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As BP makes its latest attempt to plug its gushing oil well, news photographers are complaining that their efforts to document the slow-motion disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are being thwarted by local and federal officials—working with BP—who are blocking access to the sites where the effects of the spill are most visible.

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A test-run of issuing free heroin to addicts in Copenhagen appears to be successful, with initial results showing reduced crime and prostitution and improved health and life quality for those taking part in the project.

The same result as many other such tests.

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Hungry to earn a buck, many programmers are making apps for the two leading mobile platforms: Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android OS. But a few developers say they feel luckier playing with the underdog: Palm.

“I made some of the crappiest apps for the Pre, and Palm is giving me $1,000 for each,” software programmer Pete Ma (right) bragged to Wired.com last week during a developer conference, adding that each of his five apps took less than an hour to code.

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Irish bookie Paddy Power said it’s offering 6-to-4 odds that BP CEO Tony Hayward will be the first to lose his job due to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. At 2-to-1, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg is second most likely, followed by COO Doug Suttles at 9-to-4, Louisiana Shrimp Association Secretary Clint Guidry at 12-to-1, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at 14-to-1, White House energy adviser Carol Browner at 16-to-1 and President Barack Obama at 20-to-1.

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"The driver was, as you might guess, suspected of inebriation and investigated for such and arrested for such."

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Sure, Steve Jobs might be a one-man email PR machine, but his pal Randall Stephenson at AT&T doesn’t appear to be quite as gregarious — as reader Giorgio Galante found out today, sending AT&T’s CEO two emails in two weeks results in a phone call from AT&T’s Executive Response Team and a warning that further emails will result in a cease and desist letter. What did Giorgio’s emails say? The first was a request to bump up his iPhone eligibility date and a request for a tethering option, and today’s outlined his displeasure with AT&T’s new data rates and ultimate decision to switch to Sprint and the EVO 4G. That prompted “Brent” to call Giorgio back and thank him for the feedback, but also politely warn him that further emails would be met with legal action. Ouch. As you’d expect, AT&T just lost itself a customer.

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The big music labels and movie studios have stepped back from the lawsuit business. The MPAA’s abortive campaign against individual file-swappers ended years ago, while the RIAA’s more widely publicized (and criticized) years-long campaign against P2P swappers ended over a year ago.

So why have P2P lawsuits against individuals spiked dramatically in 2010? It’s all thanks to the US Copyright Group, a set of lawyers who have turned P2P prosecution into revenue generation in order to "SAVE CINEMA." The model couldn’t be simpler: find an indie filmmaker; convince the production company to let you sue individual "John Does" for no charge; send out subpoenas to reveal each Doe’s identity; demand that each person pay $1,500 to $2,500 to make the lawsuit go away; set up a website to accept checks and credit cards; split the revenue with the filmmaker.

- Hurt locker box office: $ 16,4 million domestic (box office numbers)
- Hurt locker extortion: $ 12,5 million (2500 × 5000 and counting…)

Next up: film makers who don’t care about the box office results because the piracy settlement suits bring in more than the box office ever could.