Chamonix ski resort is located at the foot of the magnificent Monte Bianco in France and is generally regarded as the mountaineering and extreme snowboarding centre of Europe. Chamonix Mont Blanc has been known for a long time as a veritable resort for sports during both winter and summer. It was home to the 1st Winter Olympics back in 1924 - moreover it’s also an area of brilliant views offering much to the adventurous snowboarder and vacationer.

Unlike most new skiing fields the resort of Chamonix isn’t a purpose built skiing domain and has been mostly preserved from the brutalist architecture that litters a majority of the French Alps. Chamonix Mont Blanc is lucky to have not only an internationally renowned snowboarding domain but a grand and bustling resort centre.

The town is large enough to ensure there’s a lot for the non-skier to do and see. However you choose to enjoy your trip there is an activity to enrapture the whole group. Including a large sports and swimming centre, ice rink, casino and weekly market; and loads of shops, cafes and night clibs, Chamonix supplies a mix of climbing, atmosphere and shopping, that few snowboarding resorts can come close to. Go on and organise your chalet accommodation at once.


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For Immediate Release
April 1, 2005; Los Angeles, California

Michael Jackson raped me when I was 16 years old” says Eddie Reynoza today. The young, innocent somewhat nave teen went to a music-video dance audition where Michael Jackson spotted him and turned Eddie into his latest victim.

It may be that Eddie Reynoza is the most worrisome news today for Michael Jackson’s chance at getting out of the criminal charges being brought against him. The court recently ruled that past allegations of sexual misconduct by MJ are fair game for the current trial. If Eddie were to testify it could demolish any hope for Jackson to be found not guilty.

Today Eddie is still an Actor and there is a change in the wind. The negative publicity he received in 1993 when he first came forward with his story has changed just like Spring follows Winter. He is now getting offers to act in movies again that range from co-starring to supporting roles.

There is also some talk of a Television movie of Eddie’s story. The rape by Michael Jackson would be the center-piece of the film but the story-line would include the attacks by the press and Eddie’s eventual success and redemption.

Agent:
Jack Scagnetti
818 762-3871

About the Author

In 1993 I managed Eddie Reynoza who was trying to make it as an actor in Hollywood. He went to the police and the press with his story of rape. The press attacked his credibility in support of Michael Jackson and ruined his chances of an acting career at the time. Things have changed and Eddie is back. Eddie Reynoza is the most worrisome news today for Michael Jackson’s chance at getting out of the crim


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RAM is an acronym for Random Access Memory. RAM is an important part of any computer system. RAM is memory to hold frequently used bits of data for the computer to access in an efficient manner. Accessing RAM as opposed to the hard disk is a lot easier and quicker for a computer.

RAM is essential for several different applications, but more so for some than others. For example encoding video would take up a large amount of RAM as it is RAM intensive. Database applications also use up a lot of RAM due to the amount of data involved. Surfing the web and using word or powerpoint for example would not use much RAM at all. The question you need to ask is do you need the upgraded RAM. If you don’t then save your money. If you do please read on.

There are several options to choose from when upgrading RAM. The first is the size of RAM you want to purchase. They come in 256mb, 512mb, 1gig and 2gig varieties. Just as a quick reference 1gig of RAM will be enough for most things you want to do, 2gig might be overkill.

Once you pick the size of the RAM you want you have to choose the type of RAM. There are two main types of RAM. DDR and DDR2. What you have to take into account when buying the RAM is which type your motherboard will support. Most new Intel motherboards will take DDR2 as this is the latest technology. At present AMD boards are not compatible with DDR2 so if you have an AMD board then you will have to buy DDR RAM.

Once you buy the RAM then you have to install it. Installing RAM is really quite simple. Firstly you need to remove the case in order to be able to get to the motherboard. Once this is done you simple need to put the RAM into one of the free slots on your motherboard. Something to take note of would be the particular slot you put the RAM in. Some motherboards can be particularly fussy so read the user manual of your motherboard before upgrading the RAM.

There you have it, improving the speed of your computer by upgrading the RAM is very simple and can be very effective.

www.technologyslice.com

For more great technology related articles and reviews visit http://www.technologyslice.com


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So you want to be improve your guitar playing?

Well, like any thing, guitar skill progress takes time and practice, but many of us have much difficulty practicing regularly because it is so easy to let other things take priority over our guitar lessons.

First, you need to absolutely make up your mind that you want to improve your guitar playing and then make sure that your progress is truly is a priority for you.

Make a list of the most important things that you need to focus on in your life right now and honestly assess where guitar fits into your list.

Ideally, you want to be engaged in a guitar lesson for at least an hour a day in order to make any significant progress.

However, you may have to conclude that at this point you are not going to be able to devote even an hour a week to the task.

If that is the case, try to spend some casual time reading guitar-related publications or listening to your favorite guitarists to nurture your love of the music. When your priorities change and you have more time, you will then at least still have a strong interest in becoming as good a guitarist as you can. Listening to Eric Clapton or other greats will only kindle your interest and may even cause you to reprioritize your guitar lessons.

Once you see where your guitar practice fits in with the rest of your life, make a true appointment with yourself. Put your practice into your schedule. Get it in your planner or it won’t get done!

Okay, now that you are regularly spending time with your beloved guitar, what should you do?

First, make sure it is quality time. Don’t have the television on or be hanging out with friends. Then, make sure you are working on skills that you need to sharpen.

If you spend time strumming popular solos and cranking up your amplifier, you may have some fun, but you will not improve your skills.

Think about the chords and scales that you struggle with. Grade yourself on them on a scale (no pun intended) of 1 to 10 and then re-evaluate every week or so. Re-grading every practice or guitar lesson is not appropriate because it is unfair to measure progress that frequently.

No one improves in a straight line. You may hit a certain chord great one day and then have two of the strings sound very unclear the next day. However, if you work diligently you will make progress when measured every couple weeks or so.

Do the same thing with scales and even notes depending on your current skill level.

Once you have a way of measuring your progress, you will be inspired to continue with your regular practice regimen and guitar lessons.

As an advanced step, after you have made progress with a certain group of chords and scales, you should find a song you like that uses many of those elements and work on that as a way of applying your improved ability.

This can be very rewarding.

You may even want to start with the song and work backwards, but make sure that you do spend a great deal of time on the fundamentals before you get serious about the song.

The key to all this is regular consistent work and a measurement of results. Achieve this, and you will enjoy your practice time more and more. Challenge yourself to be at a certain grade by a specific time.

Make a game of your practice efforts and you will surprise yourself!


About the Author

Jeremiah Thompson is an amateur guitar player and true lover of the instrument and its rich sounds. He enjoys writing about guitar chords and guitar practice.


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Assuming you do not understand betting saloon card playing, do read on —

Ozzy Osbourne about to become a slots game

The most common definition of a gambling saloon is a structure that presents games. Here, clients are invited to take a wager by operating one-armed-bandits or trying out different gambling pastimes. Betting saloon games mainly include transparent percentages included which insure the gambling establishment secures its dominance over the gaming aficionados. A number of betting establishment games can result in you becoming dependent very rapidly. Take the famous one-armed bandit, a cash operated machine with three, sometimes more cogs which swivel if a handle on its side is started. The machine mostly pays in correspondence to a succession of logos shown on the screen of the contraption. Disastrously, betting establishment games encourage some semblance of influence, effectively deluding the gambling enthusiast: the addressee is passed options, but actually they can’t realistically level the gamer’s long term handicap. This is brought about by the the betting establishment never paying up the full sum as hoped for. This modus operandi can typically be found in popular casino games such as five card stud, dice games, roulette or blackjack.

Texas hold’em poker is definitely a highly trendy casino game. The gambling devotees, playing with partially obscured hands, make bets into a principal pot that is finally granted to the last participant carrying the best set of cards. (And as eveyone knows, the coolest bluffer may win) Much the same as five card stud, blackjack too is an immensely trendy casino game. A lavish portion of its popularity is due to the mix of chance and knowledge and choice making, not to forget a practice termed card counting. The aforementioned is an approach in which gambling enthusiasts can skew the arm of chance of the card game in their interest by both wagering and strategy decisions correlating with the hands shown. “Craps” is yet another acclaimed pastime using the roll of dice. Bettors must bet on the result of 1 roll, or on a string of rolls of two dice. Dissimilar to blackjack, there’s absolutely no available long term winner tactics you could apply to improve the odds. Roulette is another incredibly popular casino based gambling pastime — a croupier rotates a roulette wheel incorporating thirty-seven (as in French roulette) or thirty-eight (Vegas roulette) independently numbered compartments in which a rolling pellet will then settle, thereby marking the final winning number as well as the respective odds. Now if our gamer bets on a number which is successful meaning they’ve got a lucky hand, the set bounty will be 35 to one, the original pledge will be paid out. Ergo in total it is increased by a factor of 36.

Attempt to be very careful all the same as such gambling house pastimes are rightly deemed particularly habit forming. A lot of lives have indisputably been wasted thru uncontrolled gambling and much as it may be enjoyable, do strive to exert some restraint.


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Podcasts have been popping up all over the Internet in the past year or so. I have come across podcasts on anything from the latest tech gadgets to gardening tips. With millions of listeners out there and plenty of new people listening to podcasts every single day, now is a great time to start your own podcast and make some money along the way.

So far podcasts sound pretty similar to an Internet Talk Radio Show, doesn’t it? Even though the two have many similarities, there are also quite a few differences. Podcasts are unusually not as structured as an Internet Talk Radio show. The tone of a podcast is very informal. Podcasts are usually on blogs and are also available for automatic download to your mp3 player through RSS. Podcasts also don’t have guests on every show. The host of the podcasts does a lot of the talking him or herself. Podcasts be shorter or just as long as a talk radio show, plus they can vary in length from one show to the next.

There is a little bit of both hardware and software you will need for a good sounding podcast. Podcasts are usually broadcast as mp3’s, so you need some sort of software to record your show as well as a decent microphone. Plantronics has some great mike’s available. You can either use software like Allrecorder or a complete service like Audio Acrobat that will also host your audio files for you. Having your files hosted through a service like audio acrobat has the added benefit that people listening to and downloading your podcast will not eat up your bandwidth. This may save you quite a bit of money in hosting fees. You also don’ t have to worry about troubleshooting when there is an issue with the audio files.

Let’s talk about how you can start making money with your podcast. Your two main sources of income will be paid advertising and affiliate programs. You can sell 30 - 60 second ad spots on your podcast, as well as advertising spots on the site that links to the audio file of your podcast. As far as affiliate marketing goes, you can promote related products on your website and mention them in your show. If a listener follows your recommendation and buys the product through your link you will make a commission.

Another, newer source of income for podcasts that’s starting to pop up is sponsorship. Companies will pay good money to be mentioned as the main sponsor of the podcast both on your podcast website and in the show itself. Once your podcast attracts some listeners and you start getting some publicity, it should be easy to attract a corporate sponsor. In the meantime you could contact a few small businesses in your target market that may be interested in sponsoring your podcast for a few months.

Now sit down, grab a pen and paper and come up with a great topic you can talk about for hours. Jot down a few ideas and start recording. Before you know it, your first own podcast will be up online.

Nell Taliercio - EzineArticles Expert Author

Nell Taliercio is the owner of a leading work at home mom resource website packed full of unique information for the telecommuter, business owner and virtual assistant. Visit http://www.mommysplace.net today!


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Few things can be as frustrating as picture problems. You get your system all ready to go, flip the switch, and WHAM! One or more channels look terrible. The good news is that the majority of video problems can be traced to just a few causes. Most problems are comprised of the following:

Snow

Horizontal bars rolling though the picture

Vertical bars rolling through the picture

Ghosting

Herringbone pattern (diagonal lines through picture)

Lower channels look fine, upper channels are not

These six are the main symptoms you’ll find when seeing video problems. Thankfully, most are fairly easy to fix.

Snow -

Snow is caused by inadequate signal strength at the tuner. It’s usually caused by:

1 Splitting the signal too many times.

2 A weak signal from the antenna or cable company

3 A very long cable run

If the signal is snowy at all your TVs, especially if you have more than 4 TVs, you probably need an RF amplifier. Check the strength at the demark (service entrance). If it is fine there, add an amplifier before the splitter. Make sure to use a quality unit with good bandwidth (out to at least 1000MHz). If you have digital cable or a cable modem, get an amplifier with a bidirectional return path to allow for communication back to the cable company. If the picture looks bad at the demark, contact the cable company.

If it is bad at only one TV, you may have a bad cable between the splitter and the TV or a very long run of cable. You can amplify just that run.

Horizontal Rolling Bars -

Horizontal rolling bars are caused by DC power getting into the cable system. To fix it, disconnect the TV from all other components in the system. If the bars disappear, add the other components back in until the bars return. When you find the offending component, use a DC blocker to eliminate the DC power path to the system.

Vertical Rolling Bars -

Vertical rolling bars are caused by AC power getting on the cable line. The best fix for this is to use a ground breaker. A ground breaker eliminates the electrical connection between the TV and the cable system. A ground breaker is also the main fix for a hum on your audio system’s speakers.

Ghosting -

Ghosting is caused by the tuner receiving identical signals at slightly different times. It can be caused by your TV receiving a local station broadcasting over the air and via the cable system at the same time. Make sure you are using good quality RG-6 coax cable and good compression fittings. Replace any low quality cable splitters or combiners with high quality units. Make sure they are tight also. This will also cure another cause of ghosting, signal reflection inside a poor cable.

Ghosting can also be caused by multi-path interference on an antenna system. This is especially true in an urban environment with lots of hills and tall buildings. To combat this, use a very directional antenna aimed directly at the desired station.

Herringbone Pattern -

A herringbone pattern is caused by radio frequency interference from other stations transmitting on the same channel or adjacent channels, powerful radio signals, computers, etc. Another common cause is being equidistant from two transmitters operating on the same channel.

In short, this can be caused by just about any sort of RF radiation at the correct frequency. Really great shielding found on high quality cables helps to combat this. If you are getting this interference while modulating an A/V source on a certain channel, try switching to a different channel.

Poor Upper Channel Reception -

Poor Upper Channel Reception is caused by poor signal strength on the upper channels. Use an amplifier with a tilt compensator that allows adjustment of the upper channels relative to the lower channels. This will prevent overdriving the lower channels while providing the upper channels with enough gain. Also, check to see if all components in the RF system are rated to at least 1GHz and RG-6 or RG-6Quad shield cable is being used throughout.

Bio: Steve Faber has almost 15 years in the custom installation industry. He is a CEDIA certified designer and Installer 2 with certifications from both the ISF and THX. His experience spans many facets of the industry, from the trenches as an installer and control systems programmer, and system designer, to a business unit director for a specialty importer of high end audio video equipment, a sales rep for a large, regional consumer electronics distributor, and principal of a $1.5M+ custom installation firm. He currently is senior sales engineer for Digital Cinema Design in Redmond, WA. For more on how to get the best video in your home or theater see Home Theater Video


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Controversy has always surrounded the infamous tale of the HMS Bounty. But the latest comes from an unexpected source.
Controversy has always surrounded the infamous tale of the HMS Bounty. It’s most famous, ill-fated and final voyage began out of England in 1788. Touted as a voyage of scientific importance by the shy British, the reality was that the ship was sailing to Tahiti for the collection of breadfruit saplings to be transported to Jamaica, planted and used as a food source for slaves working on the plantations. After sailing nearly 27,000 miles over ten months, the Bounty arrived in Tahiti. Allowing just enough time for the collection of the saplings, the ship sailed off toward Jamaica on April 4, 1789. What happened next has always and will always be disputed.

After three weeks under sail for Jamaica, first mate Fletcher Christian and those loyal to his cause took control of the Bounty in mutiny against Captain William Bligh. The captain and eighteen sailors still loyal to him were set adrift in a small open boat near the island of Tonga. Allegedly fearing the possibility of cannibals on Tonga, Bligh sailed in another direction. The captain and his supporters survived a 3,600 mile, seven week ocean voyage to the Indonesian island of Timor. After the mutiny, Christian and his men returned to Tahiti to reunite with their native lovers. Sixteen of the twenty-five Mutineers decided to remain there while Christian, eight crew members, their women and a few Tahitian men sailed on in search of a South Pacific safe haven.

On January 23, 1790, Christian and his crew arrived on the tiny volcanic island of Pitcairn. Almost 1400 miles from Tahiti, the island is just 1 miles square. Originally sighted by a British Midshipman named Robert Pitcairn in 1767, it was charted incorrectly at a later date and virtually forgotten about by the time the Bounty arrived there. Despite a thorough search for the Mutineers by the British Navy, Christian and his group were never found. The remainder of the Mutineers who stayed on Tahiti were located and returned to England, were a trial lead to seven exonerations and three hangings.

Despite misgivings about Bligh’s behavior, the British Admiralty decided that an indictment against him would be an unnecessary blemish on the British Royal Navy. Instead, they lauded his accomplishments and seamanship, punished what Mutineers they could and later appointed Bligh the Governor of the New South Wales colony in Australia.

Some say he was merely showing his true colors when the colonists of New South Wales held their own mutiny against Bligh after just three years under his rule. Claiming he was a tyrant and ill-suited for the position of Governor, they arrested Bligh and shipped him back to England. But even after two instances of mutiny, the British Admiralty did not want this nasty man to defame the entire Navy. Again, no punishment was rendered and Bligh was later promoted to the position of Vice Admiral.

By the time an American Whaling ship re-discovered Pitcairn island in 1808, only one Mutineer was left alive. The others had been murdered or committed suicide. The last surviving Mutineer, John Adams, took control of the island and restored civility. With an emphasis on religion and education, he managed to pull together the population of under 100 and restore the dream of a peaceful paradise where people could live a carefree lifestyle. In 1825, a British ship arrived at Pitcairn with an offer of amnesty for Adams and in 1838, the small island became a part of the British Empire.

If would be easy to argue about the mutiny against Bligh for a lifetime. This is simply a case where you had to be there to know what really happened. For over two hundred years it was just assumed that Bligh was a puppet of a Royal Navy known for its inhumanity and brutality, who got what he deserved. The entire basis of the voyage was to provide food to support the system of slavery in Jamaica, so very few people cared to look into the case too deeply. Regardless of whether Bligh was a brutal captain with a god complex or just a strict leader who was intent on completing a mission being watched closely by the British Admiralty, one can hardly blame the crew of the Bounty for wanting to escape the horrendous onboard conditions of such a long voyage for the paradise and free love lifestyle of Tahiti and the South Pacific islands.

The first time I walked on board an exact replica of the HMS Bounty in 1971, I could easily understand why anyone would want to get off that ship. Despite the fact that it was an ocean going vessel, the ship was nothing like I had expected it to be. It was tiny! My tour of the ship took less then ten minutes, even after stopping to watch a small canon fire and reading every informative plaque on the vessel. Inside the ship it was hot and uncomfortable, even with the windows open. In some areas there was barely room to stand up.

Although it wasn’t Tahiti, I guess I felt like one of the crew members might have when leaving the discomfort of the ship. The airy pier in Saint Petersburg, Florida, where the HMS Bounty replica had become a welcomed tourist attraction, was much preferred to the small deck area and stuffy insides of the ship. The air conditioned gift shop associated with the ship was even more pleasant. It contained all kinds of tourist junk to go along with the ship’s theme. But I wasn’t a tourist.

In 1970, my family moved from New York City to St Pete, Florida. The town was surrounded by beaches and featured a number of attractions for winter visitors who filled the place to overflowing during that time of year. With a whole summer to endure before high school started up for me again, I took advantage of a generous public transit system and short lines at historical sites throughout my new city of residence.

By 1971, I was in my fifth year of major interest in the paranormal. After winning an essay contest sponsored by a tabloid, I had gained some national notoriety by publicizing some strange communications between NASA and the Apollo Astronauts regarding UFO sightings in space and near the Moon. That landed me a brief segment in a CBS documentary about UFOs (less then two minutes, but those were the days before cable TV was big) which aired later that year. My other major interest was history. I was completely thrilled to learn that I had moved to a town with at least a dozen small historical museums.

As the winter months came and school started up, my forays to local historic sites became less frequent. But the story of an actual Egyptian Mummy being available for close examination at the small historical museum adjacent to the downtown Pier was too much to resist. I headed for the museum on a mild September weekend. Standing right in front of a real mummy and being able to almost touch it was quite an experience for me. But what happened next was no less exciting.

Although most of the tourists walked right past the little museum, up to the Bounty or out to the end of the pier, some took a few minutes to investigate it’s small interior. There wasn’t much room and everything was packed closely together, but that made it easy to overhear almost any conversation going on in the place. I had arrived on a particularly slow day, so the elderly woman who had volunteered to sell tickets and run the small souvenir counter was catching up on her reading when a male friend walked in. He worked just up the pier at the Bounty and brought a small lunch for both to share. Still in awe of the Mummy and reading the story cards placed near it, I didn’t really listen to the conversation between the volunteer and her friend until the word GHOST popped into my ear.

I maneuvered around the tightly packed exhibits to get a bit closer to the souvenir counter. Feigning interest in the tourist junk, I listened to the two friends talking. It seemed that a few tourists had noticed some cold spots below deck on the Bounty and asked those in charge why the air conditioning in the rest of the ship’s interior wasn’t working? At the same time, some workers in the gift shop expressed dismay at arriving to items being found on the floor or moved to locations where they didn’t belong. I was intrigued and overcame my less then outgoing nature to ask the two a few questions. As it turned out, the elderly couple were impressed that a young person in those days might be interested in something other anti-war protests.

It seems that the Bounty replica had more then a slightly odd history. The vessel was built in 1960 at a ship building firm in Nova Scotia from original Admiralty plans used for the real HMS Bounty. It took nine months to complete the ship for the 1962 film version of MUNTINY ON THE BOUNTY, starring Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard. At a staggering cost of $650,000, it became the most expensive movie prop ever built at that time. Like the original ship, the replica was supposed to be burned near Pitcairn island during the last few days of filming. But an expected savior stepped in.

During production, Marlon Brando gained a new respect for the plight of the real HMS Bounty Crew. He made sure that the extremes under which common seaman were forced to live during that period of history came to life on film, but didn’t want it to end there. Brando felt that if the ship were exhibited to the public, people might understand how terrible living conditions onboard had been for the Mutineers. These feelings may have come from a place deeper then just Brando’s sense of social justice.

During filming, the director and other cast members became concerned about Marlon Brando. He had emerged himself so deeply in the part of Fletcher Christian that it became increasingly harder to tell where Fletcher left off and Marlon began. It was almost as if the spirit of Fletcher Christian had possessed the popular actor.

Rumors flew off the set and into the tabloids that problems with the production were Brando’s fault. He was described as difficult to work with and over emotional about the script. But Marlon’s concern for historical accuracy took a back seat to his new demand that unless the replica was saved for posterity, he wouldn’t finish the film. Despite their objections, MGM Studio executives agreed to save the replica. In return, Marlon would stop creating trouble on the set and finish the film.

Thinking it would probably be a waste of money, MGM reluctantly placed the Bounty on exhibit in Saint Petersburg, Florida. They couldn’t have been more wrong. People loved the exhibit and the studio made a small fortune selling movie soundtracks, books and other items to the tourists. But not all the news was good. The replica arrived in St Pete with a history that included some strange events.

Despite meticulous construction and for no apparent reason, the vessel would start to take on water during certain days when filming occurred. At other times, those recording the audio tracks on site complained of strange noises coming from the bowels of the ship. The noises weren’t heard until the tapes were played at a later time and resembled muffled, incoherent voices. But the sounds were dismissed as background noise traveling across the water. Since much of the dialogue would be re-recorded later and over dubbed into the film for clarity, this was not really a problem.

Workers who were preparing the Bounty replica for public viewing and boarding after it arrived in St Pete had their own odd stories to tell. Mannequins were placed aboard so that some actual costumes from the film could be exhibited and historically-accurate scenes could be recreated aboard. Those dressing and positioning the mannequins complained that they would arrive in the morning and find much of the previous days work undone with positions being shifted and clothes falling off! It was only after the mannequins had been placed in certain positions that it all stopped. Some of the workers shrugged the whole thing off as someone’s idea of a practical joke or guaranteed overtime, but others were less sure. They seemed to feel that a force was at work which wanted the mannequins to be displayed a certain way, or not at all.

My visit to the small Museum near the Bounty replica had yielded paranormal gold, but the best was yet to come. After scribbling a bunch of notes in handwriting that, by comparison, would win any doctor’s prescription an award for penmanship, I asked the Bounty worker who I’ll call Chuck if anything other then the cold spots had recently occurred? He told me it was time for him to go back to work, but if I could stick around until after four, he would fill me in on the rest. I agreed and reluctantly called my parents. They really hated the fact of my interest in the paranormal, but were kindly tolerant since I was an only child. They said to call when I finished and they would pick me up.

After I finished viewing everything in the Museum twice and walked around the area for a while, I headed toward the Bounty. Chuck was standing just outside the gift shop building. He was an older man who had retired to St Pete only to find that golf, shuffleboard and the small pension he received after years of working as a book keeper wasn’t making it for him. As a comptroller for the Bounty gift shop, he was able to sit around in air conditioning all day, fiddle with some numbers, make a nice retirement wage and visit his friend at the nearby Museum. As I approached, another guy appeared. He was a college graduate in his early twenties who, like so many others who fell victim to the ongoing recession of that day, was unable to find work and took the reasonably well-paying job of a tour guide on the Bounty. His name was George.

After some quick introductions, we walked over to an outdoor food vendor, grabbed some eats and sat down at a nearby picnic table. As the sun began to go down and the pier area filled with evening strollers out to enjoy the beautiful Florida sunset, George told me his strange tale. Everyone who had worked at the Bounty for any period of time knew the replica’s weird history. It was a right of passage. But George had been there just a short time and was still unfamiliar with those stories when he had his first weird experience.

During the tour, George or another guide would set off a small, rail-mounted gun (canon) to the delight of the tourists. All the new people got the duty of cleaning the gun and preparing it for use. After being carefully instructed on how to clean, use and fire the gun, George got the cleaning duty. Arriving early in the morning, he started work on the replica weapon. During the cleaning, he pointed the barrel in towards the ship. After turning away from the gun for some supplies, he turned back to find the barrel pointing away from the ship. This happened a few times, so George checked the mounting hardware. Although it seemed tight enough, he walked over to the gift shop and left word for the exhibit’s mechanic.

About thirty minutes later, the mechanic was up on deck. George explained the situation and the mechanic said, “Oh, that’s just Harry!” George asked, “Who?” It seemed that almost every new tour guide given the duty of cleaning the gun experienced the same phenomena. It would go on for a few days, then inexplicably cease. Rather then get upset about it, the staff figured there was some prankster ghost aboard and nicknamed him Harry. “Try asking Harry to stop,” the Mechanic suggested. “He likes it when new guys call him by name.” Sure enough, after George asked Harry to give him a break, the gun never turned by itself again. George thought that the whole thing had been a prank on the new guy, but went along with it. The next event changed his mind.

Tour guides dressed in period costumes from the time that the famous mutiny took place. The week before I met him and Chuck, George was working around midday when it came time for him to take a break. As he prepared to head off to the gift shop, he saw a very scruffy looking man wearing a costume like his and heading down into lower deck area. He was surprised at the man’s appearance, because the costume seemed as dirty as the guy himself. Following the man into the bowels of the ship, he walked down the steps, but found no one there. Had he imagined it all?

Later that day, some tourists reported cold spots in the same place where the unkept man had been. Employees had noticed the spots on previous occasions, but in different spots. While all this craziness was going on, the gift store problem persisted. Books, tapes, records and souvenirs were still being moved around at night. Those who worked at the replica were first annoyed, but now concerned.

The following Monday was a day off from school due to teacher conferences. I asked Chuck if I might come to see the store early Monday morning and view any objects that had been moved the night before. He agreed, but asked me to keep things quiet. Since St Pete was known as the city with a Church on every street corner, I had no problem with that.

On Monday, I took an early bus downtown and walked to the pier. Chuck arrived at a few minutes after eight o’clock and we entered the gift store. In one corner near where some books about the Bounty were kept for display and sale, I saw several items laying on the ground. The same situation was present near the cash register. Maybe it was just that the old pier moved during times when no one was there to notice or some employee thought this was a great way to annoy their boss?

I was still trying to play the skeptic when I noticed something. Several books that were stacked on the register counter were also available for sale on the other side of the room. I asked Chuck if the objects found on the floor or moved around were always found in the same places? He said they were. I asked him how long this had been going on? He said for a couple of months.

A short time later, the gift shop cashier arrived. I asked her how long the book title on the counter and the other side of the room had been available for sale at the store? She told me they started carrying it a couple of months ago. Although I don’t recall the title, the book was a conspiratorial paperback that told the story of the Bounty, but suggested that Fletcher Christian had planned the Mutiny even before the ship left England. Some sort of weird conflict between the two families became the basis for this convoluted work. But the book was a fast read and cheap enough to be popular with tourists who often purchased paperbacks to read while getting a tan at the pool or beach.

I asked Chuck if he could arrange to shelve the books in the storeroom for a few nights. Seeing where I was coming from and tired of cleaning up the mess every morning, he agreed and figured the manager probably wouldn’t notice if it was only for a few days. I suggested they replace it with a paperback that took a more sympathetic view of the Mutineers plight. They did.

The following week I stopped by the Bounty to see Chuck. He had a big smile on his face and dragged me into the gift store. “Here’s the kid who solved our little problem!” I was introduced to the Manager of the store and exhibit. Although not totally comfortable with admitting that anything paranormal had happened in the first place, he agreed that my literary suggestion had stopped the overnight mess and damage. Being from Chicago, he had been brought up with enough mid-western ghost stories to at least consider the possibility that something strange had happened. But mostly, he was just happy that his little store was finally at peace. I suggested he not annoy the Mutineers with any more book titles that weren’t friendly to their cause. He agreed.

I stayed in touch with Chuck for another year. George found a job and moved. The cold spots continued, but no more visible manifestations were seen that I was told about during that time. The gift shop remained at peace. In my mind, it was obvious that the ghost of one or more Mutineers shared Brando’s concern that people not forget how bad things were for everyone who served under the British Naval system in those days. They would probably remain with the replica as long as it was intact to be sure those presenting the history of the Mutiny did so in their favor.

Ships have always had a connection to the paranormal. The abandoned Mary Celeste found drifting with no one on board will always be associated with the mysterious Bermuda Triangle disappearances. The FDR is known as the UFO aircraft carrier because of the number of unusual encounters it’s had. The USS Hornet has been called the most haunted ship in the Navy, because of all the deaths and persistent stories of ghosts on board. It has the highest suicide rate of any ship in the military. The Queen Mary has given birth to hundreds of stories involving ghosts and psychic encounters. From a paranormal standpoint, it’s possible that shipboard hauntings come about because ghosts tend to associate themselves with people, places or things that gave them the most happiness or controversy while still alive. Such may be the case of Robert Lewis Stevenson.

The author of such literary masterpieces as Treasure Island, Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde spent the last few years of his life in the South Pacific. To get there, Robert Lewis Stevenson chartered a sleek vessel known as the Casco in California. The three months he spent on that ship were said to be some of the happiest times he ever had. While the vessel was being rebuilt at a ship yard a few years back, workman became concerned when tools were moved around and small power failures took place as work on the Casco began. Things got worse when smaller vessels surrounding the scaffolded Casco were found overturned or out of place ruining paint or repair jobs completed the previous day.

Everything came to a head when a tall, gaunt figure was seen moving about the ship in the early evening on various occasions while no one was on board. A worker at the ship yard who was restoring his own small craft was a fan of Stevenson. He knew what the author looked like and pointed out that the descriptions provided by others who saw the figure match that of Stevenson. More importantly, he knew that Stevenson had once been on the ship and that his favorite time for walks on the deck had always been the early evening. After that, the repair job was rapidly completed and the ship sent on it’s way. I doubt that anyone was sorry to see it go!

Authors and poets have described our connection to the sea in the beautiful terms. But like every other part of life, the best and worst of things that happen can occur on ships. And for some of us, the consequences of those events may be more eternal then for others.

NOTE: More FREE paranormal articles, resources and exclusive audio/video presentations available at http://billknell.tripod.com/alien/alien.html

About the Author

A native New Yorker now living in Arizona, Bill Knell is a forty-something guy with a wealth of knowledge and experience. He’s written hundreds of articles on a wide variety of subjects. A popular Speaker, Bill Knell presents seminars on a number of topics that entertain, train and teach. A popular radio and television show Guest, you’ve heard Bill on thousands of top-rated shows in all formats and seen him on local, national and international television programs.


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