Empire off the grid

Dean Kamen, arguably the world's most famous living inventor, is in his favorite place. It's the basement of the main house on his private island, a pristine concrete bunker outfitted with a command station that can monitor and control all aspects of the production and consumption of electric power on the island. The island, off the coast of Connecticut, is called North Dumpling Island, but Kamen, who invented the Segway and is something of an eccentric, calls it the Dumplonian Empire. He, of course, is Lord Dumpling.