zoo, Argentina, April 12, 2006. The baby wallaby is the zoo’s new attraction and its name will be chosen by children in a contest.
Another cute At the Zoo photo:
Lioness ‘Soonee’ and South Korean traditional breed Jindo dog ‘Tangchil’ play together at a zoo in Chinhae, about 410 km (255 miles) southeast of Seoul March 20, 2006. The 10-year-old Soonee who was raised by zoo keepers and the 5-year-old male dog Tangchil have lived together in the same cage since 2002.
Even ugly animals have cute babies:
A three-month-old baby pygmy hippopotamus swims by his grazing mother at Henry Doorly Zoo Friday, March 24, 2006, in Omaha, Neb. Zoo visitors will be able to view the baby hippo for the first time on Friday.
I must admit, baby predators can be pretty damn cute. This five-month-old polar bear cub is hunting a bird in his cage in the Moscow Zoo.
The cute polar bears aren’t all in the Netherlands. There are also cute Polar Bears at the Moscow Zoo:
A five-month-old polar bear cub(R) plays with his mother while enjoying warm spring weather at the Moscow Zoo.
Today’s dose of unadulterated cute comes from these triplet Polar Bear Cubs:
Polar bear cubs play on their first day out on public display at the Ouwehands Zoo in Rhenen, the Netherlands March 10, 2006. It is the first time a polar bear in captivity has given birth to triplets, the zoo said. The three-month old triplet cubs were put out on public display for the first time Friday.
Today’s dose of cute comes from this baby Tamandua, or lesser anteater:
A three-month-old Southern Tamandua, also known as an anteater, walks during a press preview at the Sunshine International Aquarium in Tokyo March 13, 2006. The baby Southern Tamandua was born last November, the first time an anteater has been borne and raised at an aquarium or a zoo in the country, an aquarium official said.
Today’s dose of cute comes from two recently born Leopard Cubs being fed milk from a bottle by a member of staff at the Assam State Zoo in Guwahati — which is in northeast India, by the way.
It’s hard not to smile at a photo of Lenga, a Two-Month-Old Net Giraffe, or Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata:
Lenga, looks towards photographers at the zoo in Frankfurt, central Germany, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2006. Lengai is the youngest of Frankfurt’s net giraffes that originally come from northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia.
(Is its name Lenga or Lengai?)
Is there such a thing as Cute Overload? Yes, definitely:
At Cute Overload, we scour the Web for only the finest in Cute Imagery. Imagery that is Worth Your Internet Browsing Time. We offer an overwhelming amount of cuteness to fill your daily visual allowance. Drink it in!
I’ve blogged on this before, but now I’ve got a photo. From 
Baby Foxes Going to the Dogs:
Young foxes, or kits, scamper in a cage in Siberia, Russia, where they are part of a 45-year research project to domesticate foxes. Each generation has been selectively bred for tameness — fearlessness and nonaggression toward humans. By now the foxes in the project behave like pet dogs, barking and wagging their tails at humans.Also like pet dogs, the domesticated foxes can ‘read’ human cues (pointing, for example) much better than their wild cousins or even tame chimpanzees, according to a new study published today in Current Biology. The study authors call such behavior social intelligence. They say its appearance in domesticated foxes may help us better understand how intelligence developed in humans and other animals.
As you can see, selectively breeding foxes for tameness has led to animals that both look and behave like dogs.
Scott Adams (Dilbert) shares his Humor Formula:
The core of humor is what I call the 2-of-6 rule. In order for something to be funny, you need at least two of the following elements:
- Cute (as in kids and animals)
- Naughty
- Bizarre
- Clever
- Recognizable (You’ve been there)
- Cruel
I invented this rule, but you can check for yourself that whenever something is funny it follows the rule. And when something isn’t, it doesn’t.
One of the reasons comics are such a popular form of humor is that they often get the cute part automatically. Calvin and Hobbes is widely considered the best comic ever, but the few times it featured the parents doing the main action, it fell flat. Whenever it combined Calvin and Hobbes (both exceedingly cute), with some witty dialog (clever), a dangerous wagon ride (cruel), Calvin acting like a typical kid (recognizable), and thinking about adult philosophy (bizarre) it fired on 5-of-6 humor elements, which is virtually unheard of.
One could argue that all of the elements of Calvin and Hobbes are borrowed from Peanuts, Dennis the Menace and Winnie the Pooh (Hobbes is essentially Tigger). Originality doesn’t count for much with humor. I should know, since Dilbert has been compared to Charlie Brown grown up. And I certainly didn’t invent talking cartoon dogs. Execution is everything.
Computer games often aim at a violent, young, male demographic. The Hello Kitty Online World clearly does not:
Hello Kitty and friends welcome you to the exciting and fantastic Hello Kitty World! This is the first-ever online game platform featuring the all-time-favorite Hello Kitty characters from Sanrio!Hello Kitty World will allow thousands of players to live and participate in Hello Kitty’s magical and cute online world. You will be able to roam the streets of Kitty Kingdom, XO Federation, and Melody-land. Enjoy the beautiful landscape and architecture of Puroland or Badtzcity and participate in numerous puzzles, story lines, or adventures lead by the worldwide community of Hello Kitty World subscribers. You can even have a successful career, open different shops, earn and spend Sanrio Dollars in your bank, buy a house, and trade with other players around the vast game world.
Other than hundreds of choices for you to build your dream house and lovely player characters, Hello Kitty World players will also be able to raise pets and teach them special tricks and skills. Players will be able to cooperate and interact with other players to overcome a joint quest or challenge other friends to a friendly duel.
You will be able to make new friends through special in-game telepathy as well as interact with other gamers through a variety of community channels and forums. Share the exciting world of Hello Kitty World and spread the message of love with both your old friends and the new ones you have just met in the Hello Kitty World.
So, what are you waiting for? Hello Kitty and friends will see you all in Hello Kitty World!
I have to wonder how many mean-spirited young men will sign on just to ruin the experience…
(Hat tip to Boing Boing.)
It seems that Saddam’s sons have been killed. And in other news…a polar bear in Argentina has turned purple! From Polar Bear Turns Purple After Medication:
Paint the polar bear purple and the crowds will come.That seems to be the lesson a zoo in Mendoza has learned, after its 23-year-old bear Pelusa was sprayed with an antiseptic spray that turned her normally white fur a dark shade of violet.
The unusual color — a temporary side effect of the treatment for dermatitis — has turned the aging bear into a minor celebrity in Argentina and prompted thousands of schoolchildren and tourists to make their way to the Jardin Zoologico de Mendoza in the western city beneath the snow-capped Andes.
[...]
The spray applied to Pelusa is similar to one used by pediatricians to treat children’s scraped knees or lab technicians to stain micro-organisms for examination under microscopes.Pelusa, a 395-pound bear has been temporarily placed in a cage because of the treatment, and is separated from her mate, Arturo. She is also kept back a distance from the public.
The separation, Duarte said, was needed to keep Pelusa from taking her regular plunge into an icy pool of water at the polar bear compound. That would have washed away the medicine prematurely, he said.
The isolation has not seemed to bother Pelusa but it has left Arturo, a 16-year-old male almost double the weight of his mate, a bit grumpy, Duarte said.
After all, the two — who have been together for years — have been kept apart for 20 days.
I empathize with poor Arturo. Anyway, whoever produces stuffed purple polar bears — especially sold with a bigger, white polar bear — could make a mint right now.
