Fire Water Burn

All eyes on Los Alamos National Laboratory as wildfires burn

LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico (CNN) -- As fires burn through out the western part of the country, all eyes are on the Los Alamos National Laboratory where the atomic bomb was developed.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from the town of Los Alamos where a wild fire has consumed more than 61,000 acres of land and it's just a few miles from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

As fire crews battle the flames, there are concerns over the safety of nuclear and hazardous material stored on that site.

Michio Kaku, host of "Sci Fi Science" on the Science Channel says, "If the fire actually reaches the site temperatures will rise because these sites are above ground. These cans could pop open and liquids and solids could then be lofted into the air containing plutonium dioxide dust, one of the most toxic chemicals known to science."

The fire chief assured the public that those barrels are secure. Fire Chief Doug Tucker says, "It's not high level RAD waste and we believe that we can protect those, we can foam them. If in fact they do catch fire they have vents in them. They'll vent and with a heap-filter and there will be no release of toxic materials."

Authorities say they are watching the situation closely, and measures are in place for monitoring air quality.

Water tanks on the lab's property have been refilled as fire fighting measure continues, and the lab will remain closed through Thursday.

The Metal/Punk Continuum: Fire Water Burn

As I noted in a recent post, I'm currently hard at work on an essay discussing the recurrent use of heavy metal in films about the Iraq War. Since all my writing energy is currently being channeled into that essay, I thought I'd post a few paragraphs to offer a glimpse of the work in progress. So, here's the opening to the essay, in which I compare a scene from Michael Moore's polemical documentary, Note: The title of this post is taken from a song by the band Bloodhound Gang, which is at the center of these two clips under discussion. I have to admit that I'm not all that familiar with the band, but they do seem to have had quite a fan base among Iraq war soldiers circa 2003-2004. Here's a link to the song (the video's actually pretty funny). , has been alternately celebrated and critiqued along multiple lines. Impassioned and driven by Moore’s characteristic sympathy for those he considers political underdogs, the film uses footage drawn from myriad sources to construct a dense montage in which political analysis rubs up against emotional pathos, on one hand, and humorous punch lines on the other. Moore’s comments about the “immorality” of Bush’s decision to send U.S. troops to war are meant to absolve soldiers of much of the responsibility for the big-picture consequences of their actions; for the moral and political crux of the film concerns the failure of leadership stemming from the highest echelons of U.S. government. Yet portions of the film show those same soldiers to be acting in full accordance with U.S. policy mandates and to be treating the Iraqi population as something less than fully human. Thus, “this is what you get:” soldiers laughing at a dead Iraqi laying on the ground with a rigor mortis-induced erection; soldiers treating a Christmas Eve raid on a civilian as a mock visit from Santa; and in one of the more stirring bits of footage, a white male soldier singing directly to the camera lines from the nu metal band Bloodhound Gang’s song, “Fire Water Burn.” “We don’t need no water let the motherfucker burn/Burn, motherfucker, burn,” chants the soldier, eyes open wide and mouth crooked in a half-smile in apparent glee at the imagined damage evoked by the lyrics he sings. , by the Australian artist and filmmaker George Gittoes.

Bloodhound Gang Songs, The Bad Touch, Fire Water Burn, Mope, Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo, Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss

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