Here are eight of the stories people have created to make sense of the senseless. Some are serious attempts to come to grips with the consequences of the spill. Some are parodies. One is a conspiracy theory.

Vancouver photographer Kris Krug was hired by National Geographic but was able to share his photos on Flickr’s Creative Commons so that people everywhere could use them to tell the story of what happened and what must be done.

CBS tells the story of the human cost of the spill through the suicide of lifelong charter fishing Captain Allen Kruse.

UCB’s Comedy Channel chooses parody to tell the story: “When BP spills coffee”.

The BP Oil Spill Chronicles is a news mashup that points fingers in all directions.

RTAmerica video blows the whistle on BP, telling the story of “A culture of neglect driven by penny pinching”.

Tremendous News uses cats to tell the BP story.

Russia Today focuses this story on the “wildlife apocalypse”.

One of the strangest stories is attributed to an “unknown online entity”, claiming the whole thing is an illusion.