700: Bars of soap used to move the Elmwood building — a historic 220-ton former hotel in Halifax, Nova Scotia — over four meters. To smoothly glide it off its foundation, Sheldon Rushton said his construction biz used Ivory soap (apparently the softest kind) instead of rollers. The current owner of the Elmwood, which fell into disrepair during its time as an apartment building, intends to restore it in its new spot and build a nine-story apartment building next door.
52: Number of Kemp’s ridley sea turtles flown via private jet from the New England Aquarium in Massachusetts to the much warmer Florida. The endangered turtles, which were suffering from “cold stun” due to frigid waters, will be returned to their natural habitat after they’re rehabbed in the Sunshine State. If the return trip is also via private jet, that’ll be two more times these reptiles have been on a private jet than most of us.
70%+: Percentage of Presto Automation customer interactions that require human intervention. Presto’s AI chatbot takes drive-thru orders at fast-food establishments, including Carl’s Jr. and Checkers. However, per an SEC filing, most transactions receive help from remote human workers located in the Philippines and elsewhere. This seems to be a pattern among AI startups, per The Verge, in which they replace human jobs not with AI, but with humans in countries where wages are lower. (Sigh.)
$2.15B: How much MacKenzie Scott donated across 360 organizations this year. This included $12m to the Howard University College of Medicine; Home Grown, which works to increase child care access; and the Clean Slate Initiative, which works on clearing the records of formerly incarcerated people. Scott’s current net worth is $33.7B.
