The Air Force announced today that it has chosen Northrup Grumman, which is partnering with European airplane manufacturer Airbus — rather than Boeing — for its new fleet of mid-air refueling planes.

We’re heading into an economic recession — oh I’m sorry, I mean slowdown — our ballooning national debt is being financed predominantly by Chinese banks, and now the Air Force is going to be sending billions of our tax dollars to Airbus.  I’m all for international trade and cooperation, but there’d better be some significant advantages to the Grumman/Airbus offering over the Boeing offering to justify this.

SPOILER WARNING: Do NOT watch the below video unless you want to know who is going to win in November.

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Toshiba, the leading manufacturer and proponent of the HD-DVD format, announced today that they will cease manufacturing HD-DVD players, officially ending the high-def format war.  The announcement was expected, as HD-DVD had suffered a huge series of setbacks in recent weeks.  Early last month, Warner Brothers, one of the three studios that were backing HD-DVD (Paramont and Universal being the other two), announced it was switching to Blu-Ray.  This was followed by announcements from Netflix and Blockbuster, two of the three leading video rental companies in the U.S., that they were going exclusively Blu-Ray.  Mega-retailer Wal*Mart had also announced the decision to switch exclusively to Blu-Ray.

HD-DVD looked like it had a good start; its players were cheaper and were selling better than Blu-Ray. However, cheaper did not win out in this generation, as it had during the VHS/Betamax battle a generation ago.  Sony, the major backer of Blu-Ray, ends a long string of failed media formats (including Betamax) with the success of Blu-Ray, but it now must face competition from the emerging digital download market.

In any case, if you haven’t chosen a high definition player yet, Blu-Ray is the way to go.  And if you, like me, bet on HD-DVD well, you can still upscale your regular DVD’s using that now deprecated Toshiba player.  Now to go watch Transformers on HD-DVD and cry into my popcorn.

Veteran actor Roy Scheider passed away today at the age of 75. A cause of death was not given, however he has been treated in recent years for multiple myelome, a type of cancer which affects cells in bone marrow.

Scheider is most famous for his role as Police Chief Martin Brody in the first two Jaws films, as well as Captain Nathan Bridger in the television series seaQuest DSV, both projects involving Steven Spielberg as prodcuer or director.

Later in his career, despite earlier success his roles were mostly in lower rated films, often playing military officers or the President (a role he played 3 times).

He is survived by his three children and his wife Brenda.

This one is geared mostly towards Republicans, but anyone can answer.

So assume either Hillary or Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee, under what circumstances (if any) would you vote for one or the other so you could later say you voted for the first "insert female/black" President? Would it take a landslide showing in the national polls? The fact that your state always votes one way or the other? Something else? Nothing else? Would it be easier if it were Hillary? Easier if it were Obama? Easier if it Al Sharpton? Easier if it were Weird Al?

Not sure why Brendan didn’t mention it, but Macworld Expo 2008 has kicked off with Steve Jobs annual keynote address about 45 minutes ago.  The event is not being streamed live but a number of sites including Macworld, Engadget, Gizmodo and MacRumorsLive are live blogging the event.

So far Steve has introduced software upgrades for the iPhone/iPod Touch and an Airport base station that includes a harddrive for wireless use with Leopards Time Machine backup feature.

Now up?  The anticipated iTunes movie rentals and an update to the iTV that allows you to purchase songs and movies directly.  More to come later, check out the links above for live coverage.

UPDATE: The rumors were true, Apple is releasing a sub-notebook, the 13.3" MacBook Air and DANG that thing is thin.  To give you an idea, it easily fits in manila buisness envelope (the type you might use for interoffice mail).  At its thickest its .74".

UPDATE 2:  How thin is it?  See for yourself!  Apple has updated their site with the new info from today’s keynote.

MacBook Air

Renowned explorer and perhaps the world’s most famous New Zealander, Sir Edmund Hillary, has passed away after suffering a heart attack. He was 88 years old.

Hillary — along with his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay — were the first two men known to have reached the summit of Mt. Everest, the highest peak on Earth. They achieved this feat on May 29, 1953. Hillary was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II shortly after completing the climb and continued to explore, climbing a number of other mountains as well as traveling to both the North and South poles.

He continued to have a strong friendship with the Sherpa people throughout his life, at one point being given an honorary Nepalese citizenship. He participated in philanthropic work in the region as well helping raise money to build hospitals and schools.

Flags in New Zealand are being flown at half staff in his honor, as well as at Scott Base, a New Zealand-operated Antarctic research station Hillary was involved in. A state funeral is being planned in his honor as well.

With less than 6 minutes remaining the Mountaineers of West Virginia are dominating the Oklahoma Sooners 48 - 28.  A win would not only be a huge upset (for instance only 17 of the 90 entrants in the bowl pool picked WVU and over 84% of the voters in the ESPN Bowl Mania challange picked the Sooners, with an average confidence of 24.5 out of 32) but the first win of the bowl season for a team playing with an interim coach.  Oklahoma is looking at another loss in the Arizona desert, although not nearly as exciting as last years to Boise State.  And its been a messy game too, 21 penalties so far and 225 penalty yards between the two teams, a dubious Fiesta Bowl record.

Oh and one more thing, the next time someone complains about USC only playing one song I’m going to tell them to watch an Oklahoma game, that stupid Sooner ditty is ridiculous.

UPDATE:

Final score 48-28 WVU, congrats to the Mountaineers.  If West Virginia is smart they’ll hire interim coach  Bill Stewart right after the game.  He got this team to play for him when no one else believed in them.

Amidst the college bowl games, the potentially historic NFL game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants is currently underway.  The powers-that-be at the NFL conveniently came to their senses earlier this week, and it is being broadcast on both NBC and CBS along with the much-maligned NFL Network.  It’s the same feed for all three, so it doesn’t really matter which one you pick (commercials are the same too, so you’re stuck with the same annoying commercials, no flipping between, although you could swap to the Alamo Bowl to watch JoePa’s 500th game).

Despite speculation that one or both teams might rest their starters, it appears all the big guns are out for both teams, and it’s paid off so far for the Giants, as they have a 7-0 lead part way through the first quarter.

UPDATE: It’s been a battle so far but the Giants are still on top 21-16 thanks to some great plays and a few mistakes by the Patriots as we go to the half.

Up 21-0 it looked like Texas was about to put the nail in the coffin with a recovery of a backwards lateral and return by the Longhorns, until, that is, the instant replay showed that as the ball was bouncing backwards towards the Texas sideline, a Texas coach/ballboy reached out for the ball and tipped it with his thumb before he drew back his hand*.  The result?  A unsporstmanlke conduct penalty that resulted in the ball being given back to ASU plus half the distance to the goal, 4 and 3 on the 7 yard line.  Carpenter tossed a short pass for a touchdown on the ensuing play, and proceeded to hold texas to a 3 and out on the next drive to get the ball back on the Texas side of the field.  WIth 10 minutes remaining in the first half, plenty of time for the Sun Devil’s to make a comeback.

* Some may dispute whether the ball touched the young man’s hand or not, it was tough to tell from some of the angles, however there were clearly Texas players and coaches on the field which would also have been an unsportsmanlike penalty anyway.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Aaaand Arizona State lays a massive egg for the Pac-10, committing five turnovers en route to a 52-34 Texas win. Dammit, Sun Devils!

In the Irish Trojan Bowl Pick ‘em Contest, it’s now a six-way tie for first place among Gerry deSimas, Hal Strickland, Mark Gardner, Chris Healey, Anthony H. and D. Brooks. Updated standings here and after the jump.

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LA Daily News is reporting that Oregon Coach Mike Belotti has met with UCLA officials regarding the Bruins’ head coaching position. Norm Chow, former USC offensive guru, has announced he is not interested in the job (followed by a collective sigh of relief from Trojan nation). Rick Neuheisel, the scourge of both the Colorado and Washington programs, is also still in the running.

Utah has scored the first points of bowl season, scoring a touchdown in the second quarter of the Poinsettia Bowl. Plenty of time for more action, but only 32 of the 90 contestants in the pool picked the Utes to win, a victory here would put a lot of people in second place!

UPDATE

Utah wins 35-32, holding off a last minute comeback from Navy who scored on their longest TD pass of the year and recovered the onside kick, but lost the ball on an interception when their receiver slipped. Bowl season starts off with a bang!

Some critics of Tyrone Willingham believed it was his unwillingness to make staff changes that led to his ouster at Notre Dame 3 years ago. Whether that was true or not, it can’t be said this time, as he has fired Defensive Coordinator Kent Baer along with Special Teams coach Bob Simmons. Defensive struggles were one of the Huskies’ lowlights this season, and many were pushing for Baer’s firing.

Interesting follow up to the news that Ty Willingham will have at least one more year as Washington’s coach.  Athletic director Todd Turner, the man who brought him in and one of his most vocal supporters has resigned.  Some are pointing to his support of Willingham, which seems strange considering the recent decisions to keep him on and the continued support of UW President Mark Emmert for the coach.  Others point to his difficulty in raising funds for Husky Stadium renovations and fallout over remarks made last year when holding up Northwest rival Oregon as an example for the Huskies to follow. 

A nationwide search for a new AD will be conducted and in the interim UW Vice President for external affairs, , will act as athletic director.

Meanwhile in the Pac-10, reports are that Washington State is going to hire Eastern Washington coach Bob Wulff as their next head coach.  Wulff is a WSU alum, where he played from 1985-1989 under current Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson.  Wulff has coached at the 1-AA EWU since 2000 and has been named three times as the Big Sky conference Coach of the year since then.  His Eagles lost to Appalachian State in the 1-AA Quarterfinals earlier this month.

Naw just kidding, Tebow won. :)

Tebow, a Florida sophomore, is the first underclassman to win the award, and could potentially repeat at least once to tie Archie Griffin, the only two-time winner. Heck, Tebow could even become a three-time winner. It’ll be interesting to see if he can live up to expectations over the next few years, and even more interesting to consider if he can exceed them. Congratulations Tim Tebow, Heisman Trophy Winner 2007.