Ed Grothus' Black Hole, aka Los Alamos Sales Co. nominally sells what he calls "nuclear waste" -- surplus from the infamous Los Alamos National Laboratory, home of the Manhattan Project in the 40's, and of even less-reputable horrors in the decades that followed. Embedded in the rigidly tranquilized town of Los Alamos like an infected thorn, Ed the Red pisses of the townies merely by existing and surviving.

Not only, he thrives -- and generates a stream of visitors who tread lightly whilst they visit his treasures, lest they set off his hair-trigger bullshit-detector.

Ed is now a friend of mine, and I've also built a lot of things from his piles of incredible stuff. I visit a half-dozen times a year; he's open six days a week, it's quite reasonable to drop in.

Ed also owns this church, gussied up as the OMEGA PEACE INSTITUTE, ("First church of high technology, Black Hole Synod, with Bomb Unworship Service"). Here are a very few pictures from the piles up there:

• Piles of stuff
• Piles of stuff
• Piles of stuff
• Piles of stuff
• Piles of stuff

Here's a microscopic view of Los Alamos Sales. It's all in the detail, which these pictures don't show. I've been going there for years, and I still stumble upon undiscovered stuff, plus Ed keeps adding to the pile of course. Some of these were taken with flash, and the building lights off.

• View from the parking lot
• Ed with the broken 'bombs' that grace the church
• Looking at the head of some aisles
• A random aisle of electronics
• Another random aisle of electronics
• Random stuff
• Random stuff
• Random stuff
• Random stuff
• Random stuff
• Random stuff

You can contact Ed at (505)-662-9713, or just drop in during business hours at 4015 Arkansas, Los Alamos NM 87544 (Arkansas is a mile or two N. (?) past the high school). Tell him I said Hi.

PS: Here's the WIRED one-pager on Ed a few years back.
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