I couldn't speak it or understand it spoken very well, and I couldn't have read anything as complicated as my Audi's manual.

Dana was able to figure out the instruction manual of our rental car in Italy, through knowing little more than the Italian and Latin she'd learned from singing...

... we never did find the parking camera, though.

I'm tenatively hypothesizing telepathic projection of "don't notice me" - cause it is another mental power.

I agree with this. And also, the dampening affect he had on Grunberg's telepathy. Because Grunberg could barely read Claire's dad's mind when he was around, and Claire's dad indicated it was because of MBG. So maybe it's another x-men thing, the kid that deadened other powers, with added mental tricks.

Looks like I might've been the only one to see the unaired version of the Heroes pilot.

No, I saw it in August. And I didn't watch the aired pilot, thus not realizing that they'd cut a couple of things out, which made for some "wha?" issues in 102.

Looks like I might've been the only one to see the unaired version of the Heroes pilot.

I saw an unaired pilot for Heroes, but i don't remember the van scene you mentioned. of course that was months ago and i watched several pilots at a time. so maybe i've just forgotten it.

Profile of Masi Oka, who not only plays a geek on TV, but is one in real life, too.

I think P-C saw an unaired version of the Heroes pilot, too -- maybe at Comic Con. The one he saw had a different ending with Peter.

I think even ordering a mind to forget everything after noon on Oct. 23, 2006 or pink bunnies, or what have you, is still telepathy. It's non-spoken communication. And actual mind reading (which would be a kind of telepathy) on MBG's part, although there's no specific proof for it yet, seems to be the simplest explanation for the ability to selectively erase. It's not the only possible one, but still seems the most likely.

I don't know what I think about possible don't-notice-me type projections. I haven't paid enough attention to those scenes. Claire's dad seems to be everywhere the action is anyhow, so it didn't seem odd to me that MBG could just pop up, since Claire's dad almost just pops up.

One of my friends has a sister who watches BSG exclusively through itunes.

Her sister just got a message that said that given that BSG is planning to air 3 less episodes than originally planned they were refunding her some money.

3 less episodes? That does not sound good.

I just re-read my friend's email: it was reduced by five episodes. Five.

From 20 to 15? Does itunes count 2 hour presentations as 1 or 2 episodes? I ask because Comcast On Demand counts the two episode premiere as one episode.

And actual mind reading (which would be a kind of telepathy) on MBG's part, although there's no specific proof for it yet, seems to be the simplest explanation for the ability to selectively erase.

Even if he's deleting by time?

The Chicago Tribune's TV reviewer takes a new look at Heroes and unfortunately, doesn't change her mostly unfavorable opinion from the pilot. She does like Greg Grunberg's cop and Hiro, but the rest of it gets a big @@ and "meh." Even Hiro can rub her wrong sometimes:

I do like the scenes with Hiro and his pal from Japan, though I really wonder if, in those scenes, the character of Hiro skirts dangerously close to the stereotype of the Asian nerd (thank heaven for Daniel Dae Kim of “Lost,” for showing that an Asian TV character can be sexy, flawed, handsome and not at all nerd-tastic. And it must be said, the Hiro from the future who appeared briefly seems to be very different from the Hiro we're seeing now).

She does plan on sticking around to watch, though:

Anyhow, I’ll keep checking in on “Heroes.” I am a charter member of the nerd nation, so this should be right up my alley. I’ll keep waiting for the good parts of the show to outweigh the bad parts.

I'm looking forward to next week, because it looks like we'll actually get to see some asskicking.