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Night Climbing
Night climbing is a term used, principally at the Oxford and Cambridge universities in England, to describe the sport of climbing up the walls of colleges and public buildings, and exploring the rooftops. This activity is frowned on by college authorities, so it is mainly done under cover of darkness, to avoid detection. The sport is a subset of buildering, or urban climbing, and is distinguished by the fact that it is usually carried out nocturnally by university students. The original term for this activity was "roof climbing". The alternative term "night climbing" was introduced in the late 1930s, and has become the standard term. History In 1895, the alpinist Geoffrey Winthrop Young started to climb the roofs of Cambridge University. Students had been scrambling up the university buildings for years, but Young was the first to document this activity. He wrote and published a night climbing guide to Trinity College. In 1905, while a master at Eton College, Young produced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world; it has buildings in every style of English architecture since late Anglo-Saxon. Oxford's industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing, information technology and science. History The history of Oxford in England dates back to its original settlement in the Saxon period. Originally of strategic significance due to its controlling location on the upper reaches of the River Thames at its junction with the River Cherwell, the town grew in national importance during the early Norman period, and in the late 12th century became home to the fledgling University of Oxford. The city was besieged during The Anarchy in 1142. The university rose to dom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whipplesnaith
''The Night Climbers of Cambridge'' is a book, written under the pseudonym "Whipplesnaith", about nocturnal climbing on the colleges and town buildings of Cambridge, England, in the 1930s. The book remains popular among Cambridge University students and the 1930s and 1950s editions can be hard to find. It is often credited with popularising and inspiring the first generation of urban explorers and night climbers. History After extensive research, it was revealed that "Whipplesnaith" is a pseudonym for Noël Howard Symington, who feared retribution for his work. Eric Waddams, a choral scholar at Kings, who either took or featured in most of the photographs, was a contributor. There was also a third unknown contributor. The book was originally published in October 1937 by Chatto and Windus and proved popular. The book was revised in November 1937 and reprinted in 1952 and 1953, selling out each time. The second edition contains a reordered selection of photographs and a missing d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Culture Of The University Of Cambridge
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tylor, Edward. (1871). Primitive Culture. Vol 1. New York: J.P. Putnam's Son Culture is often originated from or attributed to a specific region or location. Humans acquire culture through the learning processes of enculturation and socialization, which is shown by the diversity of cultures across societies. A cultural norm codifies acceptable conduct in society; it serves as a guideline for behavior, dress, language, and demeanor in a situation, which serves as a template for expectations in a social group. Accepting only a monoculture in a social group can bear risks, just as a single species can wither in the face of environmental change, for lack of functional responses to the change. Thus in military culture, valor is counted a typi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Safety Last!
''Safety Last!'' is a 1923 American silent romantic-comedy film starring Harold Lloyd. It includes one of the most famous images from the silent-film era: Lloyd clutching the hands of a large clock as he dangles from the outside of a skyscraper above moving traffic. The film was highly successful and critically hailed, and it cemented Lloyd's status as a major figure in early motion pictures. It is still popular at revivals, and it is viewed today as one of the great film comedies. The film's title is a play on the common expression "safety first", which prioritizes safety as a means to avoid accidents, especially in workplaces. Lloyd performed some of the climbing stunts himself, despite having lost a thumb and forefinger four years earlier in a film accident. In 1994, ''Safety Last!'' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is one of many works fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parkour
Parkour () is an athletic training discipline or sport in which practitioners (called ''traceurs'') attempt to get from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible, without assisting equipment and often while performing artistic-gymnastic maneuvers. With roots in military obstacle course training and martial arts, parkour includes running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, plyometrics, rolling, gymnastics, and quadrupedal movement—whatever is suitable for a given situation. Parkour is an activity that can be practiced alone or with others, and is usually carried out in urban spaces, though it can be done anywhere. It involves seeing one's environment in a new way, and envisioning the potential for navigating it by movement around, across, through, over and under its features. Although practitioners of Parkour often perform flips and other acrobatic movements, these are not considered a part of Parkour proper. The practice of similar movements ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doorways In The Sand
''Doorways in the Sand'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Roger Zelazny. Featuring both detective fiction and comic elements, it was originally published in serial form in the magazine ''Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact''; the hardcover edition was first published in 1976 and the paperback in 1977. Zelazny wrote the whole story in one draft, no rewrites and it subsequently became one of his own five personal favorites in all his work. ''Doorways in the Sand'' was nominated to the Nebula and Hugo awards. Plot introduction A galactic confederation of alien civilizations exchanges the star-stone and the Rhennius machine, mysterious alien artifacts, for the Mona Lisa and the British Crown Jewels as part of the process of admitting Earth to its organization. The star-stone is missing, and Fred Cassidy, a perpetual student and acrophile, is the last known person to have seen it. Various criminals, Anglophile zealots, government agents and aliens torture, shoo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buildering
Buildering (also known as edificeering, urban climbing, structuring, skywalking, boulding, or stegophily) describes the act of climbing on the outside of buildings and other artificial structures. The word "buildering", sometimes misspelled bildering, combines the word '' building'' with the climbing term ''bouldering''. If done without ropes or protection far off the ground, buildering is extremely dangerous. It is often practiced outside legal bounds, and is thus mostly at night. Night climbing is a particular branch of buildering which has been practiced for many years in a variety of locations, especially at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, England. Night climbing, as distinct from buildering, is performed mainly by undergraduates under cover of darkness. The term "night climbing" has replaced the older term "roof climbing". The philosophy behind night climbing has undergone great change during the 21st century, with urban disciplines such as parkour having a heavy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freeman Dyson
Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was an English-American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrices, mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics, condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, and engineering. He was Professor Emeritus in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Dyson originated several concepts that bear his name, such as Dyson's transform, a fundamental technique in additive number theory, which he developed as part of his proof of Mann's theorem; the Dyson tree, a hypothetical genetic engineering, genetically engineered plant capable of growing in a comet; the Dyson series, a Perturbation theory (quantum mechanics), perturbative series where each term is represented by Feynman diagrams; the Dyson sphere, a thought experiment that attempts to explain how a spacefaring, space ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. Trinity has some of the most distinctive architecture in Cambridge with its Great Court said to be the largest enclosed courtyard in Europe. Academically, Trinity performs exceptionally as measured by the Tompkins Table (the annual unofficial league table of Cambridge colleges), coming top from 2011 to 2017. Trinity was the top-performing college for the 2020-21 undergraduate exams, obtaining the highest percentage of good honours. Members of Trinity have been awarded 34 Nobel Prizes out of the 121 received by members of Cambridge University (the highest of any college at either Oxford or Cambridge). Members of the college have received four Fields Medals, one Turing Award and one Abel Prize. Trinity alumni include the father of the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Night Climbers Of Oxford
The Night Climbers of Oxford is a secret society, dedicated to nocturnally scaling college and town buildings in Oxford, England. The society is noted for its political activism, controversial acts, feats of climbing and parkour, as well as urban exploration. The society was likely inspired by their Cambridge counterparts, The Night Climbers of Cambridge. Activities conducted by the society are forbidden by the University authorities, meaning that acts are completed under the cover of darkness, to avoid detection. History The founding date of the Night Climbing society remains unknown, although acts of nocturnal climbing in Oxford are reported to date back to the 1930s, with members of the Alpine Club and Oxford University Mountaineering Club being some of the first to venture on to the University rooftops. The historian and climber David Cox, is widely regarded as one of the first night climbers to have scaled the Radcliffe Camera and the Codrington Library, during the earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivo Stourton
Ivo James Benedict Stourton (born 1982) is a British author and solicitor. Career Stourton first came into the public eye at the age of 17 when he wrote and starred in ''Kassandra'', an award-winning Edinburgh Festival production about the Vietnam war. In June 2006 he was signed to a two-book deal by Random House. His first book, ''The Night Climbers'' a novel about a secret society in Cambridge and a group of friends who get involved in art fraud, was published on 4 June 2007, and is partly based on the infamous student practice of " night climbing". ''The Night Climbers'' was published in the United States by Simon Spotlight Entertainment Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pub ... on 7 September 2007. His second novel, ''The Book Lover's Tale'', was published in June 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
