(NEWSER) – Men guzzle way more beer, but women seem to have a better nose for it. One major brewer—SABMiller, which makes Miller and Coors, among other brands—has concluded that women are better able to discern when a batch is skunky or just right, and as a result, the company has beefed up its arsenal of female tasters, reports theWall Street Journal.

“We have found that females often are more sensitive about the levels of flavor in beer,” says the company’s chief brewer. Other big beer-makers haven’t gone quite that far, though Carlsberg notes that women outperformed men at this year’s tastings. That “surprised us,” says a quality official. One female bargoer sums it up” “I think we have a better sense of what tastes better in all aspects,” she says. “Food, clothes, beer.”

Mike’s Thoughts: Great, just great.  So now the ONLY thing men are good at is taking out the garbage?? Wait….I’m fine with that.  I retract my earlier comment.

(Newser) Move over, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The FAA has approved a small plane that can also double as a car. Drivers can zip down the road in the two-seat Terrafugia Transition, wings folded, at a respectable 30 miles per gallon. Upon arrival at an airport, the “roadable light sport” aircraft, weighing in at just over 1300 pounds, can be transformed into a flying machine. In the event of inclement weather, it can simply be driven back home. Some 70 customers have already ordered the $194,000 craft, and production will begin soon, reports the Telegraph.

Mike’s Thoughts: This news was met with a resounding cheer by George Jetson and everyone who works at Spacely Sprockets.

NEWSER) – Larry King is calling it quits in the fall. The CNN host announced this evening that he will give up his nightly show, which has been struggling in the ratings, after 25 years with the network. “I’ll still be a part of the CNN family, hosting several Larry King specials on major national and international subjects,” he said in hisstatement. The move will give “me more time for my wife and I to get to the kids’ little league games,” wrote the 76-year-old King.

“I’m incredibly proud that we recently made the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest running show with the same host in the same time slot. With this chapter closing I’m looking forward to the future and what my next chapter will bring, but for now it’s time to hang up my nightly suspenders.”

MIke’s Thoughts:  Any time Larry King talks about his clothing choices I throw up in my mouth just a teeny bit.

(Newser) – Six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi is unlikely to be chowing down with the world’s best at this year’s Nathan’s hot dog-eating contest. Major League Eating president says contract negotiations with the 128-pound Japanese eating machine are “at an impasse,” although he hinted that Kobayashi may be ducking out after three consecutive losses to American eating champ Joey Chestnut, the New York Post reports.

Kobayashi amazed fans at the sport’s flagship event by downing 50 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes in 2001, and held the title for six years before losing to Chestnut. He “changed the sport and he will go down in people’s minds as one of the world’s greatest athletes,” Shea says. “Kobayashi ushered in the modern era, like a Tiger Woods, if you will.”

Mike’s Thoughts:  Yeah, a guy who force feeds himself hotdogs is a revolutionary athlete just like my college room-mate Marcus who could bong 17 beers in a row every Friday night and still make it to Taco Bell for a burrito supreme night cap.

(Newser) – Dun-dun, dun-dun: Massachusetts isn’t about to let a measly 200-pound juvenile great white shark close its beaches. The beast was caught and released 20 miles offshore, and “we don’t believe it is a threat to public safety,” a top environmental official tells the Boston Globe. “White sharks have been here, and they will continue to be here.”

Mike’s Thoughts:  Marine experts reccommend not slathering yourself in fresh blood before your ocean swim or traveling with pods of seals if at all possible.

And squid scented sunscreen?  BIG no-no.

(Newser) – If romantic music is playing, a woman is almost twice as likely to give an “average” guy her phone number than if the background tunes are neutral, a new study shows. French researchers played a song considered romantic and another deemed neutral while 18- to 20-year-old women interacted with male volunteers ranked average in attractiveness, LiveScience reports. The subjects who heard the flirtier tune parted with their digits more easily.

The women and the “average joes” discussed the difference between two food products. Each man then recited a line written by the researchers asking for his counterpart’s phone number to set up a coffee date. More than half of women who listened to the romantic song agreed, but only 28% of those who listened to the neutral song gave up their phone numbers.

Mike’s Thoughts:  Any girl who doesn’t find the Scorpions “Rock you Like a Hurricane” to be sufficiently romantic probably isn’t worth your time anyway.

(Premier Radio Networks) Combos – you know, the pretzels with the cheese in the middle – ranked the “manliest” cities in America.

Their findings: Charlotte, North Carolina comes in first – and Portland, Oregon, finished last out of the 50 cities ranked.

The rankings were based on the number of home improvement stores, steak houses, pickup trucks and motorcycles per capita – along with “manly occupations” such as fire fighters, police officers, construction works, and EMT personnel.

Here’s a rundown of the top five:

1. Charlotte, N.C.
2. Columbus, Ohio
3. Kansas City, Missouri
4. Nashville, Tennessee
5. Baltimore, Maryland

Brace yourself for the bottom five:

46. Buffalo, N.Y.
47. Oakland, Calif.
48. Los Angeles, Calif.
49. Miami, Fla.
50. Portland, Oregon

Denver comes in 11^th between St. Louis and Philadelphia

I demand a recount!

(Denver Post) - 

John Elways turns 50 today- Elway’s bucket list includes playing the bad guy in a cowboy movie, driving a stock car on a local track, biking the Ride The Rockies, traveling to Italy again (where he proposed to his wife of 10 months, Paige), playing in a seniors golf tournament, visiting the historic World War II beach site at Normandy, watching his four children graduate from college (the oldest has earned a master’s degree, and the other three are attending different universities), doing dozens of new business deals, growing the restaurants he co-owns and . . .

An untold story is that in high school in California, Elway wore No. 11, “but, at Stanford, a DB (defensive back) had my favorite number, and I didn’t want to ask him for it. All they had were Nos. 12 and 7. I chose 7 because few athletes wore the number.”

• After more than 30 years in entertainment as an actor, talk show host, Broadway star, cookbook author, pro boxer and song and dance man, Tony Danza faces his toughest audience to date – high school students. Long before the launch of Danza’s showbiz career, he hoped to be a teacher and even earned a degree in history to pursue that dream. “Teach: Tony Danza” chronicles Danza’s journey as he returns to his original dream and takes on the role of English teacher for a class of sophomore students at Northeast High School in Philadelphia. Danza must do some learning of his own as he adapts to the demands of teaching two back-to-back 45 minute periods and handling his diverse class of students of varying abilities. He must also learn to manage extra-curricular activities, charity events and to juggle his personal life throughout the school year. Viewers will experience the trials and tribulations of a first year teacher through the eyes of Danza, his peers, school administrators, and most importantly…his students.

Mike’s Thoughts:  Is this a trend?  If so, I really think Alyssa Milano (Samantha from Who’s the Boss” should be getting her own show really damn soon.

Excited as I am with this latest Tony Danza Extravaganza news, I felt compelled to compose a tribute song.

Click below to listen.

Tony_Danza_Extravaganza[1]