There aren't any new episodes of The Office until April, so we'll be seeing some reruns. But they're only kind of reruns...apparently NBC is changing up the episodes by recutting them to include some deleted scenes.

Next week the network is going to show two repeats of The Office. But instead of just airing them as they aired before, they're going to be recut into an hour-long episode, mixed up a little bit and with deleted scenes added to put in a whole new subplot that you didn't see in the first airings of the episodes. They're dubbing them "Newpeats."

Sorta sounds like a mix tape or using the shuffle feature on iTunes. My question is: will viewers like this? Will the directors of the episodes like it (assuming they're not part of the remix). Or will fans consider it cheating? Personally, I think it's a neat way to watch the episodes again. I mean, they're going to show the reruns anyway, so maybe this is a chance to show deleted scenes again and see what the episode looks if remixed.

I'm with the writer of the article. It's an interesting idea, and it will make watching reruns more interesting. Not that I would mind even regular reruns of The Office...the episodes are definitely re-watchable.

You've been charged with a murder and your alibi is that you were at a baseball game. But your lawyer can't spot you on the televised footage, and you can't prove it. You better hope that Curb Your Enthusiasm just happens to be shooting in the stadium that day like it was for this guy.

Catalan, 28, was arrested for the May 2003 slaying of Martha Puebla, 16, outside her Sun Valley home. He told detectives he was innocent and was at a Dodgers game when the crime occurred.

His defense lawyer, Todd Melnik, went through footage of crowd shots from the televised game between the Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves, but did not find his client. Then he learned that the HBO comedy starring former "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David had been shooting at the ballpark that day.

"There he was in the outtakes," said Gary S. Casselman, the attorney handling Catalan's lawsuit. "He's glad it's over." The scene, which ended up on the cutting room floor, showed Catalan with his 6-year-old daughter and two friends. The footage was time coded, confirming that Catalan was at the ballpark shortly before the time of the murder 20 miles away. Records of a cell phone call, made from Dodger Stadium, between Catalan and his girlfriend also helped persuade a judge to release him.

Someone else is now being prosecuted for the slaying, Casselman said. Catalan was not a fan of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" before his time in jail. "He is now," Casselman said.

While he was cleared of the charges back in 2004, he's now getting $320,000 from the Los Angeles City Council as the result of a police misconduct lawsuit. He had spent 5 months in jail on the charges.

It looks like some Georgians have gotten fined for autostarting their vehicles on cold days.

Louise Wood is one of 14 people ticketed since January by Forest Park police for violating Georgia code section 40-6-201. The 33-year-old law was meant to prevent cars from rolling away. In Forest Park, a city of 22,000 people in Clayton County, authorities have begun enforcing it in an effort to prevent auto theft.

The ticket runs $168. Wood plans to fight her ticket and so does her apartment complex neighbor, James Holland, 44, who got a ticket at 6:05 a.m. on Feb. 5, minutes before Wood got hers.

Forest Park police Major Chris Matson said Forest Park's warmup stings are part of a citywide campaign to cut down on stolen cars. Auto theft in Forest Park dropped by 25 percent last year, from 240 in 2005 to 180 in 2006. But Matson said 11 cars left warming and unattended were stolen during the first five weeks of 2007. "Thieves are just walking around these apartment complexes and store parking lots, looking for exhaust coming out of tailpipes," Matson said. "They're thinking, 'That's my way to get to school or work.' "

I know I wouldn't be able to get by on some of the colder days without autostarting my car while I'm nice and warm inside my apartment.

I already liked the fact that AskCity has the features of the current map services like Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and the others, but also added the ability to draw on the map. You could draw a circle around a building and write text on the map, and then send people a link to the map with all the stuff you added.


But it looks like they've just kicked it up a notch...now you can draw a circle encompassing an area you want to find something in. Once you do, there will be a tiny magnifying glass icon you can click on to search in just that area. You can even draw a line down a street to look for places just on that street! Nifty.


Also, maybe it's just the few searches I've done, but it seems like they have more accurate address mapping. On the other map services, the address usually appears on the right block, but satellite views generally show they're off by at least a couple of buildings. In the case of Ask, it seems like it's more accurate. Which is useful when you're searching for a place on a particular street.

On the radio this morning, I heard a trailer for some new horror movie saying the movie was "A new experience in terror." It got me thinking...it seems like every horror movie that comes out claims to be the scariest movie ever made. But that obviously isn't the case.

Saying it's a new experience in terror doesn't mean anything, though. Any horror movie I see is going to be a new experience unless they exactly copied some other movie. I think in general you don't have that many repeated experiences, especially in terms of movies. So basically it's like telling me "a movie is coming out!" Wow, you've got me hooked.

And it's always amused me in both TV and radio ads about how little you can really do to frighten someone or convey how scary the movie really is. On TV you've got limitations on what you can show...nothing explicitly gory obviously, which in the case of horror movies is pretty limiting. On the radio it's even funnier because the best you can do is use sudden loud noises, creaky doors/floors, and lots of screaming/whispering. So every trailer ends up sounding the same.

So there's my horror movie trailer half-rant (I guess the other half is amusement).

Sure the season's been pretty good so far, but this episode definitely kicked it up a notch. I did keep cringing at the fact that Logan is in this, which meant that his wife is likely going to be on soon. Sure enough, they showed her in the teaser for next week. She's got to be the worst character in the history of the show. What an annoying and useless character.

I can't believe Jack just walked right into the exploding door when he could've called Bill while standing right next to Markov. And for that matter, the Russian guy that was going to help Jack at the end could have called Bill while standing in the room with Jack instead of sneaking around the house like a moron trying to make the call.

Does anyone find it disconcerting that there hasn't really been a mole this season? Are they not going to have one? It really doesn't seem like any of the current characters fit the bill.

Check out the character countdown for a good recap of the episode's highlights and funny moments.

Click to see all This week in 24 stories.

It looks like all the major TV networks have really gone all out on providing shows over the internet, and it's sweet. Oops, I forgot to catch 30 Rock last Thursday and my DVR didn't record it? No problem! Just head over to NBC's site and watch the full episode. Missed 24 on Fox? Catch that online too!

It's hard to imagine how much things have changed from just a year or two ago, and it really is for the better. You can catch the shows you missed, and the episodes tend to be pretty good quality overall.

So what am I complaining about? It's the new shows coming out right now. First it was Rob Corddry's The Winner and now it's Andy Richter, Tony Hale, and Conan O'Brien's Andy Barker, P.I. In each case, they've dumped several episodes online (Andy Barker has 6 episodes here), weeks ahead of the scheduled premiere. What the heck? If I'm interested in checking it out, I'll end up seeing at least a couple of the episodes. If it's good, I'll end up watching all of them. Which means that I won't get another new episode for 6 weeks after the premiere! Come on guys, how can I have the suspenseful anticipation of new episodes if you do that?

In more TV news, the new season of Entourage is fast approaching.

CoverFlow was a very cool feature that appeared in iTunes in version 7. It displays your albums covers in a slick interface where you can flip through your collection (which left many scrambling to get missing album art :) Unfortunately it's pretty resource-heavy and won't run on all computers. But for those that can run it, here's even better news. The new update for iTunes 7.1 added the ability to use CoverFlow in a full screen mode, which is awesome. Now I can stop using Media Center to do this because it wouldn't always recognize all my album art.


To toggle fullscreen coverflow, click the small button in the bottom right.

You read correctly...and apparently there's an entire half hour of additional footage! The Borat DVD, which went on sale today.



If you're one of the few that hasn't seen it yet, you must check it out...it's hilarious.

I was just mentioning this past weekend about how I don't like the Geico cavemen ads. It looks like there's some mixed opinions about it, but irregardless, I think anyone can agree that the joke shouldn't be turned into a TV show. But it looks like that's exactly what's happening:

Winner for most unusual piece of development this pilot season goes to ABC, which has turned a series of quirky Geico commercials into an actual half-hour comedy project.

"Cavemen" will revolve around three pre-historic men who must battle prejudice as they attempt to live as normal thirtysomethings in modern Atlanta.

[The project], from ABC TV Studio, is penned by Joe Lawson, an advertising copywriter who was behind the "Caveman" ads -- as well as other Geico commercials (think the cockney-speaking Geico gecko, and the reality TV spoof "Tiny House"). Daniel Rappaport, Guymon Cassady, Will Speck and Josh Gordon are exec producers. Speck and Gordon, commercial directors who recently helmed the Will Farrell feature "Blades of Glory," are on board to also direct.

The single-camera laffer pilot is based on the Geico ads that promote the insurance company's Web site as so user-friendly that even "a caveman could do it."

The caveman commercials were created through the Richmond, Va.-based Martin Agency. Jeff Daniel Phillips and Ben Weber play the cavemen in the Geico spots; no word if they'll make the transformation to the TV project.