Surprise! This chart proves Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers is NOT the world’s worst film reviewer!

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Using data from Metacritic, which converts every major reviewer’s scores to a universal scale of 0-100, Vocativ crunched the science to get a definitive look at how the USA’s top 50 critics stack up against one another. The top line? New Yorker’s Anthony Lane is a hard ass and Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers is not as bad a “quote whore” as some other notable America reviewers we could mention.

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The change a baby makes to your life, as seen through personal data

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Everyone knows your life changes when you have a baby. But how? A US data scientist has tracked his own behaviour and visualized the results so the rest of us can see exactly what happens.


First of all, you stop going places.


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Next, you wake up at 7am, like everyone else.


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You go to bed closer and closer to ten pm.


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Weirdly, you get a  lot of email.


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You take a ton of pictures.


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Congratulations! You are a parent.

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This chart explains why the drug business is booming

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The U.S. alone accounts for about 34% of the world’s spending on medicine, the highest percentage out of any country, according the IMS Health. According to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, the number of prescription drugs the average American uses will also be going up as the median age in the U.S moves higher. The increase is highest among people over 65 years old, but is expected to grow for all age groups.

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The layout that changed the way I work

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I believe this spread is from The End Of Print, one of David Carson’s many books featuring surf magazines he designed pre-Raygun, writes Furthr’s Andy Cowles. But I was reminded of it last week, whilst working with a client around the theme of people and their passions.

David Carson made his name with some very funky typography, but in this instance it’s the sheer power of connection with his audience that impressed me. Photos can absolutely change peoples minds, the work of Don McCullin and others have proved that. But with ‘lifestyle’ media, to make the claim that content has changed behaviour, and (I assume) be able to back it up is rare indeed.

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These charts from Facebook show profits have tripled in a year

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Facebook has released charts that show quarterly profit nearly tripled from a year ago as advertising revenue surged. Facebook also continued to add users, with monthly active users rising 15% to 1.28 billion in the first quarter.

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Mobile was the segment where Facebook saw big growth. Mobile daily active users rose to 609 million, up 9.5% from the fourth quarter.

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Facebook’s revenue continues to grow at a rapid rate. Revenue clocked in at $2.5 billion, up 72% from a year ago and higher than analysts anticipated.

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Barclays reveal more bad news ahead of today’s showdown with angry shareholders

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Ahead of what is expected to be a contentious annual general meeting with shareholders today, Barclays is leading the day with more bad news – namely a “significant” decline in its fixed income business in the first quarter of this year. It’s the traditional revenue and profit driver of its troubled investment bank business. Expect thousands of job cuts and exits from parts of its fixed income franchise, outlined by CEO Antony Jenkins and other executives next month.

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EVERYONE knows super-managers are not worth superstar salaries

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“It’s so much harder to become a top footballer than it is to become a CEO,’’ a rather senior executive at a British public company said to me once. “That’s why they should get paid more.” This was some years before executive pay became a huge issue, and so he might not say the same today. Nevertheless, his point was intriguing, writes Furthr’s James Lumley.

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