We've already shown you the pages from the Legion movie comic book. Now here's the motion-comic trailer. Sadly there's no Watchmen-esque man/woman voice.

But if that's not enough God on human violence to fill your holiday lust, play the impossibly hard Legion computer game. In the game you're Paul Bettany, the mad-as-hell fallen angel. Armed with a shotgun, you must mow down the demon possessed masses and stop God from wiping out humanity's only hope, a pregnant waitress. Click on the picture to link to the site. Merry Christmas!

[Comic via Apple]]

Just like all the best Christmas letters, Doom's - transcribed by loyal subject, creator of the Invincible Super-Blog and Twilight fan Chris Sims - doesn't just wish us good cheer, but also updates us all on what he's been up to this year:

Some of Doom's subjects may have claimed that it was a mistake for Doom to swap out his traditional armor for black slacks, a pair of foam gloves inspired by the early-90s WWF wrestler "The Undertaker," and a mismatched lightweight nylon cape, but those people have obviously never fought an orange rock monster in July and should've thought of that before they opened their stupid mouths. Doom hopes you enjoy your stay in the dungeons of Doomstadt, Karl.

We wish you a happy holiday season, Doctor - and don't worry about your accursed foes: They're too busy having the origins of Hanukkah explained to them to stand in your way:

The Christmas Letter of Dr. Doom [Comics Alliance]

Geeky Cookies has the how-to on making this holiday full of Klingons and Star Trek goodies, with their Trekkie cookies recipes.

And in other Holiday Trek news, A theater in Minneapolis is putting on a Klingon-translated Christmas Carol. The show's four creators sat down and translated the entire story into Klingon. But don't worry — if you're not fluent in the dialect there are subtitles and an English-speaking narrator. The show runs until December 13th and is at the Mixed Blood Theatre. And yes that is a Klingon Puppet Tiny Tim.

In other news, TrekMovie has the details for all the new tie-in novels that J.J. Abrams' new Trek has inspired. Let's hope these help provide some ideas to the creators of the next movie (or possible spin-off TV series) because I'm fascinated by the Spock mind wiping story line.

"Star Trek: Refugees" by Alan Dean Foster (May 25, 2010)

Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise must decide if a group of refugees are a menace or misunderstood.

"Star Trek: Seek a Newer World" by Christopher Bennett (June 29, 2010)

Enterprise under attack escapes and discovers an entire civilization also hiding as is the ship. Kirk decides to find out what are they hiding from.

"Star Trek: More Beautiful Than Death" by David Mack (July 27, 2010)

Kirk leads a mission to Akiron, a dilithium rich world. Aboard is Spock's father, Ambassador Sarek, who is hoping to broker a Federation trade agreement.

"Star Trek: The Hazard of Concealing" by Greg Cox (August 31, 2010)

When the elder Spock surfaces from the future, will he be able to escape a sinister plan wrought by the enemies of the Federation, or will their quest to exploit Spock's knowledge succeed, with disastrous consequences?

For more details on the books check out Trek Movie.

The new day appears to be the brainchild of science fiction writer (and Liaden series co-author) Sharon Lee, along with some friends. Apparently they chose the date because June 23 is the day when Cyrano de Bergerac made his first fictional journey to the Moon. According to the Facebook page, yesterday was

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Day! A day of celebration and wonder! A day for all of us readers of science fiction and fantasy to reach out and say thank you to our favorite writers. A day, perhaps, to blog about our favorite sf/f writers. A day to reflect upon how written science fiction and fantasy has changed your life.

We'll definitely help spread the word about this day next year, especially if we get some advance notice. This time around, one person lit a candle in memory of A.E. Van Vogt, another person wrote some fantasy, and Lee celebrated the SF books that had made a difference in her life.

Of course, Science Fiction And Fantasy Writers Day is going to face some stiff competition. According to this site, June 23 is already Take Your Dog To Work Day, National Columnists Day and National Pink Day. If your dog happens to be a science-fiction writer (and pink), then it'll all work out. At least they didn't try to do it on June 22, which was National Chocolate Eclair Day. Then we would have had a fight on our hands.

So consider this an open invitation to talk about the science fiction writers who changed your life. Or maybe what happened when you took your dog to work.

This photo is what resulted when Ecuadorian artist John Vargas presented a body paint model during the pre-opening of Colombia Exposhow-New York last week in Cali, department of Valle del Cauca, Columbia.

Photo by Luis Robayo via AFP/Getty Images.

Let's say you'd rather not get another sweater for the holidays (even if it has a Star Wars pattern). Consider asking people to give that gift money to a charity instead - the kind of charity that helps nerds in need.

All the organizations we've listed below are non-profit organizations, and donations to them are tax-exempt. Mostly they focus on orgs in the United States. If your favorite geek charity isn't listed here, please feel free to pipe up in comments and tell people about it.

Science Fiction Arts

Strange Horizons
This online magazine of science fiction has been publishing weekly doses of speculative stories, art, and essays since 2000. They publish a lot of first-time writers, giving exposure to weird new voices as well as more established ones. Donations go to paying science fiction writers and artists published in the magazine. Donate here.

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Since 1986, CBLDF has been championing First Amendment rights in the world of comic books, fighting censorship in the courtroom so that you can get comic books that haven't had their spikes shaved off. Donate here.

Clarion Workshop Scholarships
Tons of famous scifi writers got their start at the Clarion workshops, where authors from Kim Stanley Robinson to Octavia Butler have taught intensive classes in short story writing. Since 1968, Clarion has improved the brains of aspiring scifi authors, and a donation to the Clarion scholarship fund could help create the next novel that blows you away. Donate here.

Carl Brandon Society
The Carl Brandon Society is devoted to promoting the work and careers of people of color writing speculative fiction. They offer awards and scholarships aimed at making fandom a more diverse place. Donate here.

Preservation of Geek Cultural History and Freedom

Wikipedia
Sure, Wikipedia is a repository of all cultural knowledge, but you and I know that the best-represented bodies of knowledge on this free, user-generated online encyclopedia are all of the geekly nature. Science fiction, science, and technology topics are covered in exhaustive, granular detail. And that's the way we like it. Wikipedia is preserving our culture, but it needs your help to keep chugging along. Think of all the times you looked up an obscure reference on Wikipedia in the last year. Isn't it time to give something back? Donate here.

Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is devoted to preserving digital history, especially on the Internet. From the Archive site:

The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form . . . Collaborating with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, we are working to preserve a record for generations to come.

Not only does the Archive's "wayback machine" allow you to visit older versions of websites going back to the mid-1990s, but the Archive also boasts a huge, impressive collection of free music, e-books, and movies (including a lot of old science fiction and science/tech stuff). A donation helps with the Archive's many digital preservation projects, as well as with equipment they need (think LOTS of terabyte hard drives) to keep all this stuff accessible to the public. Donate here.

Creative Commons
The lawyers and nerds at Creative Commons (CC) are trying to make it easier for creators of the future to gain access to culture of the past. They've created legal CC alternatives to highly-restrictive "all rights reserved" copyrights, so creators today can designate "some rights reserved." Doing this means, for example, that future professors could freely make xerox copies of a CC-licensed book to hand out to students, or future musicians can remix their beats. The CC site explains:

Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."

Supporting CC means helping a devoted team of people educate creators about how to share their creative work in the way they want, without losing money and without being plagiarized. Donate here (you'll get some cute t-shirts and stickers with your donation).

Electronic Frontier Foundation
If you want to help preserve the future of digital culture, as well as your freedoms to make use of technology in any (safe) way you like, then EFF is your one-stop shop for geek causes. A kind of ACLU for the geek world, EFF is both a legal defense fund fighting for privacy and free speech online, as well as an activist organization that educates the public about the complicated intersection of cutting-edge tech and the legal issues it creates. EFF has been around since 1992, and has most recently been involved in the fight to prevent large telcos like AT&T from handing over people's private online data to the NSA (or other government organizations). They've fought to prevent legal restrictions from destroying P2P networks, and have helped whistleblowers stay anonymous online. Basically, they are the guardian angels of the high tech world. (Caveat: I used to work for them!) Check out their website, which is an amazing resource in itself, and donate here (yes, you get cute shirts and stickers).

Science Education

Public Library of Science
The mission of PLoS is quite simply to share scientific discoveries with the world. A network of scientific journals that publish cutting-edge research in the life sciences, the organization was founded to encourage scientists to freely share their publications with each other and the public. Most scientific journals - including the two big ones, Science and Nature - put their articles behind a very expensive subscription wall. But PLoS makes all its articles available to everyone. A donation to PLoS goes straight into science education for everyone, including scientists! Donate here.

Donors Choose
Donors Choose lists hundreds of schools that need small amounts of money to fund classroom projects: Everything from reading materials to science kits. You can browse to find a needy school in a specific state in the U.S., and also look for a topic like "science." The site works pretty much like eBay - you search for a topic and region, get a list of possible places to donate, and can click through to donate right away.
Teachers describe what they're looking for and will send out status updates and photos to donors describing how they used materials after they receive funding. (If you are donating as a gift, you can ask that the updates be sent to the person whose name you're donating under.)

Summer Science Program Scholarships
This is a summer program for gifted teens where they spend several weeks at a top-notch astronomical observatory, doing a project related to celestial mechanics. From the website:

By day, students learn college-level astronomy, physics, calculus, and programming. By night, working in teams of three, they take a series of telescopic observations of a near-earth asteroid, and write software to convert those observations into a prediction of the asteroid's orbit around the sun. Stimulating guest speakers and field trips round out the curriculum.

Donating to their scholarship fund could make a big difference in a future astronomy geek's life. Donate here.

National Center for Science Education
Defending the teaching of evolution in public schools. This is a big issue in the United States, and many school districts are fighting to eliminate evolution from their curricula. Giving money helps fund local groups trying to keep science on the agenda in their neighborhood schools. Donate here.

Society of Women Engineers
Since the early 1950s, SWE has been offering grants, felowships, and networking opportunities for women engineers. Their mission is that simple, and it's still needed today. Women are still far underrepresented in the engineering professions, and a donation to SWE could help a young woman on the road to a life of geekery and innovation. Donate here.

One Laptop Per Child
Founded by engineers and software geeks, OLPC is devoted to making and distributing low-cost laptops designed for children all over the world. You can donate, or you can buy a laptop and help fund the creation of another laptop that will be given to a needy kid who wants to learn about technology and how to use the internet. OLPC laptops are extremely durable, designed for small hands, and packed with kid-friendly software. They're specifically designed to interest kids in using computers, as well as exploring how they work. Perfect for the kid in your life, and kids whose lives you can change with just one donation. All donations go toward creating free laptops for needy kids. Donate here.

Greater Good Science Center
Want to help scientists figure out what makes people become altruistic and happy? To reward people who are working on ideas that could increase social well-being? Then check out the Greater Good Science Center, where they say:

We study the social and biological roots of positive emotions. Our research agenda engages scholars in multiple disciplines, including neuroscience, psychology, sociology, political science, economics, public policy, social welfare, public health, law, and organizational behavior.

They fund research and publish a magazine devoted to prosocial behavior. A donation to this organization helps scientists and scholars understand rationally what it takes to make a better world. Donate here.

We will lose weight! Americans are disgusting, and this is borne out by the fact that the only significant advances we have made in the 21st century are (1) getting foreigners to answer the phone for us and (2) combining fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cheese, and gravy into a single foodstuff. Except for those of us who are throwing up three times a day, we all weigh at least 400 pounds. Well, you fat fucking fuck, once the eschaton has been immanentized, no one will ever be able to call you a fat fucking fuck again. Because either you will have burned off all that weight fleeing from the ravening hordes, or they will have eaten you.

We will have horses! Even before doomsday arrives, you will not be able to run your car anymore, because gas will be more expensive than water, which in turn will be only slightly less expensive than your eyes. And then, even if you manage to get some gas, you won’t be able to drive anywhere, on account of having traded one or both of your eyes for water. You will need a horse. You will name it “Steel” or “Charger” or “Lemondrop,” or, if you are wise, nothing at all, because eventually you will have to eat it.

We will read books again! If you, like me, are finding it impossible to finish, or even substantially begin, your space-opera novel Pothead Space Ninja because there is just so much Internet to look at every day, take heart! On Third Earth (which is what we will call our world, in an effort to maintain our sense of childish wonder), there will be no Internet to look at at all. There will probably be no paper either, or alphabet. The best stories will only be told by old men or women sitting in front of a fire, as the Ancient Ones intended.

Steampunk! Steampunk only makes sense when it is set in the shattered remains of a technologically advanced society—but then it makes perfect sense. We will use oil lamps, and our Turing machines will be powered by winding cranks. We will need trench coats and boots to protect us from the weather and radioactive fallout and the ravening hordes. We will all carry truncheons. We will all wear goggles.

Swords! Bullets will come at a premium, and so those of us who are too good for truncheons will carry swords instead. They will be made from the remains of our cars, which will prove to the benefit of those folks who are still buying American right now, rather than a European or Japanese import, because sure, better mileage with the import, but who wants a plastic sword?

We will have open relationships! Sort of! You, readers, will want to make sure that you have a sword, and that it isn’t a plastic one, because all those lame social mores and conventions that make it so hard to sleep around today will be rendered obsolete in a matter of weeks. If you are male, plan on immediately establishing yourself as a “chief” or “warlord” or “only medical doctor around for miles,” because: harem. If you are female and for some reason not interested in a career in the concubinal arts, set yourself up as a wandering warrior woman. Remember not to give your heart, or your purity, to any man but the one who can best you in single combat, or you’ll get a reputation as the wandering warrior woman who’s kind of a slut. Even in the future, some things will never change.

We will genuinely appreciate things! "We all ask," wrote W.H. Auden, "but I doubt if anyone can really say why all age-groups should find our age quite so repulsive." Gloomy, but I think he has a point: No matter how many Wii DVDs we have on our MySpace phones, a sort of emptiness pervades contemporary life. Post-Ragnarok, though, as we sit around celebrating the Great High Harvest—our swords sheathed, the horses fed and asleep, our thin wives with their goggles pushed atop their heads—and an old man in front of the fire regales us with tales of the battles of the network stars, we will be truly thankful for all that we have. At least until the ravening hordes show up and eat us.

Commenter Moff’s real name is Josh Wimmer, and he can usually be found at scribblescribblescribble.com/blog.

It's hard to top the death scene in Jack Frost where it seems that ole Frosty is humping a naked girl to death in a tub (pictured above). Still, award for most freakishly inappropriate holiday fare has to go to Elves, which brings together Nazi science with elf-conjuring and incest. Plus, nubile ladies being menaced with forced breeding by Nazi scientists and the aforementioned conjured elves. Here's a great moment from the movie, when the bad guy explains his evil plot to impregnate his own daughter and give birth to an army of elves.

Nothing says holidays like Nazis, science, and forced breeding.