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Used ICBM Silo For Sale, "Cheap"

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the homes-for-nerds dept.

sprzepiora writes "An Atlas ICBM silo is for sale on E-Bay. Place your bids now, because it's only $1.5E6! Includes such amenities as: 1100 gallon hot tub, sauna,3 finished baths, 47 ton garage door, 66,000 lb. bank of batteries, chemical and bioligical air filtration, and more!" This is cool just to lust after. Of course its in Kansas (yeah I know, I'm in michigan, whats the difference, right?)

19 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. The one time... by ekrout · · Score: 4, Funny

    that a reply of ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US might actually apply. Schweet ;-)

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    If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
  2. Userfriendly.org? by Ksop · · Score: 3, Funny

    Thats the one all the geeks from Columbia Internet were living in right?

  3. Somewhere in the former Soviet Union... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...is a silo in the ground, complete with a missile dialed in to your new home! This is one thing the Real Estate agent will conveniently forget to mention.

    On the other hand, I guess that's the purpose for the 47-ton garage door.

  4. One of our base... by Tackhead · · Score: 3, Funny
    ...can belong to YOU, yes you, for the low, low price of $1.5 megabucks!

    (Considering what the owner probably paid for it, and the improvements made, any handymen might seriously want to consider purchasing old silos and reconditioning them. Fun and profitable!)

  5. Kansas? Who Cares? by torpor · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dude, it's underground. It could be in Iceland for all I care - that is some *private* mad-scientist lab space...

    The only problem with the place is that it's not nearly as secret as it once was. I'd pay twice what the going price for this thing is, if only it *wasn't* plastered all over EBay. It's a bit hard to make plans to rule the known universe when everyone and their dog is coming by just to see "that mad rocket guy that lives in a bunker in Kansas".

    Of course, there's always price-of-admission revenue for signed photo's. Oh, and I suppose there'd be a plentiful supply of fresh human brain matter to plunder for the "MegaBrain Computer" experiment.

    Well, off to feed the kitty ...

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  6. Jeez... by meckardt · · Score: 3, Funny

    I would just jump all over this deal, except that right now, my stock options aren't worth as much as they used to be...

  7. Is it just me... by gusnz · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...or is CmdrTaco going down the tubes again? ;)

    OTOH, I can see the benefits: "Target acquired: Redmond is onscreen..."

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  8. Maybe Saddam Hussein, also... by Futurepower(tm) · · Score: 3, Funny


    Osama bin Laden will surely bid on this.


    ABC News article: "Abu Sayyaf ... train[ed] terrorists in the methods taught by the CIA ..." What should be the Response to Violence?

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  9. Other dream homes.... by nellardo · · Score: 3

    Loompanics Unlimited, that sterling source of all that They don't want you to know, has a section of books on these kinds of things. My favorite is this one. I want a decommissioned nuclear submarine I can berth at Manhattan! Then I can live "in" the East Village (where I live now - been interesting) and get away from it all.

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    Klactovedestene!
  10. Sounds like a secure web server / data site to me by MadCow42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You could set up a nice web hosting business there, with guaranteed security, excellent UPS setup, and most likely a pre-installed fat data pipe (probably laying dormant though).

    Did you say nuke-proof? Well, maybe, unless as someone pointed out earlier, the Russians have your home address locked directly into one of their nukes...

    MadCow

    --
    I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
  11. Good secure hosting site by gbnewby · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I was in the Netherlands for HAL2001 this summer, and got to visit a NAP right across the street from the U. Twente campus (where HAL was held). A NAP is where different networks peer, and in this case is also where at least one ISP provided co-lo space and other ameneties.

    The cool part: it was in a retired federal bank. Literally a fortress: fully bulletproof, tempest-shielded, multiple sub-basements, iron gates and fully enclosed by fences or walls, the works.

    The ICBM silo gets me thinking about the same thing. They have on-site power generation and battery backup and an obviously pretty damn secure setup. So, why not open a secure hosting facility? It's not HavenCo/Sealand, but it's not bad.

    The main problem is it's in the middle of nowhere (Mapquest link ), about 50 miles from Topeka. Paying the local loop charges for dedicated (and redundant) Internet access is probably going to cost a fortune.

    • Greg
    1. Re:Good secure hosting site by JoeShmoe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The main problem is it's in the middle of nowhere (Mapquest link [mapquest.com] ), about 50 miles from Topeka. Paying the local loop charges for dedicated (and redundant) Internet access is probably going to cost a fortune

      And it doesn't for HavenCo/Sealand? Which is easier...running a line on dry (flat) land or over a body of water?

      Besides, this type of situtation is what wireless is for. Come to think of it, HavenCo/Sealand uses wireless for a couple of their links (IIRC).

      The real question...when the FBI comes knocking...will they be able to get in? I don't know if they have the equipment to take out a 47-ton door...but you better fill that silo with food and supplies because the second you step out you are theirs.

      - JoeShmoe

      --
      -- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
  12. Alternative uses for the silo by Zen+Mastuh · · Score: 4, Funny
    • Install a *huge* fan (with a steel grate above the blade...) near the bottom for indoor acrobatic action. Whee!
    • Grow a lot of pot! As if any sheriff can kick in a 47-ton door.
    • Fill the silo with H2O & get out the ol' scuba gear.
    • Vertical artificial rock climbing. The bonus is that once you climb to the top, you're done.
    • Buy 50,000+ old boxen & make the Beowulf Cluster from hell!

    This silo is screaming for an entrepreneur. Now if I can only get in the Corporate Welfare line for some of that $70 Billion action...

    --
    "What is the sound of one belly slapping?"
  13. Of course its for sale... by Quizme2000 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The previous occupants moved out a couple weeks ago!

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    "Get them before they get....
  14. Other missile silos available for less money by jms · · Score: 3, Informative

    The main link to their website is here.

    Sure, this one is super expensive, but if you look at their web site, what's really intriguing is that they have other properties for sale that are much cheaper -- because they're in, ahem, rough condition. Probably saturated with rocket fuel and dioxins, but what the hell. You're young. You're immortal. Why not go for it!

    For instance, you can pick up a 16 acre missile base in Winters, TX for $199,000. The web site mentions that the silo is "stripped of structure with app. 100' water depth. Seller eager."

    Now THAT's a big hot-tub. Anyone know the diameter of one of those launch silos? Care to figure out how many gallons that comes to? You'd have the biggest hot tub in the world, if you could afford to heat it.

    Another 11 acre missile base is available in Shep, TX for only $169,000, and, I love this, the missile silo is described as "used for scuba diving adventures." Woo hoo!

    Still another 22 acre site is available in Creta, OK, for $133,000. Now that's almost affordable!

    Even if you don't have a cool million to spend, the possibility of owning your own missile silo lies tantalizingly in reach to the eager geek ... That's a lot of land, and you could easily sell some of it off and keep the silo goodies for yourself. Anyone got some money left over from the Redhat IPO? Yeah. Right.

    Lotsa fun to dream, isn't it :-)

  15. Re:Kansas? Who Cares? by MarkusQ · · Score: 4, Funny
    The only problem with the place is that it's not nearly as secret as it once was. I'd pay twice what the going price for this thing is, if only it *wasn't* plastered all over EBay.

    I, on the other hand, would pay extra to make sure that everyone knew which silo it was that no longer held an ICBM.

    Especially the people who might have loaded silos of their own.

    -- MarkusQ

  16. Formerly a drug factory. by dox · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Here is a story about it.


    There is also an article in Rolling Stong from July 5th, 2001 titled "The Acid King" about Leonard Pickard. The missle silo was owned by Todd Skinner, a shady bussinessman(drug dealer) who laundered money, trafficed drugs, and who knows what else. He made deals with the DEA to save his own ass many times, getting many of if friends imprisoned for life. Another example of America's idiotic war on drugs.

  17. What one looks like before it's all dressed up by CleverNickName · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here is a pretty interesting photo tour that was made by some guys who, by their own admission, "violated federal law" to get inside and tour around one of these silos, when it was just a bunch of abandoned cold war concrete. It's nice to compare the this with the eBay photos...makes that 1.5 million opening bid seem a bit more reasonable. Oh, and you'd better hurry...there's only an hour left to bid on it.

    Incidentally, I lived in Topeka for some time, and I got to go to one of these abandoned silos, back around 92 or 93...there was a freaky survivalist dude living there, surrounded by all his guns and barrels of water...and I got to go stand where, at one time, there was a ICBM, ready to go...remembering the cold war dominated world that I grew up in, it was very, very surreal.

  18. Only on Slashdot... by Nate+Fox · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..would this be labeled as 'News' and not 'Its funny. Laugh'.