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Vincent Bitaud
I am a 24 years old street photographer based in Paris, France.
I mostly shoot street photography, about urbanity and loneliness. I tend to center deliberately my frames.
(profile picture by Noele Lusano).
Find me at: http://www.laritournelle.com
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Q: In Need of Inspiration in Tampa and Surrounding Areas
A: Do you know?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Call to Adventure
From the world of common day
Into a region of supernatural wonder:
Fabulous forces are there encountered,
And a decisive victory is won.
The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure
With the power to bestow boons on his fellow man."
(Joseph Campbell: The Hero with a Thousand Faces – 1949)
What finally hit me in the gym, as I was listening to Joseph Campbell's words about the various stages of the hero's journey and the universal motifs and metaphors used in classic myths and folktales, was that those same characteristics were present in an essay I wrote in 2007. The story was called Tres Mujeres (see Tres Mujeres), and it recounted the events of a trip I took with my high school friends, Greg and John, to Ensenada, in Baja California. At the time I called it an "adventure" because I wanted it to sounds special, even though it was just another of our many road trips. The original story is available on the link provided, but the retelling of the journey is not my main intent. What I discovered for the first time, as my mind reflected on Campbell's words in the gym, was how many similarities this story shared with Campbell's stages of the monomyth, and the metaphors and motifs found in the classical myths and tales of the hero's journey.
I missed many of the key points in Campbell's book the first time I read it. I was searching for insights into comparative mythologies that would reveal information about Man's quest for spiritual truth. I wanted to know the secrets and mysteries that heroes discovered and brought back from their mythical journeys. I was certainly not expecting Campbell's idea that all human lives are reenactments of the struggles in these journeys, and that all human beings project the same unconscious motifs and metaphors that appear in classical mythologies and folktales. It was this central tenet (that human dreams are windows into the collective unconscious, which in turn generated the archetypes and motifs found in classical mythology) that was the biggest stumbling block for me. My epiphany was the realization that my own life and stories, and those of my friends, did in fact mirror the hero's journey in many ways.
According to Campbell, "the standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: 1) Separation, 2) Initiation, and 3) Return". He called this journey of the hero the monomyth, a term he borrowed from James Joyce's Finnigans Wake. Campbell then sub-divided these three stages of the hero's journey into eleven components. It is important to note that Campbell stressed that all of these parts or divisions are sytructural devices only, and they do not have to be present, or in the same order, in all mythological tales of quests or journeys. There is great diversity in the tales told of heroes and heroines in the different cultures, tribes, and religions of the world. In my particular story of the Tres Mujeres, I easily identified 7 components of the three-part monomyth:
I. Separation or Departure
1. Call to Adventure
2. Crossing of the First Threshold
3. Supernatural Aid
II. Trials and Victories of Initation
4. The Road of Trials.
5. The Meeting with the Goddess
6. The Belly of the Whale, or the World Navel.
III. Return and Reintegration with Society
7. The Ultimate Boon
In my story, The Call to Adventure occurred at the Kansas City Barbecue in San Diego, the site where many scenes of the movie Top Gun were filmed:
The tone of the trip was set when John and I finally arrived at Greg's condominium in San Diego, on Saturday afternoon. Instead of hurrying off toward the border, after a torturously long and time-consuming drive on the 405 Freeway, we decided to slow down, relax, and saunter over to the Kansas City Barbecue, a local BBQ place for sandwiches and beers. We languidly sipped our beer and toasted our reunion, while sitting in the sunny, outdoor patio, overlooked by towering resort hotels and high rises. As beach-clad walkers passed by, we began to verbalize impromptu hopes for the weekend. John was curious about the Carnival/Mardi Gras festivities in Ensenada. Greg was interested in investigating rental homes in Rosarito, for the Bicycle Ride in April. We all hoped to re-visit the wine country in the Guadalupe Valley. All of these ideas were popular, but the question was, could we fit everything within the time we had remaining? We only had this afternoon, the evening, and all day Sunday? After a second round of beer, we concluded that it was worth a try. We had nothing to lose, and much to gain, if everything worked out. At the conclusion of lunch, we hopped into John's truck and headed for the border. From this point on, all of our activities followed a pattern. Our journey would come to a point of crisis and disaster, and then, magically, come together.
As Campbell points out, this Call does not require a momentous, life-altering reveille. It can be a great or small incident, a challenge, or a blunder the hero falls into. The Call is simply an opportunity to participate in a mystery – a rite, or moment, of spiritual passage, which, when completed, amounts to a symbolic dying and rebirth. This first stage of the mythical journey signifies that destiny has summoned the hero, and is offering him the chance to move his spiritual center from the ordinary world of 4 compass points and 5 senses to an unknown zone.
I am amazed at how my short, simple paragraph could hold some many mythical aspects identified by Campbell. Three friends, whom I described as "a soldier and paramedic", a "seer and visionary", and a "scribe and recorder" from different parts of the state, came together in San Diego to consider a trip into a foreign country. They reviewed their needs, hopes, and desires, and considered the problems, difficulties, and dangers they would face. Time seemed to be their biggest obstacle. Could they accomplish their tasks in the time allowed or should they change their minds and do something else? The situation presented a challenge and an adventure, and the three friends accepted the Call, not really understanding what they were getting into.
As the story continued, the friends confronted and crossed the First Threshold soon after leaving the border and then quickly encountered the first of many protective figures who would provide Supernatural Assistance and speed them on their way:
As soon as we crossed the border, we were gridlocked on the single, winding road from Tijuana to Rosarito, for (what seemed) hours. In frustration, I suggested that we forsake stopping at Rosarito and head straight for Ensenada, getting there before dark. "Don't give up yet", Greg reassured me. "Things might loosen up". And they did. We finally discovered that the bottleneck was caused by a strangling, military checkpoint, manned by 10 beardless boys, in camouflage uniforms, hefting huge automatic weapons. The sight was chilling. Children with guns would unsettle any driver forced to stop. Once past this bottleneck, however, we sped into Rosarito, where good luck followed us. We located a landlady/realtor with whom we had rented last year. She showed us three homes that were available for the weekend we wanted, and in less than an hour, we were back on the road to Ensenada. We left deposits for the rental of two beach area homes that would accommodate our party of 10 cyclists.
Campbell described the First Threshold as the barrier, or wall, that surrounds the "normal world" of 4 directions (plus up and down) and 5 senses. Huge, menacing giants, ogres, or monsters protected the supernatural lands that lay beyond by guarding this barrier at a gate or entrance. This Threshold was the "Wall of Paradise" which separated the world from heaven, and prevented human beings from seeing the beatific face of God. Representations of these threshold sentries can still be seen as the lions, gargoyles, and supernatural beasts that guard the facades and entrances to cathedrals and temples. In my story, I identified the threshold guardians as the beardless youths who controlled the narrow entrance to the toll road from Tijuana to Rosarito. I didn't dwell on how they were overcome, but stressed that their ominous presence, with such deadly weapons, warned us that we were entering a very dangerous realm, and should consider turning back. I also mentioned the landlady as the first of many supernatural helpers who helped us throughout this journey.
Campbell characterizes the Supernatural Helper as "the helpful crone or fairy godmother who is a familiar feature in European fairy tales. In Christian legends the role of helper is commonly played by the Virgin, whose intercession wins the mercy of the Father for the traveler. The hero who comes under the protection of the Cosmic Mother cannot be harmed. Such a figure represents the benign, protecting power of destiny. The fantasy is a reassurance – a promise that the peace of Paradise, which was known first within the mother womb, is not to be lost… One has only to know and trust, and the ageless guardians will appear. The hero finds all the forces of the unconscious on his side. Mother Nature herself supports the mighty task".
This reassurance of aid and assistance is not only provided by outside agents. The hero of the journey already brings with him resources and skills which he has previous received, learned, or won. In my tale, each of the three friends brings with them skills and talents they have learned or acquired over the years and which promise to assist them in overcoming the obstacles of the journey ahead. I described them as follows:
John is the soldier of the group. He guides, guards and cares for us on all our travels. His experiences as an infantryman, ambulance driver, paramedic and fire fighter, all prepared him for this role. On many occasions, he has also been our nursemaid, worrying about our health, finances, and bad habits. Greg, on the other hand is, as a superintendent of schools, a Visionary and Seer of endless possibilities whenever we traveled. Greg remembers more arcane and useless information than anyone I know. For example, he claimed to know the names of all the heavenly constellations, but I was never sure if he was reciting factual or fictional names. After describing the happenings of my wife and adult children, I quickly quizzed them about their reactions to my blog (internet log), which I had just made public the week before. I also warned them that I would be writing about this trip as well. I would be the official scribe on this adventure, recording with camera and pen. We were three amigos, getting older, and hopefully, wiser.
It is at this point in my story that we crossed completely into the heart of the journey and the trials that awaited us… To be continued.


text:
Photo: Maine man takes mugshot wearing previous mugshot
Robert Burt sported a bright orange shirt with an image of his previous mugshot for a new mugshot in August
By PoliceOne Staff
PITTSFIELD, Maine — The age old question of what to wear at your own mugshot might have been answered — how about your previous mugshot?
Robert Burn, according to The Smoking Gun, did just that when he was arrested for operating under the influence and driving without a license.
After pleading guilty to a drunk driving plea, Burt was sentenced to spend two days in custody. Shortly before turning himself in, Burt wrote on his Facebook: "Going to do my 48 hours whoo."
Burt's new mugshot shows him wearing a bright orange t-shirt with a picture of himself holding a slate in a previous mugshot. Wearing a white shirt, he boasts the same brows and mustache in both photos. The orange shirt reads "Burt Family Reunion 8/8-8/10/2014" and "sponsored by Bud Light and Somerset County Sheriff." This apparently refers to one of Burt's relatives who is also incarcerated at the same jail.
Burt later wrote on his Facebook page that corrections officers made him hold the slate in such a way that "you could see the shirt."
"They laughed their asses off," he finished.
Recommended Police Humor
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Hey, Brats!The magnificent "High Flight" came up recently in a discussion on the BBQ board...I'm an Air Force brat and I've loved this poem since childhood...I post it here for your enjoyment.http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid=16776943~ mike
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text:
My doctor told me to buy slow fe dor my iron...has anyone else been told to take it and been able to find it?
Cant find slow fe iron
Posted 01/09/2013
Posted 01/09/2013
I had to buy an iron supplement today. I don't know about the "slow iron" though.
I bought Spring Valley. 65 mg pills.
Us wolves, running around the desert together, in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocaine.
Posted 01/09/2013
I got mine at Walgreens. It's a 45mg dose. I wasn't able to find the actual SlowFe brand but I found the Walgreens brand that's the same thing. It was by the prenatal vitamins.
Posted 01/09/2013
I couldn't find it either. I got GentleSorb iron from GNC.
Me + Him (est 2004)
Then came...
DS (08/08) DS (10/10) ^i^ (5/12) DD (3/13) Pipsqueak - Rory Jameson -EDD (6/16)
Posted 01/09/2013
walgreen slow release iron is the same thing.
i couldn't find the SlowFe brand either.
Pregnant and a mommy to the most beautiful boy- Max! 3/15/13- Still nursing at almost 2.5 years old! Planning to tandem!
Posted 01/09/2013
Thanka...I did seethe Target brand so Im sure thats fine also :-) Thanks again
Posted 01/09/2013
I buy it Target. And have bought it at CVS as well. But I also buy generic too.
Posted 01/09/2013
some have it behind the counter, you don't need a prescription, and it is cheap, but you do have to ask the pharmacist for it.
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text: HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP: Wooster girls open with a win Back to Article Comments Need to Register? X Remember Me Forgot your password? Today's Deals Ozark Trail 1-Person Backpacking Tent for $19 + pickup at Walmart Roadmaster Men's 26" Mountain Bike for $80 + free shipping Signature by Levi Strauss Men's Summit Shorts for $15 + pickup... Ozark 20x10-Foot Straight Leg Instant Canopy for $139 + free... Powered by


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Red Butte Garden
Natural History Museum of Utah
The stunning architecture of the Rio Tinto Center forms a multistory indoor 'canyon' that showcases exhibits to great effect. Walk up...
Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Soaring galleries showcase permanent collections of tribal, Western and modern art.
This is the Place Heritage Park
Dedicated to the 1847 arrival of the Mormons, the heritage park covers 450 acres. The centerpiece is a living-history village where,...
Café Trio
The under-40 set gathers here for flatbreads and roasted meats fired in the wood-burning oven. You always get big portions of the...
300 Wakara Way · interesting places nearby
Red Butte Garden information
Both landscaped and natural gardens cover a lovely 150 acres, with access to trails in the Wasatch foothills. Check online to see who's playing at the popular, outdoor summer concert series also held here.


text:
Relevant offers
A mother and her son escaped a fire that destroyed their Petone house this morning.
The fire at the Adelaide St house was reported to emergency services about 4.20am.
Senior Sergeant Steve Braybrook said the house was engulfed in flames when emergency services arrived.
The house was likely destroyed.
The occupants, a mother and her adult son, were safely out of the house.
Fire service shift manager Murray Dunbar said the cause of the fire was under investigation.
- The Dominion Post
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text:
Mighty Kerry are no mugs
Never before has the focus so much been on the man on the middle or officiating in general.
Never before has the focus so much been on the man on the middle or officiating in general.
Marcus Cavaroli Portmarnock's Geoff Lenehan made it through three matchplay rounds in the AIG Irish Close Championship at Ballyliffin despite only narrowly finishing inside the cut-off point in Wednesday's qualifying competition.
St Maur's clubman Eoghan Conroy was among the scorers at Semple Stadium on Sunday, yet Dublin's dreams of competing in the All-Ireland Under-21 Hurling decider were crushed by Galway after extra time.
Marcus Cavaroli Balbriggan kept their promotion hopes alive with a stunning demolition job on doomed North Kildare at the Jack Harper Memorial Ground on Sunday afternoon.
Jack Corry - Corry Corner Round two of the Milverton Off Road Club stubble championship took place last Sunday in Stamullen, and while the event was in the same field as round one, the organising club changed the course to a longer and faster one.
St Sylvester's hopes of making the top four all but evaporated on Saturday after they suffered a 1-9 to 0-8 loss away to St Brigids.
Paul Byrne Darren Craven's excellent finish after just 30 seconds set Malahide up for a well-earned point against current league champions Bluebell United as the new Leinster Senior League season kicked off at Gannon Park on Friday evening.
Baylon McCaughey The Norman Brown Memorial Race was cancelled at Bishopscourt following heavy rain, which forced the race organisers to cancel the meeting with two races left.
Brian Baneham It's been a sensational year for Portmarnock athlete Michael Farrelly, who set a new Irish Under-15 record for 100 metres at the GloHealth Juvenile National Championships held in Tullamore recently.
A serious odour issue emanating from Swords... News
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A new road and access point must be built to the proposed development of 24 'rapid-build' homes planned for Balbriggan, according to... News
St Margaret's GAA Club has paid tribute to superhero 'Batman Ben' Farrell who sadly lost his fight against cancer last week. News
Over 4,000 people have signed up to a protest against a council decision to give... News


text:
|Reviews for Clockwork
| Guest chapter 16 . 6/12
please continue please
| wolfspan24 chapter 16 . 5/14
I have seen your other amazing storues but was hoping you'll upload Clockwork up on TCWS soon as well. I really love this story abd it's well written interactions between characters. Keep up the great work!
| S.O.NofaGleek chapter 16 . 4/7
Are you not continuing this story?
| kamonwan9952 chapter 10 . 10/18/2015
holyshit Angela? This's totally n amazing story!
| kamonwan9952 chapter 3 . 10/18/2015
woah! holyshit aight this was amazing chapter! and cute ending haha
| kamonwan9952 chapter 2 . 10/18/2015
holyshit mistress? YAAS, fuck bellas's so fkn cook in this
| TeganCappa chapter 6 . 7/10/2015
I just can't take any story seriously anymore when people write Edward like you have. I hate him as much as the next person, but my god does it get old when people use Edward and this exact personality over and over again. "Get out of my way that belongs to me. I own it's blood and everything else, and if you do not step aside, I shall take pleasure in forcing you." Really? I mean for real? That is one of the first things he says when he returns home huh? Please. Anyway, I thought it was a cool and very unique story until this point.
| lsutigers chapter 16 . 1/22/2015
please continue please
| Wolf2468 chapter 16 . 10/19/2014
Please continue please please
| AGirlWithTooManyFnadoms chapter 6 . 9/29/2014
Rose/Bella/Angela. Cute pairing! Please? (Yes, I'm a girl, but I love Angie!)
| AGirlWithTooManyFnadoms chapter 4 . 9/29/2014
Haha, did Jazz really use the classic "if it weren't for those meddling [insert group here] and their [insert object noun here]" line?
| Stalker69 chapter 16 . 5/20/2014
totally stalking this story if u ever continue this. Hope u do though. *Grins*
| Rayne Arianna Maranochi chapter 14 . 3/25/2014
Man I wish this was continued. :( this is good.
| SeleenaMarieDragonMistress chapter 1 . 3/16/2014
The US government in all their wisdom has come up with a law called Stop Online Piracy Acts (SOPA). It's basically a blanket law to stop ALL forms of online piracy including fan fiction, fan art, and fan videos! So they punish those that they want to punish. BUT they also punish all of us who express our creativity through writing, drawing, and recording around something that may not belong to us, but that we LOVE. There is a Petition on WE the People that ends on the 19th of March that needs 100,000 signatures. So far we have 63,156.
If you want to sign, go to:
| FabPezBerry78 chapter 4 . 3/15/2014
OMG totaly Awesome !


text:
Greyhound Connect is a transportation service providing residents with easy and affordable service that connects them to major Greyhound markets. The service is primarily located in regions within the state in need of daily, scheduled and affordable transportation.
"Through Greyhound Connect, residents will have more travel options to choose from in areas with limited to no intercity bus access," said Stephen Hutchings, regional VP, Greyhound Lines Inc. "Customers can connect to Greyhound's 3,800 locations throughout North America and experience our safe and affordable transportation services throughout the state."
The route is being provided using Federal Transit Administration 5311(f) funds through MoDOT. It allows companies, such as Greyhound, to provide intercity bus transportation to locations not currently within its traveling markets.
RELATED ARTICLE: Check out, "Motorcoach Express Services Flourish."
The proposal discusses the benefits of setting the maximum speed at 60, 65, and 68 miles per hour, but the agencies will consider other speeds based on public input.
All nine coaches have Van Hool standard safety features, including three-point seatbelts, backup camera, lane departure warning and antilock brakes.
Will use system to automate their Trailways Affiliated Partner program registration and payment processes.
The three-year pilot program would allow a limited number of individuals between the ages of 18 and 21 to operate commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce while in military service .
Will be held at the 2017 UMA Motorcoach EXPO in St. Louis on Feb. 28, 2017. The winner will receive a cash prize, trophy, framed certificate and recognition at UMA National Headquarters.
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All hotels in San Antonio, Texas, United States of America
1 room, 2 adults
138 Richland Hills Drive, San Antonio, TX, 78245, United States of America, 855-239-9485
SpringHill Suites by Marriott San Antonio SeaWorld Lackland, San Antonio
Lowest price$89
Best Price Guarantee
3-star San Antonio aparthotel with indoor pool
- Free continental breakfast, free WiFi, and free parking
Main amenities
- 116 smoke-free apartments
- Indoor pool
- Fitness center
- Business center
- Coffee/tea in a common area
- Air conditioning
- Daily housekeeping
- Front desk safe
- Snack bar/deli
- Laundry service
- Meeting rooms
What's around
- Ingram Park Mall (2.6 mi / 4.2 km)
- San Antonio SeaWorld (5.2 mi / 8.4 km)
- Wolff Municipal Stadium (5 mi / 8.1 km)
- Lackland Air Force Base Visitor Center (5.5 mi / 8.8 km)
- Joint Base San Antonio (5.8 mi / 9.4 km)
See all 809 Hotels.com reviews
Great location
Value for money
Best value for money
Fantastic service
Bad pool
TripAdvisor Traveller Rating: 4
From 215 reviews
SpringHill Suites by Marriott San Antonio SeaWorld Lackland, San Antonio
Hotel Info: 855-239-9485from $89
- Standard Suite
- Suite
Also popular with travelers from the USA
At a glance
Key facts
Hotel size
- This hotel has 116 rooms
- This hotel is arranged over 4 floors
- Check-in time starts at 3 PM
- Check-out time is 11 AM
Required at check in
- Credit card or cash deposit required
- Government-issued photo ID required
Travelling with others
- Pets not allowed
- Free WiFi in public areas
- Free WiFi and wired Internet access in rooms
- Free self parking
Other information
- Smoke-free property
Nearby Three Star San Antonio hotels
In the hotel
Food and drink
- Free continental breakfast
- Snack bar/deli
- Coffee/tea in a common area
Things to do
- Indoor pool
- Fitness facilities
- Golfing nearby
Working away
- Business center
- Meeting rooms
- Conference space size (feet) - 546
- Conference space size (meters) - 51
- One meeting room
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Laundry facilities
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
In the room
Home comforts
- Air conditioning
- Coffee/tea maker
- Iron/ironing board
Sleep well
- Sofa bed
Freshen up
- Hair dryer
Be entertained
- 32-inch LCD TV
- Cable TV channels
Stay connected
- Desk
- Free WiFi
Food and drink
- Refrigerator
- Microwave
- Daily housekeeping
Top San Antonio hotels
Recently reviewed hotels in San Antonio
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"Hotel needs to be updated, looking somewhat worn. "Aug 24, 2016
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New Kid on the Block - Scene 1
Get Your Gay Access Now!
DVD Title New Kid on the Block
Category Black / Ebony
Added December 27, 2013
Viewed 0 times
Favored 0 times Add to favorites
Duration 14m, 31s
Tags Blowjobs, Cum on Stomach, Handjobs
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Mark Tarr helped Steven Corry move some stuff up to his room. As a thank you when they got to the room Steven pulled Mark's dick out of his pants and started sucking on it. He worked that dick with his mouth, stroking the shaft and making him harder and harder then he stripped him nude, laid him down on the bed and really got to work on him. He took his long black dick down his throat then sucked and licked on his balls while stroking the shaft. His mouth is so talented that it wasn't long before Mark was moaning and shooting his hot load all over the place.
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Compare region 2 DVD prices between UK retailers.
Denzel Washington
The Equalizer | DVD | (26/01/2015)
from £4.00 | Saving you £15.99 (80.00%) | RRP
Denzel Washington plays McCall a man who believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginning a new quiet life. But when McCall meets Teri a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters he comes out of his self-imposed retirement and finds his desire for justice reawakened. If someone has a problem if the odds are stacked against them if they have nowhere else to turn McCall will help. He is The Equalizer.
The Equalizer | Blu Ray | (26/01/2015)
from £6.99 | Saving you £18.00 (72.00%) | RRP
A man believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and has dedicated himself to beginning a new quiet life. But when he meets a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters he can't stand idly by - he has to help her.
Flight | DVD | (03/06/2013)
from £3.00 | Saving you £16.99 (85.00%) | RRP
Few directors can meld high-tech whiz-bang with solid narrative values like Robert Zemeckis, a filmmaker whose best work (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Back to the Future trilogy, Cast Away) stands tall among the blockbusters. Although there have been times when Zemeckis's insistence on pushing the special effects envelope can end up overshadowing the story being told (as in his animated version of A Christmas Carol), his innate gifts persist: when he's in the groove, he can show you something you've never seen before, as well as a reason to care about it. Flight, the director's first wholly live-action film in over a decade, serves as a reminder of just how good he can be, featuring both an exquisitely terrifying crash sequence and a fearless central performance from Denzel Washington. John Gatins's script serves as a bizarro inversion of the Sully Sullenberger tale: when a routine flight over Atlanta goes terrifyingly wrong, the aircraft's pilot (Washington) saves his passengers with a near-miraculous display of skill. As the investigation into the disaster begins, however, it becomes apparent that its hero's impromptu bravery hides a multitude of bad habits. Washington does a brilliant job as a man who is all too aware of his feet of clay, subverting his innate nobility to shattering effect. (As in the earlier Training Day, when he goes to the dark side, the shock ripples the screen.) The strength of his central performance is only amplified by some outstanding supporting work from Kelly Reilly (as a recovering heroin addict), Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, and a scene-stealing John Goodman, who gets a few lines crass enough to remind you that yes, Zemeckis is the same person who once made the low-taste classic Used Cars. Impressive as the cast is, though, it's unlikely that things would work nearly as well without the director's grasp of the material, which shifts between horror, black comedy, and uplifting pathos without missing a beat. In his hands, this potential sap story makes for a smart, worldly addiction saga that blessedly refuses to stay within the usual melodramatic lines. Just don't ever, ever expect to see it as the in-flight entertainment. --Andrew Wright
The Hurricane | DVD | (05/01/2001)
from £4.15 | Saving you £11.84 (74.00%) | RRP
In his direction of The Hurricane, veteran filmmaker Norman Jewison understands that slavish loyalty to factual detail is no guarantee of compelling screen biography. In telling the story of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter--who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1967 and spent nearly two decades in jail--Jewison and his screenwriters compress time, combine characters, and rearrange events with a nonchalance that would be galling if they didn't remain honest to the core truth of Carter's ordeal. Because of that emotional integrity--and because Denzel Washington brings total conviction to his title role--The Hurricane rises above the confines of biographical fidelity to embrace higher values of courage, compassion, and ultimate justice. Jewison is woefully heavy-handed in his treatment of the fictionalised, absurdly villainous detective (Dan Hedaya) who zealously plots to keep Carter in jail, and anyone familiar with Carter's story may object to the film's simplified account. But what matters here is the shining star of hope that is Lesra (Vicellous Reon Shannon), the Brooklyn teenager who rejuvenates Carter's legal battle in the early 1980s. This surrogate father-son relationship is what revives Carter's hope for family and future, and makes The Hurricane so engrossing and emotionally effective. Lesra's real-life Canadian mentors are compressed from nine characters to three, but their efforts are superbly dramatised, and Jewison hits the small but important grace notes that make a good film even better. By its final scenes, The Hurricane conveys the rich, rewarding satisfaction of surviving a difficult but valuable journey of mind, body, and soul.--Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
2 Guns | Blu Ray | (09/12/2013)
from £5.89 | Saving you £27.10 (82.10%) | RRP
Academy Award winner Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg lead an all-star cast in 2 Guns. An explosive action film that tracks two operatives from competing bureaus who are forced on the run together. But there is a big problem with their unique alliance: neither knows that the other is an undercover federal agent.
Much Ado About Nothing | DVD | (03/02/2014)
from £3.44 | Saving you £21.55 (86.20%) | RRP
Kenneth Branagh's 1993 production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is a vigorous and imaginative work, cheerful and accessible for everyone. Largely the story of Benedick (Branagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson)--adversaries who come to believe each is trying to woo the other--the film veers from arched wit to ironic romps, and the two leads don't mind looking a little silly at times. But the plot is also layered with darker matters that concern the ease with which men and women fall into mutual distrust. Branagh has rounded up a mixed cast of stage vets and Hollywood stars, among the latter Denzel Washington and Michael Keaton, the latter playing a rather seedy, Beetlejuice-like version of Dogberry, king of malapropisms.--Tom Keogh
Malcolm X | DVD | (14/05/2012)
from £4.49 | Saving you £8.50 (65.40%) | RRP
Just as Do the Right Thing was the capstone of Spike Lee's earlier career, Malcolm X marked the next milestone in the filmmaker's artistic maturity. It seemed everything Lee had done up to that point was to prepare him for this epic biography of America's fiery civil-rights leader, who is superbly played by Oscar-nominated Denzel Washington, from his early days as a zoot-suited hustler known as "Detroit Red" to his spiritual maturity after his pilgrimage to Mecca, as a Black Muslim by the name of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. Do the Right Thing climaxed with the photographic images of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King engulfed by flames of rage; Malcolm X explores the genesis and evolution of that rage over Malcolm's lifetime, and how these two great figures--held up to the public as polar opposites within the African-American human rights movement (King for nonviolent civil disobedience, Malcolm for achieving equality "by any means necessary")--were each essential to the agenda of the other. Lee careens from the hedonistic ebullience of Malcolm's early days to the stark despair of prison, from his life-changing conversion to Islam to his emergence as a dynamic political leader--all with an epic sweep and vitality that illuminates personal details as well as political ideology. Angela Bassett is also terrific as Malcolm's wife, Betty Shabazz. --Jim Emerson
Cry Freedom | DVD | (24/12/2001)
from £3.99 | Saving you £6.00 (60.10%) | RRP
After learning of apartheid's true horrors through the eyes of activist Steve Biko (Denzel Washington) editor Donald Woods (Kevin Kline) discovers that his friend has been silenced by the police. Determined not to let Biko's message go unheard Woods undertakes a perilous quest to escape South Africa and bring Biko's remarkable tale of courage to the world. This riveting and true story directed by Richard Attenborough offers a stirring account of man at his most evil and most hero
Remember The Titans | DVD | (26/11/2001)
from £3.99 | Saving you £12.00 (75.00%) | RRP
Boaz Yakin's Remember the Titans boasts only one major star (Denzel Washington), but it does have an appealing cast of fresh unknowns and a winning emphasis on substance over self-indulgent style. Set in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971, the fact-based story begins with the integration of black and white students at T C Williams High School. The effort to improve race relations is most keenly felt on the school's football team, the Titans, and bigoted tempers flare when a black head coach (Washington) is appointed and his victorious predecessor (Will Patton) reluctantly stays on as his assistant. It's affirmative action at its most volatile, complicated by the mandate that the coach will be fired if he loses a single game in the Titans' 13-game season.The players represent a hotbed of racial tension, but as the team struggle towards unity and gridiron glory, Remember the Titans builds on several subplots and character dynamics to become an inspirational drama of Rocky-like proportions. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.comOn the DVD: Remember the Titans looks impressive in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, with Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 sound options equally up to the "big game" challenge. Extras include a "making of" feature, hosted by Lynn Swann, which will seem a tad on the sentimental side for non-American audiences; but to balance the schmaltz there are two more interesting behind-the-scenes featurettes: "Denzel Becomes Boone" and "Beating the Odds". The commentary is standard, relatively uninspired stuff, with director Boaz Yakin, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and writer Gregory Allen Howard giving the low-down on the production. Even with the addition of a couple of deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer there isn't really anything to get DVD aficionados drooling here. --Kristen Bowditch
The Book Of Eli | DVD | (31/05/2010)
from £3.92 | Saving you £16.07 (80.40%) | RRP
Some will kill to have it. He will kill to protect it. A lone hero must fight his way across the wasteland of a post-apocalyptic America to protect a sacred book that holds the key to saving the future of humanity.
Training Day | DVD | (03/06/2002)
from £2.75 | Saving you £8.65 (61.80%) | RRP
A powerhouse performance by Denzel Washington fuels Training Day, a brutal urban police drama in which a rookie narcotics cop learns the hard way that even good cops can go very, very bad. Washington plays veteran detective Alonzo Harris, a self-proclaimed "wolf among wolves", eager to teach his rookie partner Jake (Ethan Hawke) that normal rules don't apply on the mean streets of Los Angeles. Caught in a web of deception, Jake watches with escalating horror as Alonzo uses his badge (and the support of his superiors) to justify a self-righteous policy of corruption. In stark contrast to most of his previous work, Washington unleashes his dark side with fearlessness and fury, and the result is excellence without compromise. Director Antoine Fuqua (The Replacement Killers) won't score any points for subtlety, but gritty details (including actual LA gang members as extras) and Hawke's finely tuned performance are perfectly matched to Washington's frightening volatility. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com On the DVD: Training Day's special features include an HBO documentary which actually provides some insight into the structure of the film rather than simply adding glitz and glamour. Antoine Fuqua's feature commentary is intimate, suggesting his heart and soul went into this movie. The extra scenes also add to the enjoyment of the movie, the only disappointment being that there is no additional commentary to explain the cuts. The alternative ending ties up a few of the loose ends which are left at the close of the theatrical release. Out of the two music videos it is Pharoahe Monch's "Got You" that fits in best with the style of the film, having a much bassier street-level feel than Nelly's "#1" chart-friendly hip-hop. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack allows you to feel like you're pumping out the beats from your BMW and the 2.35:1 widescreen is a slick as Denzel Washington's gun moves. --Nikki Disney
2 Guns | DVD | (09/12/2013)
from £1.99 | Saving you £18.00 (90.00%) | RRP
Academy Award winner Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg lead an all-star cast in 2 Guns. An explosive action film that tracks two operatives from competing bureaus who are forced on the run together. But there is a big problem with their unique alliance: neither knows that the other is an undercover federal agent.
Philadelphia - Collector's Edition | DVD | (19/07/2004)
from £5.26 | Saving you £6.00 (46.20%) | RRP
Up-and-coming young lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) has just been fired by his prestigious law firm. They say he hasn't got what it takes. Andrew knows it's because he's got AIDS. Determined to defend his professional reputation Andrew hires fierce brilliant personal-injury attorney Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) to sue his former employers for wrongful dismissal. Joe is initially reluctant to take on the case. Although he as grown up knowing the pain of prejudice he's never
Safe House | DVD | (15/06/2012)
from £1.85 | Saving you £16.00 (80.00%) | RRP
Oscar winner Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds star in the action-thriller Safe House. Washington plays the most dangerous renegade from the CIA, who comes back onto the grid after a decade on the run. When the South African safe house he's remanded to is attacked by mercenaries, a rookie operative (Reynolds) escapes with him. Now, the unlikely allies must stay alive long enough to uncover who wants them dead. For the past year, Matt Weston has been frustrated by his inactive, backwater post in Cape Town. A housekeeper who aspires to be a full-fledged agent, the loyal company man has been waiting for an opportunity to prove himself. When the first and only occupant he's had proves to be the most dangerous man he's ever met, Weston readies for duty. Tobin Frost has eluded capture for almost a decade. One of the best ops men that the CIA's known, the ex-intelligence officer has given up assets and sold military intel to anyone with cash since he turned. From trading secrets to North Korea to aiding splinter cells, the damage he's done to the U.S. is immeasurable. And he's now back on the reservation with a secret. As soon as Frost is brought in for debriefing, mercenaries come and tear apart Weston's safe house. Barely escaping, the unlikely partners must discover if their attackers have been sent by terrorists or someone on the inside who will kill anyone standing in the way. Now it's up to Weston to figure out who he can trust before they're both eliminated from the game. Special Features: Behind the Action
Unstoppable/Man On Fire/The Siege | Blu Ray | (02/09/2013)
from £5.49 | Saving you £16.61 (72.20%) | RRP
Unstoppable: Inspired by actual events, Unstoppable is an adrenaline rush fuelled by director Tony Scott's signature mark of propulsive action rooted in the reality of ordinary people placed in extraordinary circumstances. A veteran train engineer (Denzel Washington) and a young conductor (Chris Pine) race the clock to stop an unmanned runaway train - effectively a missile the size of a skyscraper -- and prevent disaster in a heavily populated area. Man On Fi...
American Gangster | DVD | (10/03/2008)
from £3.99 | Saving you £16.00 (80.00%) | RRP
American Gangster is a biopic of Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas. In the early 1970s Lucas (Washington) became the biggest heroin dealer in Harlem with a smuggling scheme that imported heroin out of Southeast Asia in the caskets of dead Vietnam soldiers. He soon made upwards of one million dollars a day in drug sales. American Gangster centers on narcotics lawman Richie Roberts' (Crowe) struggle to bring down Lucas whose flamboyant style earned him the street name ""Superfly"" and catching the crooked cops and drug dealers who profited from Lucas's scheme.
Deja Vu | DVD | (14/05/2007)
from £3.99 | Saving you £14.00 (77.80%) | RRP
This dramatic American action thriller is the latest film from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Tony Scott and stars actors Denzel Washington Val Kilmer Paula Patton Bruce Greenwood Adam Goldberg and Jim Caviezel. The adventure takes place in New Orleans USA where federal agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) is guided through an FBI crime investigation by feelings of deja vu.
Unstoppable | DVD | (28/03/2011)
from £3.79 | Saving you £16.20 (81.00%) | RRP
Inspired by actual events Unstoppable is an adrenaline rush fuelled by director Tony Scott's signature mark of propulsive action rooted in the reality of ordinary people placed in extraordinary circumstances. A veteran train engineer (Denzel Washington) and a young conductor (Chris Pine) race the clock to stop an unmanned runaway train - effectively a missile the size of a skyscraper - and prevent disaster in a heavily populated area.
Inside Man | DVD | (31/07/2006)
from £2.91 | Saving you £16.00 (80.00%) | RRP
It looked like the perfect bank robbery. But you can't judge a crime by its cover. Acclaimed actors Denzel Washington Clive Owen and Jodie Foster come together to explore the lure of power the ugliness of greed and the mystery of a perfect robbery in a combustible new crime drama from Spike Lee. The hardbitten but unorthodox Detective Fraiser (Washington) pits his wits against a high-class bank robber Dalton Russell (Owen) following the robbery of a Manhatten bank. As the chase unfolds political corruption and hidden agendas threaten to destabilize an already volatile situation.
Lone Survivor / Zero Dark Thirty / Safe House / Green Zone / Contraband Box Set | Blu Ray | (22/09/2014)
from £13.00 | Saving you £26.99 (67.50%) | RRP
Lone SurvivorBased on The New York Times bestselling true story of heroism courage and survival Lone Survivor tells the incredible tale of four Navy SEALs on a covert mission to neutralize a high-level al-Qaeda operative who are ambushed by the enemy in the mountains of Afghanistan. Faced with an impossible moral decision the small band is isolated from help and surrounded by a much larger force of Taliban ready for war. As they confront unthinkable odds together the four men find reserves of strength and resilience as they stay in the fight to the finish. Zero Dark ThirtyFor a decade an elite team of intelligence and military operatives working in secret across the globe devoted themselves to a single goal: to find and eliminate Osama bin Laden. Zero Dark Thirty reunites the Oscar(R) winning team of director-producer Kathryn Bigelow and writer-producer Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) for the story of history's greatest manhunt for the world's most dangerous man. Safe HouseOscar winner Denzel Washington plays the most dangerous renegade from the CIA who comes back onto the grid after a decade on the run. When the South African safe house he's remanded to is attacked by mercenaries a rookie operative (Reynolds) escapes with him. Now the unlikely allies must stay alive long enough to uncover who wants them dead. Green ZoneAn officer searching for WMDs in Iraq teams up with an older CIA officer to try to bring in Iraqi Army officers who are willing to help - only to be confronted by a darker conspiracy in which U.S. forces are helping Iraqi forces kill off their rivals. ContrabandChris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) long ago abandoned his life of crime but after his brother-in-law Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) botches a drug deal for his ruthless boss Chris is forced back into doing what he does best - running contraband. Things quickly fall apart and with only hours to reach the cash Chris must use his rusty skills to successfully navigate a treacherous criminal network of brutal drug lords cops and hit men. Special Features: Zero Dark Thirty Bonus Material/Trailers No Small Feat The Compound Long Version Geared Up Targeting Jessica Chastain Lone Survivor Bonus Material/Trailers Will of the Warrior Bringing The Story to Light Recreating the Firefight Learning the Basics The Fallen Heroes of Operation Red Wings {Michael Murphy - Matthew Axelson - Danny Dietz - Tribute to the Fallen Heroes of Operation Red Wings} The Pashtun Code of Life Green Zone Bonus Material/Trailers Feature Commentary U-Control Feature Video Commentary Picture in Picture Deleted Scenes Matt Damon: Ready For Action Inside The Green Zone Recreating Bagdad Contraband Bonus Material/Trailers Reality Factor: The Stunts and Action of Contraband Deleted Scenes - I Did It; Dancing Ninja; I Haven't... Yet; I Don't Need to Be Reminded; Alternate Crew Search; Broken Seal; Right About There; Oil Cans; Looking For Me Captain?; Sebastian Leaves; Searching; I Have Never Run Drugs Under the Radar: The Making of Contraband Safe House Bonus Material/Trailers U-Control PIP pods x 2 Making Safe House Hand-to-Hand Action Shooting The Safe House Attack Building The Rooftop Chase Inside the CIA Universal Centennial Trailer


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Many oil-rich countries' governments reap huge and notoriously opaqueproduction revenues. In the past, transparency initiatives were limited to exposing tax payments. However, EITI reports and company disclosures are exposing more details on these deals. We are seeing a growing database of incisive price data emerging.
Many observers want to know how much the oil is worth and whether a fair price is paid for it. A common assumption is that the value of a barrel of oil is easy to determine. In fact, it's quite complicated. The oil price's daily fluctuations are closely monitored. These are done using the so-called "reference prices": the value of a barrel of a particular oil quality sold in a particular hub. Every barrel, though, is worth a different amount. How light the oil is, how expensive it is to transport it to main hubs and how it is sold (on a spot or long-term contract) all factor in to its value.
Source: Screenshot from Page 349 of NEITI report, Original source is EIA.
A person wanting to know the value of their country's oil once had three options: using one of the global free benchmarks, which lack granularity, as a best approximation; paying large subscription fees to access granular market data; and looking for revealing industry reports.
The recent release of EU mandatory payment disclosure reports have provided a granular and standardized new data source on oil prices. Oil companies are now disclosing the value of the production entitlements they pay in kind to governments, both in volume and in price terms. Assembling these we built a small table of oil prices.
Data source: BP, Shell, Statoil 2015 mandatory payment disclosures. Data from the disclosures is available on resourceprojects.org
The above graph displays the price of oil in 2015 across BP, Shell and Statoil projects. Prices spread across a wide range, with most observations between USD 20 to USD 55 per barrel. Reported oil price in Libya is surprisingly high. There are also wide variations in the price of oil for projects in the same country. The price reported by Shell from SPDC East is much lower than for other Nigerian projects, a finding that led to civil society raising questions. We also found significant differences between the prices reported by BP and Statoil for the same projects and period in Azerbaijan.
Data source: Statoil 2014 and 2015 mandatory payment disclosures
In the case of Statoil, we could calculate the change across two years of disclosures. We found that prices dropped by an average of 47 percent from 2014 to 2015—roughly equivalent to the drop in the Brent price, a popular benchmark. But again, there was a significant variation in the proportions of reported price drops.
New data is also beginning to reveal the prices governments sell their oil for. This information should be published more systematically by both governments and in-country operators. In Azerbaijan, for example, this information was disclosed in its 2014 EITI report.
Source: Azerbaijan EITI 2014 report, Statoil 2014 payment disclosure
The above graph shows the price Azerbaijan national oil company SOCAR sold its own share of crude for in 2014. The graph above shows that Azeri state oil was sold at prices between USD 69 and USD 113. The average price (weighted by quantity) was USD 99 per barrel.
These figures are then compared with the reported production entitlement values discussed above. For the same year, Statoil reported on the two producing projects in Azerbaijan. They reported a price of USD 103.4 per barrel for the Azeri, Chirag and Gunashli (ACG) complex, the country's largest oil project, contributing three-fourths of national oil production. They also reported a much lower USD 52.9 price for the Shah Deniz gas and condensate field. Taking a weighted average of the two yields a price of USD 97.5 per barrel.
To summarize, we find that in 2014, the Azeri government sold its oil at an average price USD 1.5 per barrel higher (at 99 USD) than the market value as reported by Statoil (at 97.5 USD). Of course, we don't know many further details to evaluate these transactions, for example the timing difference between production and sales, or the risks involved in the oil trade. Access to oil sales contracts could shed light on how much of the price risk is borne by the oil trader and how much is on SOCAR.
The price data we present remains very limited, both in company and country coverage. However, we can already explore the range in prices, looking for patterns and outliers in both reported market value and government oil sale prices. As reports on payments to governmentscontinue growing, we are gaining valuable data on oil prices for free. We can start better exploiting these data to monitor taxation and promote better policymaking and informed discussions on the sector and on the broaderdebate on trade misinvoicing.
This is why initiatives such as Publish What You Pay's "Data Extractors" program, as part of which this methodology was initially piloted, are crucial to build up more open data capacity among citizens across the globe.
Anton Rühling is the program manager at OpenOil, overseeing the development of all open data applications. David Mihalyi is an economic analyst with NRGI.]]>
The Vaca Muerta formation – background and context
Argentina holds the second largest shale gas reserves in the world. The Vaca Muerta formation, in the Neuquén Basin, is one of its main producing areas and its largest play of dry, wet, and associated shale gas resources.
In July 2013, the Argentine energy company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales and Chevron announced a partnership for drilling in one of the five development blocks in Vaca Muerta, which included the Loma La Lata Norte and Loma Campana fields. At that time, the Loma Campana field was already producing more than 10,000 barrels of oil-equivalent per day. In 2014, the project was extended for 35 years. With an unusually high reliance on oil and natural gas, and the weight of years of economic mismanagement, this agreement doubtlessly plays a major role in the Argentinian economy.
At the same time, the project has raised several inquiries about its environmental viability, the lax extension of the concession, its violation of Mapuche territory and tax exemptions that reduce the percentage of revenues for the government. Adding to this, a ruling from 2014 has made impossible to request information about the secret clauses of this agreement, which could help clarify who is profiting out of this project.
Yet, there has been a series of orders for disclosure from various Argentinian courts to YPF, especially after November 2015, when the Argentinian's highest court (finally) found that operations in this field were of public interest. To all orders, YPF has appealed, claiming this would affect 'its interests and those of its shareholders'.
How public domain information can help out
But we know there is enough information in the public space to help clarify many of these issues, like who profits from this project and to which extent. Following this philosophy, we have recently established a collaboration for developing a model of the cashflows of YPF in the Loma Campana field with partners in Argentina – Observatorio Petrolero Sur (OpSur) and Andres Knobel, Consultant at Tax Justice Network – within the scope of our Financial Modeling Program.
When modeling the cashflows of a project, however, we require data on production, costs, reserves and prices. OpSur had already gathered partnership agreements and YPF Quarterly reports, from which we have figures for production, reserves and operating costs. But we still needed to update the data on reserves and find figures for exploration, development and transportation costs.
Finding information with Aleph
This is where the OpenOil search engine, Aleph, comes into play. We use it to search through corporate filings of publicly listed extractive companies so that we can find the missing data.
Let's start by searching for "loma campana gas reserves" in Aleph. This throws a list of 17 documents spanning years 2012 to 2016.
Clicking on the most recent document, a 20-F form, shows a preview of it. And the pages containing relevant information are highlighted and sorted by either filing data or relevance to our query.
In the top right search bar of this page, we can make internal searches in the document. So we look for "gas":
Voilà! Here are the figures for all types (PDP, PDNP, PUD and TR) gas reserves for the project, as of December 2015.
Next, we want to find data on the different categories of cost. This, however, proved more challenging and led to some unexpected interesting findings.
Figures on costs are often listed in financial reports. But a first search of "loma campana
financial report" leads to only two documents of 2013 and 2014. We want to find better information, so we make another general search for "loma campana capital expenditure", a term that is more specific to what we want to look up. This search throws up 7 documents, from 2013 to 2016.
This time we go to the second document listed, a 6-K Form, given that the first contains text in a format difficult to read. In this, there is only one mention of our search term, but we are lucky: it contains information on development costs.
Even more interesting is that it also mentions the participation of another company, Compañía de Hidrocarburo No Convencional S.R.L. ("CHNC"), in 50% of the exploitation of Loma Campana. And it also mentions gas and oil purchases of YPF to CHNC in years 2013, 2014 and 2015, and net balances for the same period. A general search in Aleph for "loma campana chnc" lists 13 documents we could review in the future.
For now, we continue with an internal search of term "loma campana" within this document. We find three pages mentioning it. Going to the first mentioning, we find more unexpected but relevant information on royalties and development costs.
With this data – although still patchy and incomplete – we are much closer to being able to model the cashflows of the project, but that's for another post. In the meantime, however, we would like to continue being informed on more data coming into Aleph. So we simply go to the top right of the page and add a weekly alert. This way, we will receive emails every time a document with new mentions of our search term is added to Aleph, and with reminders of our search.
Hopefully by now you are now convinced of using Aleph for finding relevant information on the extractive industries. Our experts in Open Oil will be glad to give you advice on how to incorporate Aleph to your work.]]>
Berlin, 4 August 2016 – OpenOil, a Berlin-based consultancy, has launched Aleph, a new tool that enables government officials, journalists, financial analysts and researchers to search through corporate filings of publicly listed extractive companies across multiple jurisdictions.
At launch, users can utilise Aleph to search through more than two million documents, a database that grows in real time as coverage keeps expanding. Documents filed to main mining reporting jurisdictions such as Canada, United States, Australia and South Africa, among others, are indexed and made searchable, with direct links to the originals.
Speaking about the motivation behind Aleph, Johnny West, OpenOil's Director, said, "Companies operate globally but report locally. It is very hard to have a view of what they are doing around the world – except, of course, if you are their shareholder or regulator."
"With Aleph, anybody can read and analyse what these companies are telling their shareholders and regulators," he added.
Users can search for specific companies and peruse specific documents. They can also create alerts for search items built around companies, persons and/or countries. Whenever new documents that fit the search criteria are filed, users will be notified directly by email, with links to the documents.
Aleph also indexes OpenOil's repository of extractive contracts, making them all searchable from the same interface — and making Aleph a timesaver for anyone tracking major extractive companies.
Aleph is developed with financial support from the Shuttleworth Foundation and ODINE. It advances OpenOil's commitment to transparency in the extractive sector, along with other offerings such as public interest financial modelling, corporate mapping, and concession mapping.
Aleph can be accessed at http://aleph.openoil.net
Promo Video:
Olumide Abimbola, Head of OpenOil R&D, email@example.com
Lucile Neden, Aleph Project Manager, email@example.com
About OpenOil:
OpenOil UG is a Berlin-based consultancy, publishing house and training provider. Founded in 2011, the company resides at the intersection of open data and governance of natural resources, specialising in the use of public domain data for extractive sector transparency.
[PDF] Press Release – Aleph Launch]]>
London Stock Exchange-listed oil giant BP p.l.c. has published its Payments to Government Report for 2015. According to the report, the company has paid a total of $ 15.19 billion to governments in its countries of operation. Here is an overview of the report. It shows how much BP has payed to and received from governments, which types of payments it made and how the payments compare to each other. It is a quick visualisation rather than an analysis. However, any questions related to the payments are starting points for relevant data analysis.
The report has been published as pdf on its official website. You can also find them as csv files on the Companies Hous (the UKs registrar of companies) extractives service website.]]>
Scrolling down the entries I stumbled upon this document from 2006, detailing a share sale agreement between a Mr Machado Moura Jose Augusto – the seller of the shares – and the buyer, Anvil Mining, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, but based out of Australia and Canada. So how is this connected to Marc Rich? Well, it turns out that the share sale was induced by some kind of a dispute with Mr Rich. That made me want to dig deeper, so I started reading the document.
I discovered that Mr Machado Moura Jose Augusto normally goes by the name of Jose De Moura. The document is set in 2006 – so this is no longer current – but imagine for a moment we're back in 2006 looking at this: Jose owns 12.5% of the shares of a company called Emiko, and it turns out that Anvil owns the remaining 87.5% of Emiko. That makes Mr Augusto a minor shareholder and Anvil the major shareholder. Emiko, in turn, owns 80% of a company called SMK (we don't immediately find out who owns the other 20%), and SMK in turn is said to be the owner of the Mutoshi Copper Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Here's a pretty impressive picture of Mutoshi.
Here is an ownership diagram I created using the OCCRP Visual Investigative Scenarios tool:
Thus, in 2006 Anvil owns 87.5% of Emiko, which means it effectively controls Emiko and by extension controls SMK and by extension controls Mutoshi. But this is where Marc Rich comes in, and this is where it gets strange. The document notes that 'SMK has incurred certain liabilities to Marc Rich in relation to the Marc Rich dispute'. So SMK has been sued by Marc Rich for something and now owes him money. But… rather than SMK being responsible for paying Marc Rich, it is said that Mr De Moura – the minor shareholder in SMK's parent company – is responsible for meeting these liabilities. That's immediately mysterious to me. If SMK is the one being sued, and Anvil is the major shareholder in SMK's parent company, why isn't Anvil also responsible for paying out the lawsuit? The reason for De Moura having to foot the bill is vague. All it says is that "By virtue of certain contractual arrangements, Seller (De Moura) is the party responsible for meeting these liabilities". So here is the picture now:
So where does the share sale come into it? It turns out that Mr. De Moura is agreeing to sell his 12.5% stake in Emiko to Anvil as a means to settle the amount owed to Marc Rich. My first thought is that perhaps Mr De Moura has gone bankrupt and the court has ordered that he sell his shares in order to get the money to pay Mr Rich. All the document initially says is that the 'parties have agreed that Mr De Moura will sell his shares in Emiko to Anvil mining' as part of the settlement agreement, so it seems the share sale is being enforced for the sole purpose of getting Mr Rich his money.
The picture gets confusing, though, when I go further down the document and find this line:
"Buyer (Anvil) will, at Completion, pay to Seller (De Moura) the sum of US$6,600,000. Buyer will, from completion, assume responsibility for paying the amount due to Marc Rich under the Settlement Agreement."
Ok wait, I thought the document earlier stated that De Moura was responsible for the liabilities. Remember it said "SMK has incurred certain liabilities to Marc Rich in relation to the Marc Rich Dispute. By virtue of certain contractual arrangements, Seller (De Moura) is the party responsible for meeting these liabilities". But this new line is saying that Anvil will pay $6.6 million to De Moura for the shares, and after that will then assume the responsibility for paying Marc Rich. What is going on here?
I decide that I need some more information, so using the Aleph database I come across another account of the affair, this time from Anvil itself. They describe the situation in single paragraph:
In the fourth quarter of 2005 Marc Rich & Co Investment AG commenced arbitration proceedings in the London Court of International Arbitration against the Corporation's indirect 80% subsidiary SMK. The arbitration concerned a claim relating to an alleged unperformed "off-take agreement" that was entered into by SMK prior to the Corporation's acquisition of its interest in SMK. In November 2006, the parties reached a settlement agreement and the Arbitration concluded.
So Anvil is trying to distance itself from the affair, saying it is from some previous dispute that doesn't really involve them. This may reveal something about the nature of the mining business in politically fragile countries. Groups like Anvil will often not be the ones who initially develop or own the mines. They often come in to buy up mining developments started by others, or perhaps those being sold off in privatisations. They often find themselves in bed with local powerbrokers who retain minor interests in the mines, but bring with them historical baggage.
This still doesn't explain the share sale though. I only get some more clarity into that when I come across this 2006 Anvil press release found on a copper website, which finally shines some new light on the affair.
Anvil Mining Limited is pleased to announce that it has finalised an agreement for the acquisition of an additional 10% interest in the Mutoshi Copper-Cobalt Project… The additional interest is being acquired through the purchase of the remaining 12.5% interest in Emiko s.p.r.l. ("Emiko") not held by Anvil. Emiko holds an 80% interest in the Mutoshi project through its investment in SMK s.p.r.l. with La Générale des Carrières et des Mines ("Gécamines") holding the remaining 20%. Completion of this acquisition will take Anvil's interest in the joint venture from 70% to 80%.
All right, so we now know who owns the mystery 20% stake – it's Gecamines, the big DRC state-owned mining firm. And Anvil is pitching the share acquisition as a pleasing increase in their ownership of Mutoshi (rather than something that has stemmed from a court ruling). They then go on to say:
The cash consideration to be paid by Anvil is $6.6 million after netting off costs relating to the development of the Kulu mine and in connection with the assumption by Anvil of responsibility for payment of an arbitration award settlement involving SMK and the EMIKO shareholder… The preliminary estimate of the value to be attributed to the additional 10% interest in Mutoshi is $10.0 million.
Aha! So here it is. It seems that they are buying the shares at a discount to what they're actually worth from De Moura, as compensation for the fact that Anvil will have to pay Marc Rich out. Rather than De Moura paying Rich, he's agreed to sell his shares to Anvil at below their actual value. Anvil says in the press release that the preliminary estimate of the additional interest they're purchasing is $10 million, but they're only paying $6.6 million for it…
A couple more documents pull the story together more. I discover a document which shows that in the past the mine was a joint venture between Gecamines and Emiko, which another document shows is directed by Mr De Moura. So the big state-owned company Gecamines maintains an ownership stake while licensing the actual running of the concession for Mutoshi to Emiko, who runs Mutoshi via SMK. SMK enters into an offtake agreement with Marc Rich's commodity trading business: we don't have the precise details of this agreement, but I'm assuming that SMK agreed to supply Mr Rich with a certain amount of metal from the Mutoshi mine at a certain price. At some date SMK – under De Moura's control – antogonises Rich by not fulfilling some element of the offtake agreement. Then both De Moura and Gecamines want to reduce their stakes (or exposure) in the mine and Anvil comes in to buy a majority stake off Emiko, although De Moura retains a minor stakeholder portion. Anvil somehow manages to legally shield themselves from any dubious baggage from the past, and put an end to the disputes by finally buying De Moura out at a discount and using the excess to pay Marc Rich off. They don't want any more trouble in future, which is evidenced by the short clause in the 2006 share sale agreement, directed at De Moura, requesting the following warranty:
Apart from the Marc Rich Dispute, there is no other dispute, litigation or claims, present or threatened, affecting the Sale Shares or Emiko
Or at least this is what my preliminary investigation suggests and it is always possible that I've misinterpreted the story. Nevertheless, what do we learn more generally from this? The human and political dimensions of activities like copper mining in politically fragile countries gets expressed through a morass of legal and technical jargon. Learning to decode it is not easy, but we notice patterns over time. The case above actually appears strangely similar to another DRC case I've previously worked on: the controversial Mutanda Mine, majority owned by Glencore-Xstrata. They bought it off Gecamines, who then went on to sell the remainder of the shares to a shell company controlled by Dan Gertler – a local billionaire in DRC – leaving Glencore as co-shareholders with a rather politically-exposed person. Check out the Global Witness work on that case.
The pattern we derive from the Anvil case can be summarised like this: A politically unstable country has a state-owned mining corporation in a joint venture with a private Congolese company – dominated by a single individual – to get copper. A powerful commodity trader has agreed to buy the copper they produce. Things change and go pear-shaped. A listed foreign company comes in to try take over the business, but doesn't want the legacy of the previous disputes.
Of course, Anvil has its own dark skeletons. If we fast forward in time to 2016 we discover that they've effectively disappeared, bought out by a company called MMG Limited, and that they ditched the Mutoshi project after apparently having faced competition from poor artisanal miners on the property. I guess the fact that self-employed miners were competing with them on their own property reveals something about the socio-economic situation in the DRC.
And this is political. Did I mention that the firm was potentially implicated in the killing of 100 people who occupied another mine they controlled? Here's the CNN report and the UN report on the matter: It's called 'Report on the conclusions of the Special Investigation concerning allegations of summary executions and other human rights violations perpetrated by the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) in Kilwa (Katanga Province) on 15 October 2004.' Anvil's website address is down, and not up for sale. Seems like a tainted property.
So what can you do to find out about the owners of a company, if the information is not yet available in an EITI report? And even if it is, how can you verify that the information provided is actually correct? Financial regulators in many countries already require companies to disclose information on their shareholders and subsidiaries, so that our corporate filings database Aleph can help you to find it – and here is how.
1) Who is controlling Kansanshi Mining PLC?
Let's have a look at Zambia's 2014 EITI report. On p.15, we find a chart with the top 5 payments to government by operating company. We see that combined, they make up for 70% of all payments to the government of Zambia. Of special interest is Kansanshi Mining Plc, which alone accounts for 32.86% of the payments. So what is the parent company of Kansanshi Mining Plc? Since we are dealing with the 2014 report, we will try to find a filing from 2014.
Example Aleph search term "Kansanshi mining Subsidiaries 2014″~50
Search for the name of a company, 'subsidiaries' and 'year' in proximity of fifty words, the distance within which all included words should be from one another.
The search leads us to First Quantum's annual information form for 2014, filed to the Canadian Stock exchange authority's filing system SEDAR. On page 5, the report includes a hierarchical table with its subsidiaries. Here, we learn that First Quantum has an 80% interest in Kansanshi Mining Plc. Other top-players from the EITI report are also included in the list. Kalumbila Mines Ltd belongs to First Quantum, which has a 100% interest in the operation, as well as First Quantum Mining and Operations Ltd. But to whom do the other 20% of the Kansanshi operation belong? Further down on p.15, the project has its own section. First Quantum states that the other 20% of Kansanshi are owned by a subsidiary of Zambia's state-owned ZCCM.
In this case, we have been able to confirm the information provided by the ZEITI report, which includes a list of beneficial ownership structures on p.128.
2) Mopani Copper Mines Plc
Things become more interesting, however, if we look at another company in the Zambia EITI report: Mopani Copper Mines Plc, the third largest contributor to government payments. Trying the exact same search terms in Aleph will lead to a miss. So we adjust them:
The new search leads us to reports from mainly two companies; Glencore Plc and Katanga mining Ltd. Since we are looking for the ultimate owner, Glencore is a more likely candidate, because it is a multinational enterprise. A 2014 report is included, with a listing of ownership structures. On p. 186, we read that Glencore has a 73.1% interest in the Mopani Copper Mines Plc. This time, the information provided by the Glencore report does not match ZEITI's information. According to the latter, Mopani copper Mines Plc is owned by 73.1% by First Quantum, 16.9% by Glencore Xtrata and 10% by a ZCCM subsidiary. Strikingly, we have the exact same figure for the majority owner, namely 73.1%. It looks as if the ZEITI report confused both companies.
To summarise: using our Aleph database helped validating the figures stated in the EITI report, and in the second case, it even helped identifying mistakes. In other cases, the database can help filling out missing information about stakeholders. However, it is also important to note that the availability of information depends on the respective financial regulations. Keeping this in mind, the Aleph database proves to be a powerful tool to complement existing research as well as to support access to publicly available data on intercompany ownership structures.
Of course, all this is Aleph working networks of corporate affiliation structures – so it is not yet leading to the ultimate beneficial owners, which will always be a natural person. We will follow that up in a separate post.]]>
For more about the talk, visit the Re:Publica Website here.
With the Panama Papers big in the news, this will probably not come as a surprise. And to be clear, setting up local subsidiaries in Panama is not illegal, nor is it unusual for extractive companies to open up incorporations across the globe – even where they are not operating directly. That becomes obvious through the thousands of documents available in public domain, in which oil, gas or mining companies disclose their vast networks of affiliates, including those in Panama, but also those based in one of the various other financial centers, like the Caymans or the British Virgin Islands (BVI). So unlike all of the stories coming out of the Mossack Fonseca leak, the aforementioned offshore links can be found in the companies' own filings, which means that you can find them on Aleph, OpenOil's corporate filings database. In fact, a quick search on Aleph will bring up 500 similar references to Panama incorporations of extractives companies, close to 1,500 references to those in the BVI, or 2,000+ on the Cayman Islands.
Establishing such links between companies, people, and jurisdictions is essential to anyone wanting to map out corporate networks – may it be investigative journalists, risk analysts, tax authorities, or anyone else interested in finding out about who multinationals are dealing with. In particular, however, they help to address two major issues in the extractive industries as we have outlined in our case-study on BP.
1) The first issue is the "Bad Guy Issue".
Corrupt access to natural resources, when dodgy companies are granted licenses for lucrative oil and mining concessions because they are politically connected. Such connections could conceivably be demonstrated using public documents, but it is obviously challenging to do so.
Looking at some of the Mossack Fonseca stories, for example, you will see that corporate filings will help you to lay the groundwork. Such as for this one on how the Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) acquired rights to a mining license in Guinea for $165 million, but soon after sold 51% of the rights for more than ten times the price. Ultimately it was through a number of leaks and a series of criminal investigations that the details of the deal could be reconstructed. But Aleph's 2,000,000 documents already provide you with some relevant leads. Such as this document, that suggests a connection between BSGR and Onyx – a company that in return represented a crucial link between BSGR's acquisition of the mining site and a $2.4 million payment to Mamadie Touré, one of the wives of former Guinean president Lansana Conté. Then there is also Vale's announcement on having acquired a 51% stake in the same assets for 2.5$ billion, which should have already alarmed anyone who was aware of the original asset transfer to BGSR for $165 million.
2) Then there is a second issue, the "Sharp Guy Issue".
Whether complex corporate structures allow multinationals to engage in "aggressive" tax planning. By "sharp guys" we mean the small armies of lawyers and accountants who are engaged in handling the billions that pass through the accounts of oil, gas and mining companies. And as has been well documented elsewhere, these guys are sharp, so that – in a world full of complex tax treaties – it is extremely difficult to prove any so-called "transfer mispricing", or other means to shift profits out of resource producing countries into low- or no- tax jurisdictions, such as the above mentioned Caymans or British Virgin Islands… or Panama.
The question here is more whether governments in say, Africa, would act differently if they were able to see the whole corporate chain of the companies operating. Might they adjust their own taxation policies in light of that? Would they subject billions of dollars of tax-deductible costs submitted to their tax authorities to audit, or at least to more rigorous examination?
So while establishing such corporate chains can be powerful, it can also require you to spend a lot of time browsing through filings, only to find the one odd mention of a particular affiliate of interest. Companies operate globally, but they tend to report locally, meaning that there are many different places where you might have to search – the Canadian SEDAR database or the Australian stock exchange ASX to name just a couple. Fortunately, this is where two of Aleph's strong points come in. First, Aleph helps you to search across various document bases simultaneously. Second, that you can fully text-search all of the two million available filings, allowing you to find text snippets deep-down in a 100-page long PDF – a service that many of the existing public databases do not allow you to do.
So keeping in mind a few general tips and tricks, there are many different searching techniques through which Aleph will help to map out company networks. To name one, you can choose to search "top-down" for subsidiary lists of a company group, such as listed companies are required to file in many jurisdictions, e.g. in the form of "Exibit-21" on SEC's EDGAR database. Such filings will then provide you with the names of subsidiaries, their place of incorporation, and the equity held by the parent company – allowing you to follow a corporate chain from a holding company all the way down to an operating entity.
Alternatively, you might choose to search "bottom-up" by entering the name of a single affiliate of your interest and work your way up to it's ultimate holding company. This works best if you type in the exact legal name of a company in quotes. And if your search brings up too many results for you to process, try to narrow down your search results by adding terms such as "subsidiary", "owned" or "interest" via a proximity search – all this of course depending on your particular use-case.
While we are working hard to improve Aleph's functionality and scope – so that you will soon be able to filter results by date, filing type, or company – you should of course also consider other information sources, such as OpenCorporates, or even the companies' own websites. For all the oil geeks, however, it might be interesting to know that we are also establishing Aleph's API – which for example will allow you to not just search for one entity, but many simultaneously – such as the 40,000 odd companies mentioned in the Panama Papers. How exactly you will be able to do so, will be described on our github page – so watch this space!


text:
Jul 18
With discount pass - $8.50 Day of show - $10.00
Nov 3
Battle of the Bands! Come to hear songs off of our new demo!
Jun 16
Jun 7
Summer Kickoff
Jun 7
The Raw Revival at Toad's Place We go on at 8 PM! Discount Passes: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4523501/therawrevival.jpg
Sounds Like: The Black Keys, Led Zeppelin Official, The Jimi Hendrix Experience Official Page, Tame Impala, Cream (band)
Label: unsigned
Bio: The Raw Revival is the brain child of two musicians who struggled to find a band that would allow them to express their musical interests. Ben Shorten (guitarist) moved from Australia in 2010 and had a hard time blending in to his new found home. He loved his guitars and playing music but couldn'...See Full Bio


text:
Wilsons Prom's Loo-Errn boardwalk flood recovery works completed
Friday 5 April, 2013
The second anniversary of the major storm at Wilsons Promontory National Park was marked by the completion of a $596,000 recovery works program at the Loo-Errn Boardwalk.
The works included widening the boardwalk to current disability standards and elevating sections in flood prone areas to allow for year-long access.
Wilsons Promontory was subjected to a major storm event in 2011 which damaged infrastructure throughout the park.
A river surge associated with the storm event resulted in the collapse of a large section of the existing Tidal River embankment, including the boardwalk and fishing platforms.
The cultural and environment values of the area were considered in the works.
Media enquiries
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