Mission Everywhere

Voters mark their ballots at Frank McCourt High School, in New York, Tuesday, June 22, 2021. Richard Drew/AP NYC's snafu in reporting ranked-choice results is the latest in a long line of election problems. Critics say the incident wasn't a one-off, but emblematic of a fundamentally broken system. The embattled Board of Elections has long been a hotbed of nepotism and political cronyism. See more stories on Insider's business page . The rollout of ranked-choice voting devolved into chaos on Tuesday night in the highly-watched New York City Democratic mayoral primary, when the city's Board of Elections announced that the results of the first rounds of ranked-choice votes included 135,000 test votes mistakenly left in the election management system. The error, luckily, occurred during the release of incomplete, unofficial election results based only on in-person votes, not final tabulations that include a full accounting of absentee and provisional ballots. Th...

fstop123/Getty Images The CFPB just found fresh evidence of redlining, which has been illegal for over half a century. It found housing discrimination that prevented minority neighborhoods from receiving financial services. The Biden administration has taken other steps to increase homeownership for Black Americans. See more stories on Insider's business page . Redlining, or housing discrimination by denying services to minority neighborhoods, has been illegal for over half a century . But it just keeps happening. An agency within President Joe Biden's administration just found evidence of the discriminatory practice still happening today. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which ensures consumers are financially protected, released a report on Tuesday that found evidence of lenders violating the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which banned housing discrimination. Specifically, examiners in the bureau found lenders engaged in practices that discouraged prospectiv...

SpaceX launched 85 satellites for external customers, as well as three Starlink satellites, to orbit on Tuesday, marking the second successful launch of the company’s dedicated rideshare missions. While the Transporter-2 mission will deliver fewer objects to space than the first rideshare mission (the Transporter-1 sent up 143 satellites, a new record ), it launched more mass to orbit overall. The Transporter launches are part of the company’s rideshare business model. Announced in 2019 , these missions split up the rocket’s payload capacity amongst multiple customers, resulting in lower costs for each – many of whom are smaller companies that may find the expenses associated with getting to orbit otherwise impossible to pay. SpaceX still ends up with a full launch and the revenue to operate it. The Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at around 2:32 PM. It’s the twentieth Falcon 9 launch in 2021 and the first launch this year that featured the first stage returnin...

BMW i Ventures , the venture capital arm of BMW Group, has announced a new $300 million fund to further its investment in technologies that make transportation, manufacturing and supply chains more sustainable.  The firm doesn’t operate as a traditional corporate venture capital fund, but rather acts independently from BMW while being fully backed by the German automaker. Its previous €500 million (about $525 million at the time) fund , which was announced when the firm moved to Silicon Valley in 2016, is now at the end of its period for new investments. From now on, new investments  will come from Fund II.  Fund I focused more on autonomous and digital vehicle technology, customer experience and advanced production. For example, autonomous truck company Kodiak Robotics, which last week announced an investment from BMW i Ventures , was a part of this fund. Fund II will further emphasize sustainability and zero emissions in all the sectors that lead up to designing, man...

Peanut , the maker of a social networking app for women,  is entering into the investing space with today’s launch of a microfund called StartHER . As the name implies, the new fund will focus on investing in women as well as other historically excluded founders “of all ages, life stages, ethnicities and sexual orientations,” the company says. In particular, StartHER aims tackle the difficulties specific groups have in raising their first capital — something typically referred to as the “friends and family round.” Peanut argues there’s inherent bias in assuming that every startup founder has access to what are, essentially, wealthy friends or family who can spare a little startup capital. These rounds often range in size from $10,000 to as large as $150,000 or more, and can make a difference when it comes to getting a new company off the ground. “The assumption that founders should have networks able to invest in their businesses creates an unfair starting line for most groups. I...

Volvo Cars wants to completely electrify its lineup by 2030 and on Wednesday offered a glimpse into how it plans to get there and what its next generation of vehicles might look like. But it’s not going to do it alone. Although the automaker plans on developing its own in-car operating system and other parts of the car, Volvo Cars detailed how it plans to work with partners like Northvolt, Google and Luminar to build out its future vehicles lineup. It also unveiled the first images of “Concept Recharge,” a concept EV that has flat floors, two interior screens and rear “suicide doors” that open from the middle of the vehicle. Volvo Concept Recharge. Image Credits: Volvo Cars The Concept Recharge is also outfitted with Luminar sensors, in line with an announcement earlier this month that Volvo Cars’ forthcoming flagship electric SUV will be equipped with Luminar’s technology stack as standard. On the battery front, Volvo Cars is working with Swedish battery developer Northvolt o...

Brian Turner Contributor Share on Twitter Brian Turner, LEED-AP BD&C, leads strategic planning for product development and project work at Buildings IOT. Throughout his career, Brian has provided hands-on expertise to architects, engineers and building owners to design and implement integrated building systems. Everyone from investors to casual LinkedIn observers has more reasons than ever to look at buildings and wonder what’s going on inside. The property industry is known for moving slowly when it comes to adopting new technologies, but novel concepts and products are now entering this market at a dizzying pace. However, this ever-growing array of smart-building products has made it confusing for professionals who seek to implement digital building platform (DBP) technologies in their spaces, let alone across their entire enterprise. The waters get even murkier when it comes to cloud platforms and their impact on ROI with regard to energy usage and day-to-day opera...

Hour One , a startup that allows businesses to create ‘photoreal’ presenters which can speak pre-set any text or any language in a highly realistic manner, has signed a deal with Berlitz. The language learning giant will use the platform to augment its instructor-led services and grow its online language training programs in a way that would normally be impossible, without hiring thousands of human teachers. Curt Uehlein, Berlitz’s CEO said in a statement: “Berlitz has built our methodology and brand on delivering the best outcomes for students serious about fluency, which requires a very human-centric experience. Our digital experiences had to replicate the classroom experience. Doing that successfully means Berlitz can extend our reach into new markets, and be more accessible to students, removing barriers of location and affordability.” Hour One has been able to almost re-create the in-person instructor experience for Berlitz, with highly-realistic photoreal characters who have (i...

Bloomberg : Twitter and Facebook are fighting new Indian rules they say curtail privacy and free speech; the regulations include potential jail terms for executives   —  - Government wants the power to decide acceptable speech online  — Twitter's under scrutiny in one of its fastest-growing markets from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3x9V0gK

BuzzFeed News : Clearview AI data shows GAO's recent report on government use of facial recognition overlooked usage by five agencies, including IRS, TSA, and US Capitol Police   —  In a government accountability report about facial recognition, five federal agencies said they didn't use Clearview AI. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3jwrttA

Victoria Song / Gizmodo : Hands-on with Apple's watchOS 8 public beta: a welcome focus on helping users reduce stress induced by gadgets with a rebranded Mindfulness app, Focus, and more   —  When Apple previewed the features coming to watchOS 8, the next-gen software upgrade seemed iterative—great for overall performance … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3qOudEt

A pile of bitcoin cryptocurrencies is seen. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Green-lighting crypto ETFs could risk "real harm" if not properly regulated, Australia's top financial regulator say. But the Australian Securities and Investments Commission also said that a well-thought-out ETF could be viable. The commission suggested that the existing six asset categories under Australian law don't accurately capture cryptocurrencies. Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell . Green-lighting crypto ETFs could risk "real harm to consumers and markets" if not properly regulated, Australia's top financial regulator said on Tuesday. Writing in a paper calling for industry comment, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission noted significant consumer demand for crypto ETFs, but warned the products could easily do damage to consumers and markets if poorly designed. Conversely, ASIC acknowledged that a ...

Galaxy Messier 94, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, is rapidly forming new stars in the bright ring surrounding it. NASA NASA is trying to fix the Hubble Space Telescope after a mysterious glitch took it offline more than two weeks ago. Hubble is the world's most powerful space telescope. During its three decades in orbit, it has helped astronomers calculate the age and expansion of the universe, study far-away planets , and probe the secrets of dark matter . In that time, the iconic observatory has also amassed a portfolio of stunning photos of the cosmos , showing exploding stars , webs of dust and gas where new stars are born, and galaxies almost as old as the universe itself. Below is a selection of Hubble's highlights. See more stories on Insider's business page . The Hubble Space Telescope has been hibernating for nearly three weeks, as NASA troubleshoots a mysterious error that forced it offline. The Hubble Space Telescope hovers at the boundary...