Yes folks, it’s not a festive edition of The Tumblr Trawler and let us tell you why not; Christmas is rubbish. It’s especially rubbish when it comes to memes. Still, here’s this week’s trawl through the briney depths.

5. Replace Face: Want to see what Jason Statham, Danny Trejo & Donald Trump would look like as Russian Generals? Well, we would like to draw your attention to Replace Face.

4. OMG CATS IN SPACE: Is this really, really worth clicking on? We know you like cats and everything but do you really, really want to see a load of cats out in the blackness of space? OF COURSE YOU DO!

3. Feminist Ryan Gosling: Ryan Gosling’s a good feminist guy and wants you to know it. He’s been putting up pictures of himself quoting feminist theory. Oh… what? It’s not actually him? Where’s the appeal then?

2. Barack Obama <3s Gary Busey: Seriously, the most powerful man in the world just can’t go anywhere without his good friend Barack Obama trying to tag along.

1. Nick Clegg Looking Sad: There’s nothing we like to see more at Christmas time than an ineffectual politician with no backbone or discernable policies looking like someone’s just kicked his cat. Here are some images of Nick Clegg having an absolutely awful time. Good.

Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, aliens, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, EVPs, myths, ancient artifacts, religion, strange facts, odd sightings or just the plain unexplainable.

In July of 1952 Washington DC was changed from a town of confusing, argumentative and boring politics to one overrun with UFOs.  The sightings were real enough to scramble fighter jets, confuse radar operators – and perhaps most importantly – to be recorded on film.

Part of the strange episode is still floating around on YouTube – we have some of that footage for you here today.

The UFO concept is not a new one by any stretch of the imagination. Why, we’ve told you about the ‘classic’ alien contactees who claim to be receiving mental-inter stellar transmissions meant to bring peace for all of humanity. And more recently then that we told you about the Wow! signal – a radio transmission of some sort or other that definitely did not emanate from Earth.

One UFO-related case that has remained surprisingly unknown given its chosen location, has come to be known by several different names: The Washington Merry-Go-Round, The 1952 Washington D.C. UFO incident, the Washington flap or the Washington National Airport Sightings.

Whatever you want to call it – here is part of what happened, according to Unexplained-Mysteries.com:

“On 19th July,1952,several UFOs were plotted on multiple radar screens travelling over the White House airspace corridor. They were also witnessed by huge numbers of people and fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the objects but where ‘outran’ by the UFOs. Exactly seven days later on July 26th,the UFOs returned,were again captured on multiple radar, were again witnessed by huge numbers of people and were again able to outrun military fighter jets.”

The great concern at the time was that the cold war was raging – and it appeared that the Soviet Union had possibly developed flying technology that was so fast US fighters couldn’t catch them if they tried. The first time pilots launched they arrived to where the ships were supposed to be – and nothing was there. Almost exactly when the fighters returned to their air base, the ships popped back up on radar. The jets were launched again, this time making visual contact.

According to Wikipedia – here is some more of what happened during the July 19 & 20 sightings:

“At Andrews AFB, meanwhile, the control tower personnel were tracking on radar what some thought to be unknown objects, but others suspected, and in one instance were able to prove, were simply stars and meteors. However, Staff Sgt. Charles Davenport observed an orange-red light to the south; the light “would appear to stand still, then make an abrupt change in direction and altitude . . . this happened several times”. At one point both radar centers at National Airport and the radar at Andrews AFB were tracking an object hovering over a radio beacon.

“The object vanished in all three radar centers at the same time. At 3 a.m., shortly before two jet fighters from Newcastle AFB in Delaware arrived over Washington, all of the objects vanished from the radar at National Airport. However, when the jets ran low on fuel and left, the objects returned, which convinced Barnes that “the UFOs were monitoring radio traffic and behaving accordingly”. The objects were last detected by radar at 5:30 a.m. Around sunrise, E.W. Chambers, a civilian radio engineer in Washington’s suburbs, observed “five huge disks circling in a loose formation. They tilted upward and left on a steep ascent.”"

But these sightings lasted longer than just the July 19 & 20 dates – the ships came back on July 26 & 27. Wikipedia has more on this too:

“At 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, July 26, 1952, a pilot and stewardess on a National Airlines flight into Washington observed some strange objects above their plane. Within minutes, both radar centers at National Airport, and the radar at Andrews AFB, were tracking more unknown objects. The objects were traveling between 90 and 100 miles per hour. A master sergeant at Andrews visually observed the objects; he later said that “these lights did not have the characteristics of shooting stars. There was [sic] no trails . . . they traveled faster than any shooting star I have ever seen.”

“…By this time (9:30 p.m.) the radar center was picking up unknown objects in every sector. At times the objects traveled slowly; at other times they reversed direction and moved across the radarscope at speeds calculated at 7,000 mph. At 11:30 p.m., two jet fighters from Newcastle AFB in Delaware arrived over Washington. Capt. John McHugo, the flight leader, was vectored towards the radar pips but saw nothing, despite repeated attempts. However, his wingman, Lt. William Patterson, did see four white “glows” and chased them. Suddenly, the “glows” turned and surrounded his fighter. Patterson asked the control tower at National Airport what he should do; according to Chop, the tower’s answer was “stunned silence”. The four objects then sped away from Patterson’s jet and disappeared.”

Now that sounds eerily familiar. Luckily this outcome was a tad better.

All of that UFO-surrounding stuff sounds fantastic alright – and dare we say unbelievable. But its on video. We’ve posted two such videos below – the first one is just the sighting alone – a bunch of ships casually floating past the US Capital Building back when CGI’s greatest achievement was a wooden cowboy puppet attached to several strings.

The second video clip is a segment from a History Channel documentary that delves deeper into the sighting – even interviewing actual witnesses. It’s 10 minutes long – and a very worthwhile watch.

You! Follow hecklerspray on Twitter!

Although the US election had its fair share of weird celebrity moments, one moment stood out more than any other.

We’re talking about you, Kal Penn. In the run-up to the election, Kal Penn was everywhere – making speeches, appearing at inaugural balls, blithering about politics on his blog – even though he’s only famous for being fellated by a giant bag of weed in a film.

Anyway, now Kal Penn has quit acting to become an associate director at the Office of Public Liaison for the Obama administration. Next week, Eva Longoria takes control of the nuclear football and everybody dies.

Like it or not, celebrities played a huge part in getting Barack Obama elected as the American president. Whereas the other guy only really had the support of that gonk from The Hills and about 12 boss-eyed country singers, famous people were queuing up to help Barack Obama out, whether it was by offering intelligent rebuttals of Sarah Palin’s policies or by making videos so awful that it made you want to vote Obama just to shut them up or by spinning around in their garden like a lobotomy patient.

And Barack Obama hasn’t forgotten this help, which is why he’s now decided to start hiring these celebrities one at a time. And first on the list is Kal Penn.

Oh, you know, Kal Penn. Kal Penn from Harold And Kumar. Kal Penn from Epic Movie. Kal Penn who played an identikit fundamentalist Islamic terrorist for about 30 seconds in 24 a few years ago. You know him. He’s a big star. You know, if you like that sort of thing.

During Barack Obama’s election, Kal Penn was always on hand to raise a number of important questions – primarily “What’s Kal Penn doing on my TV?” and “Since when have we been supposed to care what Kal Penn thinks about crap?” – and in return he’s decided to quit acting to pursue a career as a very important part of Brack Obama’s administration. The LA Times reports:

The actor has been hired as an associate director at the Office of Public Liaison, where he will help the Obama administration connect with arts and entertainment groups as well as the Asian and Pacific Islander communities, according to an Associated Press report… Penn stated that he will “do outreach with the American public and with different organizations.”

An associate director at the Office of Public Liason. Wow. That’s an important job. Who knew so many words would have such little meaning when put together. But good for Kal Penn – if he keeps his head down and works hard enough, one day he might even reach the glittering heights of senior associate inter-coordination analyst for systems and planning! Shoot for the moon, Kal Penn! Shoot for the moon!

Oh, we’re being unfairly harsh on Kal Penn here. If anything, this is just the same as when Arnold Schwarzenegger took his first careful footsteps into the world of politics. Except, you know, people actually knew who Arnold Schwarzenegger was.

You! Follow hecklerspray on Twitter!