Operating theaters, bowling alleys and home cinemas: Not happy with safe rooms, the super-rich are building luxury fortresses
CNN
Few things appear to soothe the existential anxieties of the super rich like a bunker designed to withstand anything short of total nuclear Armageddon.
Few things appear to soothe the existential anxieties of the super-rich like a bunker designed to withstand anything short of total nuclear Armageddon. Yet it’s no longer enough for the security-conscious billionaire to stick an impenetrable safe room in the basement where it might sit empty forever. In today’s uber-prime properties, bunkers have gone seriously upmarket and hi-tech, in some cases growing to the extent that whole homes are becoming 21st century fortresses. “We’ve seen a lot more of a focus on entertainment,” said Al Corbi, who has been at the forefront of secure luxury for 50 years as the president and founder of SAFE (Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments), based in Virginia, in the US. “If you’re going to be able to survive underground, we want you to be having fun.” Corbi, who helped secure a 27-floor private home in Mumbai for the billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani (whose son Anant recently made headlines with his lavish wedding celebrations), is currently working on a sprawling house on a 200-acre wooded plot, at an undisclosed location in the US (he is understandably tight-lipped about many aspects of his work). The house itself, Corbi said in an interview via Zoom, is ultra-secure with the blast-proof doors, unbreakable windows and biometric door-entry systems. Then there’s the 30-foot-deep moat with a swing bridge, the water canons capable of taking out helicopters, drones or skydivers, and the film of flammable liquid that can be automatically deployed across the surface of the artificial lake and ignited to create a defensive ring of fire. “Look at medieval times, a moat is one of the greatest deterrents,” said Corbi. “But they didn’t have jet skis back then.” Corbi’s client, a business mogul and avid watersports fan, saw a dual use for his moat and plans to use it as a race track for his alpha pals, too. The very wealthy have always been targets, whether from intruders, kidnappers, or assassins. Now fears have grown to include “eat the rich” anti-capitalist activists, extreme weather caused by climate change, terrorists, unforeseen apocalyptic events — and a perennial pandemic threat that was made all too real in 2020.
Children who were vaccinated against Covid-19 last season had a “substantially lower risk” of emergency department and urgent care visits related to the virus, according to a report published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As multiple measles outbreaks simmer across the United States, cases are accumulating nearly as quickly as when the West Texas outbreak was at its peak this spring.
A British Nigerian artist who produces large-scale draped sculptures and vortex-like circular drawings has become the first person with a learning disability to claim the Turner Prize, one of contemporary art’s most prestigious accolades.
Relying on testing to guide vaccination recalls an approach the United States tried in the 1980s and early ’90s that still led to thousands of cases of hepatitis B among children every year.
The pair’s matching orange outfits were an exercise in clever marketing, and will no doubt go down in the celebrity couple dressing hall of fame.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been tracking abortion trends for decades, but this year’s report — including some of the earliest federal data reflecting the effect of significant changes to abortion access nationwide – has been pushed back until spring amid turmoil at the federal agency.
A three-hour movie about the fading art of kabuki has broken box office records in Japan. It may already be prompting a revival.
One of Britain’s most acclaimed photographers, Martin Parr, died on Saturday at age 73, his foundation said.
On Monday, the actor wore an outfit that riled up the internet. The reactions perhaps makes more sense when you consider the journey her public image has had lately.
In significant move so far, the newly appointed US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisers voted Friday to abandon universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns, a massive shift in US immunization policy that experts say will lead to increased illness.
Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are meeting today on what could be a major change to the childhood vaccination schedule. Follow here for live updates.
In a meeting punctuated by conflict and confusion, the independent vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday again delayed a vote that could dramatically change hepatitis B vaccination practice in the United States.
Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are meeting today, and they could vote on possible changes to the childhood vaccination schedule. Follow here for live updates from the meeting.