this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 117 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Researcher: "Well, you see, when hippos run very fast, there are moments when their four limbs are in the air, it's as if-"

Journalist: "HIPPOPOTAMOS CAN FLY!!!! THE FUCKING HIPPOS FLY!!!! A HIPPO JUST HIT THE PENTAGON!"

[–] MajorMajormajormajor 76 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago

Ok Georgie boy, you've trained for this. Sit and wait for your handler. Just sit and wait for your handler.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago

And it is now the penta gone!

Ok I’ll see myself out…

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

And it is now the penta gone!

Ok I’ll see myself out.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 week ago (3 children)

#Yo dawg.

#I heard you like comments.

#So I prefix every line with a hashtag so I can comment my comment while I comment.

exit 1

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

The user just wanted their post to…

…”take off”.

😎YYEEEAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

just Tumblr Brain things

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)
main.cpp:1:2: error: invalid preprocessing directive #Yo
    1 | #Yo dawg.
      |  ^~
main.cpp:3:2: error: invalid preprocessing directive #I
    3 | #I heard you like comments.
      |  ^
main.cpp:5:2: error: invalid preprocessing directive #So
    5 | #So I prefix every line with a hashtag so I can comment my comment while I comment.
      |  ^~
main.cpp:7:1: error: β€˜exit’ does not name a type
    7 | exit 1
      | ^~~~
main.cpp:1:1: note: β€˜exit’ is defined in header β€˜β€™; did you forget to β€˜#include ’?
  +++ |+#include <cstdlib>
    1 | #Yo dawg.
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Sorry, mate. I dropped this.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Is it even considered running if that doesn't happen?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That was in fact what inspired the question

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's much more significant of a difference for bipedal animals, so mostly just humans. 1 of 2 legs vs. 1 of 4 legs touching the ground. Elephants will never get airborne, but you certainly wouldn't describe a stampeding elephant as "walking"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

A herd of elephants race walked past town today. 1 dead, 3 injured.

It has a weird amount of drama to it

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (2 children)

But can hippos reach escape velocity?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago

They can but not by themselves

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

Next time on Smarter Every Day!

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago

One thing I learned from Kerbal space program is that anything flies with enough boosters

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I am very certain that most animals can get airborne, even for prolonged periods of time,when reaching high enough speed. The trick lies in accelerating them to sufficient speed. Safe landing and deceleration can also pose a problem.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I mean, if you're just yeeting animals off a cliff, then they can all "fly".

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The OP said "get airborne". Controlled flight was not part of the discussion.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

https://www.horsesandus.com/the-4-basic-horse-gaits-explained/

Neat breakdown of walk vs trot vs canter vs gallop, for horses.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/wildlife-biodiversity/hippos-dont-fly-but-the-massive-animals-can-get-airborne-2

Non-nonsensical headline and brief summary of hipoos gaits: evidently they have been observed reaching a trot, which does include moments where two feet are coming up, and two down, thus for that brief moment, the hippo is 'suspended' or... """airborne""".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

When I woke up this morning, I didn't anticipate I'd be spending 15 minutes reading about how horses walk, but it was well worth that time!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Happy to help put a little getty-up in your get-along, haha!

I feel like I am part of a rather rare confluence of relavant demographics here:

Was raised around horses, have dated horse girls, have ridden and cared for horses.

Have been a copy editor for a student newspaper.

Have also done a lot of game modding and aleays been a tech dork, so the kinematics/mechanics of properly animated horses are also interesting that way.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

That’s why I sleep with a hippo net around my bed

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

Yeah they can fly when they poop and propeller-spin their tails.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

Fun fact: if a hippo runs fast enough they can travel trough time

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I know it's a comment, but they didn't have to comment every line

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It’s a screenshot of Tumblr tags, very common on tumblr to hide whole essays in tags

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sure, but that doesn't excuse or exclude it from being frustrating, annoying, and just generally unpleasant.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

i've never understood it either, it makes sense to separate out short quips but when it's a full reply it's.. meant to go in the reply field..

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ahctually it's not running unless all feet are off the ground at some point.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Only for bipedals. Quadrupedal animals can well keep a leg on the ground at all times even when moving at speed. To borrow from another comment here: Would you call a stampeding elephant "walking"?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Fly, my pretties! Fly!

[–] No_Eponym 2 points 1 week ago