The former longtime Russian minister of nuclear energy and veteran Soviet physicist Viktor Mikhailov knows just how to fix BP's oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

"I don't know what BP is waiting for, they are wasting their time. Only about 10 kilotons of nuclear explosion capacity and the problem is solved."

Ordinarily he's an opponent of nuclear blasts, but he says an underwater explosion in the Gulf of Mexico would not be harmful and could cost no more than $10 million. That compares with the $2.35 billion BP has paid out in cleanup and compensation costs so far.

Ideally, it pays to use a camera that offers some level of manual control over the settings. That way, you can dial in the best exposure, aperture and focus settings to achieve the best results.

If you own a fancy, expensive SLR camera, chances are you know what you're doing already. But if you don't shoot at night that often, or if you've never photographed fireworks, these tips should offer some guidance.

Twitpic, an online service for easily posting pictures to Twitter, is apparently quite upset that Posterous, an online blogging platform, has set up an automated system to export your own photos from TwitPic to Posterous. As soon as the exporter was announced, Twitpic not only blocked Posterous's tool, but got the lawyers involved.

Facebook has begun to roll out changes to the site in its efforts to appease critics of its privacy practices.

Last month it was forced to simplify its privacy settings after storms of protest from users and privacy groups.

When they were introduced, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted the older settings had become too unwieldy and difficult for users.

Others have said, and Apple has suggested, that users buy a case to prevent fingers from coming in direct contact with the antennas built into the metal band surrounding the iPhone 4.

The bumper case is a rubber holder that just surrounds the exterior of the device, and that Apple started selling the same day as the iPhone 4 for $29. Apple has already said it's not giving the cases away for free.

As of today, those among us who value quantity over speed in our storage can buy a whole trifecta of terabytes in one solitary package.

It also comes with a USB 2.0 adapter that can be upgraded to USB 3.0 or Firewire 800, depending on your preference (and cash reserves).

Subsequent efforts to decrypt files held on the hardware using a variety of dictionary-based attacks failed even after the South Americans called in the assistance of the FBI.

The files were encrypted using Truecrypt and an unnamed algorithm, reportedly based on the 256-bit AES standard.

US computer specialists also drew a blank even after 12 months of efforts to crack the code, Brazil's Globo newspaper reports.

The nation has finished bottom of the pile in a survey of health provision in similarly developed countries.

Based on a series of markers designed to assess healthcare quality, efficiency, ease of access, equality and the promotion of a long and healthy life, the US showed the biggest room for improvement, even though it spent $7290 per person on healthcare in 2007. The winners were the Netherlands, who achieved the best results despite spending just $3837 per person.

Apple acknowledged that holding the iPhone 4 may result in a diminished signal that could make it difficult to make and maintain calls or retain a data connection.

"If you ever experience this on your Phone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases."

We've actually noticed a growth in both the number of hilarious conspiracy-midned "attack blogs" from people tied to ASCAP, as well as an increase in the number of "anonymous" commenters on the site coming from IP addresses used by a few law firms that have connections to ASCAP.

Now it appears they're stepping things up to stage two: they've sent around fundraising emails that specifically ask for money to fight Creative Commons, EFF and Public Knowledge. What's amusing (but really sad) is that this proves that the rhetoric out of ASCAP about protecting "artists' rights" is bunk.

ASCAP's blatant attack on Creative Commons (and EFF and PK; both of whom focus on consumer rights, but not undermining artist's rights at all) shows their true colors. They're not about artists' rights at all.