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Sailor from Lexington, Md. stands alongside Russian Armed Forces. (Photo credit: Official U.S. Navy Imagery)

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John Adams And The Question of Independence

John Adams And The Question of Independence" target="_blank">John Adams And The Question of Independence from Chuck Thompson

As we move towards the 4th of July, now is a good time to look at what one of our forefathers had to say about moving towards independence.  The above is only 5 pages long.  It will become available for free downloads once the folks over at SlideShare fix the issues with that area.  In the mean time, you can read it online.

President of the Senate John Adams (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Dragnet - The Big Producer, Classic Monday TV

Dragnet, The Big Producer.  Classic Monday TV here on GVLN.  Catch an episode of Dragnet each Monday right here on GVLN.

Photo of Jack Webb and Harry Morgan from the television program Dragnet. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Gloucester crime rates spike for 2012 Says Sheriff Warren

By Matt Sabo, msabo@dailypress.com 

GLOUCESTER — A surge in drug-related arrests and larcenies helped drive an increase of 26 percent in the crime rate inGloucester in 2012, according to figures compiled from Virginia State Police annual crime reports.

While the county had a rise in the crime rate, the level of crime is still low relative to the average, according to the crime reports.

Drug crimes were up 56 percent, an increase Sheriff Darrell Warren said is attributed to a crackdown on narcotics trafficking. He assigned two investigators to drug investigations.

The increase in arrests is "because they're doing what I want," Warren said.

The arrests for larcenies are up 34 percent, according to the crime reports. The rise of larcenies and shoplifting are driven by people stealing items to support their drug habits, including for synthetic drugs such as `spice,' Warren said. The stores that sell the synthetic drugs have been hit by burglars multiple times, Warren said.

"We obviously still have a lot of individuals who are addicted to these synthetic drugs," Warren said. "They tell me it's supposed to be a synthetic marijuana, but marijuana is not addicting like `spice.'"

Shoplifting just at Walmart accounts for 14 percent of the total increase in crimes in the county, Warren said. He estimated that Walmart may account for as many as five shoplifters a week. "They're doing a great job up there," Warren said of the loss prevention officers at Walmart.

Crime rates can also be driven up by a relatively few number of people, Warren said. He cited the examples of three suspects who were arrested, released from jail on bond and while out on bond committed additional crimes.

One of the suspects has 11 adult felony arrests since 2010 and was jailed on April 3 on a probation violation, but was released on bond that day. The next day he was arrested in connection with the burglary of a residence.

"Why is this guy out?" Warren said. "We shouldn't have to deal with this."

Fraud-related crimes increased 11 percent in 2012, Warren said. Fraud can be crimes committed online or by telephone or mailings, Warren said.

Simple assaults, such as fighting, were up 12 percent, Warren said. Violent crimes dropped significantly in 2012 compared to the previous year. A murder-suicide counted as two violent crimes, where the previous year had eight.

But five of those crimes classified as murders involved a murder-for-hire plot and no one was actually slain. Becky West was charged and convicted last year of soliciting the murders of five witnesses who could have testified in a criminal case against her brother.

"All of our violent crimes are down, including rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults," Warren said.

The office has the same number of deputies as 13 years ago, but his deputies and investigators are answering 9,000 more calls for service a year, Warren said.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/gloucester-county/dp-tsq-mid-gloucester-crime-reports-0627-20130626,0,5151593.story  Link back to the Daily Press where this story originated.

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Anny Sky with Max - Free Song of The Day

Royalty-free music for professional licensing

Anny Sky with her serious song, Max.  This is a song that should be on the charts.  Overlooked or not having the right backing is the only issue here.  Check this song out.  If you like it, download a free copy for yourself.

What If We Split All The Wealth Up Evenly Of The Entire US? What Would Your Share Be?

The Economics of Depressions from Chuck Thompson

We found this article in the public domain and thought we would share it's contents as it seems as relevant today as the day it was first written, over 50 years ago.  It's an amazing piece of economic history.

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Avoid Sunshine - Get Cancer?

English: Cover of the book Take Control of Your Health by dr. Mercola. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Dr. Mercola

A growing body of research clearly shows the absolute necessity of vitamin D for good health and disease prevention. However, despite vitamin D’s role in keeping your body ticking along like a well-oiled clock, you are likely deficient in the “sunshine vitamin”—because the majority of people are.

Our vitamin D levels have dropped as a result of being scared sunless by those spreading misinformation that the sun causes melanoma, a myth that survives by mass promotion but really lacks any factual basis. It has been repeated so many times that most people believe it.

Vitamin D affects your biological function by influencing nearly 3,000 of your genes through vitamin D receptors. In fact, vitamin D receptors are found throughout your body, which should come as no surprise, given we humans evolved in the sun.

Recent research1,2 has also revealed yet another benefit of sun exposure beyond the protective benefits of producing vitamin D, namely the production of nitric oxide—a compound that lowers your blood pressure.

According to the researchers, the heart-health benefits from this may outweigh the risk of developing skin cancer. Your vitamin D level varies not only with time of day, season, and geographic location, but also with your genetics.

For example, if you have dark skin, you may need up to 10 times more sun exposure to maintain an optimal vitamin D level as a person with pale skin.Redheads have to be particularly careful, as they appear to be genetically predisposed to developing melanoma, regardless of whether or not they spend time in the sun.

 Sunshine’s gifts extend well beyond vitamin D production. As discussed in the featured article by Sayer Ji,3 five of the many noteworthy properties of sunlight include:

1. Pain-killing (analgesic) properties
2. Increased subcutaneous fat metabolism
3. Regulation of human lifespan (solar cycles appear to be able to directly affect the human genome, thereby influencing lifespan)
4. Daytime sun exposure improves evening alertness
5. Conversion to metabolic energy (i.e. we may “ingest” energy directly from the sun, like plants do)

When it comes to vitamin D production, the benefits are simply immeasurable. In fact, correcting a vitamin D deficiency may cut your risk of dying in half, according to an analysis of more than 10,000 individuals.

According to a January 2013 press release by Orthomolecular Medicine4, 3,600 medical papers with vitamin D in the title or abstract were published in 2012 alone, bringing the grand total to 33,800. Research to date shows vitamin D has far reaching benefits to your physical and mental health, with the following chart representing only the tip of the sunbeam.

Pregnancy outcomes (reduced risk of Cesarean section and pre-eclampsia)	Autism
Childhood language impairment	Cardiovascular disease
Type 1 diabetes	Alzheimer’s disease
Type 2 diabetes	Bacterial and viral infections
Falls and bone fractures	16 different types of cancer
Stroke	All-cause mortality

Another Way Sun Exposure Protects Your Heart Health

UVB exposure also improves your mood and energy level, helps regulate melatonin, and, as mentioned earlier, increases nitric oxide production5, which benefits your cardiovascular system. With regards to the latter:

“Richard Weller, Senior Lecturer in Dermatology, and colleagues, say the effect is such that overall, sun exposure could improve health and even prolong life, because the benefits of reducing blood pressure, cutting heart attacks and strokes, far outweigh the risk of getting skin cancer,” Medical News Today reports6.

Weller and colleagues found that the body's production of nitric oxide is separate from production of vitamin D... Human skin contains large stores of nitrite (NO2) and nitrate (NO3). The researchers note that while nitrate is "biologically inert", the action of sunlight can reduce it to active nitrite and nitric oxide (NO).They found that circulatory nitrate fell and nitrite rose during UV and heat exposure, but not during exposure to heat only. There was no difference in vitamin D levels.

Weller says in a statement that: 'We suspect that the benefits to heart health of sunlight will outweigh the risk of skin cancer. The work we have done provides a mechanism that might account for this, and also explains why dietary vitamin D supplements alone will not be able to compensate for lack of sunlight... If this confirms that sunlight reduces the death rate from all causes, we will need to reconsider our advice on sun exposure.'"

Skin Cancer, in Brief

Before we discuss melanoma, you need a basic understanding of the three most common types of skin cancer, each named for the type of cells affected:

1. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC): Begins in the basal cell layer of the skin, typically on the face; the most common form of skin cancer and the most common type of cancer in humans; least likely skin cancer to spread.7
2. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC): Begins in the squamous cells, typically on the face, neck, ears, lips, and backs of hands; tends to grow and spread a bit more than BCC.
3. Melanoma: Begins in the melanocytes (the cells that produce the pigment melanin, responsible for your tan); melanin protects the deeper layers of your skin from excess radiation. Melanoma is more likely than other types of skin cancer to spread to other parts of your body and causes more deaths than any other type of skin cancer.8

Don’t Fall for the Melanoma Myth

If you believe the lure of the sun is equivalent to the siren’s call for melanoma, you’ll be relieved to learn melanoma is not actually caused by sun exposure, unlike the other two types of skin cancer, BCC and SCC. Although the reported number of new cases of melanoma in the US has been reportedly increasing for more than 30 years,9 a landmark study in the British Journal of Dermatology10 suggests this apparent increase is a result of non-cancerous lesions being misclassified as “stage 1 melanoma.” In other words, people are being diagnosed with melanoma even when they have only a minimal, non-cancerous lesion, and these diagnoses are significantly skewing cancer statistics.11 The sun is nothing more than a scapegoat in this phenomenon of “increased melanoma.”

But this misdiagnosis is doing more than just skewing statistics—it’s causing a mountain of unnecessary melanoma surgeries. A study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology12 found that 90 percent of melanoma excisions end up NOT being melanoma at all. But if the sun doesn’t cause melanoma, then what does?

The REAL Role of the Sun in Melanoma

As with all serious diseases, there are multiple interacting factors that cause your immune system to go awry, such as nutrition, environmental toxins, stress, inadequate sleep, etc. But for melanoma, the sun does appear to have a significant role—melanoma may signify too little of it!

Studies show melanoma mortality actually decreases after UV exposure. Additionally, melanoma lesions do not predominate sun-exposed skin, which is why sunscreens have proven ineffective in preventing it. Exposure to sunlight, particularly UVB, is protective against melanoma—or rather, the vitamin D your body produces in response to UVB radiation is protective. The following passage comes from The Lancet:13

"Paradoxically, outdoor workers have a decreased risk of melanoma compared with indoor workers, suggesting that chronic sunlight exposure can have a protective effect."

And this from the British Medical Journal:14

“There is solid descriptive, quantitative, and mechanistic proof that ultraviolet rays cause the main skin cancers (basal and squamous). They develop in pale, sun exposed skin, are related to degree of exposure and latitude, are fewer with avoidance and protection, are readily produced experimentally, and are the overwhelmingly predominant tumor in xeroderma pigmentosum, where DNA repair of ultraviolet light damage is impaired. None of these is found with melanoma.”

The bottom line is, by avoiding the sun, your risk for vitamin D deficiency skyrockets, which increases your odds of developing melanoma and a multitude of other diseases. The risks associated with insufficient vitamin D are far greater than those posed by basal cell or squamous cell carcinomas, which are fairly benign by comparison, as you’ll see by reading on.

Read the rest of this article as well as check out the videos over at mercola.com here.   http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/07/01/vitamin-d-benefits.aspx

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CHERRY DUMPLINGS - Recipe of the day

The Bing cherry owes its development to the Chinese-American horticulturalist Ah Bing. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sift two cups of pastry flour with four level teaspoons of baking powder and a saltspoon of salt. Mix with
three-quarters cup of milk or enough to make a soft dough. Butter some
cups well, put a tablespoon of dough in each, then a large tablespoon of
stoned cherries and another tablespoon of dough. Set in a steamer or set
the cups in a pan of hot water and into the oven to cook half an hour.
Serve with a sweet liquid sauce.

Make something extraordinary tonight.

ESPN Sports Update - Blacked Out

ESPN Sports updates for July 1st, 2013.  All sports news is now blacked out in protest of Russian troops assigned to cover US National events.  Sports updates will remain blacked out until the treaty is reversed.

ESPN (Photo credit: Wikipedia)