2 Million+ New Pages – Searchable transcripts of UFO podcasts, videos etc : Leveraging AI

Section O : Further transcripts? UFO podcasts already on Youtube but without subtitles

Some of the collections that I’ve processed from Youtube did not appear to have automated transcripts associated with those videos. In particular, the collection of Jimmy Church’s Fade To Black podcasts (detailed above) seemed to be missing transcripts for the first few hundred podcasts. I’m not sure why. It could be a matter of the uploader’s settings at the time, it could be a matter of the age of the podcasts (although some newer podcasts in one or two of the other collections were also a problem) or it could be a matter of the use of special characters etc in the titles of some of the videos. I think it is probably the first of these potential issues, but am far from sure.

Assuming for the moment that the first of these potential issues is indeed the problem, I wonder if a user can easily change the settings for videos previously uploaded to enable the automated closed caption option on those videos?

If it could be done simply and easily, I could ask Jimmy Church – for example – to change a relevant setting (ideally for all previous videos). If he would have to change a setting for one video at a time, then I may have difficulty persuading him to do the relevant work.

The easier the process can be made, the better the prospects of any relevant change being made by the relevant podcast hosts in relation to their uploaded archives.

Identifying the (technical?) problem in relation to the missing transcripts, or an option that needs to be changed by the uploader of relevant videos, is probably the first step in relation to the further work in this section.

Section P : Further transcripts? Digitised UFO podcasts not currently on Youtube

Only some podcasts are on Youtube. Many podcasts are only on podcasting platforms or as MP3 files on the websites of individuals/groups.

Batch downloading of such MP3 files is (usually) straightforward.

Getting permission to upload relevant MP3 files to Youtube (by using online free conversion to a video), so that Youtube can automatically generate subtitles is a possibility. I think I’d probably have more success in assisting relevant podcasters etc to upload files to their OWN Youtube channels (since they would have control over the videos and would get any income from advertising on those videos) – BUT the process would have to made as easy and painless as possible.

From initial discussions with a sample of podcasters that don’t currently upload to Youtube, the main reason for their podcasts not currently being uploaded to Youtube is simply the time/expertise required to do this.

Some tools online help make the process of uploading single MP3 files to Youtube easier than Youtube’s own interface. For example, this website is useful for single uploads (including adding a photo so that the MP3 file can be converted to a video):

www.tunestotube.com...

However, for some podcasts with a large number of audio files in their back catalogue it would be extremely useful if I could point relevant podcasters in the direction of some easy tools for bulk/batch uploading. DVDVideoSoft appears to offer a free solution for bulk uploading:

www.dvdvideosoft.com...

I’d be interested in any feedback from others that have already been through the process of batch uploading files to Youtube using the tool above or other means. At this stage, I have a number of questions rather than a set of instructions I could share with podcasters for them to easily upload their back catalogue of shows to Youtube. For example, I’m not sure yet whether it may be better/easier to batch convert MP3 files to video files using other software before attempting to batch upload anything.

I have found instructions for batch converting MP3 files to videos using VLC (see instructions HERE) and presume that something similar could be done using FFMPEG.

I’d like to put together a set of instructions (probably with screenshots) for batch downloading MP3 from various podcasting platforms and then uploading them to Youtube. The easier I make this for podcasters, the more likely it is that they will add their material to Youtube (which will make it easier to embed their material on forums such as ATS, act as an online backup of their material and incidentally make it easier for me to create and share transcripts of their material if they give their permission…).

Incidentally, ATS itself has produced a significant number of podcasts – most of which are (I think) not yet on Youtube. I’ll have to raise that with Springer if there is any interest in enlarging this transcript project.

files.abovetopsecret.com...



The more I look around, the more podcasts I see on other platforms. It seems a shame that the content of more of them isn’t searchable … yet.

Section Q : Further transcripts? Other digitised UFO audio material not currently on Youtube

Some UFO researchers and groups have digitised other audio recordings, such as recordings of witness interviews, lectures and radio broadcasts. For example, a considerable number of audio recordings of the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) have been digitised by the AFU in Sweden. Similarly, I’ve previously helped get online a number of rare recordings that were digitised by UFO researcher Wendy Connors (with the blessing of the person to whom Wendy Connors entrusted her materials - Roderick B. Dyke, as archivist of the Archives for UFO Research, "AUFOR" – and considerable help from Croatian researcher Giuliano Marinkovic).

There are many other lecture recordings etc that have been digitised already. I have also already obtained permission from a family member of the late ufologist Errol Bruce Knapp to upload recordings of his “Strange Days, Indeed” radio show – some of which are available in digitised format already in various places (including HERE).

Some (but far from all) of this type of digitised material is online on various websites, but transcripts have very rarely been produced.

If more that material can be put on Youtube, transcripts can be produced in the same way as for the initial batch of 2 million pages of transcripts.

My queries about easy ways of batch uploading to Youtube (potentially of hundreds, if not thousands, of files) that were raised above in relation to non-Youtube podcasts in Section P above are therefore relevant to this type of material as well.

Section R : Further transcripts? Other digitised UFO video material not currently on Youtube

Many UFO documentaries and other videos (such as UFO conference lectures) are on websites other than Youtube. Apart from UFO documentaries available on direct competitors of Youtube (e.g the Vimeo video website), there is also a mass of UFO documentaries on torrents and NZB websites.

However, the copyright/permission issues in relation to most such further documentaries cause me to hesitate to do anything with such videos. Possibilities (which I’m currently reluctant to work on) to generate transcripts of some of this material include uploading some material as private videos on Youtube (but I’m not sure that Youtube creates automatic subtitles for private videos…) or uploading some material publicly to Youtube but deleting them soon after transcripts are generated by Youtube. Frankly, given the mass of material that others have already uploaded to Youtube and other material for which permission can be obtained to upload to Youtube, I’d hesitate about uploading any commercially produced video to Youtube without permission to do so.

Section S : Further transcripts? Digitising other UFO audio recordings

More labour/time intensive (and therefore in my view somewhat of a lower priority than the possibilities in Section N to Section Q above…) is the possibility of digitising audio recordings which are currently only available on tapes and then uploading them to Youtube in order to generate transcripts of them.

The equipment to create MP3 files from audio cassettes is surprisingly cheap and, I understand, fairly easy to use.



Canadian researcher Chris Rutkowski has recently been using similar equipment to preserve and share digitised versions of some rare audio material.



Again, I’d focus initially on material that already exists in digital form – but digitising other audio recordings them would kill three birds with one stone:

(1) preserving the recordings,

(2) making it easier to share the recordings globally,

(3) making it easier to produce transcripts of the recordings, whether by uploading them to Youtube or otherwise.

Section T : Further transcripts? Digitising other UFO video recordings

Even more labour/time intensive than digitising other audio recordings if the possibility of digitising other video recordings.

The AFU in Sweden has done quite a bit of work in this area, but copyright issues (not to mention the file sizes) means that much of this material cannot easily be shared even after work has been done to create digitised versions.

So, this is a relatively low priority for me.

Section U : Further transcripts? Translation of foreign subtitles (and other foreign PDFs)

As I mentioned above, my efforts so far have been biased towards (but not exclusively limited to…) material in English simply because this is the only language in which I am fluent.

Automated transcripts are imperfect. Automated translations are also imperfect. Automated translations of automated transcripts appear to result in the errors growing exponentially.

I’m therefore not convinced about the usefulness of automated translations of automated transcripts.

However, I’m happy to actually doing a bit of work to try out some possibilities – or hearing about any work done by others in this area.

Online translation tools (like online transcription tools) appear to be developing relatively rapidly, so this is an area that may be worth more work in another year or two.

For now, the best free online translation tools appear to have limits on the amount of material that can be translated at one time.

It seems that a few years ago, it was easier to bypass such limits by using websites that submitted one piece of a document/text at a time and then giving the user a translation of the entirety of the various pieces of the document/text. Unfortunately, Google appears to have tightened up on the limits for Google Translate.

I’ve found one online tool that still seems to permit SRT transcript file translation online which bypasses the 5000 character limit if you scroll down the text to translate it all before downloading the translation. Unfortunately, this tool does not appear to lend itself to batch processing of dozens / hundreds / thousands of transcripts.

www.syedgakbar.com...

I’d be interested in hearing about any tools that could be used to mass produce English translations of foreign PDFs of magazines / newsletters / documents and/or transcripts.

Section V : Conclusion – Wider possibilities for digitisation of UFO materials

I think it is time to try to impose a bit of order upon the chaos within UFO research and reduce the amount of effort wasted reinventing the wheel by making more existing UFO material freely available online in searchable formats…



Assimilation continues of further UFO data into the data warehouse I’ve sought to make freely available online (particularly on the AFU’s public download website), after obtaining relevant permissions. There is a lot of further data that could – with relatively little effort – be assimilated by leveraging AI tools and a bit of crowdsourcing (_not_ crowdfunding). Crowdsourcing would be useful since most of this work if, frankly, rather dull so spreading the burden a bit means that more will actually get assimilated and freely shared.



Some of the AI tools used to help obtain or share data can also be adapted for the efficient analysis of that data and pattern recognition, but posting about the use of such AI analytical tools is probably best left to another discussion.

Just to outline my views on potential wider work digitising UFO material, here is an update of the position in various areas:

(1) UFO magazines / newsletters – By helping to coordinate work by many others and reducing the amount of overlap, I've been helping to accelerate the pace a bit with scanning of UFO journals - to the extent that I expect that virtually all UFO journals that can be _publicly_ shared will be done within the next few months (and, indeed, most of the UFO magazines/newsletters that cannot be publicly shared should be scanned within the next year as well). After I track them down, most editors of defunct UFO magazines/newsletters are happy to give permission for scans to be uploaded. However, it isn’t always easy to find them (or their heirs) to seek this permission. It has sometimes taken days of effort just to find someone to ask their permission. Some discussions about the granting of permission have involved sporadic exchanges over a decade or longer. Basically, I’ve reached the point of diminishing return in relation to the scanning of UFO magazines/newsletters (at least in relation to material in English).

(2) UFO books - Scanning of UFO books (at least in English) is virtually complete, but (as I had anticipated) getting permission to share them has proven to be a bit of a challenge. Most UFO books have been published commercially, so authors are usually concerned about the rights of publishers or potential reprints. In a few cases, I've contacted the publishers (with consent from the authors) and obtained a release of copyright - but in several cases the publishers have simply not responded at all. So, it's a bit of a nightmare dealing with issues regarding UFO books. This is not an area I plan to focus on due to the difficulties involved.

(3) UFO newspaper articles - No-one seemed very interested when I circulated a link to a sample of a few thousand articles (culled from a much larger set created by combining parts of the collections from the AFU and others). I've got a lot more articles organised and ready to upload, but given the lack of interest am doubtful about the priority to give this at the moment. I think this could be a useful area to explore, but my experience so far suggests that it would probably require more coordination of efforts between various UFO groups/researchers than is realistically likely to happen in the UFO field.

files.afu.se...

(4) UFO case files - Quite a lot of UFO case files have been scanned, but privacy issues seem an almost insurmountable problem with sharing much of this material online.

(5) UFO databases - I've uploaded (with permission) a few UFO databases, including Larry Hatch's *U* database and Robert Moore’s PrimeBASE, but have not found it easy to persuade relevant people/groups to share some others. The more other digitised material I upload, the more amenable people seem to be to grant permission to upload databases etc. So, this transcript project may prompt permission for the public release of at least another UFO database or two. (I’ve already been working on getting permission to upload another large UFO database and think I’m getting closer to getting permission to share it). This may be worth a bit of extra effort, but it's a relatively small project.

(6) Official UFO documents – This looks like the best target for the next significant step. I've uploaded a few searchable sets of official UFO documents (from Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Britain and elsewhere) in the past - but there is a lot more that could be done, with relatively little effort. Copyright generally isn't a problem (at least in relation to documents from many countries - with the UK's Crown Copyright being a rather annoying exception...). The main problem is finding people willing to do some scanning in various locations around the world.

I think that the last category probably now offers (after a bit more work on UFO periodicals and on transcripts) the best potential cost/benefit ratio.

Section W : Postscript

Cartoon from Weekend Mail newspaper, 26 August 1954:

a reply to: IsaacKoi

Phenomenal body of work there Sir Isaac , I can't claim to speak for Ufology but nevertheless thank you on behalf of it.

ThQ Issac___________you remain a legend. Your efforts and contributions are stunning. We are all better for your time spent. Cheers a reply to: IsaacKoi

a reply to: IsaacKoi

During the last six months or so, I’ve taken the occasional short break from my ongoing behind-the-scenes research on a, well, pretty large item on AATIP / AAWSAP / Bigelow / metamaterials / SWR to prepare this relatively small thread. I’d like to share (where I’ve obtained permission to do so) some of the searchable transcripts I’ve made of audio/video material regarding UFOs and the paranormal, plus some wider sceptical / scientific material.

Damn dude, if you pulled this together on an occasional break, I truly look forward to the main course you’re preparing for Ufology.

Hurry up and tie up those loose ends...

Phenomenal scholarship, IK!

Isaac Koi has just won the award for

Best Opening Series Of Post ~ Discussion Thread Of The Decade

And the decade is just 35 days old!

I joined ATS mainly due to the great threads that you've written over the years. My interest in UFOs began as a young boy and continues to this day, thanks to threads like this.

Your threads are always based on thorough research, containing facts and evidence that's presented in a concise clear manner, that makes it exciting to read.

I have a bookmark with many of your past threads and will savor every moment reading this latest extraordinary piece of work. Thanks for opening my mind to all the wonders and mysteries of our universe.

Great thread. Thank you.

Outstanding! With Isaac's help, I recently put together two articles with transcripts of the 1950 and 1952 versions of the UFO documentary, The Flying Saucer Mystery.

1950: The First UFO Documentary: The Flying Saucer Mystery
1952: The Flying Saucer Mystery and the 1952 UFO Flap

The automated YouTube transcripts are a great, but imperfect, tool. Much editing is required, since the automation mishears many indistinct words and does not identify speakers or distinguish between them. In the case of a documentary such as my experiment, it is also necessary to describe some of the visual material that may be shown but not identified in the conversation.

Even with the inherent imperfections, these automatically generated transcripts are a tool with amazing potential. It can target topics of interest and help locate rare interviews with notable researchers and witnesses. Having the transcripts is also insurance against some of these videos disappear, since YouTube material or entire accounts can vanish without warning.

Wow! Amazing - almost too much to take in but phenomenal work!

Definitely bookmarking all of this to go through. Chuffed you got Alejandro Rojas - I've only recently started listening to his podcasts on my evening walks, even though he doesn't seem to have released anything of late (anyone know why?)

Once again very well done - very selfless - have all my S&F's!

a reply to: CardDown

Thanks for the links, have bookmarked them, lots to read over there.

originally posted by: spiritualarchitect
Isaac Koi has just won the award for

Best Opening Series Of Post ~ Discussion Thread Of The Decade

And the decade is just 35 days old!

On THAT, for a change, we can both wholeheartedly agree! Let's savour the moment.


An astonishing body of work from Isaac. Truly astonishing.

We are seriously not worthy.

a reply to: ConfusedBrit