Big Brother 5 (Australia)

Big Brother Australia 2005, also known as Big Brother 5, was the fifth season of Big Brother Australia, and was aired on Network Ten in Australia, and TV-2 in New Zealand with a four-week delay. The series started on 8 May 2005, with housemates going into the House the day before, and finished on 15 August 2005, lasting 101 days. The theme of the series was "single, sexy, and competitive". Auditions for housemates were held in March 2005. In a departure from usual procedure, candidates were not required to send in videos of themselves as had been the case for prior auditions. Instead, the producers toured major Australian cities and conducted interviews. They searched for sexy singles that were willing to have sexual relations on camera. Promos for the show suggested that Big Brother would be different this year, and phrases such as "Assume Nothing, Expect Anything", "Let's Play", and "Think Again" were used throughout the series, especially during Opening Night. The winner announced on the finale was watched by 2.282 million Australian viewers.

Big Brother 9 (UK)

Big Brother 2008, also known as Big Brother 9, was the ninth series of the British reality television series Big Brother, that aired on Channel 4 and E4. The series launched on 5 June 2008, and ran for 13 weeks until 5 September 2008.

The winner was Rachel Rice, who beat bookies' favourite Michael Hughes in the final vote with 51.3%. At the time of the series, Big Brother 9 was the least watched summer series in Big Brother's history, until the following series, with an average of only 3.6 million, down on Big Brother 8's by 0.3m.

No housemates in this series were represented in Ultimate Big Brother, a mini-series to mark the end of Big Brother on Channel 4. However Rex, Kathreya and Stuart entered to take part in tasks.

Broadcasts

Big Brother Brasil

Big Brother Brasil (BBB) is the Brazilian version of the Big Brother reality television show based on the Dutch television series of the same name that was originally created in 1999 by John de Mol. The Brazilian edition is considered one of the best editions of the reality show worldwide. It is the third one with more finished seasons (only after the American and Spanish versions) and the only one with 15 years of uninterrupted annual transmission in the same channels and by the same presenter.

The show is based on a group of strangers, known as housemates, living together twenty-four hours a day in the "Big Brother" house, isolated from the outside world (primarily from mass media, such as newspapers, telephones, television and the internet) while having all their steps followed by cameras around-the-clock, with no privacy for three months.

The housemates compete for the chance to win the grand prize by avoiding weekly eviction, until the last housemate remains at the end of the season that can claim the grand prize. The show's host is journalist Pedro Bial.

Russian wine

Russian wine refers to wine made in the Russian Federation and to some extent wines made in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics though this later referencing is an inaccurate representation of wines from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine. The phrase Russian wine more properly refers to wine made in the southern part of the Russian Federation-including the areas around Dagestan, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria, Krasnodar Krai, Rostov, and Stavropol Krai. Russia currently has the following controlled appellations that correspond to the sorts of grapes: Sibirkovy (Сибирьковый), Tsimlyanski Cherny (Цимлянский чёрный), Plechistik (Плечистик),Narma (Нарма), and Güliabi Dagestanski (Гюляби Дагестанский).

History

Wild grape vines have grown around the Caspian, Black and Azov seas for thousands of years with evidence of viticulture and cultivation for trade with the Ancient Greeks found along the shores of the Black Sea at Phanagoria and Gorgippia. It is claimed that the Black Sea area is the world's oldest wine region.

Arktika-class icebreaker

The Arktika class is a Russian (former Soviet) class of nuclear-powered icebreakers; they are the largest and most powerful icebreakers ever constructed. Ships of the Arktika class are owned by the federal government, but were operated by the Murmansk Shipping Company (MSCO) until 2008, when they were transferred to the fully government-owned operator Atomflot. Of the ten civilian nuclear-powered vessels built by Russia (and the Soviet Union), six have been of this type. They are used for escorting merchant ships in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia as well as for scientific and recreational expeditions to the Arctic.

History

On July 3, 1971, construction began on a conceptual design of a larger nuclear icebreaker, dubbed Arktika, in the Baltic Shipyard in then Leningrad. Four years later, on December 17, 1975, Moscow and Leningrad received radio messages informing them that sea trials had been completed successfully. The newest and largest nuclear icebreaker at the time was ready for the Arctic.

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire (Pre-reform Russian orthography: Россійская Имперія, Modern Russian: Российская империя, translit: Rossiyskaya Imperiya) was a state that existed from 1721 until overthrown by the short-lived liberal February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in world history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of the neighboring rival powers: the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia and the Ottoman Empire. It played a major role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleon's ambitions to control Europe, and expanded to the west and south.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian Empire extended from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea on the south, from the Baltic Sea on the west to the Pacific Ocean, and (until 1867) into Alaska in North America on the east. With 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and the British Empire. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, and religion. There were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts; they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia.