They were issued in England as Action Girl. These dolls were very similar to the US-issued dolls except that their eyes were side glancing and their hair was different. The US dolls had a piece of hair on other side of the face pulled up into a bow on top of the head. The Action Girl dolls had straight hair with no bows. The Action Girl dolls also had their own line of clothing.

 

They also came out as a special Grants doll called Donna. These dolls had curly hair pulled to one side.

 

The Teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear for children. It is an enduring, traditional form of stuffed animal, often serving the purpose of comforting upset young children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become expensive collector's items.

 

 

The word art is also used to apply judgments of value, as in such expressions as "that meal was a work of art" (the cook is an artist), or "the art of deception," (the highly attained level of skill of the deceiver is praised). It is this use of the word as a measure of high quality and high value that gives the term its flavor of subjectivity.

Important cities of Spain
Madrid:

Madrid is the capital of Spain. There are a number of important edifying and tourist spots in   that includes Golden Triangle of Art, located along the Paseo del Prado.It also has the famous Prado Museum, free on Sunday mornings, the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum and the Reina Sofia Museum, the Plaza Mayor, the Gran Via, the Casón del Buen Retiro, the Palacio Real, the Templo de Debod, the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, the Puerta del Sol and the Parque del Buen Retiro.

Other nearby towns are popular as day trips from Madrid, including Toledo, Segovia, Ávila, Aranjuez, Alcalá de Henares, the monastery and palace complex of El Escorial, and Chinchón .

Night life

People of Madrid are fond of having fun in the night and going to work in the morning.
Madrid is also noted for its nightlife and discotheque. It is not uncommon for madrilènes to dance all night, head to the Chocolateria San Ginés for chocolate y churros at dawn, go home, shower, shave, and go to work. This nightlife is called la movida and it initially focuses on the Plaza del Dos de Mayo, flourished after the death of Franco, especially during the 80s while Madrid's most cherished mayor Enrique Tierno Galvan was in office. A particular hub for this night activity is nowadays the nearby gay village of Chueca. Hence Madrid people are very much known for their life in the night.

Cable television or Community Antenna Television (CATV) (often shortened to cable) is a system of providing television, FM radio programming and other services to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted directly to people’s televisions through fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional television broadcasting (via radio waves) in which a television antenna is required.

It is most commonplace in Canada, the United States, Europe, most of Australasia and much of East Asia, though it is present in many other countries, in South America and the Middle East. In Africa, cable TV has had little success, as it is not cost-effective to lay cables in sparsely populated areas, and although so-called "wireless cable" or microwave-based systems are used, "direct-to-home" satellite television is far more popular, especially in South Africa.

Technically, both cable TV and CATV involve distributing a number of television channels collected at a central location (called a headend) to subscribers within a community by means of a network of optical fibers and/or coaxial cables and broadband amplifiers.As in the case of radio broadcasting, the use of different frequencies allows many channels to be distributed through the same cable, without separate wires for each. The tuner of the TV, VCR or radio selects one channel from this mixed signal.

The same program is often simultaneously broadcast by radio and distributed by cable, usually at different frequencies. Other programs may be distributed by cable only; rules restricting content (e.g. regarding nudity and pornography) are often more relaxed for cable than for over-the-air TV.Traditional cable TV systems worked strictly by way of analog signals (i.e. using standard radio waves) but many modern cable TV systems also employ the use of digital cable technology, which uses compressed digital signals, allowing them to provide many more channels than they could with analog alone.

Many cable television systems were formerly known as CATV (Community Antenna Television) systems as they were originally composed simply of a shared antenna located in a high location in which a number of households could have their TVs connected via coaxial cable. This was designed to provide access to television signals in areas where reception was traditionally poor. As cable-only networks began to appear on CATV systems, picked up via satellite rather than by antenna, the use of the term CATV has largely faded and the term cable television has taken its place.

Although PrimeStar transitioned to a digital system in 1994, it was ultimately unable to compete with DirecTV, which required a smaller satellite dish and could deliver more programming. DirecTV eventually purchased PrimeStar in 1999 and migrated all PrimeStar subscribers to DirecTV equipment.In 1996, EchoStar's Dish Network went online in the United States and, as DirecTV's primary competitor, achieved similar success. In 2003, EchoStar attempted to purchase DirecTV, but the U.S. Department of Justice denied the purchase based on anti-competitive concerns.

In 2003, News Corporation purchased a controlling interest in DirecTV's parent company, Hughes Electronics, and renamed the company DirecTV Group. News Corporation also owns the Fox Broadcasting Company and 20th Century Fox.In 2004, Rainbow DBS launched a new DBS service called Voom, emphasizing that it featured more HDTV channels than either DirecTV or Dish Network.

DBS uses special high-powered Ku-band satellites that send digitally compressed television and audio signals to 18- to 24-inch (45 to 60 cm) fixed satellite dishes. DBS systems transmit signals to Earth in what is called the Broadcast Satellite Service (BSS) portion of the Ku band between 12.2 and 12.7 GHz. Thanks to digital compression technologies, DBS systems can deliver hundreds of cable TV-style programming channels, as well as local network television affiliates and independent stations.

DBS services offer many advantages over traditional analog services such as cable TV. DBS services generally offer a better picture quality and more channels than analog cable. DBS services usually offer additional features like an on-screen guide, DVR functionality, HDTV, Pay-Per-View, and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Cable companies have responded by introducing digital cable, which offers more channels and many of the same features as DBS.

DirecTV and EchoStar both offer DVR units. These units integrate the digital-recording of a DVR with the capabilities of a traditional receiver/decoder. DirecTV's unit is powered by technology licensed from TiVo Inc.DirecTV Group and EchoStar also offer high-speed Internet access, mostly to rural customers who cannot access broadband via ADSL or a cable modem. Service is generally spotty and expensive, but is generally superior to dial-up service and is often the only broadband option in rural areas.

The collection of extraneous noise. This can be a concern, especially in amplified performances, where audio feedback can be a significant problem. Alternatively, it can be a desired outcome, in situations where ambient noise is useful (hall reverberation, audience reaction.)
Choice of a signal type: Mono, stereo or multi-channel.
Type of sound-source: Acoustic instruments produce a very different sound than electric instruments, which are again different from the human voice.
Situational circumstances: Sometimes a microphone should not be visible, or having a microphone nearby is not appropriate. In scenes for a movie the microphone is kept above the pictureframe, just out of sight. In this way there is always a certain distance between the actor and the microphone.
Processing: If the signal is destined to be heavily processed, or "mixed down", a different type of input may be required.
The use of a windshield as well as a pop shield, designed to reduce vocal plosives.

Basic techniques

There are several classes of microphone placement for recording and amplification.In close miking, a directional microphone is placed relatively close to an instrument or sound-source. This serves to eliminate extraneous noise-- including room reverberation-- and is commonly used when attempting to record a number of separate instruments while keeping the signals separate, or when in order to avoid feedback in an amplified performance.
In ambient or distant miking, a sensitive microphone or microphone is placed at some distance from the sound source. The goal of this technique is to get a broader, natural mix of the sound source or sources, along with reverberation from the room or hall.

Stereo recording techniques

There are two essential components that the stereo loudspeakers need to place objects (phantom sources) in the stereo sound-field between the loudspeakers. These are level difference ? L, the relative loudness, and time-delay difference ? t, the difference in arrival time. The "interaural" signals (binaural ILD and ITD) at the ears are not the stereo microphone technique signals which are coming from the loudspeakers, and are called "interchannel" signals (? L and ? t). Do not mix these sort of signals. Loudspeaker signals are never ear signals and vice versa. Read the header "Binaural recording for earphones".

A foil electret microphone is a relatively new type of condenser microphone invented at Bell laboratories in 1962, and often simply called an electret microphone. An electret is a dielectric material that has been permanently electrically charged or polarised. Electret microphones have existed since the 1920s but were considered impractical, but have now become the most common type of all, used in many applications from high-quality public address to built-in microphones in small sound recording devices. Unlike other condenser microphones they require no polarising voltage, but normally contain an integrated preamplifier which does require power (often incorrectly called polarizing power or bias). They are frequently phantom powered in sound reinforcement applications.In the dynamic microphone a small movable induction coil, positioned in the magnetic field of a permanent magnet, is attached to the diaphragm. When the diaphragm vibrates, the coil moves in the magnetic field, producing a varying current in the coil (See electromagnetic induction). Dynamic microphones are robust and relatively inexpensive, and are used in a wide variety of applications.

In ribbon microphones a thin, usually corrugated metal ribbon is suspended in a magnetic field: vibration of the ribbon in the magnetic field generates a changing current. Basic ribbon microphones detect sound in a bidirectional pattern because the ribbon, which is open to sound both front and back, responds to the pressure gradient rather than the sound pressure. This characteristic is useful in such applications as radio and television interviews, where it cuts out much extraneous sound. Other directional patterns are produced by enclosing one side of the ribbon in an acoustic trap or baffle, allowing sound to reach only one side.

A carbon microphone, formerly used in telephone handsets, is a capsule containing carbon granules pressed between two metal plates. A voltage is applied across the metal plates, causing a current to flow through the carbon. One of the plates, the diaphragm, vibrates in sympathy with incident sound waves, applying a varying pressure to the carbon. The changing pressure deforms the granules, causing the contact area between each pair of adjacent granules to change, and this causes the electrical resistance of the mass of granules to change (lose contact). Since the voltage across a conductor is proportional to its resistance, the voltage across the capsule varies according to the sound pressure.A piezo microphone uses the phenomenon of piezoelectricity - the tendency of some materials to produce a voltage when subjected to pressure - to convert vibrations into an electrical signal. This type of microphone is often used to mic acoustic instruments for live performance, or to record sounds in unusual environments (underwater, for instance.)

A contact microphone uses a moving-coil-type electroacoustic transducer to pick up vibrations via a physical medium, as opposed to sound vibrations carried through air. To this end, it is capable of detecting sounds of a very low level (when carried through air), such as those from small objects or insects. The microphone consists of a magnetic circuit, coil, contact plate and contact pin. The contact pin is attached to the coil via the contact plate and is the mechanism that responds to vibration. Contact microphones have been used to pick up the sound of a snail's heartbeat and the footsteps of ants. A portable version of this microphone has recently been developed.A laser microphone is an exotic application of laser technology.

Noises are irregular and disordered vibrations including all possible frequencies. Their picture does not repeat in time. The noise is an aperiodic series of waves.Sounds that are sine waves with fixed frequency and amplitude are perceived as pure tones. While sound waves are usually visualised as sine waves, sound waves can have arbitrary shapes and frequency content, limited only by the apparatus that generates them and the medium through which they travel. In fact, most sound waves consist of multiple overtones or harmonics and any sound can be thought of as being composed of sine waves (see additive synthesis). Waveforms commonly used to approximate harmonic sounds in nature include sawtooth waves, square waves and triangle waves.

While a sound may still be referred to as being of a single frequency (for example, a piano striking the A above middle C is said to be playing a note at 440 Hz), the sound perceived by a listener will be colored by all of the sound wave's frequency components and their relative amplitudes (see timbre.) For convenience in this article, however, it is best to think of sound waves as sine waves.

Perception of sound

The frequency range of sound audible to humans is approximately between 20 and 20,000 Hz. This range varies by individual and generally shrinks with age. It is also an uneven curve - sounds near 3,500 Hz are often perceived as louder than a sound with the same amplitude at a much lower or higher frequency. Above and below this range are ultrasound and infrasound, respectively. The amplitude range of sound for humans has a lower limit of 0dBSPL, called the threshold of hearing. Sound is technically at its upper limit at 194.09 dB. Above this level it should be called a shock wave. Sounds begin to do damage to ears at 85 dBSPL and sounds above approximately 130 dBSPL (called the threshold of pain) cause pain. Again, this range varies by individual and changes with age.

The perception of sound is the sense of hearing. In humans and many animals this is accomplished by the ears, but loud sounds and low frequency sounds can be perceived by other parts of the body through the sense of touch. Sounds are used in several ways, most notably for communication through speech or, for example, music. Sound perception can also be used for acquiring information about the surrounding environment in properties such as spatial characteristics and presence of other animals or objects. For example, bats use one sort of echolocation, ships and submarines use sonar, and humans can determine spatial information by the way in which they perceive sounds.The study of sound is called acoustics and is performed by acousticians. A notable subset is psychoacoustics, which combines acoustics and psychology to study how people react to sounds.

A cloud is a visible mass of condensation droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or another planetary body.
On Earth, the condensing substance is water vapor, which forms small droplets of water (typically 0.01 mm or ice crystals that, when surrounded with billions of other droplets or crystals, are visible as clouds. Clouds reflect all visible wavelengths of light equally and are usually white, but they can appear grey or even black if they are so thick or dense that sunlight cannot pass through.
Cloud formation and properties
 
A variety of cloud formations.
 
Global scheme of cloud optical thickness.
Clouds form when the invisible water vapour in the air condenses into visible water droplets or ice crystals. This can happen in two ways.
1. The air is cooled to its saturation point. This happens when the air comes in contact with a cold surface or a surface that is cooling by radiation, or the air is cooled by adiabatic expansion (rising). This can happen
along warm and cold fronts (Frontal lift),
where air flows up the side of a mountain and cools as it rises higher into the atmosphere (orographic lift),
by the convection caused by the warming of a surface by insolation (diurnal heating),
when warm air blows over a colder surface such as a cool body of water.
2. The air stays the same temperature but absorbs more water vapour into it until it reaches saturation.
Clouds are quite heavy. The water in a typical cloud can have a mass of up to several million tonnes. However, the volume of a cloud is correspondingly high, and the net density of water vapor is actually low enough that air currents below and within the cloud are capable of keeping small droplets suspended. As well, conditions inside a cloud are not static: water droplets are constantly forming and re-evaporating. A typical cloud droplet has a radius on the order of 1 x 10-5 m and a terminal velocity of about 1-2 cm/s. This give these droplets plenty of time to re-evaporate as they fall into in the warmer air beneath the cloud.
Most water droplets are formed when water vapor condenses around a condensation nucleus, a tiny particle of smoke, dust, ash, or salt. In supersaturated conditions, water droplets may act as condensation nuclei.
Water droplets large enough to fall to the ground are produced in two ways. The most important is through the Bergeron Process, theorized by Tor Bergeron, in which supercooled water droplets and ice crystals in a cloud interact to produce the rapid growth of ice crystals, which precipitate from the cloud and melt as they fall. This process typically takes place in clouds with tops cooler than -15°C. The second most important process is the collision and wake capture process, occurring in clouds with warmer tops, in which the collision of rising and falling water droplets produces larger and larger droplets, which are eventually heavy enough to overcome air currents in the cloud and the updraft beneath it and fall as rain. As a droplet falls through the smaller droplets which surround it, it produces a "wake" which draws some of the smaller droplets into collisions, thus perpetuating the process. This method of raindrop production is the primary mechanism in low stratiform clouds and small cumulus clouds in tropical regions. It typically produces smaller raindrops and drizzle.
The actual form of cloud created depends on the strength of the uplift and on air stability. In unstable conditions convection dominates, creating vertically developed clouds. Stable air produces horizontally homogeneous clouds. Frontal uplift creates various cloud forms depending on the composition of the front (ana-type or kata-type warm or cold front). Orographic uplift also creates variable cloud forms depending on air stability, although cap cloud and wave clouds are specific to orographic clouds.

Cloud Classification
 
Cloud Classification by altitude of occurrenceClouds are divided into two general categories: layered and convective. These are named stratus clouds (or stratiform, the Latin stratus means layer) and cumulus clouds (or cumiloform, cumulus means piled up). These two cloud types are divided into four more groups that distinguish the cloud's altitude. Clouds are classified by the cloud base height, not the cloud top. This system was proposed by Luke Howard in 1802 in a presentation to the Askesian Society.

High clouds (Family A)
These generally form above 16,500 feet (5,000 m), in the cold region of the troposphere. However, in Polar regions they may form as low as 10,000 ft (3,048 m). They are denoted by the prefix cirro- or cirrus. At this altitude water almost always freezes so clouds are composed of ice crystals. The clouds tend to be wispy, and are often transparent.

Rain is a form of precipitation, other forms of which include snow, sleet, hail, and dew. Rain forms when separate drops of water fall to the Earth's surface from clouds. Not all rain reaches the surface, however; some evaporates while falling through dry air. When none of it reaches the ground, it is a precipitation called virga.

Rain in nature
Rain plays a major role in the hydrologic cycle in which moisture from the oceans evaporates, condenses into clouds, precipitates back to earth, and eventually returns to the ocean via streams and rivers to repeat the cycle again. There is also a small amount of water vapor that respires from plants and evaporates to join other water molecules in condensing into clouds.
The amount of rainfall is measured using a rain gauge. It is expressed as the depth of water that collects on a flat surface, and can be measured to the nearest 0.25 mm or 0.01 in. It is sometimes expressed in litres per square metre (1 L/m² = 1 mm).
Rain drops on grassFalling raindrops are often depicted in cartoons or anime as "tear-shaped", round at the bottom and narrowing towards the top, but this is incorrect (only drops of water dripping from some sources are tear-shaped at the moment of formation). Small raindrops are nearly spherical. Larger ones become increasingly flattened, like hamburger buns; very large ones are shaped like parachutes. [1] On average, raindrops are 1 to 2 mm in diameter. The biggest raindrops on Earth were recorded over Brazil and the Marshall Islands in 2004 - some of them were as large as 10 mm. The large size is explained by condensation on large smoke particles or by collisions between drops in small regions with particularly high content of liquid water.
Generally, rain has a pH slightly under 6, simply from absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which dissociates in the droplet to form minute quantities of carbonic acid. In some desert areas, airborne dust contains enough calcium carbonate to counter the natural acidity of precipitation, and rainfall can be neutral or even alkaline. Rain below pH 5.6 is considered acid rain.
Rain is said to be heavier immediately after a bolt of lightning. The cause of this phenomenon is traceable to the bipolar aspect of the water molecule. The intense electric and magnetic field generated by a lightning bolt forces many of the water molecules in the air surrounding the stroke to line up. These molecules then spontaneously create localized chains of water (similar to nylon or other 'poly' molecules). These chains then form water droplets when the electric/magnetic field is removed. These drops then fall as intensified rain.

Culture
 
Rain on an umbrellaCultural attitudes towards rain differ across the world. In the largely temperate Western world, rain traditionally has a sad and negative connotation - reflected in children's rhymes like Rain Rain Go Away - in contrast to the bright and happy sun. In dry places such as India, the rain is greeted with euphoria.
Several cultures have developed means of dealing with rain and have developed numerous protection devices such as umbrellas and raincoats, and diversion devices such as gutters and storm drains. Many people also prefer to stay inside on rainy days, especially in tropical climates where rain is usually accompanied by thunderstorms or rain is extremely heavy (monsoon). Rain may be collected for drinking water, or used as greywater. Excessive rain, particularly after a dry period has hardened the soil so that it cannot absorb water, can cause floods.
Many people find the scent smelt during and immediately after rain especially pleasant or distinctive. The source of this smell is petrichor, an oil produced by plants, then absorbed by rocks and soil, and later released into the air during rainfall.

A rainforest is a forested biome with high annual rainfall due to the Intertropical convergence zone.
As well as prodigious rainfall, many rainforests are characterised by a high number of resident species and tremendous biodiversity.
The largest tropical rainforests exist in the Amazon basin (the Amazon Rainforest), in the equatorial portions of Africa from Cameroon to the Democratic Republic of Congo; in much of southeastern Asia from Myanmar to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea; and also eastern Queensland, Australia.
It has been estimated that rainforests provide up to 40% of the oxygen found in the atmosphere and that the vegetation acts as an important consumer of atmospheric carbon. As such, many scientists feel that the rainforests are of vital importance within the global climate system.

Characteristics
Rainforests are characterised by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 2,000 mm (about 100 inches or 200 centimetres) and 1700 mm (about 67 inches). The soil can be poor because high rainfall tends to leach out soluble nutrients.
Rain forests are home to two-thirds of all the living animal and plant species on the planet. It has been estimated that many hundreds of millions of new species of plants, insects, and microorganisms are still undiscovered and as yet unnamed by science. Tropical rain forests are called the "jewel of the earth", the "Earth's lungs", and the "world's largest pharmacy" because of the large amount of natural medicines discovered there
Despite the growth of flora in a rainforest, the actual quality of the soil is quite poor. Oxisols, infertile, deeply weathered and severely leached, have developed on the ancient Gondwanan shields. Rapid bacterial decay prevents the accumulation of humus. The concentration of iron and aluminium oxides by the laterization process gives the oxisols a bright red color and sometimes produces minable deposits (e.g. bauxite). On younger substrates, especially of volcanic origin, tropical soils may be quite fertile.
The undergrowth in a rainforest is restricted in many areas by the lack of sunlight at ground level. This makes it possible for people and other animals to walk through the forest. If the leaf canopy is destroyed or thinned for any reason, the ground beneath is soon colonised by a dense tangled growth of vines, shrubs and small trees called jungle.

Trees
There are several common characteristics of tropical trees. Tropical species frequently possess one or more of the following attributes not commonly seen in trees of higher latitudes.
Many species have broad, woody flanges (buttresses) at the base of the trunk. Originally believed to help support the tree, now it is believed that the buttresses channel stem flow and its dissolved nutrients to the roots.
Large leaves are common among trees of the C layer. Young individuals of trees destined for the B and A layers may also have large leaves. When they reach the canopy new leaves will be smaller. The large leaf surface helps intercept light in the sun-dappled lower strata of the forest. Drip tips facilitate drainage of precipitation off the leaf to promote transpiration. They occur in the lower layers and among the saplings of species of the emergent layer (A layer).
Trees are often well connected in the canopy layer especially by the growth of woody climbers or lianas. Plants with epiphytic adaptations, allowing them to grow on top of existing trees in the competition for sunlight.
Other characteristics that distinguish tropical species of trees from those of temperate forests include:
Exceptionally thin bark, often only 1-2 mm thick. Usually very smooth, although sometimes armed with spines or thorns.
Cauliflory, the development of flowers (and hence fruits) directly from the trunk, rather than at the tips of branches.
Large fleshy fruits attract birds, mammals, and even fish as dispersal agents.

The canopy
Away from river banks, swamps and clearings where dense undergrowth is found, the forest floor is relatively clear of vegetation, as little sunlight penetrates to ground level. The densest areas of biodiversity are found in the forest canopy, a more or less continuous cover of foliage formed by adjacent treetops.
The canopy, by some estimates, is home to 40% of all plant species, suggesting that perhaps half of all life on Earth could be found there. A quarter of all insect species are believed to exist in the rainforest canopy.
Scientists have long suspected the richness of the canopy as a habitat, but have only recently developed practical methods of exploring it. As long ago as 1917, US naturalist, William Beebe declared that "another continent of life remains to be discovered, not upon the Earth, but one to two hundred feet above it, extending over thousands of square miles".
True exploration of this habitat only began in the 1980's, when scientists developed methods to reach the canopy, such as firing ropes into the trees using crossbows. Exploration of the canopy is still in it's infancy, but other methods include the use of balloons and airships to float above the highest branches and the building of cranes and walkways planted on the forest floor.

The rainforest as a source of drugs
Tropical rain forests are called the 'world's largest pharmacy' because the large amount of natural medicines discovered there. Nearly half of the medicines that we use come from the rainforests. For example, rain forests are responsible for containing the "basic ingredients of birth control hormones, stimulants, and tranquilizing drugs" (Banks 36). Scientists believe that the cures for many more diseases will be discovered there in the future.

Degradation of the rainforests
Tropical and temperate rain forests have been subjected to heavy logging and agricultural clearance throughout the 20th century and the area covered by rainforest around the world is rapidly shrinking. It is estimated that the rainforest was reduced by about 58,000 km² annually in the 1990s. Rainforests used to cover 14% of the Earth's surface. This percentage is now down to 6% and it is estimated by some that the remaining natural rainforests could disappear within 40 years (mid-21st century). Biologists have estimated that large numbers of species are being driven to extinction, possibly more than 50,000 a year, due to the removal of habitat with destruction of the rain forests. Protection and regeneration of the rainforests is a key goal of many environmental charities and organisations.