I didn't expected to see whales on the list, because if you have more steem power, it is much harder to get in the first 1%. Also I don't think it is possible to make 1% return with curation.
EDIT I have just noticed it is per week and not per day. 1.5% / week is possible, I also made that target for myself. :)
recusive2 uses voting proxy. I don't really know what it is, but I think he might use other's steem power to vote (recusive).
Anybody knows what voting proxy is? :)
Voting proxy may be a new idea that's been thrown around which allows you to delegate other accounts to vote with your voting power. I'm not sure if it was ever implemented though.