Born of a Sith and raised as a princess, she became a leader in the Galactic Revolution. General Leia Organa's story will continue in Star Wars: Episode VIII, but probably not beyond that, due to the death of actress Carrie Fisher. The character herself led an amazing life, and deserves an amazing obituary. Malcolm Sheppard provides that obituary for us. It covers Leia's entire life, particularly her Rebel Alliance activities.  

While Leia Organa’s letters, doctrines and later, command directives formed the ideological-strategic core of the Alliance, she avoided the leadership roles assumed by her father and Mon Mothma. Indeed, she used the courtesy title Princess (afforded by her adopted parents, as elected officials in Alderaan’s post-monarchic democracy) sparingly, and purely for political effect. She became a field operative instead, managing diverse intelligence assets under the cover of diplomatic and sapient-relief travel. Before the Battle of Scarif, her missions shared intelligence with numerous Alliance cells. Her uncanny ability to predict the actions of enemies and allies alike made her essential, but the Alliance treated her warily, concerned she might manipulate its forces for her own ends.

Leia overcame that wariness to rise to the rank of general in the Alliance, but not without some criticism of her handling of those she had personal ties to: Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Kylo Ren. Read the entire account of Leia Organa's life at Sheppard's site. -via Metafilter

Yes, these are water towers in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and yes, they do look like that. The story goes that teenagers painted "hot" and "cold" on the town's two water towers. When the utility company next painted the tanks, they kept the graffiti titles, and just prettied up the lettering. Then a third tank was added, and it was labeled "warm." I don't know how true that is, but it's pretty neat.  -via reddit

The picture above by G. Lecoeur, entitled Sardine Run, was selected as the Grand Prize winner in National Geographic's Nature Photographer of the Year contest. It was taken off Port Saint John’s in South Africa. He says,

I captured this image during the migration of the sardines along the wild coast of South Africa. Natural predation, sardines are preyed upon by cape gannet birds and common dolphins. The hunt begins with common dolphins that have developed special hunting techniques. With remarkable eyesight, the gannets follow the dolphins before diving in a free fall from 30 to 40 meters high, piercing the surface of the water head first at a speed of 80km/h to get their fill of sardines.

Sardine Run was also the winner of the Action category. See more of Lecoeur's photographs in his gallery. 

Dragging You Deep Into the Woods! is the winner in the Animal Portrait category. This photo is by varun aditya, taken in Amboli, Maharashtra, India.

First place winner in the Landscape category is Struggle of Life by Jacob Kaptein, taken in Leuvenum, Gelderland, Netherlands. See all the winners in these and the Action and Environmental categories, as well as the awesome photographs that came in second and third in each category, plus honorable mentions, at NatGeo. All winning photographs are available as wallpapers, too! -via Boing Boing

A few days ago, redditor jr0d7771 posted this picture and gave us a conundrum. There are obviously five young women sitting on the couch. But there are four pairs of legs. The woman in the middle appears to have none. Can you figure it out?

First off, you shouldn't be led by my assumption that it's the middle woman who has no legs. It could be any of them. When you've given up, you can read about the investigation and conclusion at The Concourse.

(Image credit: The NeatoShop)

As we draw to the end of another year, we tend to look back and see what we've accomplished. While the headlines may be calling 2016 a dumpster fire, the year was different for each individual. For us here at Neatorama, that means the ups and down of our little corner of the internet. Internally, the biggest changes of the year were the retirement of John Farrier (who still keeps in touch), and Alex moving his base of operations from California to Oregon. All along, we've kept up a steady supply of distractions to keep you entertained and amused, and unique t-shirts to keep you well-dressed. Let's take a look back at our most popular posts of 2016. Click the title to go to each post.   

10. The 17 Most Influential Science Fiction Books

There's nothing like a list that people can argue about. And we can certainly argue about which science fiction book is more "influential" than the next. Everyone wanted to see if their favorites were there, or if they guessed them correctly.

(Image credit: Michael Whelan)

9. An Honest Trailer for The Empire Strikes Back

Our viral posts got a boost toward the end of the year when Flipboard decided it liked what Neatorama is doing. Combine that with a humorous critique of the most-admired Star Wars movie, and you've got a viral post.

8. Researchers Believe There Are Four Common Personality Types- Which One Are You?

Well, everyone wanted to know. So they clicked on the link.

In the new movie Why Him? Bryan Cranston doesn't like his daughter's new rich boyfriend. In the parody Why Walt? from Funny or Die, Bryan Cranston is his daughter's boyfriend, Walter White. Contains NSFW language.

(YouTube link)

Cranston plays both parts perfectly, even though he had no idea what he was in for when he did those roles in Breaking Bad and Why Him?  -via Tastefully Offensive

You think you everything there is to know about Darth Vader? There has been tons of publicity about Star Wars' most popular character, who has appeared in seven Star Wars movies so far (and another as a dead icon), but I'll bet there's something in this video that you haven't heard before.

(YouTube link)

I've been following Star Wars since 1977, and even I didn't know about all the shenanigans that went on behind the scenes of the original trilogy. Get the lowdown on Darth Vader right now, in the video and more at Looper.

Do you want to try to guess who this actor is before I give the answer? Then stop reading now.

In 2004, there was a miniseries called Angels in America, based on the play by Tony Kushner. Several of the characters were supernatural in origin, and a handful of actors played multiple roles. Meryl Streep played four roles, one of which was Rabbi Chemelwitz. Yes, that's Streep under all that makeup. -via Eddie Deezen

Okay, I know, I know, parapsychology is not a science. But science does study claims of psychic abilities. Dr. Joseph B. Rhine was influential in codifying a way to do that.

Since the 1930s, Zener cards, also known as ESP cards, have been used to quantify psychic ability, testing for telepathy and clairvoyance (you might remember them from that scene in 1984’s Ghostbusters, when Venkman tests the “effects of negative reinforcement on ESP”). The cards straddle the intersection of science and the paranormal, pseudoscience and legitimacy. In a lot of ways, that’s a space also occupied by the man who pioneered their use, Dr. Joseph B. Rhine, founder of the Duke Parapsychology Lab.

Rhine’s interest in the paranormal took hold in 1922, when he was a young plant physiologist earning a Ph.D. in botany at the University of Chicago. Rhine and his wife Louisa were both dedicated scientists, but they had questions that simple biological reductionism didn’t seem to answer; Rhine had once thought of joining the ministry, until his wife steered him towards science. And then, in May of that year, they sat in the audience to hear Sir Arthur Conan Doyle make his case for life after death.

While fascinated by the phenomena they observed at Spiritualist seances, they were also scientists who wanted proof. Since there is no way to observe life after death and report on it, Rhine focused on ESP, and developed Zener cards (along with psychologist Dr. Karl Zener) in order to test those powers in a scientific manner. Read the story of Dr. Rhine and his ESP research at Atlas Obscura.    

While you see plenty of lists about the top movies of the year, they aren't much help if you've seen them all. If you are looking for something new and different to watch, you may want to check out some that fell under the radar. That could be because of too little promotion, some bad reviews from critics, or they might not have ever made it to your local theater. Recognize the promotional image above? I didn't, either. It's from the 2016 movie Masterminds.  

This is a comedy that is actually based on a true story. In October 1997, in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the largest cash heists occurred in banking history. The robbers who pulled off the heist weren’t very careful, and they left behind millions of dollars and they were caught on tape. Eventually, the criminals were caught. The has an amazing cast, including Zach Galifianakis, who plays David, the bank worker, and Kristen Wiig, as Kelly, another person who works at the bank.

Read more about Masterminds and four other movies that deserve a second chance at Unreality.

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

I may be wrong, but I believe the first-ever regular cast member to die during their time as a regular on a TV series was Joseph Kearns of Dennis the Menace. I used to love watching Dennis the Menace as a kid. The show ran from 1959 to 1962, and Kearns, who played Mr. Wilson, died in 1962. He was replaced by a much lesser talent named Gale Gordon and the series took a serious dive quality-wise.

The death of Joseph Kearns was unmentioned by the show's writers and it wasn't until the death of the great Dan Blocker, who played "Hoss" on the classic western Bonanza, in 1972 that the death of a TV character was mentioned in a show by the writers of the series.

Nowadays, a good majority of the classic and lesser TV shows have dealt with the death of one of the show's characters. Let's take a look at four memorable TV "deaths" (interestingly, three of the four are hilariously funny episodes).

1. The Simpsons: Maude Flanders in "No More Footlongs"

Have you ever had a truly wondrous New Year's Eve celebration? Yes? Too bad, that just means all your other New Year holidays will be compared to it, and will never measure up.

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The New Year is a holiday based on the calendar and the ideas we have imbued it with. The end of one year and the beginning of another is just the change of one day to another, and there's really no magical quality to it. The secret to having a good New Year is to keep your expectations low. And try not to invite a hangover. This is the latest video from AsapSCIENCE.

Here's a door that might be a little difficult to get through at times. At least it opens in instead of out! This picture was taken in Germany, and the consensus of commenters is that the stairs were there first, and a room with a door was added to the home. Let's just hope it's a closet or storage room. Can you imagine trying to get out of a bedroom like this in an emergency situation? Or paramedics trying to get in? This is one of a group of remodeling failures from Germany, in a collection at Buzzfeed called The 21 Worst Handymen In The World.

(Image credit: Pfusch am Bau GmbH)

Actress and author Carrie Fisher, best known to the world as Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan (later General Leia Organa), the character she played in four Star Wars movies, has died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center three days after suffering a massive heart attack. Her other movies (she has 90 acting credits at IMDb) include Shampoo, Hannah and Her Sisters, and When Harry Met Sally. She also wrote screenplays and repaired existing screenplays without credit. Fisher was the author of several books, including Postcards From the Edge, Surrender the Pink, and her autobiography The Princess Diarist.

Fisher was also known for a family of prominent relatives. Her parents were Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, she was married to Paul Simon, and her only child is Scream Queens actress Billie Lourd. On her website, Fisher described herself as "actor author mental health advocate." Fisher was 60 years old.   

"She was Princess Leia to the world but a special friend to all of us. We will miss her dearly." -Kathleen Kennedy https://t.co/E96OuqnFQL pic.twitter.com/lr0rm0sRxc

— Star Wars (@starwars) December 27, 2016

Fisher told a story in her book Wishful Drinking that led to the quote she wanted in her obituary:

“Anyway, George comes up to me the first day of filming and he takes one look at the dress and says, 'You can't wear a bra under that dress.'

So, I say, 'Okay, I'll bite. Why?'

And he says, 'Because... there's no underwear in space.'

I promise you this is true, and he says it with such conviction too! Like he had been to space and looked around and he didn't see any bras or panties or briefs anywhere.
Now, George came to my show when it was in Berkeley. He came backstage and explained why you can't wear your brassiere in other galaxies, and I have a sense you will be going to outer space very soon, so here's why you cannot wear your brassiere, per George. So, what happens is you go to space and you become weightless. So far so good, right? But then your body expands??? But your bra doesn't- so you get strangled by your own bra. Now I think that this would make a fantastic obit- so I tell my younger friends that no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.”

― Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking

Ukrainian artist Yuliya Kosata makes felted toys and rugs and whimsical cat caves that will bring a bit of fantasy to your living room. Since they are felted, your cat will enjoy sinking his claws into it as much as hiding inside.

All products are made by hand, with the soul, in order to please you, your children and pets.

See the half-dozen felted cat caves (and other products) Kosata has available at her Etsy shop FeltField. -via Boing Boing