OK, granted. I did word that poorly, and you did address what I wrote.
What I meant was I have not seen a full explanation of the mechanism that is triggered by various (and seemingly sometimes by no) triggers...I have read that it's related to the air gulping that newts and salamanders do when in water, perhaps when transitioning from using gills to lungs, and I think they even said the signal comes from an odd part of the brain for breathing signals, but not why we might still hold on to that trait, or why various things might trigger that trait in mammals who aren't amphibious.
If I had to guess, I would guess it's some sort of anti-drowning trait that stops babies from inhaling too much water, but that's just a guess. I wonder if anyone has done a study/experiment.

That's odd. I keep thinking about having hiccups, and I can't recall a single time I hiccupped while breathing out. Maybe I'm weird. (OK, no maybe about it).

You didn't ask WHY they happen, you asked what the triggers are. And I do hiccup when breathing out.

They are more than just random spasms, though. Note you never hiccup when breathing OUT.
...and that does NOTHING to explain WHY they happen, just what some of the triggers may be! :-)

Hiccups are muscle spasms in your diaphragm. They're triggered by coughing, laughing, swallowing air, extreme emotions, and drinking fizzy drinks. Amongst other things.

I   puppy, said James staring out over the endless void. He didn't notice the hiccups but something was stirring in the dark recesses of memory despite the void of all eternity and what it knew while lurking in his soul.

He was still able to register the faint recollection that puppies provide stimulus. Whether or not it was positive or negative is a matter of debate, for he had been drained of all human emotion. I   puppy. Like? I like puppy? No, too much heart, too much optimism. All actions void. Language meaningless. I ALT255 puppy.

Apparently Doctors don't understand them much either. My son ounce suffered through an attack that lasted about 48 hours. At the end of the first 24 hours, he was experiencing enough pain that we took him to the ER. Their response was that while they understand physically what is happening when we have hiccups..they don't really understand what causes them or how to stop them. I was like WTF year is this?

Your video, Puppy Doesn't Understand Hiccups, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Most people don't really understand hiccups.
I learned that it's actually an evolutionary throwback to when we were all newts, gulping air when we're in the water. I'm still not sure what triggers them in mammals.

I don't blame @Stormsinger for being skeptical, but there's no trickery about a pointed spear pushing with great force into your neck. I've seen scientific examinations of a monk doing the same kinds of things and there was no fakery nor anything else to explain it away.

The human mind and body together are truly capable of seemingly impossible feats. Everyone can control a lot more of the body with the mind than most people think.

My one example (which is obviously incomparable to withstanding physical trauma) is my ability to cure my hiccups using nothing but brain power. Like most, I used to have extended fits of hiccups from time to time, and no trick ever worked (spoonful of sugar, drinking from other side of cup, holding breath, getting scared, etc.). I finally started mentally controlling my diaphragm to immediately stop my hiccups and now they're just a thing of the past for me.

If you wondered what caused all the hiccups on the internet yesterday, may I direct you straight towards Verizon.

Through some fuckup, some of their autonomous systems pushed ~10-15k new routes into the routing table, pushing the total to about 510-515k on average.

Wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for old-ass Cisco routers which, in default configuration, only have enough memory alloted to their IPv4 routing table to handle 512k entries.

It's hilarious that the baby looks at her with a smile, "You are so silly" and then hiccups some drool out of the corner of it's mouth. That's exactly how I would've played it.

<hiccup>
I love you man

I'm starting to back away from these 'awareness' campaigns. Seems they want more awareness than they want cures. Breast cancer still soldiers on without a hiccup regardless of how many pink ribbons you see.

>> ^brunopuntzjones:

Heh, didn't expect the last 4 seconds either.


This jerk is taking Batman's jobs. Commissioner Gordon specifically asked for Batman, dude. Freaking economy is making even simple rescue missions highly competitive.

Bat Hiccups! The promote worked!