Scotland might have its infamous deep-fried Mars bar, but that treat's now got some serious competition. Mixing together two of mankind's favorite things (deep-fried stuff and alcohol), one inventive Texan has discovered a means of deep-frying beer.

Billingsgazette.com - HELENA MT. - General rule of thumb: when looking to buy marijuana, don't text the sheriff. Authorities say a Helena teen sent out a text message last week in search of pot, but instead of contacting the drug dealer, he hit a wrong number and inadvertently sent the message to Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton. The text read, "Hey Dawg, do you have a $20 I can buy right now?" Dutton told the Helena Independent Record he initially thought it was a joke, but he quickly realized it was a real request for drugs.

Atlantic.com - It's one thing to maintain ruthless control over an oppressed citizenry. But quite something else to tweet about it well. In today's Davos-driven geopolitics, even authoritarian leaders need to be savvy about public relations. That's why even the toughest leaders are all up on the Internet; they use Twitter to craft their images without the hassle and noise of competing parties or media bias.

Nerve.com - Tabloid dug up a random story out of Thailand about the "vagina tree," which correctly predicted the lottery based on some strange markings* on the trunk. The numbers were simple -- 008 -- but they worked on the next go-around, and everyone in the village is rich. Or, well, richer -- since they probably didn't all win $50 million Thai baht. (*That, for all you men, is called the g-spot.)

publishingperspectives.com – By Siobhan O’Leary - BERLIN: Last Saturday night, just as the sun was setting in Berlin, 100,000 bookmarks featuring poems by 80 Chilean and German poets rained from the sky. The event was co-organized by the Chilean artist collective Casagrande, which launched the “Poetry Rain” project in 2001 as a protest against war and a gesture supporting forgiveness.