I predict that Roger Federer will win this 2008 U.S Open tennis tournament. And I’m betting that the U.S. Open tennis tournament coverage will be fantastic because the Tennis Channel always covers all tennis tournaments superbly.

I’m also going to predict that several of the professional players from the Olympics will re-injure themselves and not participate in the U.S. Open. I predict that Roger Federer will also win the Olympics. I’m very excited about this because he is my favorite.

Rafael Nadal might surprise us all and win the U.S. Open and maybe even a metal. He certainly is good enough to but his favorite surface is clay. The U.S. Open and the Olympics are played on a hard court.

Team-building has been a buzz word for the past several years in the world of business and for good reason. Corporate team building takes employees out of the office and helps them learn how to be team players. In fact, employees actually become more successful and motivated in business by letting their personal guards down and having fun.

Corporate team building will impact your business in positive ways because these activities break down political and personal barriers, eliminate distractions and allow your employees to have fun. You will see them bonding with each other to create a stronger team back at the office.

High-impact learning experiences empower individuals while leadership increases along with communication. The skills your employees learn have immediate applications and these exercises create better work, better thinkers and a community of team players, contributing to a common goal.

In fact, one of the best ways to increase productivity is to enroll your team of employees in a team-building course. They will not only gain skills to help your business succeed, they will appreciate the change of scenery and the knowledge that you want them to succeed.

Tennis has been very exciting this season, mostly due to the Federer-Nadal rivalry. But what has also kept it exciting is the Williams sisters. Venus and Serena played each other in the Wimbledon finals, with older sister Venus eventually winning.

Nadal has been ranked number two in men’s tennis for longer than anyone in the open era. He is ready to knock Roger Federer out of the coveted spot and he is well on his way. Nadal won the French Open for a fourth straight year and then followed that up with a first-time win at Wimbledon. He defeated Roger Federer in both tournaments.

Following the Olympics this summer is the U.S. Open. Federer is determined to win and show the world that he is still number one. And Nadal is just as determined to show why he should be ranked number one. The U.S. Open tennis championship coverage will be exciting.

Increasing the resale value of your car is something that most people overlook. The fact is, as soon as you drive out of the car lot your car or truck loses value. One easy way to keep that ever-so-important value up is to invest in tires and rims.

Getting discount tires does not take that much work, time or money. Stores like Performance Plus Tire regularly have sales and you can snag some great values for very reasonable prices. I was able to get Toyo tires for my car for about a third of the regular price

I also have a friend that was able to get Nitto tires for super cheap. It’s well worth is to invest in rims and tires because when you want to trade in your vehicle for another, you will have increases your car’s worth.

OK, This has nothing to do with the bad experience I had in Starbucks yesterday - or indeed should I say things I have observed pretty regularly lately.  I have noticed a definate decline in their customer service levels.  Yesterday I had to wait 10 minutes for a drink - after having to remind them.  I was then offered a free coupon - and after the staff searched high and low they could not find them. It reminded me of how Starbucks staff would bend over backwards for you 10 years ago.

Well this personal experience aside I read today that they are closing 61 of 87 stores in Australia.  This came after the news that they are closing 600 stores in the US.

Perhaps this is an effort to get their affairs in order after a period of expansion that seemed excessive.  Time will tell as to how successful they will be.

Fixing up cars is a favorite past time of many Americans. In fact, Americans are very independent and motivated when it comes to their automobiles. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune either. Discount tires can be found all over and installing them doesn’t require a lot of time–a valuable commodity to most.

I recently got my car a set of Toyo tires. Now my car rides a smoother. I can appreciate the difference. I think that I am going to start playing car mechanic now to my son’s car. I’ll show him how to fix a few things on it and how to maintain it. Then I’ll show my daughter. It’s important that she know how to change a flat and check the fluids and all.

Working on cars seems to be a family value throughout this country. And our love for our cars shows through. We go to car shows and auctions and we are members of car clubs.

Look out Google, there’s a new search engine on the block. It’s named “Cuil” and pronounced “cool.” The cuil.com start page style is very simple and clean, an apt choice for the search engine openly challenging their competitor Google. Created by industry veterans Anna Patterson, Tom Costello and Russell Power the new search engine is creating a significant amount of buzz on the Internet by promising searchers an improved search experience over that of its competitors. Promises of better, more organized results have yet to be seen since its launch. ZDNet featured an entire photo gallery filled with screen shots of disastrous search results. With Yahoo! and MSN still in the mix, the Search Wars is entering what should be its most interesting episode yet.