Eagles are out to get us, favourite numbers, horses frozen in a lake, movie scripts that wannabe script writers/editors must read, the copyeditor’s oath, and a cure for writer’s block: my favourite links from this week.

I tried sticking pins in my Adobe Voodoo doll, to no avail. Always iffy, since I have to take pins out of my Word doll to do it.
—me: @scieditor

Have I mentioned how much I love the show Radio Lab? I’ve been catching up on episodes and I’m just all excited about these wild (real) tales. There’s a lot of them in this week’s links roundup.

The Skull

The story of the Taung Child, an archeological find that radically changed what we know about the beginnings of humanity. If you visit their page on Thingiverse, you can download the files and print it out in 3D at my local Maker Space and have your very own Taung Child skull replica… to see the evidence that this “early person” was predated by an eagle.

For the Love of Numbers

You’ve heard of synesthesia? Colours having taste and sounds having feel. Well, numbers affect people’s emotions, and it’s more than just superstition. This includes a world-wide survey of favourite numbers, and some of the history of attributes people have given to numbers: one is male, for instance, and all even numbers are female. There’s even a psych study that showed some correlation between numbers and gender (people judged faces as masculine or feminine based on a “subconscious” number printed on the pictures).

Can you guess what the overall favourite number is? I mean the one that is loved the most? I did. But it’s not MY favourite.

Super Cool

About the beginnings of the universe.

You’ve seen those videos on YouTube, of water freezing into cones as it is poured out of a super-cooled water bottle. It’s how we entertain ourselves this far north, right? So you may not find this very old story so incredulous: horses frozen into a lake. But how does this help explain how matter started to take shape in the universe? I haven’t finished this episode yet. You’d better start at the beginning.

Sigh. I remember when I used to get excited about typos on ethnic-restaurant menus. It was like the whole world needed me.
—my colleague, who wishes to remain anon.

How to Cure Writer’s Block

I like to use Julia Cameron’s advice from The Artist’s Way in reverse (create other forms to release the words rather than writing to release the painting), but this is good too: The Best Method to Break Writer’s Block, by @joebunting

8 Animation [Movie] Scripts Screenwriters Should Read

I am very interested in words outside of print media, and “reading widely” seems like the most common learning advice, even in other media. So, I’m going to read these 8 scripts. I wonder how much the final product varies? Maybe a “read along” is called for.

Typographic Oath

The Copyeditor’s Typographic Oath (for editors) is looking v nice, via @ebrenner on Copyediting.com. I particularly like #7, and the one about triage.