This week, Greg Davies from the Blendover podcast joins Dwayne and Andrew as we discuss: Chinese hackers break into U.S. gov’t employee records, Hulu gets South Park, a shakeup at Microsoft, Apple and IBM join forces, a new vehicle from Tesla, and…Worst. Con. Ever. All this and much more…

IBM has created a short movie unlike anything you’ve ever seen. The movie, which is titled A Boy and His Atom, is made using stop-motion techniques—such as the ones used in films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride—but instead of manipulating a visible doll or figure or object multiple times to create a film, this particular film is made up entirely of manipulated atoms that have been magnified by a microscope over 100 million times. This makes it the smallest movie ever made.

As the title implies, the short follows a boy and his friendly, lively atom. It consists of 250 stop-motion frames using techniques that were perfected over years of atomic data storage research. The microscope used to make the movie is not the kind used in science class either, as you may have guessed. This microscope weighs in at two tons, and operates at minus 450 degrees Fahrenheit. The microscope uses an ultra sharp needle to within one nanometer of a copper surface, which attracts the atom and allows them to move one at a time.

Be sure to check out A Boy and His Atom below now!

This week, The Drill Down team (including occasional co-host TechMeme editor Lidija Davis) talk about employers asking prospective new hires for their Facebook (and other social) passwords and Facebook’s reaction to that. Also, we look at the issues and reactions that have emerged in the two weeks since the launch of Apple‘s new iPad.

But first, this week’s headlines… Apple to pay dividends, Kevin Rose to work for Google, Zynga buys OMGPOP, Facebook buys 750 patents from IBM, Nokia‘s Lumia 900 comes to AT&T, Obvtuse vs Svbtle, and Google shows you what you’ve been doing…on Google.