1. Elon Musk’s Boring Company Tunnel
Yesterday, Elon Musk opened the first Boring Company test tunnel in Hawthorne, CA where the Boring Company is also headquartered. The tunnel, which measures 1.4 miles long and 14 feet wide, cost approximately $10M, a fraction of the cost of traditional tunneling according to Musk. For $200 to $300, anyone could potentially buy “tracking wheels” that flip out from underneath their car to keep it in line with the tunnel’s one-way lane to go back and forth like a train. 
So far, The Boring Company has landed a contract with Chicago Infrastructure Trust to build an express loop system to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, ferrying passengers in a small pod from downtown Chicago to the airport within 12 minutes. However, with one reporter complaining about motion sickness after the test ride and The Boring Team joking about the tunneling machine being slower than their snail Mascot, Gary, you could say that there are still some kinks to work out.
(Source: CNET)
2. The Mom Project Raises $8M
The Mom Project, an organization focused on helping moms re-enter into the workforce after taking time off to raise kids, has just raised $8M in Series A Funding. The Chicago-based startup is looking to expand beyond Chicago, Atlanta, and San Francisco and help moms juggle both work and parenthood. CEO and founder, Allison Robinson, says she personally understands the struggle of coming back to work after maternity leave. 43% of skilled women leave the workforce after having kids due to an inner mom-ologue about having less experience, less confidence, irrelevant job skills and a need for more time flexibility. Therefore, The Mom Project came together, using different algorithms to pair mothers (and fathers) with jobs more suited to their priorities. Currently, The Mom Project has 75K registered women and 1K-backed companies, including Procter & Gamble, AT&T, and BP. Oh, baby.
(Source: TechCrunch)
3. NAACP Leads #LogoutFacebook
NAACP, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is encouraging their members and supporters to log out of Facebook and Facebook-owned app Instagram for the next week. After discovering that the Russian hacking of the 2016 election heavily targeted African-Americans, NAACP is boycotting the platforms for a week starting yesterday. The oldest U.S. civil-rights organization recently returned a donation from Facebook, criticizing Facebook’s involvement with data hacks, as well as the lack of diversity among the top tech firms. Pew Research Center has also revealed that 70% of black U.S. adults use Facebook daily to communicate with family (63%) and friends (60%), compared to 53% and 54% respectively to the total population.
