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UFOS: Changing My Mind … Again, Damnit


“It turns out that Ed Wood was right all along.”

Another great and genuine YouTube eccentric, Fran creates and builds the “FranTone” fuzz boxes. And the Vibutron. And the PeachFuzz. And the Sputnik. And the Hi-Ball. And so much more. But she is much more brilliantly off-center than that. And she knows her stuff. More than that, she knows stuff you’ve forgotten.  After all, rock and roll never started rocking until the creation of fuzz.

Yes, she’s quirky. Yes, she has that moonbat vibe. But “Hi, it’s Fran. Again.” is very very big in the fuzz box world and, as such, is fundamental to rock and she’s no dummy. Indeed, she’s that odd blend of engineer and intellectual who requires a semi-rigorous standard of proof. Here she is on the recent releases concerning UFOs.

I have disbelieved in UFOs for decades:Calling Bullshit on SETI, Unseen Interstellar Drive-Bys, or Professionally Blurry UFOs. Here she discusses “now that UFOs are real what are they?” She makes the case and I shall now have to (grudgingly) reopen my mind. Again, Damnit.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • ghostsniper June 1, 2021, 10:05 AM

    The problem with the boxes Fran makes, as well as Boss and everybody else, is that they all bring their baggage with them. Chain 4 or 5 of them together and it becomes unbearable. One or 2 at a time is OK. I learned this early one but I wasn’t astute enough yet to know what the problem was. About 1992 I bought a Digitech RP-1 multi-effects processor and soon after got rid of all the individual peddles. I’ve had several other MEPs since but a couple years ago I gave all of them to my son and kept the RP-1. It’s a tank, universal, and gives me all the flexibility one could want. The RP-1 hasn’t been made in over 20 years now and those that are out there are becoming valuable. Best $400 I ever spent as it has given me untold amount of enjoyment over the years-decades. There’s nothing wrong with Fran’s stuff, as long as you understand the limitations. Nobody ever sells 2nd hand peddles for a profit.

  • gwbnyc June 1, 2021, 10:06 AM

    count the damned “coincidences” since 2016…

    ufo’s revealed themselves just in another diversionary nick of time.

    awsome.

    …rise.

  • Mike Austin June 1, 2021, 11:16 AM

    The problem with these latest iterations of UFO sightings is that all the information we have about them—every single solitary bit—comes from the US Government. Whether it’s the US Navy or pilots on “60 Minutes”—those pilots are government employees (as were James Comey, Robert Mueller, James Clapper and so on); and who in Hell trusts “60 Minutes” anyway? Fran herself said, “It’s been confirmed. The Pentagon says they’re real.” Um…since when has the Pentagon been viewed as reliable and trustworthy? And Fran switches back and forth between calling these oddities “UFOs” and “craft”. These are not the same thing.

    So what are they? I have no idea. But I do know that Fran most certainly has a colorful imagination, something I lack—to my detriment. If she is right then we are in for a whole lot of exciting times and marvels. Think of Columbus and 1492 and the discovery of a New World. In that case then we would be the Indians. Oops.

    Think I’ll watch the 1953 version of “The War of the Worlds” tonight just in case.

  • Univ of Saigon 68 June 1, 2021, 11:23 AM

    My problem with this is that (with a few exceptions, such as the grainy photos on the 60 Minutes video at about 4:40) all these sightings are not actual ‘eyeballs’ seeing the UFO, but are being seen through a radar or I.R. device. On the one recently released (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz-6jRrbtuI at about 0:10) you can see the ‘object’ blink off then on then off again, before the sailor says “Splash.”

    This leads me to believe it is some kind of electronic spoofing device.

    “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (a.k.a., the Sagan standard)

  • John Venlet June 1, 2021, 11:54 AM

    UFOs, or UAPs as the new parlance refers to them, are just part of the Bread and Circus show meant to scare up more money from American’s pockets. They are as big a pie in the sky dream as men living on Mars, or colonizing another planet in a galaxy light years away. It’s all BS.

  • David John June 1, 2021, 12:21 PM

    Can’t remember where I saw this first–but it’s very suspicious that although video clarity has increased, um, sharply over the last fifty years, UFOs are still tiny blurs.
    And just yesterday I read an article by an astrophysicist engaged in SETI research who doesn’t believe UFOs are alien spacecraft. He was kind of ticked that they get all the attention, instead of the work he and his colleagues are doing. He mentioned that within a tech-generation or two, telescopes will be so good they will be able to detect city lights on the darkside of exoplanets, if there are any there. And James Lovelock has said that Freon and its variants are easy to detect even at interstellar distances, and would be absolute proof of a technological civilization. And he said that decades ago.

    It’s hard for me to believe we’re alone. But it’s also hard for me to believe the neighbors are close enough to visit, and that they wouldn’t announce their presence if they did.

  • Auntie Analogue June 1, 2021, 12:43 PM

    What if those “objects” are nothing but artifacts generated by, or endemic to, the radar and infrared detection systems?

    What if some jokester programmer of those detection systems decided to code-in some playful imaging that’s not actually imaging actual objects?

    Then the pilots snap still photos of what they see with their own Mark I Eyeballs. Ah, well, so much for my “system artifacts” theory and my “jokester programmer” theory.

    Born a skeptic, let’s just say that I’m from Missouri: “Show me!”

  • Kevin in PA June 1, 2021, 1:18 PM

    Wether or not UFOs exist is debatable. I don’t know.

    The more pertinent question is; why are the powers that be “revealing” this info now?

    Side-show to the shit-show, a ruse, a distraction, another con…..that’s all I am getting from this.

  • ghostsniper June 1, 2021, 1:40 PM

    There’s a reason I didn’t mention the ahem, UFO’s, in my comment. They are bogus. Hey! I see UFO’s all the time! I wear glasses. Step outside on a clear, starry night with your back to the moon and move your head around. You too will see UFO’s. In your glasses. The stars reflected off the backside into your eyes. A long time ago when I was still quite malleable I too believed in UFO’s though there was no reason to do so except youthful naivete. I read everything. I watched all the TV shows. I believed. Then I read something that changed my mind. UFO’s always look like the time in which they are seen. UFO’s have been seen for hundreds of years. Back in the 19th century UFO’s looked strangely like the hot air balloons of the time. They had an upper part and a lower part was suspended from it with wires or ropes. Like the gondolas on hot air balloons. By the 1950’s the science fiction community started creating UFO’s of shiny metals with streamlined and angled/curved surfaces. Soon, UFO sighting were coming in from everywhere and the UFO’s people were seeing did not look like the 19th century version any more, they looked like the ones that were on TV. In this day and age there is only one reason, er, excuse for shitty video of UFO’s.

  • Vanderleun June 1, 2021, 4:02 PM

    But… But….. I want….. I want……

  • Dirk June 1, 2021, 5:00 PM

    I believe, always have. To think we Humans are solo in this time in space is amusing. Also believe they walk among us!

    Have you ever noticed how most Democrat politicians look like lizards, Ticks, and flea’s, From the side,,,,,,, Yea I get it!

    Village Idiot

  • ghostsniper June 2, 2021, 4:37 AM

    Dirk sed: “Also believe they walk among us!”

    “They Live!”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN8Z7y_QcwE

  • James ONeil June 2, 2021, 8:59 AM

    Signs and portents, two headed calves, soured milk, UFOs…
    Mass hysteria ain’t a new thang but the cup runneth over as we start the new century.

  • Andrew R June 2, 2021, 9:00 AM

    It’s interesting (I was going to say “amazing”, but see Gerard’s next post…) that so many things seem to have a blur or diffusion field around them, so we can’t get a clear image – UFOs, bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, et al. You would think that ONE pilot could get a sharp picture of one of these things if so many of them are out there so often.
    Too many people associate UFOs with ETSs (Extra-Terrestrial Spacecraft), a UFO is something which appears to be a solid object, which appears to be in controlled, powered flight and cannot be identified as any known air or space craft. Any thing beyond that is pure speculation (sorry Fran).
    Until I see some sharp images or video, I remain a hard skeptic.

  • Sam L. June 2, 2021, 9:00 AM

    I’m from Missouri, too, but I know there is so much I do not know. I can say that in my 8 years in the AF underground (missiles), three of them in Missouri, I never had any intrusion alarms caused by UFOs.

  • arcs June 2, 2021, 10:08 AM

    Who was it that said believe nothing you read and only half what you see? The USN evidence released so far seems compelling and does not, to me, appear to be system artifacts. That said, imagine an operational flight simulator with capability for interactive or scripted bogeys with various performance and/or physics characteristics.

    Sim Guy, “So, you want a bus-sized and shaped bogey to top out at Mach 38 with 6-dof movement at 75Gs. Says here, you also want it to not crash on contact with the sea surface.”

    “Sure. I can do that. Give me a couple of days.”

  • arcs June 2, 2021, 10:13 AM

    Sim Guy, “Say, what color you want it to be? Gunmetal gray? Got it!”

  • Snakepit Kansas June 2, 2021, 6:01 PM

    She said to give her five minutes. After 20 minutes there was no climax to the story, C’mon man!!! This UFO stuff has been going on with US military pilots for years but no clear pictures, in spite of very good optics, and no crashed out space ships with dead green inhabitants.

    One of my clients produces incredible optics for the gubmint. On a pre-chinaflu visit (not all that far from Ghost’s AO) I received a demonstration on one of their infrared optics. They had this optic pointed out a window and onto a public walkway over a mile away. In real time you could observe when a person’s hand would move from a metal railing and the heat signature from the hand could be seen on the metal for a few seconds, until it fully dissipated.

    If there are really little green men in spaceships flying around, then my guess is that the gubmint has really good photos of them.

  • Dirk June 2, 2021, 9:47 PM

    Our histories a lie, i once tried “ 25” acid, ok maybe five err ten times. That’s when I figured it all out. Our entire govts lil green men and women,,,,, I saw em.

    Many years ago while on patrol, I was dispatched to a disturbance up on the Klamath Indian reservation.

    Upon my arrival I observed a steel heavy duty swing set. The two swings in the center were swinging, only on minor problem, wasn’t anybody in em. All I could do was smile,,, I physically exited my unit, and walked around the swing set, “ thinking someone was fucking with me!

    Absolutely no reason for these two swinging to be swinging ten fifteen ft in the air, the others two swings weren’t. I did the only reasonable thing I could think of. Got back in my blazer, and drove from the area! .

    When dispatch asked me to code the call, with a shit eating grin, I advised, negative contact, everything looks normal here! As I drove away on this awesome summer night, I could have sworn I heard children say, Good Night Dirk, thanks for stopping by.

    Wasn’t the only night in 25 years that I had “ interesting calls” on the res. My mother thinks I should right a book, I always respond, why and ruin a good relationship with the spirits!

    Maybe someday, I’ll have the honor of meeting these ?

    VI

  • Annie Rose June 3, 2021, 6:39 AM

    I’ve been a huge sci-fi fan since I stumbled across Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov at the age of nine. I would love for there to be other life in the universe and for space travel to become possible-warp speed, wormholes, transporters—the whole thing. However, I’m also a huge skeptic.

    The whole UFO hysteria ramps up whenever the county’s anxiety level is ramped up, and after a year of world pandemic pandemonium, we are at top defcon level. But people are starting to venture forth once more. Summer is here and people are feeling a bit better. So here comes the government and 60 Minutes to scare us into compliance once again. “Best not to venture out too much, because the little green men might be watching!”

    In 1968-69 we were at another time of social unrest. TV shows and experts were warning us about UFOs. There was the Bermuda Triangle eating aircraft. Our Air Force was reporting UFOs even then. I was about 9 years old and visiting family who lived on a farm during the summer. My four cousins and I took a walk one night along a nearby dirt road to look at the stars and escape the adults. We saw what we initially thought was an airplane from the nearby Air Force base, which we thought was so cool to see at night, because they never flew over that area. But then the plane stopped and hovered. We then decided it must be a helicopter. Then a large vertical circle of white blinking lights began revolving around the helicopter. Then the revolving circle became horizontal. Various patterns of lights flashed on and off.

    We were convinced it was a flying saucer, especially when it then raced off at high speed. We ran back home, scared to death. Later, I came to believe that it was an experimental aircraft. Some government has surely been working on this type of thing and trying them out. Brace yourself for next Tuesday’s government UFO reveal. Remember that they need us to be afraid so we will be compliant with future restrictions.

    Last Sunday there were three different gunman attacks on crowds. News reports are filled with tales of fights on airplanes and amusement parks, just as we’re wanting to take the jab and travel. Yesterday we were warned about a new strain of bird flu in China. Refuse to be manipulated. Refuse to live in fear. Get out and freely live your lives. If there are space invaders, they will find us and they won’t be shy.

  • Dirk June 3, 2021, 12:31 PM

    Anne, here in southern Oregon n/ e calif it’s not unusual to see unusual things in the sky. I’m told that MT Shasta is a UFO magnet, about 60 miles or so as the crow fly’s.

    Who knows I see the world with eyes wide open, I don’t want to miss anything, if I don’t have to.

    As for the violence the human being is a violent creature, capable of gruesome things to fellow humans and the lesser creatures.

    Guns don’t kill mental illness, matters of the heart, jealousy, many other “ social” issues are generally considered trigger points.

    Sadly the single best advice one can give at this point is be armed be prepared head on a swivel.

    Learn to scan with little head movement. Lastly trust your gut!!!!!!. You sense somethings up, trust that signal move off the X “ clear the area. “. When possible have alt routes, in stores seek out side exits try not to move with the herd, move laterally, shooters are there to move inflict mass casualties again if practical move away from the crowd.

    Lastly been retired 12 yrs now, swore I’d never carry a gun ever again, I simply don’t want the responsibility that comes with that choice.

    After weighing these deducts carefully I’m sad to say I have made the choice to carry anytime I’m in a store, in public, and it sucks.

    My wife daughter son and people close to us have gone back to carrying

    Lastly IF you choose to carry please consider carrying one additional reload a mag speed loader etcetc.

    Personal defense is requiring very much responsible people.

    Frankly their are a lot of retards out their, who have zero business carrying a concealed weapon. They don’t possess the capacity to rationally make solid choices in split second situations

    Good luck

    Dirk

  • ghostsniper June 3, 2021, 2:38 PM

    Yeah, when I lived in Redondo I saw lot’s of stuff too.
    ‘specially after I saw mesq, shroomz, honeyoil, blotter, thai-stix, etc.
    Lot’s of stuff goin on that stock eyeballz can’t see.
    Gotta burn the societal hide off the front, reveal that tender under belly.