BBD Investors

  A $2.2 Billion Solar Experiment That Burns Fossil Fuels, and Kills Thousands of Birds a Year Driving through the Mojave Desert and coming across a shimmering city of mirrors, 173,500 of them, all pointed at three blazing towers. It looks like something out of a sci‑fi film. And for a moment, you think,  Wow, this is the future of clean energy . Then you learn the plant fires up natural gas every single morning, and that birds flying overhead literally burst into flames. That’s the Ivanpah story. And it’s way messier than anyone expected. What Is Ivanpah, and How Does It Work? Perched off Interstate 15 near the California‑Nevada border, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System was once the largest solar thermal plant on the planet. It covers roughly five square miles of public desert land and cost a staggering $2.2 billion to build, with $1.6 billion of that backed by federal loan guarantees from the Obama administration. Mirrors, Towers, and Steam, A Quick Tour Ivanpah d...

Used EV vs. Gas Car Ownership Costs: The Brutal 5-Year Math Nobody Shows You The Great Used-Car Math-Off: What a Used EV  Really  Costs Next to a Gas Car If you’ve been scrolling through used-car listings lately, maybe with a coffee in one hand and a calculator in the other, you’ve probably noticed something strange. Used electric vehicle sales are  surging  while new EV sales are stumbling. In the first quarter of 2026, Americans bought 93,500 used EVs, up 12% from a year earlier, while new EV purchases dropped by 28% to just 212,600 units. For the full year of 2025, used EV sales hit roughly 378,000 units, a 35% jump. What’s going on? Here’s the short version: prices have cratered to the point where a used EV now averages just  $1,300 more than an equivalent used gas car , the tax credit may be gone but the deals are here to stay, and lease returns are flooding dealer lots with barely-used electric cars that somebody else already took the depreciation hit o...

  Mamdani Thanked the Same Billionaire He Publicly Shamed, Wait, What Happened? Last week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani did something few people expected: he stood at One Police Plaza and publicly thanked a billionaire. Not just any billionaire. Ken Griffin, the hedge fund titan he’d singled out by name just days earlier in a viral video, pointing at the man’s $238 million penthouse while announcing a new “tax the rich” policy. Yeah,  that  guy. If you’re feeling a bit of whiplash, you’re not alone. The whole thing has left New Yorkers and political watchers scratching their heads. It’s a story about confrontation and awkward harmony, sharp rhetoric and pragmatic reality. And honestly, it says a lot about the weird political moment we’re living in. The Video That Started It All, Tax Day Theater Outside a $238 Million Penthouse Let’s rewind to April 15th. Mayor Mamdani, a self-declared democratic socialist who ran on taxing the ultrawealthy, posted a slickly prod...

  Utah Is Now the First State to Hold Websites Liable for VPN Users, Here’s What That Actually Means Imagine you own a bookstore, and a law says you must check the ID of everyone who walks through the door. Makes sense, right? Now imagine the same law says if someone crawls through the air vent wearing an invisibility cloak,  you’re still on the hook for not carding them. That’s essentially what Utah just did to the internet. On May 6, 2026, the state will become the first in the U.S. to hold websites legally responsible when minors use VPNs to bypass age verification checks, a move that has privacy advocates furious, tech experts baffled, and website owners scrambling for answers. Senate Bill 73 , formally known as the Online Age Verification Amendments, was signed by Governor Spencer Cox on March 19, 2026. It’s a law with genuinely noble intentions, protecting minors from harmful content. But, as we’ll see, the road to digital hell is often paved with good intentions. Wha...

  U.S. Crude Exports Just Hit an All-Time Record as tankers flock to Gulf Coast, Here's What That Means for Your Wallet Off the coast of Texas right now, there's a line of ships so long it would make a Disneyland ride operator jealous. More than 170 crude oil tankers are steaming toward the Gulf Coast, nearly double what you'd see in a normal month. These aren't small boats. Some of them, the Very Large Crude Carriers, stretch longer than three football fields and can carry 2 million barrels of oil each. And they're all coming to America. Why? Because halfway around the world, the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow strip of water that normally carries one-fifth of the planet's oil, is effectively closed. Iran blocked it. The U.S. Navy is blockading Iran's ports in return. And in the chaos, the world has turned to Texas. What's happening right now isn't just another oil story. It's the biggest rerouting of global energy flows since World War II. In Ap...

  How Algorithm‑Driven Schedules Crushed These Workers’ Pay – And What It Means for You When a Stable Paycheck Fell Apart Overnight For a year and a half, Yves Valerus had something that is becoming rare for hourly workers: a predictable life. She worked a stable, full‑time job as a Haitian Creole‑English interpreter, helping people navigate hospital visits and court proceedings over the phone. She had a set hourly rate, a regular schedule, and benefits. She could plan childcare. She could plan groceries. Then, in 2025, it all came apart. Her employer – LanguageLine Solutions, a company whose parent corporation had already been accused of surveilling remote workers through their webcams – started using new scheduling software. Within weeks, Valerus’s hours became fragmented and unpredictable. By year’s end, her annual pay was down  almost 20 percent . As a single mother of three in Brooklyn, she found herself choosing between paying the internet bill (so she could keep her rem...

  Longevity Experts Reveal the 'Flicker Method': 5 Triggers That Could Make You Feel Years Younger, Starting Today Have you ever caught yourself saying, "I feel old today"? Maybe it was after a rough night of sleep, your joints creaking a little louder than usual. Maybe it was scrolling past a birthday and thinking,  Wait, how am I that age already? Here's a thought that might change everything: that "old" feeling? It's not permanent. Not according to longevity experts Stuart Kaplan and Marcus Riley, co-authors of the provocative new book  Your Aging Advantage: The 7 New Stages of Aging . They've introduced a concept called the  "flicker stage"  — and it's quietly upending the idea that getting older is a one-way street. The best part? They believe you can learn to harness it. Let's break it down. What Is the Flicker Method? The "flicker stage" describes something you've probably already experienced without having ...

  America Got Rich and Got Sad: What 2020 Broke That Still Hasn’t Healed You know the feeling. You scroll past a headline about record stock market highs, and ten minutes later you’re watching a reel of a stranger crying in their car because they can’t afford rent and groceries in the same week. Something doesn’t add up. The economy is booming. So why does everyone feel so… hollow? You’re not imagining it. A quiet crisis has been unfolding in America, one that doesn’t show up in GDP reports, unemployment figures, or 401(k) statements. It shows up in how people answer one simple question:  Are you happy? And for the first time in fifty years, the answer is a resounding  no . Sam Peltzman, a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and one of the most cited economists of the past half‑century, has spent years combing through the General Social Survey, a poll that’s been asking Americans about their happiness since 1972. What he found stopped ...