God, the Devil, and Darwin by Niall Shanks, ISBN 0195161998
In the last fifteen years a controversial new theory of the origins of biological complexity and the nature of the universe has been fomenting bitter debates in education and science policy across North America, Europe, and Australia. Backed by intellectuals at respectable universities, Intelligent Design theory (ID) proposes an alternative to accepted accounts of evolutionary theory: that life is so complex, and that the universe is so fine-tuned for the appearance of life, that the only plausible explanation is the existence of an intelligent designer. For many ID theorists, the designer is taken to be the god of Christianity. Niall Shanks has written the first accessible introduction to, and critique of, this controversial new intellectual movement. Shanks locates the growth of ID in the last two decades of the twentieth century in the growing influence of the American religious right. But as he shows, its roots go back beyond Aquinas to Ancient Greece. After looking at the historical roots of ID, Shanks takes a hard look at its intellectual underpinnings, discussing modern understandings of thermodynamics, and how self-organizing processes lead to complex physical, chemical, and biological systems. He considers cosmological arguments for ID rooted in so-called "anthropic coincidences" and also tackles new biochemical arguments for ID based on "irreducible biological complexity." Throughout he shows how arguments for ID lack cohesion, rest on errors and unfounded suppositions, and generally are grossly inferior to evolutionary explanations. While ID has been proposed as a scientific alternative to evolutionary biology, Shanks argues that ID is in fact "old creationist wine in newdesigner label bottles" and moreover is a serious threat to the scientific and democratic values that are our cultural and intellectual inheritance from the Enlightenment.
The Chemical Industry and Globalization
Globalization has been a relatively recent phenomenon but it is having an immense impact on the chemical industry. The emergence of China as a major manufacturing and consumer economy has been particularly important in this respect.
This book sets straight many common misperceptions about employment in manufacturing and R&D, analyzes what future business changes to expect within the industry, and the role of the financial community in the industrys current wave of consolidations and divestitures. The author, who has worked as
a senior executive in Fortune 500 companies as well as a CEO in small to medium size firms, comments from first-hand experience what has gone wrong in many firms today who are struggling with changes in the marketplace. He suggests courses of action for company management to take in order to thrive
as well as survive in this new environment.
The pharmaceutical industry has become such a large component of the chemical industry that it is analyzed in a separate...
The Chemical Industry and Globalization 
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Letters from Father Christmas
J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved holiday favorite--redesigned for a new generation! Actual letters sent by Tolkien to his children--who were convinced they were from Father Christmas--tell wonderful tales about life at the North Pole.
Letters from Father Christmas
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