Vladimir Putin

•Born: 7 October 1952
•Birthplace: Leningrad, Russia (now St. Petersburg)
•Best Known As: President of the Russian Federation, 2000-2008

Vladimir Putin was elected president of the Russian Federation in 2000 as the hand-picked successor of Boris Yeltsin. After earning a law degree in 1975, Putin joined the KGB, the security force of the former Soviet Union. He spent years working primarily in East Germany, then left the service in 1991 and became active in the politics of St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad). He was brought to Moscow by Yeltsin in 1996 and served as an administrator in the Kremlin and an official for the security organizations which replaced the KGB. In 1999 Putin became Yeltsin's fifth prime minister in 17 months, then became acting president when Yeltsin left office. He was officially elected to the office in 2000 and then re-elected in a landslide vote in March of 2004. As president he gained a reputation as a clever and ruthless political operator with a hunger for Russian power and not too much concern for the niceties of democracy or diplomacy. He stepped down in 2008 (as required by term limits) and was replaced by his own hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev then installed Putin as prime minister, a move which left Putin, as The New York Times put it, as "the country's dominant politician, with a firm grip on power."

Putin married the former Lyudmila Shkrebneva in 1983. They have two daughters: Maria (b. 1985) and Yekaterina (b. 1986, also known as Katerina or Katya).

Raymond Kopa

Raymond Kopa (born Kopaszewski, on October 13, 1931 in Nœux-les-Mines, Pas-de-Calais), is a former French football striker, integral to the French national team of the 1950s. He was a great and versatile playmaker, who also scored plenty of goals.

Born into a family of Polish immigrants, Kopa began his professional career at the age of 17 with SCO Angers in France's second level, and was transferred two years later to Stade de Reims, with whom he won French championships in 1953 and 1955. He helped Reims reach the first European Cup final in 1956, which the team lost to Alfredo Di Stéfano's Real Madrid, 4-3.

Kopa was transferred to Real Madrid the subsequent season, where he was soon joined by Ferenc Puskás. At Real Madrid, Kopa won the Spanish league in 1957 and 1958. Kopa also became the first French player to win the European Cup when Madrid defeated Fiorentina 2-0 in the 1957 final. He would go on to be European champion again in 1958 and 1959, the last against former side Stade de Reims, where Just Fontaine played.

In the 1959-60 season, Kopa returned to France to finish his career with Reims, where he won further Championnats in 1960 and 1962. In total, he scored 75 goals in 346 matches in France's top flight, and was given the Ballon d'or by France Football in 1958.

With the France national football team, Kopa scored 18 goals in 45 games between 1952 and 1962. He played in the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden, where the French team finished third, losing to the Brazilian team. He was also voted as the 1958 Best Player of the Tournament and retroactively as the 1954 Best Young Player of the Tournament, being the only footballer to receive both honours.

Kopa was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.

Business Term of the Day: cannibalism

In marketing, situation where the sales of a new (introduced as an extension of an established brand) or differently branded product eat into the sales of other products within the same line. If the total sales revenue of that product line increases, then the line extension is justifiable. However the danger of weakening the main brand remains.


Cannibalism is in the Advertising, Marketing, & Sales and Decision Making, Problem Solving, & Strategy subjects.

Cannibalism appears in the definitions of the following terms: parasitic advertising and multi-brand strategy.

Term of the Day - weak dollar

Dollar that can be exchanged for only a small or decreasing amount of foreign currency. A weak dollar means that the U.S. dollar cannot buy very much of another currency. The strength of the dollar has an impact on imports and exports because goods and services from a foreign nation are usually purchased in the currency of the producing nation. A weak dollar usually leads to high exports and low imports. opposite of strong dollar.

Texe Marrs

Texe W. Marrs is an American author and conspiracy theorist. He lives in Spicewood, Texas. Prior to 1987 he was a prolific author of nonfiction books on career preparation and other subjects. His book Dark Secrets of the New Age was published by Crossway Books in 1987 and became a #1 bestseller in the Christian book market in 1988, on the momentum of growing alarm at the time within evangelical Christianity about the New Age Movement. He followed that up with another book, Mystery Mark of the New Age, also published by Crossway Books. Subsequent books took on a much more outspoken tone as he started writing books alleging a vast world conspiracy involving Freemasonry, the Illuminati and Zionism. His books since 1989 have been self-published.