Microplastics—an almost invisible class of plastic fragments smaller than a grain of rice—have become one of the planet’s largest unseen pollutants, accumulating across soils, seas, and even inside the human body. 1. Most microplastics don’t come from bottles or bags. The vast majority are shed from
A handful of nations control nearly all of Earth’s helium—an irreplaceable gas underpinning quantum computing, chipmaking, and medical imaging—turning what once floated balloons into a quiet strategic choke point. Takeaways 1. The sheer imbalance in reserves reveals how helium supply risk is structural—not cyclical—since extraction
Apple’s trajectory under its two leaders has largely reflected their respective personalities; from disruptive innovation-at-all-costs, to mature, cautious consolidation. Takeaways Pace vs. persistence Under Jobs, innovation felt rapid and sometimes disruptive; under Cook, Apple has pivoted to sustained execution, incremental refinement, and longevity—building momentum over years rather than
LLMs are here to stay, and the GPU pipeline — the picks and shovels powering this surge in novel compute demand — is the clearest lens on who controls who, and therefore, who controls the profit. Takeaways Compute is the choke point — GPUs flow from TSMC → Nvidia → cloud providers, and whoever sits
In just six years, a once-niche AI nonprofit lab with grand ambitions has transcended expectations and become one of the most valuable private companies on the planet. With a working product, yet little evidence of real profit, expectations and valuations are reaching tech-giant levels. As of October 2025, a secondary
As Starbucks shutters stores and trims jobs in a billion-dollar restructuring, its new CEO Brian Niccol is earning a frothy $46,056 every hour, a number that at any perspective highlights the widening wage gaps between median workers and CEOs. 3 Takeaways Walmart’s hourly CEO pay is roughly 40%
Unsurprisingly, nearly half of Donald Trump’s 2025 U.N. speech wasn’t about the world at all — it was about himself — a staggering 46% of his 424 sentences, dwarfing the time he devoted to immigration, climate, or even the United Nations itself. Takeaways International crises were an afterthought Immigration,
The balance of cultural power has shifted — for Gen Z (1997-2012), global influence is no longer anchored in Hollywood or traditional fame, but in the massive social footprints of digital-native creators whose followings rival entire nations. 3 Mind-blowing takeaways: 1. Creators rival (and sometimes eclipse) traditional stars Figures like Khaby
The numbers confirm what people already sense: ChatGPT is sliding into the space Google once owned, with the difference that people expect a finished answer, not a list of options. This comes from a brand-new OpenAI study, the first time we’ve been able to see usage data at this
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What becomes clear when the past eight years are collapsed into a single view is not just the pace of releases, but the transformation of AI into a self-sustaining system. Competition, capital, and curiosity have created a cycle where each launch accelerates the next, collapsing the distance between breakthrough and
In the era of streaming and sovereign money, uncapped, globally funded sports—not U.S. salary-capped leagues—now set the market ceiling for athlete pay. Three more takeaways 1. Star density drives pay. Sports where one person carries the whole product (boxing, golf, F1) funnel far more revenue to a
In a time when crypto wealth is increasingly fragmented and anonymized, this list is a stark reminder that the largest fortunes ever—led by Satoshi’s untouched billion-dollar trove—were held by individuals, often in full view, before the era of DAOs, multisigs, and collapse. ✍️ If you work at a
President Trump is a Crypto Billionaire (~$3B). Trump’s 2025 financial disclosures show that while his real estate empire is stagnant, he has quietly repositioned himself as a crypto whale and media stock speculator—placing him squarely in the middle of two of the most volatile, politically charged markets on
Nepotism, abolishing term limits, slurping oil profits, and monopolizing national revenues can apparently prove just as scalable—and far more reliable—than innovation and the free market. Three quick takeaways 1. Monarchies mint money: Four of the five richest rulers inherited both the throne and the treasury, turning state coffers
From Larry Ellison’s utopian tech-lab on Lāna‘i to Epstein’s secretive island of infamy, private islands have become the billionaire class’s ultimate blank slate — where sustainability experiments, PR promises, and moral vacuums all find their place. 🏝️ Island ownership varies more by intent than net worth. Some use
Peanut-based foods are staples, not snacks, in much of Africa and Asia—driving Burkina Faso, Myanmar, and Chad to the top of the global peanut butter consumption leaderboard despite limited industrial food sectors. Key Takeaways 1. Population size doesn't predict per-person habits: The U.S. and China are
Every night, more than 27 million guest spaces are available across hotels, Airbnbs, hostels, and cruise ships. That’s roughly one for every 300 people on Earth, underscoring just how embedded travel has become in the global economy, lifestyle, and housing systems. TAKEAWAYS * Short-term rentals now rival traditional hospitality. Airbnb
Amid warnings from the WTO that world merchandise trade could slip into outright decline this year and with Red‑Sea shipping lanes still only partly restored, the map below helps anchor where trade is still most deeply regionalised—and how big those regional arteries really are. Three things that jump
Today, we look at a visual summary of the graphic styles of the last century of the second millennium. Technology, fine art, politics and world events continually shaped and broke emerging styles of communication in a way that can be visually tracked in this newly designed poster. With the help
After releasing my latest graphic on the Voronoi app, the community hastily rallied around a single sentiment: this list should be adjusted for inflation. I've heard you! Amongst other things, this required a comprehensive list of all animated films throughout history to do properly, as well as a
![Highest Grossing Animated Films [Extended]](/content/images/size/w600/2025/04/AnimatedHeavyweights2.jpg)
Building on yesterday's post, I extended the highest grossing animated films list to include the top 18 films. When storytelling goes beyond the bounds of our physical reality, what rises to the top? What modern myths win the mass popularity contest? I think this list reveals some fascinating
