O 1Password lançou uma nova solução para liberar as senhas de cada pessoa de forma segura durante o uso de agentes de IA. O gerenciador consegue preencher as credenciais automaticamente, mas não informa nenhuma senha ou dado sensível para o serviço de inteligência artificial.
De acordo com a empresa, o 1Password for Agents (“1Password para Agentes”, em tradução livre) é uma forma de garantir que os clientes usem as ferramentas mais avançadas de IA sem perder o controle sobre os próprios dados. O recurso é compatível com bots de Meta, Claude, OpenAI, Perplexity e outras empresas do mercado.
Um agente de IA pode pedir acesso a uma conta de aplicativo para concluir uma tarefa automatizada, mas a medida exige login com senha e até autenticação em dois fatores. A nova solução permite liberar o acesso sem deixar as credenciais sob controle dos bots.
Como o 1Password funciona com agentes de IA
Ao chegar a uma tela de cadastro, o agente usa uma chave digital para verificar a identidade com o 1Password e envia um pedido com as credenciais necessárias para completar o login (senha ou código de verificação, por exemplo).
O gerenciador de senhas comunica o usuário sobre o pedido, informa de onde veio e qual o motivo do acesso, e depois libera para a pessoa permitir ou não o acesso. Com a aprovação, o aplicativo preenche a senha no formulário sem enviar as informações para o agente.
Assim, o login é finalizado de forma segura e o servidor de IA não tem acesso às credenciais do indivíduo. O recurso está disponível para contas individuais e familiares das assinaturas pagas do 1Password.
Um trailer deMass Effect: Universe, projeto cancelado com o fim da BioWare, vazou nesta quinta-feira (22) e apresenta mais detalhes do título que não chegará mais aos consoles e PCs. Este seria o quinto game da franquia e uma das experiências mais ambiciosas do estúdio.
O material foi compartilhado por uma pessoa que se diz ex-funcionária da desenvolvedora, com dois minutos de gameplay em estágio inicial. De acordo com o próprio vídeo, os trechos utilizam assets da pré-produção e não era o que a equipe planejava para o trabalho concluído.
Rumores, que supostamente surgiram de funcionários da própria Electronic Arts, sugerem que o trailer estava pronto há meses — contudo, a produtora decidiu não compartilhar o material com o público, pois o fechamento da empresa já estava previsto há algum tempo.
Pouco se sabe sobre Mass Effect: Universe, mas a jogabilidade mostra um combate dentro de um bar lotado. O local é invadido por alguns caçadores de recompensa, que tentam capturar um alvo e são confrontados pelo personagem. A prévia também traz outras cenas que compõem o enredo.
A EA não se pronunciou oficialmente sobre o fim do estúdio ou o cancelamento do título. Além de encerrar as atividades da desenvolvedora, que completou 31 anos em 2026, a companhia também executou uma onda de demissões em várias de suas subsidiárias — inclusive a Maxis, Respawn e EA Motive.
A confusão em torno de Mass Effect: Universe
Anunciado em 2020, o game esteve em desenvolvimento durante um período de seis anos. Nesse trajeto, a BioWare também lançou Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024) e, possivelmente, atuava de forma ativa no novo Mass Effect.
Porém, a Electronic Arts apresentou informações contraditórias ao longo do tempo. Ela afirma que o jogo estava em “estágio inicial de desenvolvimento” — mesmo 6 anos após a sua divulgação inicial, o que soa muito estranho.
Vale ressaltar que a produção de Mass Effect: Universe sofreu muitos impactos de 2020 para cá. Como Dragon Age: The Veilguard e Anthem foram considerados fracassos comerciais, a BioWare sofreu diversos cortes e o projeto foi reiniciado em determinado momento.
De acordo com o repórter Jason Schreier, da Bloomberg, o estúdio chegou a trabalhar com apenas 50 desenvolvedores no projeto antes de ser fechado. Não foi divulgado o status da adaptação da franquia. Série live-action de Mass Effect será sequência da trilogia original, mas com o fim da desenvolvedora e do próximo jogo, seu destino também é incerto.
MIT researchers marooned 13 AIs on a virtual island, and they responded by inventing games, mourning a lost ring and, eventually, getting better at their jobs.
At this year’s Disrupt, Lovable GTM lead Luke Arno, Polsia's Ben Broca, and Theory Ventures’ Tomasz Tunguz gave founders some tips on how to achieve true sales success in the first 90 days.
In this episode, SpaceNews’ Mike Gruss talks with the CEO of Aalyria Brian Barritt about how networks are evolving, what scaling the company means and the role of software interoperability […]
In 2001, archaeologists were painstakingly excavating a dwelling at the Bronze-Age site of Cladh Hallan in the Outer Hebrides islands off of Scotland’s northwestern coast. The house had been oval in shape, with a low door leading to an interior hearth. Other conveniences included sunken storage areas and stone-lined water storage tanks. Under the floors of these houses, though, and under the feet of the occupants, was a fascinating feature that evokes the opening scenes of a classic horror film.
As the archaeologists slowly dug through the floor of the structure, they came unexpectedly upon a human skeleton, legs tucked up in the fetal position. Another skeleton, similarly arranged, was found beneath a different roundhouse’s floor. These people had clearly been laid to rest with care, with stones laid out around them.
When archaeologists began to study the remains, though, they were staggered to learn that each body’s parts had not all come from the same person. These were composite mummies, assembled with the remains of at least six people who had died over the span of two hundred years. But this wasn’t a jumbled-together macabre collection or evidence of a Bronze-Age serial killer. These bodies had been treated carefully and buried in stone-lined graves. So what were the people of Cladh Hallan doing with the dug-up remains of their ancestors?
What was Cladh Hallan? And what mummies were found there?
More than four thousand years ago, early farmers began to work the soil on the Outer Hebrides islands off of Scotland’s northwestern coast. At the time, the Roman Empire and even ancient Greece were specks on the chronological horizon. Along the Aegean coast, Minoans and Mycenaeans were building palaces and cities. Farther north, Germanic tribes were exporting amber and expertly forging bronze and gold artifacts.
At Cladh Hallan, early farmers grew barley, herded sheep, and foraged the abundant resources on the island’s beaches. Their descendants continued to thrive on the island for centuries, the population grew, and so did the need for land.
Ancient farmers at Cladh Hallan built circular dwellings today known as roundhouses. Image: Anne Burgess / CC BY-SA 2.0
Nearly a thousand years into Cladh Hallan’s occupation, with living space on the small island becoming harder to find, people started building over the burial grounds of their ancestors. But the islanders were definitely aware of the graves beneath their feet—in fact, they went out of their way to acknowledge the people buried in them.
Residents of Cladh Hallan dug down into these older burials containing both cremated and unburnt remains, removing some parts and leaving the rest undisturbed. Then they assembled the exhumed remains into the requisite anatomical combinations that modern archaeologists have found centuries later. Once this was done, the composite bodies were once again laid to rest under the foundations of the roundhouses.
The best mummy finds at Cladh Hallan
The two best-known adult skeletons from Cladh Hallan are the most unusual. Each was found under a roundhouse. One skeleton was identified as male, the other female, based on their pelvic bones. The bodies date to between 1300 and 1500 BCE…mostly.
The skeleton originally identified as a woman had a man’s skull where her own head used to be. Two of the teeth were missing from the skull, and those had been placed in each of the woman’s hands. By radiocarbon dating the bones, researchers found that the skull actually belonged to a man who had died at least a century earlier, perhaps a relative from an older generation.
The body originally identified as male was put together from three different people—all confirmed as male through DNA testing. The burial was made up of a man’s torso, a second man’s skull, and a third man’s jawbone. Each of these men had died at different times over the span of about 150 years. Again, ancestry and family identity seem to play a big part in these re-burials.
It isn’t terribly uncommon for cultures to include their deceased loved ones in celebratory, ritual, or even daily activities. Every few years, families in the Toraja region of Sulawesi, Indonesia exhume the remains of loved ones, clean them, dress them in fresh garments, and honor them with festivals.
South Korean “death beads” are made from the cremated remains of family members and displayed in the home.
Pre-colonial Inca religious tradition included regular ceremonial processions featuring the remains of people “buried” in natural alcoves in the Andes mountains and mummified by the dry, cold mountain air. The Cladh Hallan skeletons had once been mummified as well, though this was not mummification as it was practiced in ancient Egypt, nor like the mountainside Inca tradition.
Ancient Egyptians were far from the only society to mummify their dead. For instance, many Inca mummies have been found in the mountains, such as this female Inca mummy. Image: Getty Images / Staff / MICHAEL LATZ
First, the bodies were tightly wrapped in fabric, which kept the bones and soft tissue flexed into the fetal position. This is why the limbs remained so tightly curled towards the torso, and why the bodies were so well-preserved. Archaeologists were able to identify this type of preservation based on microscopic changes to the surfaces of the bones from the acidic environment of the peat bogs in which the bodies were submerged after wrapping.
Why peat is so good at preserving bodies
Peat is a dense, wet accumulation of centuries of decaying plant matter, and is a feature of lots of landscapes, particularly in the northern latitudes. People have used dried peat as fuel for thousands of years, since it burns well and slowly, and is plentiful in areas where there aren’t a lot of trees for firewood. Peat from the Scottish isles, notably, is responsible for the smoky, earthy taste characteristic of Scotch whiskey.
Peat bogs are so packed with plant material that there is almost no oxygen present, which is great for preservation, as is the typically cool temperature beneath the peat’s surface. The lack of oxygen keeps microbes and other critters from consuming the body’s soft tissues, and the tannic acid from all the decaying plants in the bog turns skin dark and leathery.
By first burying the bodies of family members under layers of peat, the people at Cladh Hallan ensured that the remains would be as intact as possible when later generations exhumed them. This not only means that the Bronze Age inhabitants of the island were well aware of peat’s preservative properties, but that the entire process was a deliberate sequence of events.
But why did people in Cladh Hallan make these many-part mummies?
Archaeologists interpret the pieced-together reburials as a part of a social or religious tradition that emphasized family lines and reverence for ancestors. Stones clearly marked the graves under the roundhouses, so the homes’ placement was definitely on purpose.
The initial bog burials were deliberately used as a source of family remains, and the parts that composed the buried skeletons seem to have been deliberately chosen, though we may never know why or how. It seems as though ancestor-recycling may have been a regular process at Cladh Hallan in the later part of the Bronze Age, as older generations gave way to new.
Archaeologists also surmise that the exhumed mummified remains were initially kept above ground, maybe in a special place in the house, and included as a part of daily life. These multi-ancestor figures might have been consulted when important decisions were made, or they may have been seen as household protectors.
Archaeology can never really uncover the full story of what people thought and believed thousands of years ago. Thoughts do not fossilize, and decay and weathering affect even the best-preserved archaeological sites.
We will probably never know exactly what it was like to live at Cladh Hallan when it was a busy, thriving settlement. We may never understand how the people that lived there conceived of their world, or how they thought about spirituality. Thanks to the burials at Cladh Hallan, though, we have a tantalizing glimpse of how people may have seen death in their universe as a continuous, pieced-together chain of lives lived over generations.
In That Time When, Popular Science tells the weirdest, most surprising, and little-known stories that shaped science, engineering, and innovation.
A single bat colony contains hundreds or even thousands of the winged mammals. But with less-than-ideal eyesight and so many neighbors, how do mothers identify their pups amid the extremely crowded conditions? Writing in a new study published today in the journal Frontiers in Ethology, researchers say it often comes down to the subtle, unique vocalizations emitted by their individual offspring. To assess their responses, the team relied on an even more delicate biological signal—the mother bat’s own heartbeat.
The investigation began when biologists at Japan’s Doshisha University noticed a surprising—but consistent—behavior among the Japanese house bats (Alionoctula abramus) in their laboratory colony. Whenever a pup wandered too far from its roosting area, only its mother raced to the rescue.
“We knew that pups emit isolation calls—acoustic distress signals—when separated. But seeing this strict behavioral selectivity made us wonder: what is happening inside the mother when she hears these calls?” recalled study co-author and Doshisha University biologist Kazuki Yoshino-Hashizawa.
To learn more, Yoshino-Hashizawa and his colleagues monitored four mother bats who each recently birthed a litter of three pups. Some of the litters only contained females, so they decided to exclude the young males from the study to avoid sex-based variations. At two days old, the team recorded clips of the female pups’ tiny isolation calls. These function like the cries from a human baby, and each vocalization has its own unique tones.
However, Japanese house bats grow quickly. The new generation started making echolocation calls at about eight days old, and they ceased isolation calls after around 12 days. After roughly one month, they began flying like adults and set off on their own within the colony. The researchers then recorded their adult echolocation calls, as well.
Around 40 days after the pups’ birth, the team isolated each mother and played them the various audio clips while monitoring their heart rates using an ECG machine. As a control, they also played the recording of a random adult male bat. The study’s authors quickly saw that a mother bat’s heart rate sped up when they heard cries of their own pups, but not the pups that belong to other bat moms. Surprisingly, the mother bats’ heart rates boosted the most from recordings of the older, independent pups. Researchers theorize this might relate to the bats’ memory of more recent calls, but that idea requires more study to confirm.
Still, don’t get overly sentimental. The team also recorded strong heart rate reactions when the mothers heard calls from the random adult male. It’s possible the bats interpreted the sounds as a threat, but the team stopped short of categorizing the reactions as good or bad.
“‘[Heart rate measurement] cannot distinguish between positive emotions, such as maternal motivation, and negative ones, such as stress or alarm,” Yoshino-Hashizawa added.
Instead, the study authors suggest heart rates may be a solid starting point when trying to analyze bat behaviors and responses to their everyday environment. At the same time, a mother bat’s heart certainly seems to patter a bit more for her pups.
“[This] suggests that these vocalizations instantly physiologically prime the mother to engage in maternal behavior,” explained Yoshino-Hashizawa.
Com a estreia de Cyberpunk: Mercenários 2, a animação da Netflix se prepara para se conectar ainda mais com Cyberpunk 2077 e com toda a saga multimídia (que envolve HQs, clipes musicais e até mesmo um filme previsto para o futuro).
Não basta a história ser ambientada em Night City, o mesmo local que os jogadores exploram no game lançado em 2020, mas também ver a presença de personagens e temas que são comuns aos fãs. Ainda mais do que a primeira temporada, a segunda intensifica as referências e sua ligação com este universo.
Porém, de que modo as duas histórias paralelas se interligam? Inclusive, existe a participação de heróis dos games e do ano anterior nos novos episódios? A Netflix e a CD Projekt Red esconderam muitas coisas, mas diversas outras já estão visíveis para todos.
Veja como Mercenários 2 se conecta ao universo de Cyberpunk 2077, assim como o que esperar do que virá daqui em diante. Antes disso, preste atenção: este texto contém spoilers da série. Se você não assistiu ainda e pretende ver sem levar surpresas, salve este link e acesse quando vir os episódios.
O futuro de Cyberpunk 2077
Um dos primeiros grandes impactos de Cyberpunk: Mercenários 2 é que a história não se passa antes dos jogos e nem de forma simultânea à narrativa. Ela acontece no ano de 2078, um ano após os eventos vistos nos videogames e PCs.
Na prática, essa é a primeira vez que os fãs podem ver o que acontece com Night City após os acontecimentos finais da aventura. O mundo de Cyberpunk 2077 já não é mais o mesmo e alguns sinais ficam bem claros ao público.
O maior deles é a presença da corporação Arasaka, enfraquecida e diante de uma grande crise. Após as ações de David Martinez na temporada anterior e de V, no game, o conglomerado tenta se levantar após os golpes sofridos.
Além disso, o desenho animado usa o conceito de Psicófago para alimentar o roteiro. Criado pela netrunner Alt Cunningham, o programa permite transferir a consciência das pessoas para o mundo digital.
A Arasaka transformou a tecnologia em arma com o projeto Relic e desencadeou graves consequências no ecossistema de Night City. Johnny Silverhand, por exemplo, vive em V por meio de um chip implantado na protagonista. Em Cyberpunk: Mercenários 2, o mesmo ocorre com D e Capri.
Contudo, a Arasaka não é a única corporação que trabalha com os Psicófagos. Os Kang Tao também têm uma versão própria da tecnologia, o que cria uma nova “corrida” pela sua propriedade em Night City.
Isso pode render mais conteúdo para a sequência de Cyberpunk 2077? Possivelmente, já que a CD Projekt Red ajudou a produzir o anime e trabalha ativamente no desenvolvimento do próximo jogo. Logo, pistas podem ter começado a ser plantadas.
Mais de Cyberpunk em Mercenários 2
Além de ver a presença da Arasaka e demais elementos mostrados nos jogos, também há diversos sinais de um envolvimento maior da série dentro do mundo criado nos videogames em 2020.
Ainda que o estúdio e a Netflix não tenham confirmado, muitos juram ter visto a personagem V em um banco de dados acessado pelos personagens de Mercenários 2. O fundo amarelo, clássico das artes do game, realça sua presença ainda mais.
Também é notável a presença de David Martinez na trama, como um dos elementos que desencadeiam a investigação de D e Roman — enquanto ambos buscam os responsáveis pela morte do clã do novo herói da animação.
A ciberpsicose, que integrou a trama da primeira temporada, volta na segunda — desta vez, com atuação sobre Talia e Weak. Este foi apenas um problema que David enfrentou, mas aqui o efeito é explorado e até uma possível solução para os casos.
Haverá uma 3ª temporada de Mercenários?
Se levarmos em consideração a sincronia de histórias entre o game e as duas temporadas, é possível que algo de concreto seja formalizado no futuro. Porém, isso talvez não aconteça na animação, mas sim nos cinemas.
Não é mistério para ninguém que o estúdio produz um novo game, mas este segue sem detalhes oficiais ou uma data prevista para o seu lançamento. Possivelmente chegará na próxima geração de hardwares, com o PS6 e XBOX Helix nas lojas.
Na prática, até lá pode surgir Cyberpunk: Mercenários 3 para compor o universo e suas discussões. Contudo, a produção não foi confirmada pela Netflix e pelo Studio Trigger — então é bom se sentar para aguardar por futuras novidades.
Um objeto metálico misterioso foi encontrado em um milharal em Minnesota, nos Estados Unidos. Claro que a identificação do item rendeu todo tipo de rumores e piadas sobre sua possível origem extraterrestre — e, se você é do time que ficou animado com a possibilidade de se tratar de um artefato alienígena, pode ficar frustrado ao saber que o objeto parece ser simplesmente lixo espacial. E da China.
Tudo começou no dia 14, quando um fazendeiro entrou em contato com as autoridades para reportar a identificação de um objeto estranho na plantação. “Ao chegarem ao local, os policiais confirmaram que um grande objeto metálico, com aproximadamente 11 pés de diâmetro, presumivelmente um objeto espacial, estava no milharal”, informou o Gabinete do Xerife em um comunicado publicado nas redes sociais.
Segundo o anúncio, o item não oferece riscos para moradores. Por enquanto, não há confirmação da sua origem, mas tudo indica que o item metálico seja parte de um foguete que foi ao espaço em setembro, levando 10 satélites da Qianfan — caso você não a conheça, trata-se de uma empresa que vem lançando satélites com objetivos parecidos com aqueles que a SpaceX tem com os Starlink.
Queda de lixo espacial
E, afinal, por que o suspeito é o foguete chinês Zhuque-2E? Bem, primeiro, vale lembrar que o lançador tem diâmetro de 3,35 m, ou seja, seu tamanho corresponde perfeitamente ao do objeto encontrado em Minnesota.
Além disso, dezenas de observadores na região nos Estados Unidos flagraram bolas de fogo brilhando no céu em 15 de setembro, quando o foguete foi lançado. Em outras palavras, é possível que o objeto metálico seja um detrito deixado pelo lançamento que ficou ali, aguardando tranquilamente sua descoberta.
Se este for o caso, trata-se de mais uma queda de lixo espacial causada por uma reentrada descontrolada, ou seja, fora de uma área segura, que é algo bem longe das melhores práticas do setor. Para completar, a China acostuma ser acusada de deixar seus foguetes retornarem à Terra de forma descontrolada.
Você já deve ter visto a obra "A Noite Estrelada", do holandês Vincent van Gogh, e talvez tenha se perguntado quando, afinal, foi a noite em que o pintor viu o que retratou na tela. Agora, parece que cientistas da empresa de ciência espacial SLLAB Inc. e da Universidade Kyung Hee, na Coreia do Sul, encontraram a resposta.
Segundo uma nova análise, a pintura mostra o amanhecer de 22 de julho de 1889. O levantamento analisou o céu do hospital psiquiátrico de Saint-Rémy, no sul da França, e concluiu que o célebre quadro reproduz um fenômeno astronômico real e observado pelo pintor holandês.
Além de curiosa, a descoberta resolve o impasse deixado por pesquisas anteriores — outros estudiosos concluíram que a tela mostrava o céu de junho de 1889, mas se este fosse o caso, a Lua estaria bem perto da fase cheia.
Noite estrelada, de Van Gogh
Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim, autor que liderou o estudo, recordou que viu pesquisas anteriores descrevendo que a tela mostrava a constelação de Áries; foi ali que surgiu a ideia de explorar a pintura mais a fundo. “Para um astrônomo observacional, o aglomerado de estrelas na pintura pertence às Híades, na constelação de Touro”, declarou.
Se considerarmos a madrugada de 22 de julho de 1889, a Lua, Vênus e as Híades estariam plenamente visíveis, correspondendo melhor ao que Van Gogh retratou — se fosse o caso das datas que indicavam junho, Vênus e a constelação de Áries não poderiam ser vistos. De qualquer forma, para comprovar a hipótese, os pesquisadores viajaram até a França para checar a perspectiva exata da janela de Van Gogh.
A data de julho também foi sustentada por boletins meteorológicos da época, que registraram céu limpo naquela madrugada, além de menções ao canto de cigarras e ao calor nas cartas enviadas pelo próprio artista. Estas características combinam com o verão europeu.
A Capcom confirmou nesta quinta-feira (22) que sofreu um megavazamento que envolve o serviço Capcom ID — com a exposição de 11.774.247 contas ao redor do planeta. De acordo com a produtora japonesa, cibercriminosos tiveram acesso ao endereço de e-mail e informações pessoais de usuários.
Em seu pronunciamento oficial, a companhia afirma que foram expostas a data da criação do perfil, data do último login, quantidade de logins e o endereço do IP da última vez que entrou no cadastro. Porém, um total de 43 perfis tiveram a data de nascimento, gênero, país/região e nicknames revelados.
O evento gerou transtornos graves, já que resultou em 196 trocas de senha não autorizadas — o que levou a Capcom a resetá-las. Contudo, ela aponta que não encontrou evidências de credenciais vazadas ou de informações do cartão de crédito.
O primeiro sinal do megavazamento ocorreu na segunda-feira (19), mas a equipe de segurança conseguiu identificar e bloquear as atividades enquanto investigavam o que havia de errado. Uma força-tarefa se formou para detectar o problema e o incidente foi registrado na polícia e na Comissão Japonesa de Proteção às Informações Pessoais na quarta-feira (21).
Como forma de prevenir golpes e outros desdobramentos, a Capcom afirmou que contatará os consumidores afetados — com alertas para e-mails suspeitos, tentativas de phishing (que podem contar com o logo da própria companhia ou das suas parceiras comerciais).
A Valve também sofreu com cibercriminosos, com 12 TB de arquivos que chegaram ao público. Entre os dados, estão a comprovação de que Half-Life 3 existiu em determinado ponto e prévias de franquias como Resident Evil, Batman Arkham, Call of Duty e diversas outras.
The scams are getting a bit meta. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a warning about a new scam currently making the rounds. But this time, the con artists aren’t impersonating a politician or celebrity to trick consumers.They’re claiming that they are the ones sounding the alarm at the FTC.
Real FTC officials explained the general scheme in an alert released on October 22. Scammers call a target to tell them that bad actors in another country have registered a separate phone using their name and number for nefarious purposes. The imposter may even “transfer” you to a fake police officer to file a report. Fake badge numbers and IDs are also offered to make it all sound legitimate, and skeptics may even be directed to verify everything by searching for the police department’s phone number online (also fake). Failure to comply allegedly results in the loss of your personal phone number.
Those who follow through with the instructions provide scammers with their state-issued ID and other personal info for the bogus police report, but it’s not over yet. Some time later, targets will receive another call informing them that they will soon be arrested for those nonexistent crimes committed using their phone number. The solution? Transfer money for a security deposit.
“None of this is true—it’s all a scam,” assured the FTC.
To prevent unnecessary headaches, the FTC listed a few ironclad rules. Actual FTC employees will never contact you about sending money, or transfer you to someone else requesting funds. The FTC will never threaten to disconnect your phone number, or ask you to keep your conversations secret from others. Finally, they will never text a photo of the supposed employee ID as a way to verify their identity to you.
Unfortunately, combatting scammers is a bit like playing a neverending game of Whack-a-Mole. While the FTC has a list of common ways to spot government imposters, they encourage everyone to report the latest con jobs to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
When it comes to buying a home, many people pay a premium for privacy. But one new listing Carlton, Kansas, takes the cake. For a measly $1.6 million, someone can call a converted Cold War Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silo home. Though the site sits on 18.2 acres of rural grassland, nearly the entire complex is hidden underground, save a single ominous steel door. The silo trenches down 182 feet, eventually leading to a two floor launch control center retrofitted to fit the modern world.
Surrounding the entire complex are 600 tons of steel rebar and six-foot-thick epoxy concrete walls meant to withstand nuclear blasts and 500 mph winds. The listing’s website calls it quite possibly “one of the most hardened structures ever built by man.” Once the staging ground for nuclear Armageddon, the indoor launch control center has been converted into a 2,200-square-foot, two bedroom, two bath, home outfitted with generic modern appliances. To top it all off, it is caked in a fresh coat of muted millennial gray and white paint.
The only clear sign of the bunker above ground is a single metal door. Image: North Star Missile Silo
From launch control to living room
This particular missile silo was part of the United States Air Force’s Atlas F Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Program. The Atlas program began toward the end of World War II, and produced the country’s first operational ICBM. At its peak, from late 1962 to mid-1964, 132 of these Atlas sites were built around the country.
According to the National Park Service, north-central Kansas’ Atlas F was “by far the best” of the Atlas variants ever deployed. The missile stood 82 feet tall and carried a 4.5 megaton warhead, roughly 300 times as powerful as the 15-kiloton bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Aside from the Kansas location, there were 72 Atlas missile sites stationed on bases in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and New York.
Though advanced for its time, the Atlas was soon eclipsed by the even stronger Titan and then Minuteman systems.The majority of the Atlas systems were decommissioned in 1979, when President Richard Nixon signed the SALT (The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) treaties. That meant dozens of the massive structures were left dormant. Many of those relics have taken on new lives as luxury apocalypse bunkers or gimmicky rentals.
A 40 foot underground tunnel connects the retrofitted launch control to the missile silos. Image: North Star Missile Silo.
A buyer interested in viewing the North Star Missile Silo in Kansas would really have to know what they’re looking for. Getting there requires driving through a seemingly nondescript stretch of grassland before eventually coming up on a large gated fence with the iconic yellow “Fallout Shelter” signage on its side. Once inside, a surreal-looking steel door jutting out of the quiet countryside offers a clue to the shelter. It looks like a portal to some eerie, distant world, which, in some sense, it really is.
Once through the door, visitors descend a metal staircase that leads to a 40-foot tunnel. Photos show a narrow, claustrophobic walkway encased in a ring of white metal beams. At the end of the walkway stands a pair of imposing 7,000-pound blast doors. Home sweet home!
But the weirdest part about the retrofitted missile silo house is how remarkably normal much of it looks on the inside. The living quarters feature a floor plan with two bedrooms, two kitchens, and two bathrooms spread across two floors. Stainless steel appliances and a washer and dryer sit alongside standard wooden cabinets, none of which would look out of place in any hastily built rental unit across the country. The central area is laid out loft-style, showing off the control center’s massive support column. Visually, everything seems out of context. It evokes a slightly off not quite right AI-generated version of a house, or a modern millennial apartment that a visiting alien might describe to fellow interstellar travelers.
The loft style interior is built around the control’s center’s missive support column. Image: North Star Missile Silo.
It’s an undeniably weird place to live full time, but not a half-bad survival bunker. The listing notes that it features two separate sewage systems (one above ground and one underground) humidity control, a cellphone phone signal repeater and a solar power powered seven foot chain link gate. It also has ample room for solar or wind energy installation, though the buyer would have to install those. It’s also not necessarily limited just to survival or end time doomers. Realtor.com notes that the silo was previously used as a rental, though he also said there was interest in using it as an off-the grid conference site or even a wedding venue.
A new era of fancy bunkers
Many Cold War relics have taken on new lives as quirky rental and luxury condominiums. Airbnb shows a number of silos available for short term stays in New Mexico, Kansas, and southern Texas. Some of these explicitly court “prepper” audiences with fat wallets. Possibly the best known of those is Survival Condo, located about 200 miles outside of Kansas City, That sprawling Atlas Missile Silo was converted into a 15 floor luxury condominium outfitted with a pet park, climbing walls, swimming pool (with a slide) library and a movie theater. The starting asking price for one of the units? Around $1 million in 2020 dollars.
And while Cold War bunkers are relics of the past, new interpretations of the structures are still being built. In the U.S. and abroad (New Zealand attracts a particular amount of attention) a subset of the world’s wealthiest elites are reportedly constructing their own apocalyptic lairs. Some of the best known examples of those billionaire bunker builders are in the tech industry with some racing to build advanced AI models that are increasingly putting them at odds with public opinion. Aside from escaping the pitchforks, the Kansas listing also notes one more potentially enticing incentive.
“Underground structures not taxable by [the] County.”
Login
