Biking the Virginia Creeper Trail
Biking the Virginia Creeper Trail is an outstanding experience that you will never forget. The trail is located in a beautiful, small town in Virginia known as Damascus. This town provides many amenities such as lodging, dining and great outdoor entertainment.
The town of Damascus is located about fifty miles northeast of the East Tennessee State University campus. From campus you will get onto US181 north for about twenty miles and then turn off onto the Bristol exit. This exit will then put you onto US81north. As you cross the Tennessee, Virginia line you will see signs to Damascus, Virginia. From the state line Damascus is only thirty-five miles away. After you exit to Damascus the signs are very explanatory.
The Creeper Trail dates back to the early railroads in Abingdon, Virginia, in the 1880’s. Abingdon is a town outside of Damascus where a coal and iron railroad company was built. The railway traveled through Damascus and to the top of Whitetop Mountain. The railroad ran for many years but later on became damaged by floods and torrential rains. In 1977 the railway was finally torn down and the land was turned over to Abingdon and Damascus. The trail then became a biking, walking, and a horseback-riding trail. A great site to get historical information on the Virginia Creeper Trail is, (www.vacreepertrail.com/history/VACreeperHistory.htm)
The town of Damascus is very charming with its beautiful Victorian houses along each road and the friendliness of the locals. While you drive into town you will come to a place called Adventure Damascus, where you can rent bikes and get a shuttle up to the top of Whitetop Mountain for only twenty dollars. The fee includes your bike rental, shuttle, and two bottles of water. The trip from downtown to the top of the mountain seems very long and dreadful but when you finally approach the top the view and ride is well worth it.
The length of the trail from Whitetop to Damascus is around 20 miles long and should take four hours to make it down. People are allowed to ride up the mountain or ride down the mountain. To ride up the mountain the biker must be experienced and very well educated about the trail.
As you start the trail you will hear the sounds of horses making their way up the mountain to meet you. Before you know it you will be gliding down from Whitetop Station into the forest canopy of the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area.
The Shenandoah Valley is located in the western part of Virginia. The valley lies between the Allegheny Mountains, Shenandoah Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains with the Potomac River being the northern boundary to the valley. The Valley offered two tactical advantages to the Confederates with the Union having knowledge of this. The first is a Northern Army invading Virginia would be vulnerable to a Confederate flanking attacks pouring through the many winding gaps across the Blue Ridge Mountains. The other is that the Valley offers a sheltered avenue that would allow any Confederate army to head north into Pennsylvania uncontested. The Shenandoah Valley also contains twelve bridges that are of significance to any maneuvering army of the day and the valley is only 25 miles wide. The valley represented to the Army of the Potomac (Union) a direct approach to the CSA capital of Richmond, Virginia during the Civil War (Keeg...
Even from a brief summary such as this, one can tell that Mel Brooks associates himself with comedical films that would categorize as satire and/or parody. Seeing that Brooks was born Jewish and that he has elements of “Hitlerism” in his works, you can begin to see the connection with what may...
The Battle of Gettysburg took place in a town called Gettysburg, located in Pennsylvania. In the mid-1860s, the town had 2,400 citizens. Nearby, there are several landmarks that would prove crucial throughout the battle. There were four hills; Round Top (now known as Big Round Top), Little Round Top, Culp’s Hill, and Cemetery Hill. For the Confederates, taking position on any of the hills could have proved important for the rest of the war. The battlefield is open to the public, as a National
The Blue Ridge Parkway runs 469 miles. Along the crest of mountains in the Appalachain chain. It connects two parks. Shenandoah National Park and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The parkway starts in Virgina. And ends in North Carolina. Begun by the Works Progress Administration in 1935. The parkway was completed. Except for a section around privately owned Grandfather Mountain. Concerned about the enviornmental impact. The owner refuesed to allow any blasting on the mountain. It was 1987 before the final section, the Linn Cove Viaduct. Using the latest engineering technology. The viaduct goes around, not over, Grandfather Mountain. Those who drive the parkway. Are not bothered by the speed limit of 45 miles per hours. Driving slowly allows
Another problem that arises when studying the violence against women on TV and in movies is that of how the incidents occur. In the same study conducted by the Parents Te...
Mt Washington in New Hampshire is the tallest mountain in Northeastern United States at 6,288 feet it is also one of the most dangerous ones. This is a mountain that since 1849 has caused the recorded deaths of around 150 people and the weather can change in seconds going from 70 degrees and clear skies to either thunderstorms, blizzards that cover the entire summit in snow and rime ice or hail with temperatures as low as -40 degrees and winds that have been recorded at 254 mph though wind gusts that high are results of rather extreme conditions. Any hiker must plan their trip up the mountain to the absolute smallest and minute detail, reservations must be made in advance and multiple routes off the mountain must be planned in case of either medical emergencies or extreme weather and a bunch of teenagers and our fathers were going to try our best and climb it without anyone increasing that 150 number.
Studies have been conducted to find if violent movies influence a person’s judgement and violent behavior. Psychologists have said that brutal imagery in films, games, and other media sow aggression in society by rendering viewers insensitive to acts of these type. The long term effects of exposure to these movies depicting murder, rape, robberies, and so on is pernicious. Another study concluded that the crime rate would actually decrease during the showings of these movies because for 2 hours during the movie any violence prone persons that wished to see the movie would be in the theater which meant they wouldn’t be on the streets committing crime. Dr. Michael Rich of Children's Hospital of Boston testified that the correlation between violent media and aggressive behavior is stronger than that of calcium intake and bone mass, lead ingestion and lower IQ, condom non-use and sexually acquired HIV, and environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer, all associations that clinicians accept as fact, and on which pr...
According to Edward Donnerstein, a leading researcher in the pornography field, "the relationship between sexually violent images in the media and subsequent aggression and . . . callous attitudes towards women is much stonger statistically than the relationship between smoking and cancer" (Itzin 22). After considering the increase in rape and molestation, sexual harassment, and other sex crimes over the last few decades, and also the corresponding increase of business in the pornography industry, the link between violence and pornogrpahy needs considerable study and examination. Once the evidence you will encounter in this paper is evaluated and quantified, it will be hard not come away with the realization that habitual use of pornographic material promotes unrealistic and unattainable desires in men that can leac to violent behavior toward women.
First, it is obvious that pornography displays male supremacy. For example, the majority of the porn portrays women as being the submissive character, rather than the character who is in control of the situation. Throughout time, the stereotypical woman has always been considered to be attractive if she embraced the submissive role. Pornography further suggests that women are considered to be sexy or attractive if they pursue the role of being passive. The thought of a masculine or dominating woman may seem like something repulsive to the porn industry. Therefore, there is an obvious misrepresentation of the image of being a woman in terms of the woman being a sexual object; thus, suggesting to men the sexual fantasy of the subordination of women and the dominancy of men. To paraphrase MacKinnon, pornography is a type of sexual politics, which defines men as being superior to women just like the higher class dominates the working class. Pornography creates a type of sexuality which eroticizes male dominance and the submission of women (306); consequently suggesting that a woman’s role simply consists of keeping her husband or partner happy. “Making sex with the powerless ‘not allowed’ is a way of ‘keeping it’ defined ...
The frequency of pornography can also influence in the reaction of a sexual offender. There is a difference between the effects of pornography on a sexual offender that is high risk, and an offender that that is low risk. An offender that is high risk is more susceptible to engage in violent sexual acts after being exposed to pornography due to their hostile personality. Also a high risk sexual offender is more prone to recidivism after watching pornographic material. Another factor that contributes to person’s sexual behavior is the influence by their overall emotional state, if they were rejected or most of the time they felt anger. Many individuals may had lived in a disrupted family where there was no support and it was mostly a conflictive environment. It is demonstrated that men with higher attraction to sexual aggression were more likely to get aroused when exposed to sexually violent. Offenders that are exposed to erotica, report that their aggression decreased, while offenders exposed to nonviolent sexual behavior and violent sexual behavior significantly increase aggression. When high risk offenders are exposed to deviant forms of pornography where the male is in power, this helps them shape their fantasies and
"Ramsey Cascades, Ramsey Cascades Trailhead, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina." ProTrails. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014
Affirmative action or positive discrimination can be defined as providing advantages for people of a minority group who are seen to have traditionally been discriminated against. This consists of preferential access to education, employment, health care, or social welfare. In employment, affirmative action may also be known as employment equity. Affirmative action requires that institutions increase hiring and promotion of candidates of mandated groups. (Rubenfeld, 1997, p. 429)
According to Kahlor and Morrison, studies have shown a positive correlation between men’s exposure to such depictions and their acceptance of violence against women (Kahlor & Morrison 2007)
Through remarkably realistic characters like Elinor, Marianne, Fanny, Lucy, and Col. Brandon, Austen brings our attention to the way we should and should not act. She highlights sense’s importance, but insists that sensibility must temper it. These lessons, as much as the compelling stories, explain why Austen’s work is still relevant today. Read her works; learn what she teaches; strive to live your life in a way that unites sense and
...e, allowing the narrator to mirror the opinions and voices of our protagonists. By infusing the narrative voice - a typically trustworthy figure - with the same sarcastic sentiments Elinor and Marianne share, Austen aligns her opinions with theirs. Historically, this would shed light on why Austen decided to refashion Elinor and Marianne to be about two unmarried sisters; it also gives light as to why the aut Some critics have argued that “Austen at last broke into the world of publication by melting into the generic background rather than by asserting her difference,” but those critics are missing the subtle feminist beliefs, which Austen often uses, in the story of Elinor and Marianne. By positing the two sisters as our protagonists against the “target [of the] ‘unfeeling, unintelligent world’ in which the sisters have to live,” we understand that they are not f