This doesn't sound good: The Coast Guard is looking into reports of a "sheen" in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast — "We have an unknown substance in the water." Oil? Algae? Charlie?

An article in last month's Physical Review Letters says that oobleck, a mixture of cornstarch and water, could have plugged BP's very leaky oil well in the Gulf. It seems no one got the memo (literally).

Over the last several years, Libya has transformed itself from regional pariah into a country where foreign leaders are begging to pose for a grip-and-grin with Brother Leader Muammar el-Qaddafi. How did this happen?

Boy, that pesky Gulf oil spill thing just won't go away: "I've been to the bottom [...] It's not going to be fine by 2012," marine scientist Samantha Joye told the AP. But BP says otherwise. What gives?

According to the state the Mississippi, guess who's stiffing victims of the Gulf oil spill? The state's Attorney General wrote yesterday that thanks to "sweeping deficiencies and violations of law," BP is allegedly "underpaying" legitimate claims. Surprised? [Bloomberg]

Hey Gulf residents: Please stop filing fraudulent claims against BP, the company is sick and tired of it.

Just two weeks after ex-Yukos Oil boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to another six years in Russian prison, BP pulled a share swap, exchanging $7.8 billion of stock in the company holding Yukos' assets for a 9.5 percent stake. Convenient!

A small oil leak has shut down the Trans Alaska Pipeline for the last three days, cutting production there by 98% and prompting price increases. And guess which company is a "major owner" of the pipeline? Poor old BP. [Reuters]

Have you seen the Times' account of the final hours of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig? Because: Wow.

The GOP's rising star, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, was the driving force behind the construction of sand berms to curb the Gulf oil spill. They were considered environmentally unsound, and a presidential commission has found that they didn't even work.

Remember that little "Gulf of Mexico oil spill" story from the summer? The government won't let it slide! The Justice Department has filed a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against BP and others, seeking removal costs and damages. Lots of it.

Tonight, Stephen Colbert revealed that his June tweet about BP's oil spill was retweeted more than any other this year. Then, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone came on stage to present Colbert with the first ever "Golden Tweet Award." Watch inside.

Poor BP is claiming that U.S. government estimates on the size of the Gulf oil spill are way too high, by 20-50 percent. Of course, the more oil that was spilled means more fines the company must pay. Nice try!

Free market hero (and Senator-elect!) Rand Paul was on CBS's Face the Nation today to talk about things. He said he didn't like "the language" Obama used during the BP oil spill, and he's still waiting for a congratulatory phonecall.

Former BP chief Tony Hayward is back! Speaking for the first time since his resignation, he said that all of those pesky reporters were part of an unjust media "feeding frenzy" and that he'd definitely go sailing mid-spill again, too.

The president's oil spill commission says money did not influence BP's safety decisions before the Gulf oil spill.

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration believe they have a "smoking gun" after finding dead coral 4,500 feet below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico, seven miles from the Deepwater Horizon rig site. What a coincidence.

The tab for BP's oil spill is expected to reach nearly $40 billion, the company said as it announced its third quarter financial results today. That's $7 billion more than expected, thanks to pesky legal fees and cleanup operations. [Bloomberg]

A presidential commission yesterday found that BP and Halliburton knew that the cement mixture used to seal the Macondo well before the oil spill had "repeatedly failed lab tests." You should probably grab some Halliburton shares while they're hot.

BP's new chief executive appears to be just as delusional as the old one.