Jon Turney

@jonturney.bsky.social

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Writer & editor, mainly about jazz and popular science. Past lives in science policy, sci-comm etc. Retirement pastimes include managing climate anxieties...
jonturney.wordpress.com

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yup - always amazed there are still people who don't even read the contract :)

Writers: Challenge the agreement/contract that your publishers present you with. They'll start off saying this is our contract, take it or leave it, but it's negotiable. Every contract is. 'Boilerplate' means this is where you start, not where you finish. And learn what 'subsidiary rights' means.

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I have been working on a story about carbon capture for like three months because I keep thinking "it cannot possibly be THIS much of an absolute shit show" and figuring I must be missing something or misunderstanding something and then every new expert I talk to tells me it's even worse

interesting thoughts about one of the Musky efforts that is often derided... open.substack.com/pub/andrewma...

Neuralink updateopen.substack.com This afternoon Elon Musk and a team from Neuralink provided an update on their work on advanced brain computer interfaces. Some quick takeaways from me on the event.

listening to James Brandon Lewis live from Unterfahrt, Munich on YouTube (It'll disappear later).He's the real deal isn't he? #jazzsky

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Review of 'The Language of Climate Politics' out tomorrow! Great to see @bylinetimes.bsky.social @bylinesnetwork.bsky.social publish this. @doctorvive.bsky.social yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/world/r...

Review of ‘The Language of Climate Politics – Fossil Fuel Propaganda’ by Genevieve Guenther - Yorkshire Bylinesyorkshirebylines.co.uk The phrase ‘the limits of our language are the limits of our world’ takes on an urgent new meaning when confronted with fossil fuel propaganda

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As a computational neuroscientist trying to build models I find myself oscillating dramatically between believing: 1) We have too much data; we need to cool it with new experiments til we can figure out what's going on and 2) We exist in a data desert; what even happens in the brain? who knows!

Slightly mad piece by Mail’s TV critic but not a bad advert for Bristol :)

My beloved Bristol is even more bonkers, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENSwww.dailymail.co.uk CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: The Green Party 's co-leader, Carla Denyer, trounced the sitting Labour MP, Thangam Debbonaire, by a margin of more than 10,000 votes.

Agreeably surprised by how cheering it is simply to wake up each morning not thinking, "what crass, shameful or simply malevolent thing will my government try and do today"? I suppose it had gone on so long one had kind of had stopped noticing how steadily dispiriting that was...

Note to documentary makers/interviewers: sometimes the answer is worth the wait youtu.be/1Yw1-2afVcc?...

Thomas Morgan: How do you feel when you play? in "Music for Black Pigeons"youtu.be From filmmakers Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed, 'Music for Black Pigeons' is a cinematic documentary that explores the lives and processes of some of the wo...

Blimey, I thought we might do it in Bristol Central. but not like this 🙂 BBC: The co-leader of the Green Party Carla Denyer wins with 24,539 votes - taking the seat from Labour. Thangam Debbonaire, second, with 14,132 votes - a 25.9% drop from the 2019 election.

watching a bit of the tennis to calm pre-election night nerves - that works, right?

Nitin Sawhney set at #glastonbury - good stuff :)

weekend reading: this brilliantly enjoyable, if dark, debut collection www.bookhausbristol.com/product/the-...

The unreliable nature writer – Book Haus Bristolwww.bookhausbristol.com

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Beware of the book festivals! (My latest Guardian Books cartoon)

great day for a pre-breakfast walk to the Downs :)

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New book review for TheArtsDesk theartsdesk.com/books-gaming...

Kelly Clancy: Playing with Reality - How Games Shape Our World review - how far games go backtheartsdesk.com For a couple of decades, the free video game America’s Army was a powerful recruitment aid for the US military. More than a shoot-em-up, players might find themselves dressing virtual wounds, struggli...

I note from TLS review that the new biography of Isherwood is 850pp. I mean, I’m interested in the man but might publishers consider insisting that editors, you know, edit?

New book review for TheArtsDesk theartsdesk.com/books-gaming...

Recently noted the bookmark I used to mark my place in vol 1 when daughter was born is still in place. Elder daughter is now 37 :) (All 3 vols now gone to Amnesty bookshop, finally… )

No 42 Fernand Braudel, The Structures of Everyday Life. Slightly odd choice, this one. A Sunday Paper had a book club, for regular purchases, and as the opening offer you got a free gift of Braudel's trilogy, of which this was the first. It was everywhere, but, I believe, virtually unread. 📚💙

Zoe Williams puts her finger on the strong sense of unreality I have about almost everything to do with this election... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This should be the climate election. Instead we are in a frustrating, Farage-obsessed fantasyland | Zoe Williamswww.theguardian.com Bloviators and untruths continue to generate more news than common sense and the environment. But some parties are trying to make a difference, writes Zoe Williams

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Re-upping for the afternoon/evening crowd: The first excerpt from my book IN THE BREWING LUMINOUS: THE LIFE & MUSIC OF CECIL TAYLOR is up now on The Wire's website. Go read it. I think it's pretty good! www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/b...

Read an extract from In The Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music Of Cecil Taylor by Philip Freeman - The Wirewww.thewire.co.uk Author Philip Freeman shares an excerpt from his new full length biography of Cecil Taylor, which takes the reader from the pianist and composer's birth in 1929 to his death in 2018 and beyond

started putting some (fairly) recent book reviews up on my old archive site - e.g. this one scienceobserved.wordpress.com/2024/06/18/t...

The Musical Human – A History of Life on Earthscienceobserved.wordpress.com (Old posts here - largely discontinued now - were usually from archives of stuff I wrote way back. Now going to resume with some new ones, as I've been reviewing pop-science again fairly regularly and...

always seems right that the UK's air display team use an aircraft that first flew in 1955, and I happen to know how old that really is... :) www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...

Inside a Red Arrows cockpit during King's birthday flypastwww.bbc.co.uk The Royal Air Force's jets left trails of white, blue and red as they flew over central London on Saturday.

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Deliberately undermining one of the most powerful tools against the threat of global pandemics from novel emerging infectious diseases is not only evil — it’s stunningly shortsighted zero-sum thinking that puts the US population at risk as well. www.reuters.com/investigates...

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to incite fear of China vaccineswww.reuters.com The covert effort began under Trump and continued into Biden’s presidency, Reuters found. Health experts say it endangered lives for possible geopolitical gain.

Only seen one of these, but glad Green Party has some £ to spend here :)

yes, but was there anything you didn't like about it? www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition review – a gasping death-rattle of conservative mediocritywww.theguardian.com Pampered pets, polite portraits and enough wan landscapes to fill a field – this show mirrors the numbed, aimless condition of Britain after 14 years of Tory misrule

Yes, really excellent book

also wanna up Epstein's book "Impure Science" is also a really great deep dive into the scientific politics of the crisis, and does a great job of laying out the fight between AIDS deniers - but like the article above, his research period ended right before combination therapy #STS

www.theguardian.com/politics/art...

‘People feel betrayed by Labour’: Bristol’s Green surge continueswww.theguardian.com Anger over Starmer’s stance on Gaza and perceived shift to the right could lead to the Greens’ Carla Denyer being elected in Bristol Central

Not heard every one, but surely the best episode of Backlisted so far :) Fascinating, funny and well-made

New episode up now. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: the Original Radio Scripts by Douglas Adams, with guests Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social and Gail Renard @gailrenard.bsky.social. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/213...

213. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts by Douglas Adams — Backlistedwww.backlisted.fm