Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Clare Moriarty

@quiteclare.bsky.social

1.3K followers 1.1K following 790 posts

History and Philosophy of Maths and Science, and philosophy of parenthood. Mariah-Carey/Denis-Irwin-admirer. Postdoc -she- 🏊‍♀️ Ramblings &c. : claremoriarty.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · Aug 15

Today, academics, ask yourself:

Am I bringing enough of a Flann O'Brien energy to my R&R work?

Image is a snip from Flann O'Brien's letters, reading:

"It is a pity you did not like my beautiful book. As a genius, I do not expect to be readily understood but you may be surprised to know that my book is a definite milestone in literature, completely revolutionises the English novel and puts the shallow pedestrian English writers in their place. Of course I know you are prejudiced against me on account of the IRA bombings."

3 38 200

Reposted by Clare Moriarty

Amy Sherman @andcleverness.bsky.social · 2d

I don't want an obsequious chatbot, I just want:
a) to be able to attach comments to endnotes/footnotes
b) to be able to convert PDFs with endnotes/footnotes to a Word doc

2 8 43

Reposted by Clare Moriarty

The Irish Times @irishtimes.com · 1d

Fintan O'Toole: What’s another year to a hungry two-year-old?

Nobody disagrees on the value of a second tier of child benefit. So why has it not been introduced? Lethargy

www.irishtimes.com

1 3

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 1d

Thirdly, you can have the best people on earth working in these roles, but without proper infrastructure/spaces, they can't fulfil potential/discharge proper care. I queued for D&C surgery alongside ppl awaiting delivery, could hear babies cry when I woke up from surgery.

Text: "Finally, infrastructure. There is compassion in good design. The row of seats that face the registration desk in the hospital I attended for miscarriage surgery contained me and two heavily pregnant women checking in to give birth. Having had this experience, I feel I can say with confidence that there’s a good reason you wouldn’t have a wedding planner and an undertaker share a reception.

Similarly, because of construction works at the hospital and some necessary repurposing of rooms, I could hear newborn cries from the recovery bed where I ate my first bites of post-surgery toast. Again, an emotional hardship most could do without.

The urgency of better, newer hospitals is not just about better facilities and technology, it should be about taking us out of buildings that are not fit for purpose – and that’s leaving aside the legacy of the carceral ghosts that inhabit many of these institutions, the sites of so much injustice against women on this island in recent history."

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 1d

The second was to take your knowledge of your body seriously. I knew my dates and my cycle well, but when things weren't measuring right, I let myself believe that I'd got the dates and my cycle length wrong. Looking back, I could have spared myself some pain here if I believed myself.

Text: My second big lesson was to trust my knowledge of my body. As a philosopher working primarily on the history of science, I think I have a pretty healthy mixture of, on the one hand, appropriate deference to medical expertise and, on the other, the kind of scepticism over clinical certainty that is a necessary byproduct of having studied the way scientific knowledge evolves over time.

I’ve had a very regular 29-day cycle for most of my adult life. When early scans showed that the blastocyst was not the right size for its gestation, I let myself be talked around to the idea that I was wrong about my dates and cycle length and that everything was probably okay. Of course, people will try to allow a person to keep a hope alive where it’s wanted (and it’s difficult for health practitioners to ever know your medical values), but I feel I could have spared myself some subsequent grief if I had trusted myself.

1 2

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 1d

My first insight is that, for those of us who had our first babies in the height of COVID, a normalisation of isolated fertility care set in that was hard to shake. Years later, I went in for my miscarriage surgery alone, because I genuinely didn't think to ask if I could bring my husband.

Text reads: "So I knew no other way, and the loneliness of that clinical experience never really occurred to me at the time. However, it normalised a sense of pregnancy as a purely individual business in a way that I look back on very differently now.

When, at just more than 13 weeks, I went into the hospital for my booking appointment and learned I’d lost the pregnancy, I scrambled to get a D&C (dilation and curettage) appointment immediately. I wanted to be through it as quickly as I could. When the day came for surgery, I had so internalised the normality of medical isolation in my Covid pregnancy that I didn’t even think to ask could I bring my husband to the hospital with me.
I just assumed I couldn't"

1 2

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 1d

More professional oversharing from me in the Irish Times today. Three years on, I look back at what I think I've learned from my miscarriage experiences.
It's paywalled, but I'll pull some of the major ideas below.

www.irishtimes.com/health/your-...

In hospital for my miscarriage surgery, I waited with two women checking in to give birth

There is compassion in good design. You wouldn’t have a wedding planner and an undertaker share a reception

www.irishtimes.com

1 4

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 2d

Nice. It does feel a bit emblematic of the landlord-cum-politician issue in Ireland.

7 23

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 3d

😅

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 3d

Daughter just saw a tv with a load of static, and said, "look at those teeny starlings". Not sure whether technological change or her campsite vibes dad is more responsible for this quaint monitor murmuration misidentification.

1 1 7

Reposted by Clare Moriarty

womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 4d

A recent photo of a starling murmuration as if smoke from a chimney has been called a "fluke" by its Yorkshire based, UK photographer, Anna Tosney #WomensArt

170 840

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 3d

Dropped this off to a pal's baby today.
I hope its proportions are actually less weird than they look here.
Had a bad few months of knitting... hope I'm back in the swing now.
#showusyourknits

Hand knitted baby jumper lying on a wooden table. Jumper is a crew neck, flat construction, in multicoloured yarn, with sage green cuffs and collar. Button placket across the shoulder to admit giant baby heads. Buttons blue and yellow.

Same jumper described in last image, but the back of it is face up.

Reposted by Clare Moriarty

President of Ireland @president.ie · 5d

Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the death of Manchán Magan president.ie/en/media-lib...

5 46 140

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 5d

What about groups that are formed around something like an intention? What sprung to mind for me was organising groups formed during a referendum (say, the one we recently had in Ireland about overturning the abortion ban). Maybe the yes/no nature of the goal makes it easier to satisfy?

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 5d

4yr old really vibing with Kylie Minogue and Basement Jaxx this morning. Giving myself a pat on the back

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 6d

I am writing a chapter on B on vision at the moment, so I'm very glad you brought this into my feed today!

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 6d

It is bad that my main response is "where is the chair?!"

1 2

Reposted by Clare Moriarty

john h @heliolithic.bsky.social · 6d

some books demonstrate the viability of an incredibly difficult technical project, some other books discuss the paris commune of 1871... only one legend does both

1 1 2

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 6d

If you can't love me at my spacetime points, you don't deserve me at my Commune de Paris

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 6d

One for the true fans (speaking of which, what would we call ourselves? Fielders? The Field marshals?)

Still can't believe he took on falsifying P2. What a king 🥰

1 1

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 7d

Well, I loved it in c.2010-2011.
Perhaps not recommended unless you have pretty specific concerns about nominalism in the philosophy of mathematics! Maybe look up "indispensability arguments: philosophy of mathematics" and see if you're into it!
Apologies if you're already deep into phil of math

1 2

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 7d

Been a while, old friend!

Image is a cover image of Hartry Field's 'Science Without Numbers: A Defence of Nominalism' (1980)

2 1 14

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 7d

Great, a girl of who I am also now frightened of

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 7d

These kids are wild. Had the 4yr old on the back of the bike yesterday and she suddenly screams "what happens if you're pregnant in jail?"
Took a bit of thought to know where to begin there

1 5

Reposted by Clare Moriarty

Fintan Mallory @fintanmallory.com · 9d

New paper. TLDR: Social power influence a person’s ability to establish the question under discussion in a conversation. Combining work in formal pragmatics, critical discourse analysis, and social epistemology can help us identify the mechanisms by which this happens. philpapers.org/rec/MALIIX

Fintan Mallory, Inquisitive Injustice - PhilPapers

The ability to control the direction of a conversation, which topics are raised, which questions are asked, and which lines of inquiry are followed, is a basic and powerful form of ...

philpapers.org

2 15 61

Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 9d

This tracks!