💬 Quoted: "It’s kind of like follow-the-leader – one goes out and there’s, like, a mad dash.”

Some monkey business is happening near Charleston, South Carolina – and surprisingly, it’s unrelated to a bachelorette party. A research center located ~60 miles away in Yemassee is currently working to round up dozens of monkeys who escaped after a caretaker failed to latch their enclosure upon leaving.

50 monkeys, mostly young females weighing less than 10 lbs, initially bolted, with 43 still on the lam as of this writing late last night. Officials have laid out traps with fresh fruit and vegetables, and are urging residents to close their doors and windows and avoid interacting with the animals.

🐒 Not again: Monkey escapes from the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center, which sits on ~100 acres and houses ~7,000 monkeys for scientific research, have become so common they’re comically ingrained into Yemassee lore, with some residents setting food outside for the animals, a town council member told the NY Times. In 2016, nineteen monkeys scaled the 12-foot walls of their enclosure, while in 2014, twenty-six macaques escaped their enclosure and were recaptured within two days.

🌐💬 Stat of the Day: How much are four letters worth? If you’re OpenAI, the answer is at least $15.5 million (~$3.9 million/letter). This week, CEO Sam Altman revealed the AI giant has purchased the domain chat.com, which now redirects to ChatGPT.com. Previously, chat.com was owned by HubSpot founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah, who says he purchased the domain for $15.5 million in early 2023, then sold it for more than he originally paid a few months later in an all-stock deal with OpenAI.

🤔 Did You Know? Some car manufacturers sell spicy tape, aka wiring tape that’s coated with capsaicin – the active component of chili peppers – in order to deter rodents from chewing on it.

📰 Worth a Read: One of America’s First Spectator Sports Was Professional Walking → (Smithsonian Magazine)