All posts tagged: Wood

Lord of the Rings Films to Celebrate 25 Years With Elijah Wood at CCXP

Lord of the Rings Films to Celebrate 25 Years With Elijah Wood at CCXP

Published by Daniella Wilson

As time continues to pass, the Lord of the Rings film franchise is set to gather fans in honor of its 25th anniversary. Elijah Wood is the first announced guest for the forthcoming CCXP26 fan event that takes place later this year in São Paulo, Brazil. With the theme of “Fellowship Forever,” this year’s CCXP is held Dec. 3-6, and Wood is set to participate in a panel on both Dec. 3 and 4, along with photo and autograph sessions on each date. Wood was 20 when he hit the screen as Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which was released in theaters Dec. 19, 2001, and also starred Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom. Based on the writing of J.R.R. Tolkien, the movie was the first in director Peter Jackson‘s trilogy that collectively surpassed $2.9 billion at the global box office and amassed 17 Oscars. “CCXP has a tradition of celebrating major milestones in pop culture alongside the people who experienced …

Carolyn Wood Sherif, pioneer of feminist psychology who foresaw the risks of scientific bias

Carolyn Wood Sherif, pioneer of feminist psychology who foresaw the risks of scientific bias

Published by skeptic

In the US state park of Robbers Cave, Oklahoma, Carolyn Wood Sherif is standing squinting up at the sun. The two wooden cabins before her rattle with shrieks and cries from excited 11-year-old boys. They have been split into two groups of 11 and encouraged to bond. Over three long, laborious weeks in the summer of 1954, Wood Sherif watches as these boys become enthusiastically dedicated to their allocated groups. When instructed to compete for resources, they grow hostile towards their opponents. The experiment descends into inter-group violence and aggression. This research was among the first naturalistic psychological studies to show how group formation can lead to prejudice and intense conflict. It is considered a classic study upon which the subdiscipline of social psychology – how mind and behaviour are influenced by the presence of other people – was born. Wood Sherif should have made her academic career from it. But in many ways, scientific research is a culture, a club. There are people with the power to warmly invite others to participate, and others …

Suzanne Simard on the wood wide web, connectedness – and Avatar

Suzanne Simard on the wood wide web, connectedness – and Avatar

Published by skeptic

Suzanne Simard and Rowan Hooper discuss the “mother tree” concept To some, forest ecologist Suzanne Simard is a pioneer in the tradition of Jane Goodall, Rachel Carson and Lynn Margulis. To others, she has veered too far from what science tells us. In 1997, she published a breakthrough paper showing that trees exchange food and nutrients via an underground fungal network connecting their roots, a system the journal Nature dubbed “the wood wide web“. In 2021, Simard published Finding the Mother Tree: Uncovering the wisdom and intelligence of the forest. Her work found a huge new audience, tapping into a public thirst for evidence of community in nature, much like James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis. But, as with Gaia, there was an intense backlash, as some researchers objected to the claim that trees shared resources. Simard grew up in a family of loggers and knows better than most the damage that unsustainable modern forestry practices are having on ecosystems. As an academic at the University of British Columbia, Canada, she runs the Mother Tree project, a …

SNL UK sketch featuring Aimee Lou Wood ignites casting calls from Doctor Who fans

SNL UK sketch featuring Aimee Lou Wood ignites casting calls from Doctor Who fans

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter A parody sketch on last night’s (2 May) episode of Saturday Night Live UK seems to have given Doctor Who fans an idea. During the most recent episode of the British variety show, host Aimee Lou Wood (Sex Education) featured in a sketch lampooning the long-running sci-fi series. Wood played a character reminiscent of one of the Doctor’s companions in Doctor Who, while regular SNL UK castmember Hammed Animashaun stood in for the Doctor. Aimee Lou Wood and Hammed Animashaun in ‘SNL UK’ (Sky) In the sketch, the two exit the Tardis and encounter a revolting-looking alien. With the future of the real Doctor Who currently shrouded in uncertainty, fans seized on the sketch to endorse Wood as a prospective next Doctor. “Seeing tons of ‘Make Aimee Lou Wood Doctor Who’ truthers on the timeline tonight after SNL which is fantasticcccc,” …

SNL UK: Aimee Lou Wood turns ‘mean’ teeth joke on its head as she prepares to host show

SNL UK: Aimee Lou Wood turns ‘mean’ teeth joke on its head as she prepares to host show

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Aimee Lou Wood has kicked off her time hosting Saturday Night Live UK by poking fun at the US show’s “unfunny and mean” sketch which ridiculed her teeth. Last year, British actor Wood found herself at the centre of a controversy after her character on The White Lotus was parodied on Saturday Night Live. Cast member Sarah Sherman wore exaggerated prosthetic teeth in an attempt to parody Wood’s appearance, which the British actor took issue with on social media. Wood (left) poked fun at the ‘SNL’ sketch in her week six promo for ‘SNL UK’ (Saturday Night Live UK/Instagram) The Sex Education star, 32, is returning to the franchise as the host of the SNL UK this weekend (2 May), and mocked the controversy in a pre-episode teaser clip starring cast members Ayoade Bamgboye, Al Nash, Celeste Dring and Paddy Young. …

Church trial date set for ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood

Church trial date set for ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Archbishop Steve Wood, who leads the Anglican Church in North America, will face a church trial beginning on July 20, according to an announcement from the court Tuesday (April 21). He has been accused of sexual harassment, bullying and plagiarism and faces three church charges: alleged violation of ordination vows, conduct giving cause for “scandal or offense” and sexual immorality. The Tuesday announcement also revealed that Wood filed a motion to dismiss the case. The court will hear arguments on that motion beginning on May 7. “We are grateful to the Court for its diligent work in this matter,” said the Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs, who serves as dean of the province, in the statement. “I ask that our clergy and lay members join me in earnest prayer that God, in His wisdom and providence, would bring a just and righteous resolution, that His Church would be preserved in truth and unity, and that all parties involved would know His grace.” Wood was inhibited, or temporarily suspended from his ministry, in mid-November, days …

Church trial date set for ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood

Church trial date set for ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Archbishop Steve Wood, who leads the Anglican Church in North America, will face a church trial beginning on July 20, according to an announcement from the court Tuesday (April 21). He has been accused of sexual harassment, bullying and plagiarism and faces three church charges: alleged violation of ordination vows, conduct giving cause for “scandal or offense” and sexual immorality. The Tuesday announcement also revealed that Wood filed a motion to dismiss the case. The court will hear arguments on that motion beginning on May 7. “We are grateful to the Court for its diligent work in this matter,” said the Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs, who serves as dean of the province, in the statement. “I ask that our clergy and lay members join me in earnest prayer that God, in His wisdom and providence, would bring a just and righteous resolution, that His Church would be preserved in truth and unity, and that all parties involved would know His grace.” Wood was inhibited, or temporarily suspended from his ministry, in mid-November, days …

Ronnie Wood to play rare solo show in London this summer

Ronnie Wood to play rare solo show in London this summer

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Ronnie Wood, the iconic guitarist for The Rolling Stones, is poised to play a rare solo show in London this August, marking his first full live solo sets in over 16 years. The intimate performance at the O2 Kentish Town Forum on 21 August will see the 78-year-old musician joined by close friend and singer-songwriter Imelda May. The announcement follows high demand for Wood’s solo appearances, which initially saw him add an extra date in Amsterdam. He has now confirmed two new shows: the London gig and a performance at Cologne’s E-Werk on 3 September. Expressing his excitement, Wood declared: “I’m looking forward to kickin’ ass with my back catalogue and some new songs – look out London!!” Before his storied tenure with The Rolling Stones, Wood was a pivotal member of Faces, the rock band responsible for hits like “Stay With Me”, …

The skylines of the future will be made of wood

The skylines of the future will be made of wood

Published by Jenni Sidey

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Picture yourself in a wind-swept forest. Leaves are rustling and trunks are creaking as trees sway to and fro. This oscillation might seem precarious, but it’s actually an ancient adaptation: If pines and firs and all the others were perfectly stiff, a gust would snap them. So instead, they flex.  Now teleport yourself to the top floor of a skyscraper during the same windstorm, ever so slightly bending in the same way. A tree’s clever evolutionary trick, you see, has made the modern metropolis possible: As towers reached higher and higher in the early 20th century, architects used not wood but steel to create giants that would similarly flex in hurricane-force winds and as earthquakes rattled their foundations. But as the world gets hotter and wildfires more intense, architects are turning back to trees for more than inspiration. Engineered materials like cross-laminated and glue-laminated timber, in which layers of wood are glued together, create beams that are tough and somewhat flexible, yet lightweight. …

Bridgerton and White Lotus stars Nicola Coughlan and Aimee Lou Wood next SNL UK hosts

Bridgerton and White Lotus stars Nicola Coughlan and Aimee Lou Wood next SNL UK hosts

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Saturday Night Live UK has announced its next hosts ahead of the sketch show’s return from a mid-season hiatus. Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan will present the series on 25 April, with musical guests Foo Fighters, while Aimee Lou Wood, known for her roles in Sex Education and The White Lotus, will guest host on 2 May. She’ll be joined by the singer Meek. Since the launch of SNL UK on Sky last month, Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan, Riz Ahmed and Jack Whitehall have fronted the comedy series. The show is taking a break this weekend, but will be back the following week with Coughlan, who made a brief appearance in the show’s debut episode. Nicola Coughlan and Aimee Lou Wood are hosting ‘SNL UK’ (Getty Images) Musical guests so far have included Wet Leg, Wolf Alice, Kasabian and Jorja Smith. The …