Lewis Perdue's Blog, page 6
July 23, 2017
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December 1, 2016
Perfect Killer eBook for my Mississippi Delta friends
NOTE: This book was originally published by MacMillan/Forge. I have obtained all rights back from them in order to have the flexibility to market this in new and innovative ways and keep them from burying it in “back list Hell.”
Very few books — especially modern thrillers — are set in the Mississippi Delta. But Perfect Killer is. And I am from Itta Bena and this is the book I had to wait for my mother to die before I could write it. (See PerfectKiller.Com which has a link that explains why.)
A lot of people from the Delta have read the book. In fact, it’s been involved in a hefty Facebook discussion thread. So, to further that thread I’m offering Perfect Killer for free to my “family” in Itta Bena and the Delta.
This is actually four books in one:
A medical/psychological thriller based on fact,
A Southern novel and,
The thinly disguised history of my Faulknerian family which includes plantation owners, a U.S. Senator, a scattering of Confederate generals and the reason I got kicked out of Ole Miss where my great-grandfather had been chancellor there.
A tale about “doing the right thing” and why good people do bad things that I wrote for my son William and daughter Katherine
A smattering of reviews are below, followed by a synopsis and then the links for the ebooks.
“This is an exciting novel… The plot’s premise stands up to scrutiny; and Perdue brings the [Mississippi] Delta geography to vivid life.” — Publishers Weekly
“Brilliance that only Perdue could master. He weaves a conspiracy so eerily relevant to current events and probes the ethics of hyper- advanced technology, engaging the reader in the possibility where the innocence of humanity and free will are erased.” — Mark Burnett, Emmy Award-winning producer of Survivor, The Contender, Eco-Challenge
“This is a fascinating book, a psychological thriller that explores the moral conflicts posed by the U.S. military’s efforts to develop a “brave pill” to turn their soldiers into more efficient killers. Lewis Perdue has written a book that deserves wide attention, not only for its literary excellence, but for the important ethical questions it raises for today’s soldier. The book well deserves to be in the running for one of the best books of the year.” — Richard A. Gabriel, Professor at the U. S. Army War College, author of 26 books, former fellow at The Brookings Institution, Hebrew University, the U.S. Army Intelligence School, the Center for the Study of Intelligence at the CIA, and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
“Pure Perdue: Non-stop action from Page One and a plot that doesn’t let up. You’d better keep a box of band-aids handy….you’ll be turning pages so fast, you’ll end up with papercuts.” Lee Goldberg, Executive Producer, Diagnosis Murder and NY Times bestselling mystery writer.
Synopsis
Four military veterans struggle with the ghosts of war and combat. Two who sustained head wounds struggle less successfully than the other two who nevertheless must make sense of the world and endeavor to “do the right thing.”
Set against the backdrop of the violent and gothic scenes of the American South, this fact-based thriller begins when a prominent Mississippi civil rights attorney asks renowned neurosurgeon Bradford Stone to help her save the life of a white racist condemned to death for the cold case murder of a black man. Stone, a former elite Marine Recon operative has no idea that he is about to be dragged through a deadly past he thought he had escaped once and for all.
The mystery centers on a top-secret military project on military head injury cases and which has now used that data to create the ultimate human killing machine.
For more than seventy years, the Pentagon has sought the Holy Grail of combat medicine: a chemical compound that would turn ordinary soldiers into weapons of mass destruction, the Perfect Killers. Now, after decades of covert trial and error which have resulted in troubling side effects such as the My Lai massacre, Enduring Valor is ready to be implemented on a massive scale–despite devastating side-effects.
Before he knows it, Stone himself in the sights of the Project’s director, a retired general and war hero turned presidential candidate. To get back his life, and expose the truth, Stone must struggle with the South’s racist legacy, the demons of his past and penetrate the very heart of the lethal conspiracy.
Perfect Killer draws on Freedom of Information Documents that prove that the Walter Reed Medical Research Lab has experimented with just such a way to chemically enhance the warfighter’s killing ability.
In addition, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer who served as a consultant to Walter Reed thinks that some cases of Gulf War syndrome frrom the first Iraq war may have resulted from unauthorized tests of that drug on unsuspecting members of the military. He writes about that in a non-fiction afterword to Perfect Killer.
“Packed with action and controversy, Perfect Killer is that rarity among thrillers-it sets your pulse racing while it makes you think.” –David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of The Brotherhood of the Rose on Perfect Killer
“In Perfect Killer, Lewis Perdue has written a smart, entertaining, and fast-paced thriller. The story is provocative too — dealing with race, racism, military practices, politics, and even string theory. Perdue reminds us that the past continues to influence the present in scary and often heartbreaking ways.” — Lisa See, NY author of China Dolls, Dragon Bones, Flower Net, The Interior
“Once again, Lewis Perdue has crafted a richly textured, troubling, and literate thriller that is engaging on every level. I feel especially close to this fine novel because it is set in the Misissippi Delta of my birth, and what can I say?– I feel like I know these people. In fact, I do know them, and the landscape they inhabit. Don’t miss this one.” — Lewis Nordan, prize-winning Southern author of The Sharpshooter Blues, Wolf Whistle, Sugar Among the Freaks
“Perfect Killer has more surprises and plot twists than an Alpine road. Once again Perdue comes through again with a credible plot that makes us wonder whether this is a thriller or a documentary.” — Craig Dirgo, co-author (with Clive Cussler) of Sea Hunter, Golden Buddha, Sacred Stone and author of The Einstein Papers.
“Totally enthralling! A book you can’t stop reading. A keeper.” — Harriet Klausner, Amazon.Com’s #1 reviewer
“Perdue pens a killer tale as he takes readers on a high-velocity ride through the world of cutting-edge science-a world where “no fear” means “no conscience.” Could the unthinkable have already happened? Read PERFECT KILLER and wonder!” — Twist Phelan, critically acclaimed author of Heir Apparent and Family Claims
Version for Kindle
Version for other ereaders
Putting eBooks on your Kindle or iPad
August 27, 2016
August 14, 2016
Lewis Perdue – A quick glimpse at journalism experience
Lew’s current daily and enterprise journalism activities include his role as Publisher and Executive Editor of Wine Industry Insight and Craft Beverage Insights — both covering business, finance, legal, regulatory, trade, management, health, and other industry issues. Wine Industry Insight, which he founded in 2008, is a follow-on publication to Wine Business Publications which he founded in 1991 and sold in 1997.
For information about Lew’s technology and other experience, please visit Ideaworx.
Journalism Experience
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM: Articles published in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Washington Monthly, The Washington Post, The Nation, Jack Anderson’s column. Author: Washington Connection (non-fiction book on KoreaGate based on shredded documents).
COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW: LAUREL for exposing unlicensed and illegal gun sales on eBay in my January 22, 1999 column in TheStreet.Com. As a result, eBay prohibited sales of guns.
DAILY JOURNALISM: Washington bureau correspondent (covering the White House and Congress), Dow Jones/Ottaway Newspapers, States News Service and for the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Sentinel; reporter, Elmira (N.Y.) Star-Gazette, Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal; weekly columnist, Gannett News Service; Editorial page editor, Santa Monica Evening Outlook (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing).
JOURNALISM TEACHING: Lecturer, University of California at Los Angeles; Advisor to The UCLA Daily Bruin (student newspaper); instructor, Cornell University.
BUSINESS JOURNALISM: Articles in Forbes ASAP, Barron’s, Wall Street Journal Online, CBS Marketwatch, TheStreet.Com, California Business, California Magazine, LA Magazine, LA Times. Awarded Los Angeles Press Club Award for business journalism. Frequently Interviewed on CNBC, CNN Business. Founded Wine Business Publications, the largest circulation trade journals for the North American wine industry. Founded Wine Industry Insight, first premium-content wine industry digital publication
TECHNOLOGY WRITING: Author: Supercharging Your PC and The High Technology Editorial Guide and Stylebook. Contributor to: PC World, InfoWorld, Publish!, TechWeek, DigitalAge, Dr. Dobb’s Journal, Embedded Systems Journal; columnist for Computer Currents; editor of PC Management Letter.
SCIENCE WRITING: Co-founded the The Stealth Syndromes Project and currently co-principal investigator of a scientific study approved by the University of California, San Francisco (Stealth Syndromes Project: Human Study).
Articles in New Scientist; Clarion Award winner for investigative article (New West/California Magazine) on previously unknown health hazards of coal-fired electrical generating plants. Author of The French Paradox, Beyond, the best-selling book on alcohol and health;
TRAVEL/FOOD/WINE WRITING: Former CEO of and regular contributor to Smart Wine Magazine; author of The VINOfile, a syndicated consumer wine column.
Author of travel/dining guidebook, The Country Inns of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia; contributor to Travel & Leisure, Travel/Holiday, Los Angeles Magazine, Washingtonian Magazine, Country Gentleman.
March 19, 2016
Here’s how to channel your anger and take action against the Yosemite trademark raiders
Lewis Perdue & some of his illegal gear. Right-click photo to enlarge.
Bandits have made off with Yosemite: The corporate grab behind the Yosemite Park trademark clash.
Now, the Park Service has finally pushed back: U.S. steps up fight over Yosemite names, asking trademarks be canceled.
This misappropriation of government property by Delaware North (DN) has outraged millions of Americans.
Until now, most of us who are burn-them-at-the-stake angry have felt frustrated by feeling of helplessness at the legal maneuvering that made off with public property.
This is the first in a series of articles that reveal who DN is, what they own and control and what the average person can do to strike back.
Remember: Millions of people taking small actions worth even a dollar or two can stand up to billionaire bullies with no conscience.
The faces of trademark hijackers
These are their faces (below). The leader is DN Chairman and #421 on Forbes Richest: Jeremy Jacobs, Sr. (third from left).
Right-click photo to enlarge
Legal can be unethical
Understand, what they have done is technically legal: they filed a trademark on something they had no right to.
Regardless, this is a textbook example of the wide gulf that can exist between actions that are technically legal and those that are unethical and immoral.
This action demonstrates that Delaware North lives in one of those amoral worlds where “do the right thing” is not part of the corporate credo.
To be sure, many very large corporations do act responsibly. But despite DN’s attempts to portray itself as a responsible corporate citizen, the Yosemite heist shows its true nature.
Citizens are not helpless: Plenty of opportunities to strike back
First of all, it’s vital to recognize that DN is so big, that you can’t really avoid them.
The flip side of that there are a goldmine of opportunities to express your displeasure by NOT spending your money with them.
In fact, there are so many tactics for the general public to use, that this opening post is one of many to come.
Global reach
The global extent of their reach can be found listed here: Industries.
According to their web page, the company is involved in:
Lodging, retail, food service, recreation and transportation services at a lot of parks across the U.S. (not just Yosemite.)
Regional casino destinations with video gaming machines, table games, poker
Luxury resorts in Australia, the United States and Canada
Restaurant and catering company (including a huge number of airports)
300+ retail stores and shops in stadiums, ballparks, arenas, national and state parks, luxury resorts, cultural attractions, airports, toll plazas, open-air marketplaces and regional destination casinos.
Check the DN interactive map to avoid them as best you can!
Here’s how the average person can fight back
Yosemite and other park visitors:
Visit the parks. You paid for them and you own them! America is filled with beauty.
But check the Parks page and the DN interactive map to see if DN is involved before you go .
If DN is involved:
Avoid food and other concessions in the park. Stock up before you get there to avoid being hungry or thirsty.
Do not stay at their hotels. Find suitable lodging in nearby communities.
If you were planning to stay at a DN hotel, choose camping as an option. That way you avoid contributing to DN revenues.
If you are a backpacker, enjoy the park by using trailheads on nearby National Forest or BLM land.
Buy tee-shirts, hats and other apparel and souvenirs online or at honest, independent retailers in nearby towns.
Go ahead and buy bootleg gear on eBay and other places that have retained the proper names that belong to the public: Curry Village, Ahwahnee etc. Your taxes paid for those parks and their names. The true bootlegger here is DN.
Airport visitors:
Avoid food and other concessions in the airport. Stock up before you get there to avoid being hungry or thirsty.
Don’t buy ANYTHING you don’t have to. We all know the mark-ups are felonious.
Here’s a sampling of DN airports. Check the DN interactive map before you fly.
Culture Vultures: DN runs a lot of concessions at cultural venues. There are a HUGE number of far better establishments in SF to patronize. Just say no to DN.
Hockey fans: Wear your Yosemite logo clothing and hats to games.
Tweet your actions. Upload Instagram photos.
Let local media know that you are standing up for Yosemite and against theft of public property.
The family that controls Delaware North also owns the Boston Bruins. Shame the family by being Yosemite visible.
When your team pays the Bruins, don’t take it out on them or their fans. They’re victims in their own ways.
Bruins & Celtics Fans:
Cheer on your teams. They deserve your support. Yeah, DN owns the Bruins too, but think of the players, coaches and others. They had nothing to do with the Yosemite heist.
Avoid all concessions for any purchase at any event at TD Garden. DN owns it.
Sure, it’s hard avoiding all the over-priced food and drink at the arena. But try to cut your purchases in half. It will be good for your wallet and send a message.
Do not buy your team logo gear at the stadium. There are plenty of other retailers.
Fans of all sports:
Wear your Yosemite logo clothing and hats to games.
Delaware North is SO big, it’s hard to avoid them regardless of where you are.
In fact, they are SO BIG you can’t even get all their business locations on their own interactive map! (Sydney, Melbourne are missing in the screen cap, below.)
Click map to view larger image. Or go to the DN interactive map to see for yourself.
Here are a couple of their “featured properties.” Remember to minimize concession purchases here.
June 24, 2015
Mississippi: Remove The Confederate Flag From Your State Flag!
I am the great-great-great-grandson of U.S. Senator J. Z. George, a Confederate brigadier general, chief justice of the state supreme court and one of the chief architects of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890.
That constitution which is still the governing document of the state, codified all of the elements of Jim Crow segregation, most notably the literacy test — the inclusion of which has been attributed to Sen. George.
I believe Mississippi should remove the Confederate flag from the state flag immediately. That may be a symbolic gesture, but sincere symbols reflect what is in the heart.
March 30, 2015
Vintank Acquired By Award-Winning Digital Agency
Wine Industry Insight is down following a WordPress upgrade. This breaking news is published here until the site is up again
Vintank, which has served the wine industry customer insights from more than a billion social media conversations has been acquired by W2O Group, a diversified digital agency in San Francisco providing advertising, public relations, software and creative services.
The acquisition was announced March 30. No purchase price was given. Vintank will probably be rebranded, said Mabray.
According to the company’s statement:
“To reach the majority of a brand’s audience, we are building a suite of services and software to reach the 1% who create content and the 9% who share it,” said Jim Weiss, chairman and chief executive office of W2O Group.
“A modern day media offering will be defined, in the future, by who has the best influencer algorithms and media team, combined with the ability to know exactly who your audience is and how to most effectively reach them. Guessing is not a strategy.”
Scroll down for the full text of the official announcement which is reproduced in its entirety at the bottom of this article.
W2O
According to the company statement:
“Founded and led by Chairman and CEO Jim Weiss, W2O Group is an independent network of complementary marketing, communications, research and development firms focused on integrated business solutions to drive change and growth through “pragmatic disruption” for the world’s leading brands and organizations.”
W2O Group’s network includes:
WCG,
Twist Marketing,
BrewLife, and
W2O Ventures
The company has revenues of at least $75 million and maintains 11 offices in the United States and Europe.
W2O Group: 2014 Digital Agency of the Year
For the fourth time, W2O Group in 2014 bested some of the best-known names in the business — Edelman, Ogilvy Public Relations, Shift Communications, Weber Shandwick — to take the top honor of the Digital Agency of the Year.
“According to the Sabre Awards seb site,, “Under the leadership of founder Jim Weiss and president Bob Pearson, W2O is now gaining traction as a channel partner — rather than competitor — for PR agencies that can’t build up their analytics and software capabilities fast enough and need a competitive edge.
“No doubt, W2O’s investment is paying off — in 2013, W2O’s revenues soared 20% to $75 million, meaning the independently-held group has grown almost two-thirds since 2011 with its digital-focused portfolio that includes P&G, BMC Software, Verizon and Medtronic. — AaS”
Vintank
Paul Mabray and James Jory founded Vintank in 2009 to provide winery and small business owners with an advanced social engagement and customer relationship management (CRM) platform.
This allowed clients to make sense of social media data and enable better marketing and communications with their markets. Vintank data has analyzed communications from more than 30 million social wine consumers and over 1,000 wine brands
Mabray has more than 20 years in the wine and technology industry. According to the acquisition announcement Mabray was the founder and CEO of the first and most successful wine ecommerce SaaS Company: WineDirect.com.
Jory has been a technologist for more than 25 years, and was the chief architect for eBay ProStores.
Vintank’s technology targets customer engagement, calculates social media health for brands and offers clients the proprietary geo-fencing tools it developed in order to support lead generation and prospective outreach.
“VinTank provides us with a way to create agile audience engines for a brand, where we can learn what an audience is doing online, understand what content they like, evaluate who they follow and respect and, ultimately, redefine what “customer relationship management” means.” said Bob Pearson, president of W2O Group.
Vintank: The Next Chapter
More about the merger and the people can be found by reading:
This post from the WCG blog, and
This blog post from Paul Mabray and James Jory.
Sampling of W2O clients (from a company presentation)
Official Announcement
W2O Group Acquires VinTank Social Engagement & CRM Platform to Focus on the “9 Percent” and Grow Its S²aaS-Driven Business
San Francisco, March 25, 2015 – W2O Group announced today that it has acquired VinTank, a social engagement and customer relationship management (CRM) platform, to enable and enhance its technology-enabled client service offerings, founded by Paul Mabray and James Jory to service winery and small business owners.
“To reach the majority of a brand’s audience, we are building a suite of services and software to reach the 1% who create content and the 9% who share it,” said Jim Weiss, chairman and chief executive office of W2O Group. “A modern day media offering will be defined, in the future, by who has the best influencer algorithms and media team, combined with the ability to know exactly who your audience is and how to most effectively reach them. Guessing is not a strategy.”
Mabray has over 20 years in the wine and technology industry, and was the founder and CEO of the first and most successful wine ecommerce SaaS Company: WineDirect.com. Jory has been a technologist for over 25 years, and was the chief architect for eBay ProStores. Their technology targets customer engagement, calculates social media health for brands and implements innovative geo-fencing tools to support lead generation and prospective outreach.
“Our team of data scientists can identify and build an audience for a brand, regardless of size,” said Bob Pearson, president of W2O Group. “VinTank provides us with a way to create agile audience engines for a brand, where we can learn what an audience is doing online, understand what content they like, evaluate who they follow and respect and, ultimately, redefine what “customer relationship management” means. Our goal is to build audiences that have the potential to shape the market.”
Though VinTank has primarily focused on the wine and hospitality industries, its software has been recognized as one of the leaders in contextual customer engagement and is uniquely positioned to bring its innovative solution to any industry. As such, it will be a key critical piece of the W2O software S²aaS suite, which enhances and enables service excellence.
“Our vision has always been to transform customer relationships and understanding through intelligent context,” said Mabray. “Joining the W2O team is a perfect fit to couple their powerful analytics and audience identifications tools with our data driven engagement software to supercharge the relationship between brands and their customers.”
Read more about what the acquisition brings to W2O Group and the innovative approach Mabray will bring to the software practice on our Common Sense blog here.
About W2O Group
Founded and led by Chairman and CEO Jim Weiss, W2O Group is an independent network of complementary marketing, communications, research and development firms focused on integrated business solutions to drive change and growth through “pragmatic disruption” for the world’s leading brands and organizations. W2O Group’s network includes WCG, Twist, BrewLife and W2O Ventures with11 offices in the United States and Europe. For more information, please visit http://w2ogroup.com.
About VinTank
VinTank is the leading software solution for social media management for the wine and hospitality industry. Measuring over one billion conversations about wine, profiling over 30 million social wine consumers and serving over 1000 wine brands, VinTank helps wineries, restaurants and hotels connect and understand their customers in ways never before imagined. VinTank – Power Social Intelligence for your Business. For more information, please visit www.vintank.com.
January 13, 2015
The tolerance of intolerance is intolerable
However, the tolerance of intolerance lies at the root of terror attacks in Europe such as Charlie Hebdo.
Given the extreme inhuman brutality of the Paris attacks, it is easy to forget that there have been other Islamist attacks against freedom of expression in Europe. The most prominent of these came in 2004 With the brutal murder and attempted beheading of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh
It is not a coincidence that Charlie Hebdo and the van Gogh murder both occurred in countries with outstanding histories of tolerance, freedom and especially freedom of expression. In addition, both France and The Netherlands have large Muslim populations that have resisted integration and fostered violent Islamist radicalization as a result of the cultural isolation.
France and the Netherlands have also tolerated intolerant immigrant behavior because of Western liberal democracy’s concept that all cultures are equal, no matter how intolerant they might be.
However, this practice has led to governments which have tolerated cultural norms that demean and marginalize women, promote child marriages (often among girls as young as 10 or 12), and foster violence against women, gays and non-Muslims.
In the Netherlands, the concept of cultural equality has prompted authorities to tolerate illegal behavior by members of the Islamic community. There are instances where Islamist thugs have received light or no punishment for violence against gays or women they consider dressed immodestly.
Dutch authorities have also been guilty of taking no action when those communities have set up their own justice systems based on distorted versions of Islamic law –– Sharia. This has happened also in France and the United Kingdom.
In many of these cases, the intolerant behavior has been viewed as culturally acceptable because it was acted out by members of an immigrant community behaving as they would according to their cultural norms.
All of these factors, in turn, have offered safe haven to the sworn enemies of free expression, and cultural tolerance. And those safe havens provide a cultural breeding ground for violent Islamists. It has also created protected bases from which those violent Islamists can attack the very principles of western liberalism that allow them to exist.
For almost 35 years, I have watched the situation in the Netherlands, and seen the deterioration. Over those years, I have spent a great deal of time there. I have friends and relatives there, and have admired the backbone that the Dutch have shown in protecting free expression over the centuries.
That admiration and experience has prompted me to set part, or all, of my fact-based novels in the Netherlands. While works of fiction, all of my thrillers are based on extensive non-fiction research.
My dismay over Islamist-related events in the Netherlands prompted me to look more deeply into those issues, their consequences, and the reasons for their development.
I explored this in detail, through the point of view of Mira Longbow, the heroine in my novel, Die By Wire. Mira reflects much of my thinking and recollections of the Netherlands, as she is sent to eliminate a child-bride smuggling ring in Amsterdam. Along the way she reflects on the changes in society and reasons for allowing the problem to develop. All the while trying to eliminate the child bride smuggling operation, and discovering an even more devastating plot in the process.
September 22, 2014
Multiple Personality Disorder Splits My Tweets
[Cross posted to WineIndustryInsight.Com and Stealth Epidemic.Com for good reason .... read on]
My current Twitter followers know me for my book writing Lewis Perdue.com (@lewisperdue) or because I’m the editor/publisher of Wine Industry Insight (@Vinoindustry).
I’ve been meaning to let followers know about the @lewisperdue handle, but I’ve been lazy, partly because people in the wine business like books. And book people like wine.
Those of you who know me personally realize that I have a varied background
Now, I am involved in a project that’s very different from those two: Stealth Epidemic. which is designed to help people understand and reduce their exposure to (and risks from) hormone disrupting chemicals.
WHAT IS A “STEALTH EPIDEMIC?”
The phrase “Stealth Epidemic” because these chemicals don’t poison you directly. Instead, they covertly work to disrupt your metabolism and other bodily functions in ways that appear as other diseases entirely. This is analogous to the HIV virus which, at first, appeared to be a collection of several other, entirely different, and already-known diseases.
More formally known as Endocrine Disrupting Compounds (EDCs), these chemicals can disrupt the functioning of natural hormones, most frequently by imitating the sex hormone, estrogen.
The science of EDCs is a relatively new one and controversial but a substantial body of published, peer-reviewed scientific studies indicates that hormone disruptors can affect your body’s cellular processes in ways that are identical to those observed in cancer, infertility, developmental defects, Alzheimer’s Disease, type 2 diabetes and more.
Because it is a recent and developing field, Endocrine Disruptor research is controversial because the chemicals involved are present in very small concentrations comparable to those of your body’s natural hormones: parts per billion or trillion.
WHY IS IT CONTROVERSIAL?
The EDC field is especially controversial among older scientists who have not kept up with modern advances in molecular biology and genetics.In fact, when these older scientists were at their prime, it was impossible or difficult to measure concentrations so low with much accuracy. For that reason, any concentrations so small were assumed to be harmless.
But with advancements in measurement technology and an up-to-date understanding of how impossibly small concentrations of hormones and EDCs can affect cell functioning, those effects are now being discovered and quantified.
Older scientists have aged with the “common sense” paradigm that tiny concentrations are healthy. This was the same reaction that greeted the discovery that invisible “thingies” could cause disease. The “thingies,” of course, turned out to be bacteria and viruses … and most recently prions.
Just as with centuries past when important discoveries were dismissed by the old establishment scientists who believed in the old paradigms, the same thing is happening today with hormone disruptors.
See: Links & Associations Don’t Count for an historical perspective on this.
WHY DID I GET INVOLVED?
I got involved with this whole new field in 2012, when I discovered that thousands of acres of California’s finest vineyards are drip-irrigated with highly treated, recycled sewage water.
That discovery led me to dig deeper into compounds that are biologically active in nano and pico concentrations — potentially Endocrine Disrupting Compounds and other chemicals of emerging concern.
This totally re-invigorated my molecular biology and organic chemistry enthusiasms, and led me to found this blog and initiate the online partnership with biologist Becca Yeamans.
It helped that I’ve been a scientist/geek most of my life.
AND … THE TWITTER SCHISM CRISIS?
Of course, that means a new Twitter handle — @stealthepidemic.
Before Stealth Epidemic, I had intended to start trying to separate followers into my wine and authoring personalities. I procrastinated.
So, now I am starting the process of letting followers know that I’m going to start separating the multiple identities among multiple Twitter handles.
HERE’S WHAT I AM GOING TO TRY
Right now, @Vinoindustry has the largest number of followers. @LewisPerdue is second.
Both of those are a mixture of wine and book followers.
In the beginning, I will continue to post both wine & book tweets as @Vinoindustry.
I am going to Tweet the handle changes on both sites to inform followers that in the future, book posts will be found at @LewisPerdue and wine at @Vinoindustry.
When the cross posts stop, people who want both will need to follow both.
Because Stealth Epidemic is both science — and will eventually be a book and sometimes involve wine — I will begin cross-posting on @StealthEpidemic and @Vinoindustry then gradually separate the two.
