this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 116 points 1 month 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!"

[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month 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 month ago

And it is now the penta gone!

Ok I’ll see myself out…

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

And it is now the penta gone!

Ok I’ll see myself out.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month 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] 12 points 1 month ago

The user just wanted their post to…

…”take off”.

😎YYEEEAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

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

just Tumblr Brain things

[–] loudWaterEnjoyer 3 points 1 month 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 month ago

Sorry, mate. I dropped this.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

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

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

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

That was in fact what inspired the question

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (2 children)

But can hippos reach escape velocity?

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

They can but not by themselves

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

Next time on Smarter Every Day!

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

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

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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 month ago (1 children)

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

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

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago
[–] sp3ctr4l 13 points 1 month 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 month 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!

[–] sp3ctr4l 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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 month ago

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month 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 weeks 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 month ago (1 children)

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

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

Fly, my pretties! Fly!

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

Just to chase flying pigs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago