text V

Introducing the perfect chemistry between a green technology and a blue world 
 
There  is  a  formula  for  a  healthy  new  world.  That's  why  Braskem  invested  millions  in 
research to become the first company in the world to use Brazilian sugar cane as a natural 
plastic source, collaborating with the reduction of the GHG emissions. Its commitment to 
a sustainable development resulted in a benchmark eco-efficient process that estimulates 
the markets in which Braskem operates and generates new opportunities. 
 
The world dreamed. Braskem made it happen. 

                        

                                                    (Newsweek/Issues 2012, Special Edition, cover. Adaptado.) 

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.)  

                        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

                        Solar System’s Water is Older Than the Sun

      Next time you’re swimming in the ocean, consider this: part of the water is older than the sun.
      So concludes a team of scientists who ran computer models comparing the ratios of hydrogen isotopes over time. Taking into account new insights that the solar nebula had less ionizing radiation than previously thought, the models show that at least some of the water found in the ocean, as well as in comets, meteorites and on the moon, predate the sun’s birth.
      The only other option, the scientists conclude, is that it formed in the cold, intersteller cloud from which the sun itself originated.
      The discovery, reported in this week’s Science, stems from the insight of lead author Lauren Ilsedore Cleeves, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, who realized that planet- forming disks around young stars should be shielded from galactic rays by the strong solar winds, dramatically altering the chemistry occurring inside the disks, said Conel Alexander, with the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
      “The findingX makes it quite hard for these regions in the disk to synthesize any new molecules. This was an ‘aha’ moment for us - without any new water creation the only place these ices could have come from was the chemically rich interstellar gas out of which the solar system formed originally,” Cleeves wrote in an email to Discovery News.
      “It’s remarkable that these ices survived the entire process of stellar birth,” she added.
      The finding has implications for the search for life beyond Earth, as water is believed to be necessary for life.
      “If the sun’s formation was typical, interstellar ices - including water - are likely common ingredients present during the formation of all planetary systems, which puts a wonderful outlook on the possibility of other life in the universe,” Cleeves said.
      In addition, it’s not just water that likely survived the solar system’s birth.
      “The same must be true for the organic matter that we know is present in molecular cloud ices. So I think this strengthens the case that we have interstellar organic matter in meteorites and comets too,” Alexander wrote in an email to Discovery News.

                                                                                          Available in: http://news.discovery.com