1. The ECOWAS COMMISSION has allocated own funds towards the cost of the Supply, Deployment & Installation of Network Equipment at the ECOWAS Commission Headquarters Data Centre, Abuja.
2. The ECOWAS Commission therefore invites sealed bids for the Supply, Deployment & Installation of Network Equipment at the ECOWAS Commission Headquarters Data Centre, Abuja described above in one lot.
3. The Bidding Document can be obtained at the Procurement Division, Directorate of General Administration, ECOWAS Commission, Plot 101, Yakubu Gowon Crescent, Asokoro District, Abuja, Nigeria, upon submission of a written request and payment of three hundred US Dollars (US$300.00) by Cash or Bank Draft made in favour of ECOWAS Commission, Abuja .
4. For Bidders outside Nigeria, the Bidding Document can be mailed to interested Bidders upon payment (by Transfer) of non-refundable fee of US$300.00 to the Commission (transfer charges born by the bidder). (Account Details available on request.)
5. Interested Bidders may obtain further information at the address below, during office hours: Monday to Friday from 9.00am (8.00am GMT+1) to 4.00pm (3.00pm GMT+1), ECOWAS Commission, Directorate of General Administration, Procurement Division, 1st Floor, Plot 101, Yakubu Gowon Crescent, Asokoro District, PMB 401 Abuja Nigeria.

E-mail: [email protected] 

6. Bids shall be valid for a period of 120 (days) after Bid Opening and must be accompanied by a bid security of US$20,000.00 (Bank Guarantee or Insurance Bond). 
7. Bids shall be delivered in sealed envelope and deposited in the ECOWAS Tender Box located Office of the Executive Assistant of Commissioner of Administration & Finance, fifth (5th) floor of the ECOWAS Commission Building, 101, Yakubu Gowon Crescent Asokoro District, P. M. B. 401, Abuja, Nigeria on or before November 7, 2013 at 11.30am (10.30am GMT+1) and clearly marked “International Competitive Bidding for the Production of ECOWAS Biometric Laissez Passer and Supply of Equipment” Do Not Open, Except in Presence of the Committee.  
8. Bids will be opened in the presence of the bidders who wish to attend on November 7, 2013 at 12.00 noon (11.00am GMT+1), Room 523, Ecowas Commission, Abuja, Nigeria.  

                                                                         (The Economist, September 4^th, 2013. Page 86. Adaptado.)  

                                                     Acid rain and… the facts

                                www.acidrain.org.ca / Oxford Children´s Encyclopedia

What causes acid rain?
Acid rain is caused by air pollution. When fossil fuels such as coal and oil are burned, two gases, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, are released into the atmosphere. These two pollutants eventually react with the moisture in the air. When this polluted mixture falls onto the ground, it is called acid rain.

Rain measuring between 0 and 5 on the pH scale, is acidic therefore called ACID RAIN.

Acid rain is harmful to the environment. It is hardto control because it may be blown by the wind, falling thousands of kilometers from where it was first formed. For example, much of the acid rain in Canada is caused by smoke from factories and power-stations in the USA. The acid rain in Scandinavia may come from Britain.

What are the effects of acid rain?

Acid rain has many different effects. It has killedfish in the lakes of North America, Scandinavia, Scotland, and Wales. Vast areas of forest in northern and central Europeare dying because of it, while in many European cities statues and stone buildings are being eaten away by the acid. Acid rain corrodes metalwork such as steel bridges and railings; it also attacks some types of concrete. Even the water thatwe drink is slowly being polluted by acid rain.

What are the effects on trees and soil?

One of the most serious impacts of acid precipitation is on forests and soils. Great damage is done when sulphuric acid falls onto the earth as rain. Nutrients present in the soils are washed away. Aluminium also present in the soils is freed and this toxic element can be absorbed by the rootsof trees. Thus, the trees starve to death because they have been deprived of their vital nutrients such as calcium and magnesium.

Acid rain is one of the most serious environmental problems of our time. It is a global problems that is gradually affecting our world.

How does acid rain effect lakes?

Lakes that have been acidified cannot support the same variety of life as healthy lakes. As a lake becomes more acidic, various types of fish disappear. Other effects of acidified lakes on fish include: decreased growth, inability to regulate their own body chemistry, reduced egg deposition, deformities in young fish and increased susceptibility to naturally occurring diseases.

Clean rain usually has a pH of 5.6. It is slightly acidic because of carbon dioxide which is naturally present in the atmosphere. Vinegar, by comparison, is very acidic and has a pH of 3.

What is pH?
This is a measure of how acidic or alkaline a substance is. (See a pH scale below).
The initials pH stand for Potential of Hydrogen. Acids have pH values under 7, and alkalis have pHvalues over 7. If a substance has a pH value of 7. It is neutral-neither acidic or alkaline.



Because the pH scale is logarithmic, a difference of one pH unit represents a tenfold, or ten times change. For example, the acidity of a sample with a pH of 5 is ten timesgreater than that of a sample with a pH of 6. A difference of 2 units, from 6 to 4, would mean that the acidity in one hundred times greater, and so on.

                                         (Reinildes Dias. Reading Critically in English, 3 rd ed. UFMG 2002. Adaptado.)

Read the text below to answer question.

                                     Self-repairing software tackles malware

     University of Utah computer scientists have developed software that not only detects and eradicates never-before-seen viruses and other malware, but also automatically repairs damage caused by them. The software then prevents the invader from ever infecting the computer
again.
     A3 is a software suite that works with a virtual machine - a virtual computer that emulates the operations of a computer without dedicated hardware. The A3 software is designed to watch over the virtual machine's operating system and applications, says Eric Eide, University of Utah research assistant professor of computer science leading the university's A3 team with U computer science associate professor John Regehr. A3 is designed to protect servers or similar business-grade computers that run on the Linux operating system. It also has been demonstrated to protect military applications.
     The new software called A3, or Advanced Adaptive Applications, was co-developed by Massachusetts-based defense contractor, Raytheon BBN. The four-year project was completed in late September.
     There are no plans to adapt A3 for home computers or laptops, but Eide says this could be possible in the future.
     "A3 technologies could find their way into consumer products someday, which would help consumer devices protect themselves against fast-spreading malware or internal corruption of software components. But we haven't tried those experiments yet," he says.
     Unlike a normal virus scanner on consumer PCs that compares a catalog of known viruses to something that has infected the computer, A3 can detect new, unknown viruses or malware automatically by sensing that something is occurring in the computer's operation that is not correct. It then can stop the virus, approximate a repair for the damaged software code, and then learn to never let that bug enter the machine gain.
     While the military has an interest in A3 to enhance cybersecurity for its mission-critical systems, A3 also potentially could be used in the consumer space, such as in web services like Amazon. If a virus or attack stops the service, A3 could repair it in minutes without having to take the servers down.

                                                                                                 Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com

                Chandelier

Party girls don't get hurt
Can't feel anything, when will I learn
I push it down, push it down

I'm the one "for a good time call"
Phone's blowin' up, they're ringin' my
doorbell
I feel the love, feel the love

1, 2, 3 1, 2, 3 drink
1, 2, 3 1, 2, 3 drink
1, 2, 3 1, 2, 3 drink
Throw ‘em back, till I lose count

I'm gonna swing from the chandelier,
from the chandelier
I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't
exist
Like it doesn't exist
I'm gonna fly like a bird through the night
Feel my tears as they dry
I'm gonna swing from the chandelier,
from the chandelier

And I'm holding on for dear life
Won't look down, won't open my eyes
Keep my glass full until morning light
'Cause I'm just holding on for tonight
Help me, I'm holding on for dear life
Won't look down won't open my eyes
Keep my glass full until morning light
'Cause I'm just holding on for tonight
On for tonigh

Sun is up, I'm a mess
Gotta get out now, gotta run from this
Here comes the shame, here comes the
shame
[...]

Furler, Sia. Chandelier, Sia. In: 1000 Forms of Fear. Monkey Puzzle Records e RCA Records, 2014.

                        Gravity, review: “heartachingly tender”

            Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts adrift in
                  space, Alfonso Cuarón’s astonishing thriller is one of the films of
                                           the year, says Robbie Collin

      Watch an astronaut drifting through space for long enough and eventually you notice how much they look like a newborn baby. The oxygen helmet makes their head bigger, rounder and cuter; their hands grasp eagerly at whatever happens to be passing; their limbs are made fat and their movements simple by the spacesuit’s cuddly bulk. They tumble head-over-heels like tripping toddlers or simply bob there in amniotic suspension. Even the lifeline that keeps them tethered to their ship has a pulsing, umbilical aspect.
      Gravity, the new Alfonso Cuarón picture, is a heart- achingly tender film about the miracle of motherhood, and the billion-to-one odds against any of us being here, astronauts or not. It’s also a totally absorbing, often overpowering spectacle - a $100 million 3D action movie in which Sandra Bullock and George Clooney play two Hollywood-handsome spacefarers, fighting for their lives 375 miles above the Earth’s crust.
      A series of captions over the opening titles reminds us that this is a dead zone: no oxygen or air pressure, and nothing to carry sound. “Life in space is impossible,” the final message tells us, as the cinema shakes with Steven Price’s resonant score, and then suddenly falls quiet.
      For Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock), a mission specialist in orbit for the first time, the lack of noise is welcome. She’s a medical engineer called up by NASA to install new software on to the Hubble Telescope, but also a mother in mourning for her four- year-old daughter, whom she lost in a senseless accident, and the silence enfolds her like a comfort blanket.

                                                            Available in: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Building a Practical College Degree for the New Economy

This is not a great time to be a recent college graduate.

Average student-loan debt is $29,400. The underemployment rate is 44 percent for graduates ages 22 to 27, meaning they are holding jobs that don’t require bachelor’s degrees. And the average age of financial independence for college graduate these days is 30.

Such statistics have given rise to the narrative that a college degree is no longer worth it, although volumes of economic studies on lifetime earnings prove otherwise. Even so, given the number of college graduates struggling to launch their careers, a wide gap has emerged between what the workforce needs in employees and what colleges are producing in graduates.

Part of the problem is that we have high expectations for the bachelor’s degree today. Thirty years ago, when fewer people required a higher education to get ahead in life, the bachelor’s degree was seen as a vehicle for broad learning. The training part came later by going to graduate school or getting a job where the new employer trained you.

Now we demand that skills training move in tandem with broad learning, and expect both to be completed in the four years of an undergraduate education. For too many students, however, the bachelor’s degree is not providing that dual experience - high-impact, in-classroom learning and out-of-the- classroom, experiential, and hands-on learning necessary for success in today’s economy.

Because of student loan debt, graduate or professional school is no longer an option for many recent college graduates. They’re searching for quick and cheap add- on boot camps that give them what they’re missing. And a whole new set of providers are emerging outside of the traditional higher-education ecosystem to provide that lift.

Last year, General Assembly, which offers courses of a few hours to a few weeks in everything from digital marketing to web development, expanded to Washington, DC, where it is selling out of nearly all of its offerings. Its average student is in his mid-20s and just a few years out of college.