this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] NONE_dc@lemmy.world 117 points 5 days 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@lemmy.ca 76 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] BossDj@lemm.ee 18 points 5 days ago

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

[–] ElJefe@lemm.ee 21 points 5 days ago

And it is now the penta gone!

Ok I’ll see myself out…

[–] ElJefe@lemm.ee 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

And it is now the penta gone!

Ok I’ll see myself out.

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 31 points 4 days ago

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

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 35 points 5 days 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

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 11 points 5 days ago

The user just wanted their post to…

…”take off”.

😎YYEEEAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

just Tumblr Brain things

[–] loudWaterEnjoyer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days 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.
[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 days ago

Sorry, mate. I dropped this.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 34 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] Rozz@lemmy.sdf.org 27 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 19 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That was in fact what inspired the question

[–] Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 5 days 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"

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

It has a weird amount of drama to it

[–] magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 21 points 5 days ago (2 children)

But can hippos reach escape velocity?

[–] Jumi@lemmy.world 22 points 5 days ago

They can but not by themselves

[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 7 points 5 days ago

Next time on Smarter Every Day!

[–] lenuup@reddthat.com 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days 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.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] lenuup@reddthat.com 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

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

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

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 10 points 4 days ago

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

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 5 days 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""".

[–] ftbd@feddit.org 4 points 4 days 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@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days 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.

[–] LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

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

[–] judgyweevil@feddit.it 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] NoPanko@feddit.uk 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] gofsckyourself@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

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

[–] madjo@feddit.nl 5 points 5 days ago

Fly, my pretties! Fly!

[–] gens@programming.dev 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

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"?

[–] No_Eponym@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago
[–] FelixCress@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Just to chase flying pigs.