There’ll be numerous exotic substitutes to halt the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, if BP’s second containment funnel fails. An apparently regular solution to such troubles in Soviet days had been a controlled underground nuclear explosion, which has, now also been suggested by Komsomoloskaya Pravda.

Such a nuclear explosion can cork the gushing oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

If this explosion is carried out successfully, then, by compressing rock against the oil well’s chamber, the nuke would stifle flow from the underground leak. In the 1960s and 1970s, five such explosions had been carried out with only one misfire. These statistics lead to an 80% chance of success in the Gulf.

"The second 'success' gave Soviet scientists great confidence in the use of this new technique for rapidly and effectively controlling ran away gas and oil wells," said a U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) report on the Soviet Union's peaceful uses of nuclear explosions.

There are highly absorbent hair booms made of discarded clippings and nylon stockings in the Runner-up of the weirdness stakes. To help mop up a 2007 San Francisco container ship spill, Matter of Trust Non-profit organization, supplied hair mats to it.

Even though the resulting booms are yet to be deployed, yet over 450,000 pounds of hair have been collected already.