The House of Demidov (Russian: Деми́довы) also Demidoff and Dimidov, was a prominent Russian noble family during the 18th and 19th centuries. Originating in the city of Tula in the 17th century, the Demidovs found success through metal products, and were entered into the European nobility by Peter the Great. Their descendants became among the most influential merchants and earliest industrialists in the Russian Empire, and at their peak were predicted to be the second-richest family in Russia, behind only the Russian Imperial Family whose net worth was around $300 billion. The Demidov famil...

Nikita Demidov (full name Nikita Demidovich Antufiev), (5 April 1656 Tula – 28 November 1725 Tula) was a Russian industrialist who founded the Demidov industrial dynasty. Peter I of Russia charged the enterprising blacksmith Nikita with casting cannon for his many military expeditions and he was ennobled with name Demidov for having strongly supported the tsar's activities. In 1699 he set up Nevyansk's first iron foundry and in 1725 discovered mines at Kolivan (Kolyban), whose exploitation enriched him. A museum is devoted to him in Tula. == Life == The founder of the Demidov family, he was the...

Congenital iodine deficiency syndrome (CIDS) is a medical condition present at birth marked by impaired physical and mental development, due to insufficient thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism) often caused by insufficient dietary iodine during pregnancy. It is one cause of underactive thyroid function at birth, called congenital hypothyroidism, historically referred to as cretinism (obsolete). If untreated, it results in impairment of both physical and mental development. Symptoms may include goiter, poor length growth in infants, reduced adult stature, thickened skin, hair loss, enlarged tongue,...

Noun: cretin (plural cretins)

1. (pathology) A person who fails to develop mentally and physically due to a congenital hypothyroidism. [from 1779]
2. (by extension, derogatory) An idiot.
3. cretin m (plural cretini)
4. idiot
5. Synonyms: idiot, prost, tâmpit

The Sakhalin Tunnel (Russian: Сахалинский тоннель) is an incomplete and currently indefinitely postponed construction project, which after completion would have connected the island of Sakhalin with mainland Russia via a tunnel of approximately 10 kilometres (6 mi) under the Nevelskoy Strait (the narrowest part of the Strait of Tartary). The construction started under the late Stalinist rule to serve primarily military and settlements purposes, and was abandoned soon after Stalin's death in 1953. == History == === Early proposals and planning === The concept of a tunnel under the Nevel...

La Pérouse Strait (Russian: пролив Лаперуза), or Sōya Strait (Japanese: 宗谷海峡), is a strait dividing the southern part of the Russian island of Sakhalin from the northern part of the Japanese island of Hokkaidō, and connecting the Sea of Japan on the west with the Sea of Okhotsk on the east. The strait is 42 km (26 mi) wide and 40 to 140 m (131 to 459 ft) deep. The narrowest part of the strait is in the west between Russia's Cape Krillion and Japan's Cape Sōya, which is also the shallowest at only 60 metres (197 ft) deep. A small rocky island, appropriately named Kamen Opasnosti (Russian for "Rock...

The Sakhalin–Hokkaido Tunnel (or potentially bridge) is a proposed connection to link the Russian island of Sakhalin with the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Cost estimates by Russia in the year 2000 put the project to span the 45-kilometre (28-mile) strait at $50 billion. == Overview == On 16 January 2009, the Russian Vice-Minister of Transport, Andrei Nedosekov, confirmed that proposals are now under consideration in regard to the Sakhalin–Hokkaido Tunnel. The proposal was for a bridge rather than a tunnel. His decision to invite Japanese companies to bid to become consortium members of a wide...

The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, abbreviated as Roskomnadzor (RKN), is the Russian federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, controlling and censoring Russian mass media. Its areas of responsibility include electronic media, mass communications, information technology and telecommunications, supervising compliance with the law, protecting the confidentiality of personal data being processed, and organizing the work of the radio-frequency service. == History == In March 2007, the authority—then a subdivision of the Cultural...

Steganography ( STEG-ə-NOG-rə-fee) is the practice of representing information within another message or physical object, in such a manner that the presence of the concealed information would not be evident to an unsuspecting person's examination. In computing/electronic contexts, a computer file, message, image, or video is concealed within another file, message, image, or video. The word steganography comes from Greek steganographia, which combines the words steganós (στεγανός), meaning "covered or concealed", and -graphia (γραφή) meaning "writing". The first recorded use of the term was in...

In Iran, the Burnt Generation (Persian: نسل سوخته, Nasl-e Sukhteh) is the generation born between roughly 1966 and 1988, having experienced the Iranian Revolution, Iran–Iraq War, and political or social consequences of these such as the Iran hostage crisis, the 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege, the Iranian Cultural Revolution, 1988 executions of political prisoners, the 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie, and the Islamic revival, as children, teenagers and later as young adults. These events proved fundamental in deciding the very poor prospects and pessimistic outlook of this generation as they entered...