Moscow State University's Reputation Back in Top 50

Moscow State University regained a spot among the world's 50 most reputable institutions of higher learning, according to Times Higher Education magazine's annual college ratings, released Monday.

But Moscow State's objective score, which takes into account learning environment, research influence and innovation, remains outside the top 200.

St. Petersburg State University and Novosibirsk State University are the only other Russian schools to have appeared in the top 200 rankings. Baty attributed Russia's relatively poor showing to brain drain, insufficient funding and a lack of research publications in English.

Although perception can help Moscow State move forward and attract additional funding and talent, Russia has to invest more in a new-skilled workforce, innovations and technology to improve its position in the rankings, Baty said.

US Media in Numbers

Most Wanted - Popular Demand in the New York Times

Even Google won't be around for ever...

In the world of internet technology a company can go from zero to hero in a very short time

At the moment, the four leading monsters are Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon. Yet 18 years ago, Apple was weeks away from extinction, Amazon had just launched, Google was still three years away from incorporation and Facebook lay nine years into the future.

At one level, all this proves is that in the technology world one can go from zero to hero is a very short time. (Or, in Apple's case, from hero to zero and back to hero again in 36 years). Some of the industry's greatest executives understood this very well. Andy Grove, for instance, who led Intel for 11 years, was famous for his mantra "Only the paranoid survive". For many years – when he led Microsoft and before he embarked on saving the world – Bill Gates appeared to have the same sentiment tattooed on his forehead. And in both cases they turned out to be right: though Intel and Microsoft are still significant companies, their dominance has ended. The processors that dominate the market for mobile devices are designed by ARM, a Cambridge company, not by Intel; and Microsoft's monopolistic grip on the desktop computing market turned out to be a wasting asset.

Aerotropolis: the city of the future?

The cities that thrive in the 21st century will be those that put airports at their centre, says US academic John Kasarda. But will the 'aerotropolis' serve the people – or just business?

There is, Kasarda says, a "new metric based on time and cost", and "location, location, location has been replaced by accessibility, accessibility, accessibility". Kasarda supports his arguments with batteries of statistics and predictions – that in 2030 there will be 13bn passenger journeys a year, compared with 4.9bn in 2010, or that an iPhone 5 is assembled from parts flown in from several countries.

As airports grow, argues Kasarda, they become more city-like. The shopping zone of Indianapolis International, he says, "really gives the feeling" of a town square. There are 6,000 weddings a year at Stockholm Arlanda, the Rijksmuseum exhibits art in Amsterdam's Schiphol, and the London Philharmonic is performing at Heathrow. "If you want to see the future," he says, "look at the Squaire" – a sleek, glassy slug in Frankfurt where KPMG has moved some of its operations, on the basis that it is only a few minutes' walk from workplace to check-in.

Lunch with the FT: Boris Akunin

Russia’s dissident detective novelist talks about oligarchs, angering the Kremlin and why even peaceful revolution could lead to Russia’s collapse

Akunin, whose real name is Grigory Chkhartishvili, was born in post-Stalinist Georgia in 1956 to a Georgian soldier and a Russian literature teacher who moved to Moscow when he was a small boy.

He sketches out four possible futures for Russia. The first is that Putin will somehow succeed in turning the tide and winning back the trust of the population. The second is that there will be a peaceful revolution after half a million protesters come out on the streets of Moscow and refuse to go home. The third is that protests will turn bloody, which would either result in the overthrow of the regime or a return to a variant one. And the last possibility is that the regime will take the hint and initiate real reforms – what Akunin calls “perestroika 2”. “A year ago I was sure that this was the most probable solution because it is the least painful for everyone. But unfortunately the fissure between Putin and society is growing wider. Putin is acting in a stupid way and the possibility of revolution has grown stronger"

D-day for downloads - FT Weekend

Technology has reanimated the back catalogues of old rockers. So why are they unhappy about selling more records?

What’s at stake isn’t so obscure. Record labels pay between 10 and 20 per cent in royalties to musicians for sales of their music. But they pay as much as 50 per cent when music is licensed, when songs are used in films or ads, for example. The royalty rate for music sales has historical roots in the costs the labels assumed for pressing records and CDs, transporting them to shops and promoting them. So why, the talent argue, should the labels get the same rate when the bulk of those costs are gone?

The labels, unsurprisingly, want to continue classifying downloads as “sales”. Insiders believe iTunes and the like are simply record stores without the bricks-and-mortar, a continuation of the core business of selling recordings. Also they are still manufacturing CDs, which made up more than half of global sales last year. And promotional costs haven’t disappeared; indeed, promotion in the digital age makes the old days of keeping fan clubs happy with signed photos look like child’s play.

Time magazine's Pistorius cover

This week's Time magazine has one of those striking cover images that bears all the hallmarks of being one that will live on for years to come.

Though "Man. Superman. Gunman" refers, quite obviously, to Oscar Pistorius, the very lengthy article considers the wider topic of South Africa's culture of violence

It also happens to be Time's 90th anniversary: it was launched on 3 March 1923. Joel Stein wishes the magazine a, sort of, happy birthday here.

Why the second screen should rule campaigns in 2013

If brands don't want to miss a trick it's essential to complement traditional channels with social media activity

Only just over a third of brands (37%) combined paid social media ads with TV in 2012 according to a report out this month by media analysts Nielsen. Another analyst, Brandwatch, said last week 61% of brands are planning on capitalising on the power of so-called second screeners by tweeting during relevant programming.

As the Superbowl power outage phenomenon showed, this is just plain short sighted. Brands including Audi, Oreo and Calvin Klein launched tactical Twitter campaigns to capitalise on the 34 minutes when a power outage at the New Orleans Superdome stopped play between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers.

Sergey Brin: using a smartphone is 'emasculating'

The Google co-founder Sergey Brin has said that spending your life looking at a smartphone is “emasculating”

Talking about the way people walk around hunched over their smartphones, he said: “Is this the way you’re meant to interact with other people? It’s kind of emasculating. Is this what you’re meant to do with your body?”

He admitted that he was as much a victim of this, adding, according to the TED blog: “I have a nervous tic. The cell phone is a nervous habit — If I smoked, I’d probably smoke instead, It’d look cooler. But I whip this out and look as if I have something important to do. It really opened my eyes to how much of my life I spent secluding myself away in email.”

The Future of Telecommuting - The Economist

Technology allows millions of people to work from home. A big tech firm is trying to stop them

Sir Richard Branson, a British entrepreneur who wrote in a blog post that the decision was “a backwards step in an age when remote working is easier and more effective than ever”. “Yours truly has never worked out of an office,” added the bearded boss of the Virgin Group, “and never will.” On the other side, Donald Trump, an American television showman and property magnate, tweeted that Ms Mayer was “right to expect Yahoo employees to come to the workplace vs. working at home.”

Music: Something to Sing About - The Economist

For the first time in 13 years, the music business is growing again

The internet sank the music industry, but is now helping it to resurface. Digital sales rose 9% last year; a third of the music industry’s revenues now come through digital channels. Download stores represent roughly 70% of digital revenues. Popular “streaming” services, such as Spotify and Deezer, which pay a royalty each time a song is played, have also helped to rescue the business. Subscription services had 20m paying subscribers around the world in 2012, up 44% from a year earlier. Millions more use free advertising-supported versions.

The growth of smartphones has made it more attractive to own and stream music legally. Smartphones are the third most popular device on which to listen to music, after personal computers and hi-fi systems. Over 100 countries now host digital music services for legal downloading and streaming, compared with only 23 in January 2011.