The Era of Ghibli Has Arrived

Nothing will ever be the same.


This week, ChatGPT released a new feature that turns any image into a Studio Ghibli-style animation (aka anime).


🤔 How does it work?

You paste a photo into chatgpt and put the prompt:

“make it studio ghlibli style. keep all details.”


That’s it.

First, we got recreations of all the classic memes:

⚠️ WARNING: Going forward, some of these memes get pretty dark. But that’s kinda the funny thing about this studio ghibli style — it makes any photo feel fun and heartwarming.

Then, we got some classic movie scenes:

Then, the best part. We got ghiblis of the most iconic photos on the internet from the past few years

Raygun breakdances at the Olympics:

Chill Turkish guy shoots at the Olympics:

Merkel gives Trump the business:

Guy stands down tanks at Tiananmen Square:

Hillary and Kamala on election night:

JD Vance at the VP Debate:

Stalin disappears a guy:

Elon puffing on Joe Rogan:

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang signs tiddies:

Roof Koreans protect their stuff during the L.A. riots:

O.J. Simpson tries on the leather gloves:

Trump works at McDonalds:

Product Managers work from home:

Product Managers make tiktok:

Elon balances his fork:

Biden sniffs kid’s head:

David Guetta ends racism:

Zuck peeps cleavage and Trump inaugeration:

Hillary enters totally normal apartment, is horrified:

*To be fair to hillary, there were plants growing out of the sink.

Trump touches orb with Saudi King:

Wright brothers achieve flight:

Trump serves McDonalds at the White House:

Trump Drinks Diet Coke And Stares in the Other Direction as Hillary Clinton Speaks:

Osama Bin Laden makes an announcement:

Trump goes on Joe Rogan:

Justin Trudeau does blackface:

Bonnie Blue breaks record for banging most most dudes:

Trump survives assassination attempt:

Trump does Miami Vice:

Paul Graham looks at you:

Trump and JD bully Zelenskyy:

Trump hangs with Epstein:

Epstein poses with Ghislaine:

Ghislaine hangs with a prominent magazine editor:

Bryan Johnson says goodnight:

Elon’s Roman Salute:

👉 SIDE NOTE: looking through these pics, you might think I’m a trump guy, but I’m really not. It’s just that his team has produced a lot more iconic photos than the other guys.



Elon with Lil X:

Bernie wears cute gloves to Biden inauguration:

Trump swing around a sword at his inauguration:

Bush does 9/11:

Then we started to get these meta ghiblis:

My twitter feed was 95% ghibli memes for an entire day:

Sam Altman chimes in and gets burned:

Me today while writing this piece:

Now, the interesting part..

Here’s Nikita Bier saying something smart:

One last ghibli..

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Very cool, but here’s what Culture Critic got wrong:

The guy tweeting says that lack of key changes is loss of complexity in music. This is not true, it’s correlated to drop in popularity in rock music among #1’s where there was commonly a key change in the bridge.

From a pure waveform standpoint music has gotten more complex imho.

That’s according to my homie who’s something of a music historian.

👉 Here’s another good comment — this one from tomm648_ on Instagram:

To use a lack of key changes as ‘evidence’ that complexity has gone out of pop music is the absolute definition of cherry picked evidence. Musical complexity can come from endless other factors, in fact key changes are one of the most prosaic examples

Highly recommend checking out the full thread by Culture Critic — so much good stuff in there.

From u/halfeatenscone on reddit:

This is probably my favorite data visualization ever.

Top 10 Most Popular Compound Insults on Reddit:

1. dumbass

2. douche bag

3. scum bag

4. ass hat

5. shit head

6. dick head

7. dip shit

8. ass hat

9. lib tard

10. fuck wit

Surprisingly popular: “shit lord”

Top 10 Best Compound Insults on Reddit:

1. twat waffle

2. cock goblin

3. ass nozzle

4. cock nozzle

5. twat goblin

6. douche nozzle

7. ass lord

8. butt sucker

9. piss wit

10. shit lord

Honorable mention: “shit shit”

👉 What we learned

• Insults that end in “-goblin” or “-nozzle” almost always have a good ring to them.

• A commonality among many of our favorites is that the first vowels in each word share the same sound (i.e. “cock nozzle” or “twat waffle”)
  

IMDb Rating for Each Episode of The Office

From u/AndreIzCool on reddit:

How much did each character speak per episode?

From Bo McCready:

A Map of the Dunder Mifflin Branches (past and present)

All 14 branches of Dunder Mifflin for your viewing pleasure.

Palmer Luckey warns China will not stop with Taiwan

Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey freaked out a lot of people in his most recent interview on the Shawn Ryan Show:

Taiwan is not the end state for China. All the people who think this fight over Taiwan is the real fight are missing the point. China believes that the Philippines is their territory. They believe that Korea is their territory. They also believe that North Korea is their territory but they like them as a buffer state with South Korea but that would change the moment they could actually capture South Korea.

They even think that most of Japan belongs to them. They think that it's theirs. They've tried over and over for 1000s of years and even today, even publicly, they won't say they own all of Japan but they do maintain they own part of Japan.

It is really dangerous to let people with millennia long ambitions of ruling those areas go unchecked. Because even if you don't give a shit about Taiwan, which you should because our entire economy runs on chips from them and until we figure out how to make them better or as good ourselves we have to keep them around, there's a lot of reasons to make sure we're spooking China on Day 8, Day 80, Day 800.

Mapped: China’s Territorial Disputes

China has territorial disputes with a slew of neighboring nations.

• Taiwan

• Japan

• India

• Bhutan

• Philippines

• Vietnam

• Malaysia

• Brunei

• Indonesia

South China Sea

Here’s a scary map from the Economist of the infamous nine-dash line. It shows China’s maritime disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

East China Sea

Here’s a map from Stratfor that shows the part of the East China Sea that China and Japan both claim:

China vs. Taiwan

China fought a civil war from 1927 to 1947 (with a break in the middle for World War 2). It was:

• CPC vs. ROC

• AKA Commies vs. Capitalists

• AKA Mao Zedong vs. Chiang Kai-shekk

In the end, the commies won. They pushed the capitalists South until they fled mainland China for the island across the bay: Formosa AKA Taiwan.

To this day, both sides claim to be the one true China.

China vs. India

China and India didn’t share a border until China annexed Tibet. Ever since, there’s been a territorial dispute.

They’re Fighting Over Two Chunks of Land

1. Aksai Chin: Administered by China and claimed by India.

• Wikipedia says “it is mostly uninhabited high-altitude wasteland but with some significant pasture lands at the margins.”

2. McMahon Line: Administered by India and claimed by China.

• The McMahon Line was signed between British India and Tibet, but was never ratified by China. China says the McMahon Line is a BS agreement, because they say Tibet was not independent and sovereign nation at the time that it was signed.

In 2020, China and India had their first real battle over the territory in 45 years.

From the BBC:

De-escalation work has taken place since a major clash in June 2020. The Galwan Valley battle - fought with sticks and clubs, not guns - was the first fatal confrontation between the two sides since 1975.

At least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers died.

🤔 Who is Palmer Luckey?

He’s the wonder child that brought us virtual reality. Palmer Luckey founded Oculus at 20 years old. Just two years later, he sold it to Facebook for $2 billion. He worked at Facebook for a while, but his time there was cut short due to political controversy.

It was revealed that Palmer had paid for some billboards that were anti Hillary Clinton. The media made a huge stink about it and (according to Palmer) they kinda forced Facebook’s hand and they decided to fire him. (this was in 2015-2016 when it was REALLY TABOO to say you liked Trump).

Bitter, but undeterred, Palmer founded a new startup. It’s called Anduril. They build badass drones (and other wild shit) for the US military. They’re reportedly in talks to raise their next round at a $28 billion valuation.

Left-Leaning Economist Agrees?

I almost didn’t post this China-thing, but then I saw my favorite left-leaning economist say that Palmer Luckey is totally correct. I figured “what the heck, a little bi-partisan consensus for once”.

BUT THEN, when I posted on IG, I got like 300 nasty comments. Like this one:

DISCLAIMER: I’ve never heard Palmer Luckey say anything that isn’t in support of either Team Anduril or Team Republican. I put my favorite internet personalities into a vaunted club I call “Genuine Truth Seekers”. At this time, Palmer is not in that club. That’s because I’ve never seen him tell a story that doesn’t also conveniently align with a narrative that benefits his team.

Credit card debt hasn’t looked this grim since the Great Recession.

From The Economist:

At the same time, the personal savings rate of American’s is hovering near an all-time low:

But then again, the savings rate is always pretty low in the USA. 😅

👉 Meanwhile, Warren Buffett is selling of his stocks and hoarding cash to the tune of $330 billion. These two negative signals taken together almost make me want to start buying bonds.

🤔 How does that compare to others?

• Berkshire Hathaway now has BY FAR the most cash on hand among US companies.

From Trading View:

Wall Street Journal published a bunch of sweet charts on Buffett’s portfolio:

1. Berkshire Hathaway has been selling off stocks (on net) for eight straight quarters:

2. Berkshire Hathaway’s cash as a percentage of assets is also currently at all-time highs:

3. Berkshire’s biggest position is still Apple (despite having sold off 2/3 of their position.

Why is Buffett hoarding cash?

There’s an financial indicator that compares the value of the stock market to the actual economic output. It’s called the Buffett Indicator and it’s currently at all-time highs.

Here’s how it’s calculated - from Current Market Valuation:

Here’s where the Buffett Indicator stands right now (all-time highs):

America’s Sweetheart Billionaire

Warren Buffett has by far the best favorability rating among the top 10 richest Americans".

From Reuters:

What’s he gonna do with all that cash?

No one knows. But to give you some perspective, his pile of cash exceeds the combined market cap of Toyota, Ford, and General Motors. He could buy the entire automotive industry. He has enough cash to buy almost anything.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Buffett weighed in on the company’s tower of cash: “We’d love to spend it, but we won’t spend it unless we think we’re doing something that has very little risk and can make us a lot of money.”

“We only swing at pitches we like,” he added later in the session. “It isn’t like I’ve got a hunger strike or something like that going on. It’s just that things aren’t attractive.”

Here’s a photo of Buffett that’s unrelated but nice nonetheless.

A few weeks ago, Civixplorer posted this map of Ukraine’s mineral resources to twitter:

Russia’s Military Control of Ukraine (2022-2025)

It looks like Russia already controls a decent percentage of Ukraine’s mineral resources.

👉 Why it matters

Trump is currently demanding that Zelensky hand over mineral rights worth hundreds of billions of dollars as part of the deal to end the war.

How much has the USA spent on the Ukraine war?

It’s hard too find exact numbers, but, so far as I can tell, the US has GIFTED about $106 billion to Ukraine and LENT about $20 billion to Ukraine.

Here are estimates for how much each region has spent to support Ukraine:

• 🇺🇸 US: $106 billion

• 🇪🇺 Europe: $140 billion

• 🇺🇦 Ukraine: $160 billion (does not include loss of life)

*this is since the 2022 invasion

Here’s a graph from The Economist comparing US and EU spending on the Ukraine War:

From the Council on Foreign Relations:

It’s important to note that of the $175 billion total, only $106 billion directly aids the government of Ukraine. Most of the remainder is funding various U.S. activities associated with the war in Ukraine, and a small portion supports other affected countries in the region.

• In 2024, as part of a G7 agreement, US and Europe agreed to lend $50 billion to Ukraine — $20 billion from the US and $30 billion from Europe. Though, apparently, this is not supposed to be a loan that is paid back by Ukraine, but rather by the funds recovered by sanctions put on Russian oligarchs.

Trump’s Demand for Ukraine’s Minerals — Behind the Scenes

From the Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. demands were first presented by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Kyiv last week.

A U.S. Republican lawmaker who met with Zelensky on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference last week described the Ukrainian leader’s account of the interaction with Bessent.

Bessent pushed the paper across the table, demanding that Zelensky sign it, the Ukrainian president told the lawmaker. Zelensky took a quick look and said he would discuss it with his team. Bessent then pushed the paper closer to Zelensky.

“You really need to sign this,” the Treasury secretary said. Zelensky said he was told “people back in Washington” would be very upset if he didn’t. The Ukrainian leader said he took the document but didn’t commit to signing.

Ah yes, the old paper push.. A flex so above my pay grade that I didn’t know existed until today.

What does Ukraine get in return for their mineral rights?

CNN makes it sound like Ukraine gets nothing except for their debt repaid:

Zelensky said Wednesday the contract asked for the US to own, or receive revenue from, 50% of Ukraine rare earth mineral mining and other natural resource sectors. The sources said the document said it asked for compensation not for future US assistance to Ukraine, but for previous aid.

• Seems like a hefty price given that I think the US only lent them $20 billion?
  
  

Wall Street Journal makes it sound like it’s unclear what the US is offering in return for the minerals, possibly an interesting economic partnership, but the ask is still excessive:

Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, this week had called the proposed deal “an economic partnership” and “a historic opportunity to have the United States of America co-invest with Ukraine, invest in its economy, invest in its natural resources.”

…

Zelensky had called the initial proposal “unclear,” saying it had demanded a 50% share of a list of mineral deposits. He said Trump’s demand for $500 billion in minerals was excessive, saying that U.S. military and financial aid to Ukraine during the war had totaled about $100 billion.

Where we stand

Up to now, no deal has been made. Zelensky continues to refuse while Trump doubles down. Now, they’re each talking their shit:

Trump says:

Zelensky was a “modestly successful comedian” who became a “dictator” with a “4% approval rating”.

*funny but not true, Zelensky actually has a 57% approval rating (according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology).

Zelensky says Trump lives in a “disinformation bubble”.

*not funny but probably true

☮️ Despite the insults, Wall Street Journal is now reporting that they might bang out a deal this weekend.

*thanks to anyone who read this piece. sorry for any errors i made. it was hard to put together. there are so many grey areas on this topic.

How much has been spent?

Of that, how much was gifted vs lent?

Of that, how much was funneled back to the US by buying weapons from US companies?

I wish someone smarter than me would write a piece.

Millionaire Migration Trends

Muhamamd Azhar measured the net inflows and outflows of millionaires among countries in 2024. The UAE tops the list for net inflow with 6,700 millionaires.

Why Millionaires Are Moving to the UAE

1. Low Taxes

Zero personal income tax: UAE has tax-free policy on personal income, capital gains, and inheritance

2. Low Crime

UAE has the second lowest crime rate in the world.

3. Luxury Lifestyle and Infrastructure

• The UAE, particularly Dubai, is a symbol of luxury living — high-end real estate, luxury cars, yachts, and designer shopping. They got it all.

• World-class amenities, from five-star hotels and beach clubs to private medical care and international schools, make it attractive for family life.

  

4. Lots of other Rich People to hang with

When you’re rich, sometimes you want to hang with other rich people. You want to do fun, fancy, expensive activities, but you need friends who can afford to do them with you.

5. Lots of other foreigners to hang with

The UAE’s population is overwhelmingly made up of foreign-born residents. As of recent estimates, as much as 90% of the population is foreign-born or expatriates.

6. Golden Visas

The UAE has recently implemented "Golden Visas" for investors, entrepreneurs, and highly skilled workers, offering long-term residency (up to 10 years).

7. Fleeing Economic Sanctions

• Millionaires from countries with political instability, economic sanctions, or heavy taxation (e.g., Russia, India, and parts of Europe) are flocking to the UAE as a safe haven.

• In recent years, the UAE has seen a surge in Russian millionaires due to sanctions after the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

  
  

Did you know? 🧠

The UAE’s population is overwhelmingly made up of foreign-born residents. As of recent estimates:

• About 88-90% of the population is foreign-born or expatriates.

• Only 10-12% are UAE nationals (Emiratis).

Why Millionaires Are Fleeing China

I’ve heard a bunch of rich, successful Silicon Valley thinkbois say that the thing that money really buys is freedom.

Naval said it best:

The reason you want wealth is because it buys you your freedom. So, you don’t have to wear a tie like a collar around your neck. So, you don’t have to wake up at 7:00 AM, and rush to work, and sit in commute traffic. So, you don’t have to waste away your entire life grinding all your productive hours away into a soulless job that doesn’t fulfill you.

So, the purpose of wealth is freedom. It’s nothing more than that. It’s not to buy fur coats, or drive Ferraris, or sail yachts, or jet around the world in your Gulfstream. That stuff gets really boring and really stupid, really fast. It’s really so that you are your own sovereign individual.

So, if you’re a millionaire living in China, an authoritarian state where you’re not allowed even to speak your mind, your first order of business if figuring out how to get tf out of there.

⚔️ Seems like one of the few good signs for Team America in Cold War 2.0.

1. Canada 🇨🇦

Net favorability toward the US is down 30 points in Canada. You can see a big drop when Trump is elected and another big drop when Trump announced 25% tariffs on Canada.

🏒 Last week, USA and Canada played each other in and the Canadians starting booing during the national anthem. There were 3 fights in the first 9 seconds.

🍿 What we’re watching

USA and Canada play each other again tonight at 8 p.m. ET. This is the final match of the 4 Nations Face-Off.

2. Mexico 🇲🇽

Net favorability is down 35 points. Huge drop after Trump took office and announced 25% tariffs on Mexico.

👉 NOTE: Both the new tariffs on Mexico and Canada are on pause right now.

From the BBC:

After last-minute calls with Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed to reinforce his country's border with the US to clamp down on migration and the flow of the deadly drug fentanyl.

Earlier, Trump made a deal with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. She agreed to reinforce the northern border with troops. In return the US would limit the flow of guns into Mexico.

3. Colombia 🇨🇴

Net favorability of the US is down 25 points. No real drop on election day, but a huge drop after Trump’s spat with the President of Colombia.

🥊 Trump’s fight with Colombian President Gustavo Petro: EXPLAINED

1. Trump flies 80 illegal immigrants back to Colombia

2. Colombia President Gustavo Petro rejects the flight mid-air

3. Flight returns to USA

4. Petro says it’s disrespectful to put the deportees in handcuffs during the flight - treating them as if they were criminals

5. Petro writes bizarre tweet where he says there’s not much he likes about the USA apart from Noam Chomsky. Also, that he once visited Washington DC where saw a black man and a latino man fighting in the streets.

6. Trump threatens 25% tariffs

7. Petro says he will accept the deportees, but he will send his presidential plane to pick them up

8. Trump backs off threat of tariffs

   
   

4. Brazil 🇧🇷

Net favorability is down 25 points. Similar to Colombia, Brazilians were pissed off when they saw that the US was handcuffing their deportees.

We ran a very scientific poll on Instagram asking whether people thought it sucked that Trump did a meme coin:

Polling Results:

📊 POLL: Do you think it sucks that the president did a meme coin?

89% - Yeah, it’s grifty AF

3% - No, it’s totally legit

8% - Don’t care

2,937 respondents

😲 Why it’s surprising

• We’ve run polls in the past at wehavethedata, and our audience seems to be evenly split between liberals and conservatives.
  

Background:

Trump launched a meme coin on the night of Jan 17, just three days before he took office. The market cap for $TRUMP peaked at about $14 billion and Trump controls about 80% of the total supply — which would have made Trump’s stake worth about $11 billion.

In the following days, $6.6 billion was cashed out, mostly by early buyers. Today, the market cap for $TRUMP sits at about $3 billion.

🐀 It gets worse

• On January 17, Trump’s new Crypto Czar David Sacks hosted crypto ball. Tickets ranged from $100k to $1 million. According to Hayden Davis (one of the guys who launched $LIBRA and $MELANIA), some attendees were given exclusive pre-sale access to Trump’s meme coin at a valuation of $500M.

  

Some stats from Techmeme:

🌶️ My hot take:

It’s grifty and horrible. Wtf. This is not something you do if you’re main goal is to help the American people. No one should do this, especially not the freaking President. This guy sets such horrible example for our children.

But also, it’s not surprising. Here’s an old video where Cenk Uygar gives three examples of Trump conning people for millions:

@good.politicsand he still gets away with it

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This chart is going viral rn on twitter. It shows job listings for software developers are down 70% from their peak in 2022.

Data is from Indeed, compiled by the FRED, and only goes back to 2020.

Greg Isenberg had me freaked out for a minute:

People will blame the end of free money. But something way more interesting is happening. The middle class engineer is dying. And it's dying because they're not needed anymore.

One good dev with Github Copilot ships what entire teams did five years ago. Microsoft just reported the highest revenue per employee in history. The "entry-level engineer" doesn't exist anymore. Instead, we have product builders who happen to code. Armed with AI, they ship entire products in days. Meanwhile, the truly elite engineers are making more money than ever. And they've shifted to working mostly on frontier tech. I mean the stuff that's really hard. AGI at OpenAI. Designing rockets at SpaceX. Self-driving car tech at Tesla. Product builders are becoming solopreneurs and creators. Frontier engineers are making hedge fund money.

In 2025, "software engineer" doesn't mean what it meant in 2020. And that's what this chart really shows. The middle is gone. The top is elite status. And everyone else is becoming a builder.

piled on:

Seems like it’s not a great time to be a software developer.

Finance guys are getting schlonged too?

Banking and Finance Jobs are down too. Big time. They peaked in 2022 (exact same time) and they’re down 52% since.

Everyone is getting schlonged

Job postings on Indeed are down ACROSS THE BOARD.

Is Indeed’s traffic down? Are we just tracking the downfall of Indeed?

What do the numbers look like on LinkedIn?

Global Venture Capital Funding (2018-2024)

It’s hard to ignore the correlation here with job listing and VC funding.

Surely AI is having a big impact, but if you aren’t also looking at this VC funding chart.. I mean, come on.

6 Biggest Surprises:

• Bruce Bowen holding it down in the corner

• Jason Terry holding it down in the other corner

• Wow I didn’t know Elton Brand was like that

• Love to see Big Al Jefferson. He definitely loved that spot.

• Trevor Ariza! Danggg

• Antawn Jamison lfg. I used to collect his cards.

Obvious Takeaways:

• Steph and Dirk are so legit

• Love to see KG holding down a spot still

Can’t help but wonder:

👉 What would it look like if you go back another 20 years. Does Michael Jordan dominate the court?

Impressive. Most impressive.

It’s kinda amazing how fast a state can flip political parties. One good example of this is Georgia in 1976.

1972:

1976:

As per OP on reddit:

75% Nixon to 25% McGovern in 1972.

66% Carter to 33% Ford in 1976.

The darker the color the larger the victory by county.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_United_States_presidential_election_in_Georgia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_United_States_presidential_election_in_Georgia

Disclaimers

Yes, Nixon had the biggest presidential scandal ever at the time.

Yes, Jimmy Carter was the Governor of Georgia at the time.

Still impressive.

Source: u/FlimsyTalkHarrison on Reddit

Here’s Noah Smith:

Where the US stands:

• Annual Tax Revenue: $5 trillion

• Annual Spending: $7 trillion

• Total Debt: $36 trillion

• Total Assets: $200+ trillion

Put it in perspective:

• You make $60k/year.

• You spend about $71k/year.

• You have $74k of debt

• You are worth $414k (house and stocks - very little crypto)

Seems not great when you look at the cashflow and the income-to-debt ratio, but doesn’t looks so bad when you look at the asset-to-debt ratio.

How much land does the US Federal Government own?

Here’s a map that shows all the land owned by the US Federal government:

$36 trillion of debt? Who cares? Here’s a simple solution:

1. Sell Alaska to China

2. Sell the Grand Canyon to Jeff Bezos (he would go shit-house for it)

Might be stupid, but I bet Dave Ramsey would approve.

One caveat:

We gotta make sure we don’t get swindled like Napoleon in the Louisiana Purchase.

They say Thomas Jefferson initially only wanted to buy New Orleans to secure access to the Mississippi River. But then Napoleon unexpectedly offered the entire Louisiana Territory — which would double the size of the United States —Jefferson quickly agreed. In the end, the U.S. paid $15 million (about $350 million today).

*Thanks to anyone who read all this. Just getting started here on Substack. Having some fun. Never really written a blog before.