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by Mark David

It wasn’t so long ago that panic rooms were thought of as little more than a plot line for a Jodi Foster film or an expensive eccentricity of the paranoid. No more.

Nowadays, increasing numbers of homeowners are spending big bucks to have panic rooms, safe cores and other sorts of high-tech security systems installed in their home to ensure their family and possessions are kept safe from intrepid intruders and other calamitous events.

One residence, located high in the hills above Los Angeles, goes several steps further than a simple but effective panic room. The lavish and luxurious appointments of the sky-high mansion discreetly hide and disguise a security system so tight that it just may be the safest house in the world.

Modern-Day Fortress

The modern-day fortress was designed and built in 2002 by Al V. Corbi, a renowned authority on residential and yacht security. Corbi’s stock in trade is designing integrated systems with detection, deterrence, defensive and offensive options. The heavily fortified and super secure residence occupies an easily defended promontory with 360-degree views. The well-defended dwelling stands five stories tall, measures almost 8,000 square feet and includes 32 rooms that all sit atop a virtually impenetrable batcave-like garage that will hold six, preferably armored, cars.

Hurwitz James Company

Safe and Luxurious

When not aiding the defense and security of its occupants, the fortress-like home functions like any other well-appointed mansion with deluxe creature comforts such as an elevator for whisking folks from the garage level to the living levels, a gourmet kitchen with granite counter tops and commercial grade appliances, two offices, a wine cellar and a home theater.

Buy Some Peace of Mind

The home’s real luxury is, of course, the ensured safety of its inhabitants. Should an intruder manage to breach the extensive exterior security measures that include comprehensive surveillance abilities, there are two hidden panic rooms and two architecturally invisible “safe cores.”

The safe cores consist of entire sections of the residence that can be isolated from the rest of the home and where the homeowner can retreat in complete safety — not to mention luxury — from an outside threat that might include an intruder, a natural disaster or even a nuclear, biological or chemical attack.

Hurwitz James Company

The homeowner declined to discuss some of the specifics of the heavy-duty security set up out of obvious concern that it could compromise the overall system. This means they’re not going to tell this writer or anyone else but the next owner that the property is equipped with semi-automatic weaponry that can be remotely controlled from the panic room(s). It may not be, but then again, maybe it is.

Room for Refugees

In addition to the handicap-accessible guest suite, the seriously safe house has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms including a master suite with panoramic views, a fireplace, a luxurious bathroom and a custom-fitted dressing room that would satisfy any clothes horse with a penchant for high-powered security systems.

Whirly-Gig Accessible

The sprawling and tiled terrace on the roof takes full advantage of the 360-degree views that include Mount Baldy, the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean. There is also a built-in barbecue center and a spa situated under the heliport designed for emergency evacuations in the event of a home intrusion or for fire emergencies.

The Price of Safety

While it can be tough to put a price of the safety and security of one’s family, in this case the tab is $7.25 million.

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/108875/is-this-the-safest-house-in-the-world

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By Trey Kerby

Not that there was any doubt about it, but Shaun White is the best snowboarder alive. Wednesday night he successfully defended his 2006 men’s halfpipe gold medal. And yes, he did the Double McTwist 1260.

After a flawless first run, White found himself where he usually is: atop the leaderboard. Then, after every other snowboarder took a second shot at knocking him from his perch, he remained in first. Since only the best of two runs is counted in scoring, Shaun White already had his gold medal. Now he could have some fun.

With no pressure on him, White went, as he would call it, “heavy.” Huge, huge, enormous air, the now-requisite double cork, and then to top things off, the trick that only he can do — the Double McTwist 1260. It’s a trick so amazing it doesn’t even have an official name, though White was overheard calling it the “Double Mc.” Works for me.

Forty-eight point four. That was his finishing score. Unfortunate rhyme aside, that’s an outstanding mark. An entire 3.4 points higher than the silver medalist, Finland’s Peetu Piiroinen. And it was more than deserved.

In the past 12 months, White has advanced snowboarding further than the sport had advanced in the previous 10 years. He’s the reason double corks were a necessity. He’s the reason that sponsors such as Nike and Microsoft care about snowboarding. Shaun White is more important to his sport than any athlete on the planet, and this is coming from an enormous NBA fan. Basketball could survive without LeBron James. Snowboarding would go nowhere without Shaun White.

That’s why it’s so awesome to see someone so transcendent perform so well on the sport’s biggest stage. It’s not every day that you get to witness greatness, or see history being made, but that’s the case with Shaun White. He keeps getting better when he’s already the best.

And he’s only 23. Whoa boy.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Shaun-White-proves-he-s-still-the-best-snowboard?urn=oly,220406

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Freshman Isaiah Canaan #3 hits a sit-down three-pointer from nearly half-court, right at the shot clock buzzer.

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Do More Than Just Watch. Download to donate at World25.org or Text WORLD to 50555 to donate $10 (standard msg + data rates apply).

BY Christina Boyle
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Christina Boyle polls New Yorkers on 34th Street about their reactions to PajamaJeans – soft and seamless alternatives to their denim counterparts.

It’s a fashion must-have for any woman looking to indulge her inner couch potato.

A pair of pants designed to look like jeans – but feel like pajamas – is now on sale.

The aptly named PajamaJeans are made of a mixture of cotton and spandex with a gray jersey lining to provide a snug and relaxed fix, complete with pockets and rivets to give the illusion of trendy denim.

The creators behind this new clothing concept are apparently hoping to capitalize on the success of jeggings – the garment that’s part jeans, part leggings.

So the Daily News hit the streets with a pair to gauge people’s reactions to this new clothing hybrid. And some fashion forward folks were delighted.

“Sometimes when you’re sitting around with friends, you want to be relaxed,” said Sherrie Graddic, 45, who lives near the Flatiron District and works in marketing. “You don’t want to just go straight to bed so you want something that you can still put on with a T-shirt … and laugh and talk, drink some wine or watch a movie.”

“So pajama jeans?” she concluded. “I think it’s a great idea – I don’t know why I didn’t think of it.”

While some of the passers-by took issue with the deep indigo color of the PajamaJeans or the bright yellow stitching, most women – and even a couple of men – could see the appeal and said they’d find a use for them.

“Yes, I would wear them in the airplane when you’re flying for like 10 hours,” said student Steffi Regoutz, 22, from Vienna, Austria. “They may be okay in the office, but only if you could hide them under the table.”

Regoutz’s boyfriend, Thomas Duran, 26, said he’d take away a slightly different message if his girlfriend put them on.

“They’re like jogging trousers,” he said. I would think, ‘She’s already got her pajamas on, she wants to go home with me.’”

The PajamaJeans are available online and by phone for $39.95.

They come in five sizes but in only one style – dark blue color with yellow stitching and little brass rivets around the pockets.

Sandra Markus, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in the design department, thinks PajamaJeans indicate a lifestyle shift.

“These days, pajamas are just casual wear, with the whole yoga influence,” she said. “And jeans … they are ubiquitous. They are totally accepted, so why not as pajamas?”

With Katie Nelson

An American finds love in Paris.

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by Mike Krumboltz

Few things inspire Web searches quite like cute or mysterious animals. This week we had both. Off the coast of California, hundreds of giant squids stormed the beaches, much to the delight of fisherman. And on the East Coast, a couple of adorable pandas boarded a flight bound for their native China. Check out those stories, as well as a clip from the weirdest campaign ad in history. It’s the Buzz Week in Review.

The invasion of the giant squids
Our headline may sound like a bad horror movie, but believe it or not, it’s also largely accurate. Off the coast of Southern California, hundreds of giant squids have been spotted swimming toward the shore. Some can weigh up to 60 pounds, but the majority are anywhere between 20 and 40 pounds. We ran a popular Buzz Log on the invasion, and immediately searches roared on “giant squids in california” and “Humboldt squids” (their scientific name). While the squids look intimidating, they aren’t scaring off the fishing community. In fact, many locals are taking twilight fishing trips in an effort to nab a squid for themselves. You can check out a photo collection from MyFoxLA.
Why do squids squirt ink?

The panda express
Tai Shin, the giant panda bear who left the U.S. to return to his native China, scored a lot of headlines this week. But the popular panda had a fellow passenger on the long flight to Beijing: the lesser-known but equally adorable Mei Lan. According to a buzzy article from Yahoo! News, there are plans for Mei Lan to learn Chinese once she gets settled in her new home. Well, kind of. The article explains that “Chinese zookeepers are advertising for a tutor to teach Chinese” to the American-born panda. A staff member from a Chinese panda facility explained that “she will be taught Chinese with a Sichuan dialect, because people here all speak Sichuan dialect.” The goal is for Mei Lan to understand, if not speak, a few simple phrases. If you didn’t already feel dumb for knowing only one language, this may put you over the top.
Why do pandas love bamboo?

Sheep may NOT safely graze
Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, is running for senator in California. This past week, her supporters released one of the absolute strangest campaign commercials to ever see the light of day. The ad, an attack against her rival Tom Campbell, features a group of sheep grazing on a hill. But the sheep…are not alone! After an ominous voice warns voters about a wolf in sheep’s clothing, we see a bizarre-looking robot sheep (really) with red eyes. The entire thing really has to be seen to be believed, and many folks did exactly that. Web searches on “carly fiorina sheep” and “carly fiorina sheep commercial” both surged into breakout status. Still, while the ad is unintentionally hilarious, it did get people talking. That’s gotta be good for at least a few votes.

http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/93372?fp=1

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WASHINGTON – Spurned Pluto is changing its looks, donning more rouge in its complexion and altering its iceball surface here and there.

Color astronomers surprised.

Newly released Hubble Space Telescope photos show the distant one-time planet — demoted to “dwarf planet” status in 2006 — is changing color and its ice sheets are shifting.

The photos, released by NASA Thursday, paint a Pluto that is significantly redder than it had been for the past several decades. To the layman, it has a yellow-orange hue, but astronomers say it has about 20 percent more red than it used to have.

The pictures show icy frozen nitrogen on Pluto’s surface growing and shrinking, brightening in the north and darkening in the south. Astronomers say Pluto’s surface is changing more than the surfaces of other bodies in the solar system. That’s unexpected because a season lasts 120 years in some regions of Pluto.

“It’s a little bit of a surprise to see these changes happening so big and so fast,” said astronomer Marc Buie of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. “This is unprecedented.”

From 1954 to 2000, Pluto didn’t change in color when it was photographed from Earth. But after that, it did. The red levels increased by 20 percent, maybe up to 30 percent, and stabilized from about 2000 to 2002, Buie said. It’s not as red as Mars, however, Buie said.

Buie said he can explain the redness, but not why it changed so dramatically and so recently. The planet has a lot of methane, which contains carbon and hydrogen atoms. The hydrogen gets stripped off by solar winds and other factors, leaving carbon-rich areas on the surface, which tend to be red and dark.

The Hubble photos were taken in 2002 and the analysis took a few years. But why Pluto changed so quickly was such a mystery that Buie held off for years on announcing what he had found, worried that he might be wrong. However, since Pluto’s moon Charon hadn’t changed color in the same telescope images, he decided the Pluto findings weren’t an instrument mistake.

His analysis also found that nitrogen ice was shifting in size and density in surprising ways. It’s horribly cold on Pluto with, paradoxically, the bright spots being the coldest at about -382 degrees Fahrenheit. Astronomers are still arguing about the temperatures of the warm dark spots, which Buie believes may be 30 degrees warmer than the darker areas.

Part of the difficulty in figuring out what is going on with Pluto is that it takes the dwarf planet 248 years to circle the sun, so astronomers don’t know what conditions are like when it’s is farthest from the sun. The last time Pluto was at its farthest point was in 1870, which was decades before Pluto was discovered. Unlike Earth, Pluto’s four seasons aren’t equal lengths of time.

Buie’s explanation makes sense, said retired NASA astronomer Stephen Maran, co-author of a book on Pluto. “Pluto is interesting and poorly understood, whether it qualifies as a planet or not,” he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100204/ap_on_sc/us_sci_pluto

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by Judd Tully

provided by

A rare life-size and life-time bronze cast, from 1961, of Alberto Giacometti’s L’Homme Qui Marche I, better known as “Walking Man,” improbably became the most expensive work of art ever to sell at auction today, selling for £65,001,250 ($104,327,006).

Getty Images

A Sotheby’s employee stands behind ‘Homme qui marche’ at Sotheby’s auction house on January 12, 2010, in London.

The price barely edged out the previous record, set in 2004 by Pablo Picasso’s Garcon a la Pipe, 1905, which went for $104.1 million (£58,052,830) at the time. But Giacometti’s personal previous record, achieved when Grand Femme Debout II, 1959-60, earned $27,481,000 at Christie’s New York in May 2008, was vanquished in seconds.

The £65,001,250 ($104,327,006) result also pulverized the previous record for any modern sculpture sold at auction, achieved last February at the Yves Saint Laurent sale in Paris when Constantin Brancusi’s Madame L.R. (Portrait de Mme L.R.) from circa 1914-17 sold for $37.7 million.

Estimated to sell for £12-18 million, the much-talked-about Giacometti figure of a spindly man, who resembles a survivor of a cataclysmic event, frozen in mid-stride, took off like a Roman candle, with multiple bids erupting in the packed salesroom.

At least four phone bidders tangled for the prize, as did several seasoned dealers, including New York private dealer Nancy Whyte, who went up to £23 million before dropping out, connected via cell phone to her anonymous client.

“That was peanuts,” said Whyte shortly afterwards, alluding to her bidding, and expressing surprise at just how much higher the bronze traveled.

Pre-sale buzz that the Giacometti might hit $50 million was greeted with considerable skepticism by even seasoned players. No one even fantasized it would exceed $100 million

There are two versions of “Walking Man,” I and II, each in an edition of six plus artist proofs. It is believed that example of the first walking man, which was consigned by the Frankfurt-based Commerzbank, is the only life-time cast still in private hands

Sotheby’s senior specialist Philip Hook, who took the winning phone bid at a hammer price of £58 million, said that one of the unidentified underbidders told him before the sale that he had been waiting 40 years for the sculpture to come on the market. It turned out to be that kind of generational event. Hook declined to divulge any information about his phone client.

The six-foot-high bronze has an American heritage as well. It was first acquired in December 1961 by legendary New York dealer Sidney Janis, who bought it from Galerie Maeght in Paris and debuted it in New York at the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1968, according to the auction catalogue.

The catalogue also showed a vintage photograph of Giacometti covered in white plaster and working on the spindly legs of the figure in his Paris studio before it was cast in bronze. The image added to the iconic status of the astonishing sculpture, believed by some to be his greatest work. There’s no question it’s his most expensive.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/108752/giacometti-sculpture-becomes-most-expensive-work-ever-to-sell-at-auction

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