Miles B Huff

Miles is a software developer with degrees in linguistics and cognitive science. He has a vast array of interests, and writes notes about them frequently. Every so often, he writes something he feels would be of some value or interest to the Internet. When he does, he posts it here. DISCLAIMER: Please realize that this is not a formal medium, and Miles makes no claims as to the ongoing veracity or rigorousness of his posts here. Many are simply ideas or conjectures, and in that vein they may not be perfect reflections of Miles's actual takes on things. Regardless, Miles hopes that these notes may be of some use or interest to someone out there on the web. DISCLAIMER: My blog is participating in the Amazon Associates Program, which means I can get commissions on things you buy from Amazon via links on my blog (This doesn't cost you anything!). I already liked to link products I use when they're relevant (I spend a lot of time finding these things, and like to share the solutions I come up with.), and I thought it would be nice to get credit for the business I drive places, especially with how hard times are anymore. So, heads-up!

Recorder vs Tin Whistle in Irish Traditional Music

December 7, 2024•761 words

I know on paper the fingerings for Kesh on recorder probably look a bit bizarre to a tin whistler, but I think Kesh is actually better on recorder. Here's the A part of Kesh with standard Baroque fingerings on a C Soprano recorder: o|ooo|xxx|x o|ooo|xxx|x o|ooo|oxx|x o|ooo|oox|x o|ooo|oxx|x o|ooo|oxx|x o|ooo|oox|x o|ooo|oxo|o o|oxx|xxx|ø o|ooo|oxo|o o|ooo|oxo|o o|ooo|xxx|ø o|ooo|oxo|o o|ooo|oxo|o o|oxx|xxx|ø o|ooo|oxo|o o|ooo|oox|x o|ooo|oxo|o o|ooo|oox|x o|ooo|oxx|x o|ooo|xxx|x Here is the sa...

Read post

Recorder/Whistle Ornamentations

December 6, 2024•549 words

Rhythmic Cut: take lowest finger(s) off Tap: put extra finger(s) on Roll: Cut then Tap Cran: forked close-fingered Cut Click: in a keyed instrument, using the sound of the key as percussion Pulse/Accent: pushing out much more air at the start of a note Flick: an Pulse so strong it causes overblow Doublet/Triplet/etc: articulate X times during a note Staccato: articulate between every note You can get different sounds by using different articulators. Recorders habituate tonguing and whistles ...

Read post

Alfatradiol

November 28, 2024•607 words

I don't really think alfatradiol (17α-estradiol) actually does much of anything. It's purported to help with androgenic alopecia (primarily in women) by inhibiting 5α-reductase, but mechanistically I struggle to see how this is possible. Chemically, it does not look like 5α-reductase inhibitors; and estrogens, to my knowledge, aren't known to inhibit 5α-reductase. It doesn't bind to androgen receptors, so its action can't be explained through direct anti-androgenism. And it barely even bind...

Read post

Guide to Determining Caloric and Macronutritional Needs

July 1, 2024•2,212 words

This is a guide written by Miles B Huff and intended to provide a comprehensive overview of figuring out your caloric and macronutritional needs. Body composition Get a DEXA scan. Everything else is just pulling guesses out its ass, and cannot be relied upon until you've had a DEXA scan and know how these simpler/cheaper/safer methods deviate from reality. Even your 3D gym scans (like Styku) are problematic; and in my case, my cheap Chinese electrical impedence scale was closer to my DEXA r...

Read post

How to be a social butterfly

March 14, 2024•387 words

(Originally written in response to a friend needing advice; shared here in case it is helpful to others too.) § Be friendly, confident, and outgoing, and get really good at smalltalk. Figure out what sorts of topics work well for you, and use them as appropriate to keep the conversation going. The opening's often the hardest for me, since I try to make it somewhat seamless. It's easier in some situations than others. Like, standing in a line or being on a bus, those are pretty easy. Strang...

Read post

How much of knowledge is just language?

March 1, 2024•828 words

How much of knowledge is just language? We know from some cognitive and psycho-linguistics experiments that the way language encodes things can actually change what we remember, and how we remember it. One mentioned in Guy Deutscher's book, "Through the Language Glass", is (should my memory serve me right) an experiment done at the end of the 19th century with a tribe that lacked a word for "blue", instead using "green" to cover both hues (a phenomenon often referred-to as "grue"). When shown...

Read post

Psychological concerns of our modern world

February 9, 2024•410 words

Human faces become more-attractive to us the more we see them. This feature presumably evolved to make us get along better with our tribesmen, and to find an acceptable mate with fewer options. But in the modern world, where we see so many strangers, everyone looks comparatively uglier than in days of yore, barring ofc modern fashion and makeup. This causes issues in the dating world. People swipe left on tons of people whom they would have found quite attractive had they seen them many time...

Read post

Responses to video about monosyllabicizing English

December 19, 2023•2,187 words

About This is a collection of some rather detailled comments I left on the following YouTube video: I Removed Most of the Syllables from English and It's 30% Faster Now I have linked these where possible. Unfortunately, I did not think to copy the links when I first compiled this post, so some comments are lacking links to their origins. On the issues with the linguistics in the video 2023-12-18 This is a curation of three replies I made. The two long comments were replies to an individua...

Read post

Academic Conjectures

December 15, 2023•573 words

This is a list of what I feel (or at least felt at the time) to be interesting novel questions for Science. Most (or all) of these are questions I cannot, myself, answer; accordingly, I have recorded them here so that others might be inspired to research what I cannot. Psychology Is a person's brain (and gut), when started on SSRIs in childhood and discontinuing after the age of 25, wired with the expectation of having extra serotonin, such that discontinuing the SSRI will lead to an actual...

Read post

Insights on Metabolic Syndrome

December 14, 2023•1,569 words

I've learned some really groundbreaking things about the body recently, and put two-and-two together to realize: the human body can't really process fructose; like, it really doesn't know what to do with it. And fructose alone (such as in high-fructose corn syrup) seems to have good explanatory power for America's ongoing obesity epidemic (though it is certainly not the only factor; I think a decrease in sleep since the '90s is probably more-impactful). The tl;dr of this, is linking the Pers...

Read post

Miles's Overnight Porridge

November 23, 2023•1,363 words

Idea: At night, put sprouted rolled barley, salted roasted peanuts, veggies/mushrooms/fruits, RO-filtered or distilled water, a dollup of skýr, and some salt into a bowl; stir; cover with a plate. Leave overnight on the counter. In the morning, press the plate against the bowl, and allow any excess water to filter out into the sink. Mix EVOO, seasoning, lecithin, and butter into the porridge. Add salt only to taste. Why: Barley was chosen as a balance between wheat and oats: Barley is...

Read post

Miles's Honey Matcha Latte

August 17, 2023•1,086 words

Ingredients 10oz Hot water 2oz Cold water 1tsp Matcha powder Salt 1/2 cup Whole milk powder Raw honey Ceylon cinnamon powder Instructions: Get a 20oz coffee mug Add 1/8 tsp cinnamon powder (can go up to 1/4 tsp if you want) Add hot water (10oz/1.25cups) Add a dash of salt Stir with frother Add cold water (2oz/0.25cups) Add 1tsp of matcha powder (can do 2tsp if you want) Stir with frother Add 1/2 cup of whole milk powder Stir with frother Add 1-2tsps of honey Stir with frother (Optional) Sp...

Read post