TheTodayNews.com

Tennis-mom Kim Clijsters, who was the first mother to win a tennis Grand Slam Championship since 1980, shows you can have a family AND a career in the tennis world after she wins the 2009 US Open. (Unfortunately, a defeated Williams sister temper-tantrum against a line judge received much of the limelight in the tournament.)

Hot up-and-coming actor Brian Kubach is a name you might not recognize, but if you’re a follower of The Wizards of Waverly Place then you’ve seen him on a multi-episode stint as Riley, the boyfriend of Alex (Selena Gomez). He has also appeared on Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, Hannah Montana, and The O.C. Not too shabby for a guy who only moved out to Hollywood from Ohio a couple of years ago!

He is currently slated to be nibbled upon in the Spring 2010 big screen release of Piranha 3D.

Need a cheap word processor? How does FREE sound?

The folks at OpenOffice.org (which is sponsored by Sun Microsystems, Google, Novell, IBM, pretty much everybody who is NOT Microsoft) have available for download a full office suite containing a great word processor, a spreadsheet tool, a drawer, a presentation maker, etc. on their website free for download at www.OpenOffice.org . It’s just like Microsoft Word or Works. We’ve been using it for years!

An iPhone app now exists to let you track and receive alerts of swine flu reports in your area. The “Outbreaks Near Me” app, developed by researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and the MIT Media Lab and partnering with HealthMap.org, will not only alert you of H1N1 cases but will also allow you to submit cases and photos right from your iPhone!

So if you have the bug, an iPhone/iTouch, and some free time on your hands, you can amuse yourself by submitting your own information and then listen for the application warning beeps on every iPhone in your whole ZIP code…

Sure the Pittsburgh Steelers are the reigning Super Bowl Champions, but in spite of all their team talent and their home-field sellout streak dating back to 1972, what is it that the Steelers are missing? Cheerleaders!

But the Pittsburgh Steelers are not alone. In fact, their Rust Belt compadres Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions are also without cheerleaders! NFL fans in these cities would have to drive several hours to Buffalo to enjoy what most football teams, both professional and academic, take for granted as an integral part of the football experience.

Maybe the Browns can hire the Buffalo Jills to cheer for them when the Bills are playing away games…

A study by Dr Sainudeen Pattazhy, a professor at Sree Narayana College in Punalur, India, found that when a mobile phone was kept near a beehive it resulted in collapse of the colony (a.k.a. Colony Collapse Disorder) in five to 10 days, with the worker bees failing to return home, leaving the hives with just queens, eggs and hive-bound immature bees. A similar study with the same result was also conducted at Landau University, in Germany.

Electromagnetic waves emitted by cell phone towers were strong enough to cripple the “navigational skills” of the worker bees, who play a vital role in sustaining bee colonies, he said.

We all loved the “Dude, you’re getting a Dell!” series of commercials featuring actor Ben Curtis that ran from 2000 until it was dropped after his 2003 conviction of criminal possession of marijuana. So what has Ben Curtis been up to since then?

Like most actors he’s had a couple of bit TV appearances, indie movie roles, and a band.

But his most recent project is an independent film titled Spy: the Movie, scheduled for release in December 2009, which also stars Sopranos alum Vincent Pastore. And quite honestly, the trailer for the movie looks pretty good for a low-budget indie film!

Are you sad that a free Starbucks coffee promotion only seems to appear once a year? Well now you have the opportunity to get a free Starbucks coffee every day! On the front of some 12 oz. bags of Starbucks coffee is an offer for a free tall brewed coffee when you turn in your empty bag. (I got my bag of House Blend at the local Giant Eagle supermarket, don’t know if the bags in an actual Starbucks have the same offer or not.)

So whether you live in Columbus, Chicago or Seattle, the faster you can guzzle down as many pots of House Blend that a 12 oz. bag can make, that faster you can get yourself ANOTHER free Tall as a chaser! I’m shaking in anticipation…or maybe it’s the caffeine…

A treat for the women, Matthew McConaughey shirtless (and really, when he is ever actually WEARING a shirt?) And for the guys? Just a reminder that we need to do more sit-ups to keep up with the competition…

There is a lot of hoopla surrounding December 21, 2012, which is when the 5126-year Mayan “Long Count” calendar will end. Some claim the ancient Mayans were foretelling a cataclysmic end to civilization.

Luckily for all the authors raking in the dough by selling books claiming the world will end in 2012 (ironically rendering their own book earnings useless on that date), the Mayan “long count” calendar end is analogous to our own calendar ending on December 31 of each year. We all wake up on January 1 of every year just fine (except for the occasional hangover), and the morning of December 22, 2012 will be no different. So don’t put off your 2012 Christmas shopping until the last day thinking you won’t need gifts!