I've ranted many times about the unfairness shown by NBA refs when making calls. These rants are often fueled by the blatant "mistakes" that I see during games. There's obvious favoritism towards star player and there are obvious grudges between some refs and players. Over all of this, the NBA is 100% silent about review and/or recourse for bad calls in a game. The public perception is that refs can do whatever they want and we just have to trust to their integrity that they will do the right thing. Up until now that trust has been grudgingly given but the recent gambling scandal threatens to make a mockery of NBA refereeing.

Every once in a while I run across something that amazes me online. That is, something that is so sneaky at taking peoples money it's amazing. Here is the latest example: http://www.whichcelebrityami.com/. Whatever you do, DON'T complete the survey on this site. It will cost you $6/month if you do. Here's how this nefarious scheme hooks you.

One of the most anticipated summer blockbusters this year is the big-screen debut of the Transformers. Back in the 80's the Transformers enjoyed wide popularity as action figures and an associated TV cartoon series. By the 90's robots lost ground to aliens, dinosaurs, and superheros in the minds and entertainment choices of kids. But the Transformers movie is almost guaranteed to propel these 80's looking robots back into the spotlight.

The movie was great. With any "remake" of something 20 years old there is a risk of coming off as cheesy or dated. Transformers avoided that. The movie has a very modern feel. The super slick CGI animations and well crafted action sequences help a lot in creating an entertaining and visually stunning movie.

Back in the 1980's, when I was in high school, I read every bit of fantasy I could get my hands on. I went through all the standards: Tolkien, Lewis, Donaldson, Anthony, Brooks, etc. Somehow my fantasy reading flurry passed over the books by David Eddings. Recently I rectified that situation by reading the first three books in the five book series title The Belgariad.

I was skeptical of this movie going into it. I had two reasons why I didn't want to see it and two reasons why I did. Since there was nothing else showing and I really wanted to go out with my wife to see a movie, I decided to see it. What a great movie! It was hilarious and funny and quirky and with just enough of a message to tug at your heartstrings. This was definitely one of the best movies I've seen in a while. For those of you who might be wondering, it is not a modern day retelling of the Noah's Ark story from the Bible.

In a society filled with perfect people what do you do with those born with blemishes and birth defects? Well, why not send them on dangerous missions to explore unknown worlds? Since they are not "perfect" they have become expendable -- Expendable Crew Members. And then how do you get rid of troublemakers and politically inconvenient people when an omniscient, omnipresent League of Peoples disallows "doing away with" someone? How about if you banish them to a planet that no one can escape from? There you have the whole Expendable story in a nutshell.

Pirates 3 wasn't nearly the dud that Pirates 2 was but it also wasn't even close to as good as Pirates 1. In Pirates 3 they got rid of most of the slapstick, cheeseball antics and they tried to make a story of it. The special effects and action scenes were reasonably well done with the one exception being the part when Calypso was released from her spell and grew to gigantic proportions. That effect has been done so much better in other movies. They could have done better here.

A while ago I read the first book in Orson Scott Card's Homecoming series: The Memory Of Earth. It was interesting enough that when I came across the second book in the series, The Call Of Earth, it snagged me. Unfortunately it wasn't quite so good. The book dragged on quite a bit. Card expanded a lot on the concept of the Oversoul that he created in the first book. However, I think that was the problem with the book. He took it too far.