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Hic Hic Hooray: Hiccups Explained
Anonymous Hero writes "Finally after millions of years (and zillions of hiccups) New Scientist gives us an explanation for this most annoying and least obvious of adaptations!"
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...try being taken seriously at work when you have the hiccups...
BlackNova Traders
punch Cowboyneal in the face. works every time.
and knowing is half the battle!
Let's get drunk and delete production data!
Smelly Linux hippies need to free up valuable space for more Mountain Dew and pizza.
Because basically, we are fish....
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
Just smoke some dope, it cured my hiccups. But of course, that leads to smoking more and more until every waking millisecond of your day is consumed, and all of a sudden your family asks, "Johnny, do you smoke dope?"..."Not much mom and dad, just every waking millisecond of my existence." But, no more hiccups.
We'll meet a man who's been hiccupping for over 30 years.
"!Hic! Kill me. !Hic!"
Some men spend their entire lives trying to kill themselves for having been born. --Ross MacDonald
Score one more for the we came from a puddle of sludge team!
Not that I wouldn't prefer creation over evolution. Probably wouldn't have hiccups. Thanks a lot, natural selection.
Which shuts down the higher level brain functions and allows the inner fish to express itself.
On the surface I may seem very profound, but deep down inside I'm actually a very shallow individual.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I'll have to show to article to the wife. That way the next time I get the hiccups, she'll understand why I start going for, uh well, if you read the article you'll know.
If only I had known this in elementary school. It would have saved me from detention.
Remember how all of the school health books had a little blurb on hiccups? The Q&A form went like this:
Q: What causes hiccups?
A: Hiccups are a spastic contraction of the diaphragm combined with the closing of the windpipe. Drink some water...
I got in trouble for not accepting that. The teacher gave the class the same answer and I told him: "OK, so that's what they are, but WHY do we get them?" Same answer again. So I explained to the teacher and the class the difference between cause and effect.
2 hours after school...oh, the trauma! Freakin' great way to foster a sense of inquiry.
I know a way to prevent them....Try this...Fill water in your mouth and hold your nose with your hand...(such that you can't breathe)...Do this for a few seconds...and then release your nose...You will find them gone!! Try again for few seconds if the hiccups still persist!!
The parent to my post was referring to having the hiccups while at work. I don't really suggest you try this while in a meeting!
A bullet to the back of the head usually works.
Of course, this has other undersirable consequences, but I could find nothing in your list of requirements that covered preserving the life of the hiccup victim.
black humour, n.: a form of humour that pokes fun at sad, or otherwise undesired occurances (i.e. "NASA: Need Another Seven Astronauts," and "You can always count on NASA to put on a great fireworks show.")
You could've hired me.
...
// old code. don't touch.
// FIX added to work around infinite loop
// FIXME: We have no idea what this does,
// but we're afraid to touch it. It caused
// an infinite loop in the Eden testing lab.
// See workaround below. -Adam 1.0 team
Brain::hiccup()
{
while (1)
{
memcpy(GLOTTIS, 0xff);
sleep(2000 * (random() + 0.5));
if (fearLevel() > 0.7)
break;
}
}
UNIX can prevent hiccups in the first place with the nohup command.
nohup whoami
"UNIX: It sure beats drinking a glass of water while standing on your head!"
The reason all of your arguments about evolution end up in circles is that you can invoke the "faith" hyperspace button to jump back to square one whenever you are cornered.
Tonight, we'll interview a man who's had the hiccups for 27 years!
*cut to clip from interview*
*hic* Kill me. *hic* Kill me. *hic* Kill me. *hic* Kill me.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
I'll prove thier hiccupping is similar to sucking nipples. Send me a big-breasted 20 year old centerfold-type chick over, and when I start hiccupping, i'll put my mouth on her nipples. She'll tell me what she thinks it feels like. Damn, I smell grant money.... gotta go...
today is spelling optional day.
C'mon man! Babies yack on themselves and could care less. Babies are also known to tolerate sitting in shit for a while too. Sounds pretty laid back to me, you think a hiccup is worse than sitting in shit?
YAAAAAAAAAWN!
Try this the next time you're at home with your dog or cat. Yawn widely and deeply in front of your pet. Chances are, you can make your pet yawn. This is an old, *old* mechanism.
Whew! When I first read that, I thought you were recommending vomitting in front of your dog or cat and waiting to see what happens. Might be something fun to try at somebody else's house.
I don't really suggest you try this while in a meeting!
Why not? It could get rid of the hiccups. I am sure the rest of the people in the meeting could relate. And if it didn't work, and you hiccuped with a mouth full of water, causing you to inhale a portion of it, and then invoulantarily cough and spew that water all over the conference table, well, that would just provide some comic relief that was probably sorely needed anyway.
Right?
When you yawn, you're readjusting the pressure inside your head. It's why your ears pop. When someone else yawns, they've just altered the pressure around your head so now YOU have to calibrate your pressure to match the NEW air pressure.
IIRC, The Journal of Irreproducible had a competition for the best theories (in anything). One of the winners was the theory that yawning is meant to equalize the pressure between your sinuses (I believe) and the external environment. However, when you do this, you create a tiny pressure change in the environment, which causes everyone else to have to equalize :)
The winner of the contest was the theory that if a piece of buttered bread always lands butter side down, and a cat always lands on his feet...you can attach a piece of buttered bread to the back of a cat and drop it, and it will hover a few inches above the ground, slowly rotating.
Last post!