title: South China Sea

text: The South China Sea opened around 45 million years ago when the "Dangerous Ground" rifted away from southern China. Extension culminated in seafloor spreading around 30 million years ago, a process that propagated to the SW resulting in the V-shaped basin we see today. Extension ceased around 17 million years ago. Arguments have continued about the role of tectonic extrusion in forming the basin. Paul Tapponnier and colleagues have argued that as India collides with Asia it pushes Indochina to the SE. The relative shear between Indochina and China caused the South China Sea to open. This view is disputed by geologists who do not consider Indochina to have moved far relative to mainland Asia. Marine geophysical studies in the Gulf of Tonkin by Peter Clift has shown that the Red River Fault was active and causing basin formation at least by 37 million years ago in the NW South China Sea, consistent with extrusion playing a part in the formation of the sea. Since opening the South China Sea has been the repository of large sediment volumes delivered by the Mekong River, Red River and Pearl River. Several of these deltas are rich in oil and gas deposits.


title: South China Sea

text: The South China Sea contains over 250 small islands, atolls, cays, shoals, reefs, and sandbars, most of which have no indigenous people, many of which are naturally under water at high tide, and some of which are permanently submerged. The features are:


title: South China Sea

text: The Spratly Islands spread over an 810 by 900 km area covering some 175 identified insular features, the largest being Taiping Island (Itu Aba) at just over long and with its highest elevation at .


title: South China Sea

text: The largest singular feature in the area of the Spratly Islands is a wide seamount called Reed Tablemount, also known as Reed Bank, in the northeast of the group, separated from Palawan Island of the Philippines by the Palawan Trench. Now completely submerged, with a depth of , it was an island until it sank about 7,000 years ago due to the increasing sea level after the last ice age. With an area of , it is one of the largest submerged atoll structures in the world.


title: South China Sea

text: The South China Sea is an extremely significant body of water in a geopolitical sense. The sea has historically been an important trade route between China, southeast Asia, and going to India and the west. A number of shipwrecks of trading ships that lie on the ocean's floor attest to a thriving trade going back centuries. Nine historic trade ships carrying ceramics dating back to the 10th century until the 19th century were excavated under Swedish engineer Sten Sjöstrand.


title: South China Sea

text: Today it is the second most used sea lane in the world, while in terms of world annual merchant fleet tonnage, over 50% passes through the Strait of Malacca, the Sunda Strait, and the Lombok Strait. Over 1.6 million m³ (10 million barrels) of crude oil a day are shipped through the Strait of Malacca, where there are regular reports of piracy, but much less frequently than before the mid-20th century.


title: South China Sea

text: The region has proven oil reserves of around 1.2 km³ (7.7 billion barrels), with an estimate of 4.5 km³ (28 billion barrels) in total. Natural gas reserves are estimated to total around 7,500 km³ (266 trillion cubic feet). A 2013 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration raised the total estimated oil reserves to 11 billion barrels. In 2014 China began to drill for oil in waters disputed with Vietnam. The area in question is known as "Vanguard Bank" and which Vietnam officials claim lies within their country's 200-mile exclusive economic zone. China, however, disputes this fact.


title: South China Sea

text: According to studies made by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Philippines, this body of water holds one third of the entire world's marine biodiversity, thereby making it a very important area for the ecosystem. However the fish stocks in the area are depleted, and countries are using fishing bans as a means of asserting their sovereignty claims.


title: South China Sea

text: Indonesia's maritime waters have been breached by fishing fleets from Vietnam and the Philippines leading to said ships being seized and sunk by Indonesian authorities.


title: South China Sea

text: China announced in May 2017 a breakthrough for mining methane clathrates, when they extracted methane from hydrates in the South China Sea.


title: South China Sea

text: Several countries have made competing territorial claims over the South China Sea. Such disputes have been regarded as Asia's most potentially dangerous point of conflict.


title: South China Sea

text: Both the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC, commonly known as Taiwan) claim almost the entire body as their own, demarcating their claims within what is known as the "nine-dash line", which claims overlap with virtually every other country in the region. Competing claims include:


title: South China Sea

text: China and Vietnam have both been vigorous in prosecuting their claims. China (various governments) and South Vietnam each controlled part of the Paracel Islands before 1974. A brief conflict in 1974 resulted in 18 Chinese and 53 Vietnamese deaths, and China has controlled the whole of Paracel since then. The Spratly Islands have been the site of a naval clash, in which over 70 Vietnamese sailors were killed just south of Chigua Reef in March 1988. Disputing claimants regularly report clashes between naval vessels.


title: South China Sea

text: ASEAN in general, and Malaysia in particular, have been keen to ensure that the territorial disputes within the South China Sea do not escalate into armed conflict. As such, joint development authorities have been set up in areas of overlapping claims to jointly develop the area and divide the profits equally without settling the issue of sovereignty over the area. This is true particularly in the Gulf of Thailand. Generally, China has preferred to resolve competing claims bilaterally, while some ASEAN countries prefer multilateral talks, believing that they are disadvantaged in bilateral negotiations with the much larger China and that because many countries claim the same territory only multilateral talks could effectively resolve the competing claims.


title: South China Sea

text: The overlapping claims over Pedra Branca or Pulau Batu Putih including the neighboring Middle Rocks by both Singapore and Malaysia were settled in 2008 by the International Court of Justice, awarding Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore and the Middle Rocks to Malaysia.


title: South China Sea

text: In July 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for China to resolve the territorial dispute. China responded by demanding the US keep out of the issue. This came at a time when both countries had been engaging in naval exercises in a show of force to the opposing side, which increased tensions in the region. The US Department of Defense released a statement on August 18 where it opposed the use of force to resolve the dispute, and accused China of assertive behaviour. On July 22, 2011, one of India's amphibious assault vessels, the INS "Airavat" which was on a friendly visit to Vietnam, was reportedly contacted at a distance of from the Vietnamese coast in the disputed South China Sea on an open radio channel by a vessel identifying itself as the Chinese Navy and stating that the ship was entering Chinese waters. The spokesperson for the Indian Navy clarified that as no ship or aircraft was visible from INS "Airavat" it proceeded on her onward journey as scheduled. The Indian Navy further clarified that "[t]here was no confrontation involving the INS Airavat. India supports freedom of navigation in international waters, including in the South China Sea, and the right of passage in accordance with accepted principles of international law. These principles should be respected by all."


title: South China Sea

text: In September 2011, shortly after China and Vietnam had signed an agreement seeking to contain a dispute over the South China Sea, India's state-run explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) said that its overseas investment arm ONGC Videsh Limited had signed a three-year deal with PetroVietnam for developing long-term cooperation in the oil sector and that it had accepted Vietnam's offer of exploration in certain specified blocks in the South China Sea. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu issued a protest. The spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India responded by saying that "The Chinese had concerns but we are going by what the Vietnamese authorities have told us and have conveyed this to the Chinese." The Indo-Vietnamese deal was also denounced by the Chinese state-run newspaper "Global Times".


title: South China Sea

text: In 1999, Taiwan claimed the entirety of the South China Sea islands under the Lee Teng-hui administration. The entire subsoil, seabed and waters of the Paracels and Spratlys are claimed by Taiwan.


title: South China Sea

text: In 2012 and 2013, Vietnam and Taiwan butted heads against each other over anti-Vietnamese military exercises by Taiwan.


title: South China Sea

text: In May 2014, China established an oil rig near the Paracel Islands, leading to multiple incidents between Vietnamese and Chinese ships.


title: South China Sea

text: In December 2018, retired Chinese admiral Luo Yuan proposed that a possible solution to tensions with the United States in the South China Sea would be to sink one or two United States Navy aircraft carriers to break US morale. Also in December 2018, Chinese commentator and Senior Colonel in the People's Liberation Army Air Force, Dai Xu suggested that China's navy should ram United States Navy ships sailing in the South China Sea.


title: South China Sea

text: The US, although not a signatory to UNCLOS, has maintained its position that its naval vessels have consistently sailed unhindered through the South China Sea and will continue to do so. At times US warships have come within the 12 nautical-mile limit of Chinese-controlled islands (such as the Paracel Islands), arousing China's ire. During the US Chief of Naval Operations' visit to China in early 2019, he and his Chinese counterpart worked out rules of engagement, whenever American warships and Chinese warships met up on the high seas.


title: South China Sea

text: On 26 June 2020, the 36th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit was held virtually. Vietnam, as the Chairman of the Summit, released the Chairman's Statement. The Statement said the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is "the basis for determining maritime entitlements, sovereign rights, jurisdiction and legitimate interests over maritime zones, and the 1982 UNCLOS sets out the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out."


title: South China Sea

text: It was reported by VOA on 27 August 2020 that a U.S. defense official said that the People's Liberation Army of China launched four medium-range ballistic missiles from mainland China into an area of the South China Sea.


title: South China Sea

text: In 2022, Vietnam demanded that Taiwan stop conducting its military drills at the Spratly Islands, which is located within the South China Sea.


title: South China Sea

text: In January 2013, the Philippines initiated arbitration proceedings against China (PRC) over issues surrounding the nine-dash line, characterization of maritime features, and EEZ. On 12 July 2016, an arbitral tribunal ruled in favor of the Philippines on most of its submissions. It clarified that it would not "rule on any question of sovereignty over land territory and would not delimit any maritime boundary between the Parties" but concluded that China had not historically exercised exclusive control within the nine-dash line, hence has "no legal basis" to claim "historic rights" over the resources. It also concluded that China's historic rights claims over the maritime areas (as opposed to land masses and territorial waters) inside the nine-dash line would have no lawful effect outside of what's entitled to under UNCLOS. It criticized China's land reclamation projects and its construction of artificial islands in the Spratly Islands, saying that it had caused "severe harm to the coral reef environment". Finally, it characterized Taiping Island and other features of the Spratly Islands as "rocks" under UNCLOS, and therefore are not entitled to a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone. The arbitral tribunal decision was ruled as final and non-appealable by either country. China rejected the ruling, calling it "ill-founded". Taiwan, which currently administers Taiping Island, the largest of the Spratly Islands, also rejected the ruling. Eight governments have publicly called for the ruling to be respected, 35 have issued generally positive statements noting the verdict but have stopped short of calling for the parties to abide by it, and eight have publicly rejected it. The eight governments in support are Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, United Kingdom, and the United States; the governments in opposition are China, Montenegro, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, and Vanuatu. The United Nations itself doesn't have a position on the legal and procedural merits of the case or on the disputed claims, and the Secretary-General expressed his hope that the continued consultations on a Code of Conduct between ASEAN and China under the framework of the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea will lead to increased mutual understanding among all the parties.


title: South China Sea

text: In March 2020, the Philippines expressed its concern about approximately 220 PRC militia vessels in the disputed area.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: Puck was born in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria. He learned cooking from his mother, who was a pastry chef. He took the surname of his stepfather, Josef Puck, after his mother's remarriage. The marriage produced two younger sisters and a younger brother for Wolfgang. He trained as an apprentice under Raymond Thuilier at L'Oustau de Baumanière in Les Baux-de-Provence, at Hôtel de Paris in Monaco, and at Maxim's Paris before moving to the United States in 1973 at age 24. After two years at La Tour in Indianapolis, Puck moved to Los Angeles to become chef and part owner of Ma Maison restaurant.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: Following the 1981 publication of his first cookbook, "Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen", which was based on his Ma Maison recipes, Puck opened the restaurant Spago on the Sunset Strip in 1982. Fifteen years later, in 1997, Puck and Barbara Lazaroff, his ex-wife and business partner, moved the award-winning Spago to Beverly Hills. It has been recognized as one of the Top 40 Restaurants in the U.S. since 2004. The Infatuation wrote that "Spago made Wolfgang Puck the first (and maybe only) chef you and your grandma know by name."


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: His success enabled him to launch the Wolfgang Puck Companies which includes the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. and Wolfgang Puck Catering. The Wolfgang Puck Companies encompass over 20 fine dining restaurants, among the top 40 Restaurants in the U.S., premium catering services, more than 80 Wolfgang Puck Express operations, and kitchen and food merchandise, including cookbooks, canned foods, and coffee products. He is the official caterer for the Academy Awards Governors Ball, and has parlayed his celebrity into acting; his credits include "Frasier", a recurring role as himself on "Las Vegas" and a cameo appearance in "The Weather Man". He also appeared as himself on "Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters", as well as "Cooking Class with Wolfgang Puck" on The Food Network, and in an "American Idol" season finale episode where he introduced unusual foods to Kellie Pickler in comic relief segments. He was featured as a guest judge on Season 7 of "MasterChef". He also made a cameo appearance as himself on an episode of "Tales from the Crypt", and appeared in a TV commercial advertising the state of California (along with famous people such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jack Nicholson).


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: In 1991, Puck opened his fourth restaurant, Granita, a seafood restaurant in Malibu, California. The restaurant closed in 2005.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: Since 2003, Puck's recipes have been syndicated worldwide to newspapers and websites by Tribune Content Agency.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: Wolfgang Puck is active in philanthropic endeavors and charitable organizations. He co-founded the Puck-Lazaroff Charitable Foundation in 1982. The foundation supports the annual American Wine & Food Festival which benefits Meals on Wheels; it has raised more than $15 million since its inception.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: Puck is The Honorary Chair Chef of the "Five Star Sensation" benefit in Cleveland, Ohio, which, every two years, helps to bring $10 million to support The Ireland Cancer Foundation of University Hospitals.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: One of Wolfgang Puck's signature dishes at his original restaurant, Spago, is house-smoked salmon pizza.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: He married Barbara Lazaroff in 1983, with whom he has two sons, Cameron and Byron. They were divorced in 2003. Barbara Lazaroff co-founded the Wolfgang Puck restaurants and continues to play a key role in the business. She has been instrumental in their interior design.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: In 2007 he married designer Gelila Assefa in Capri, Italy. They currently live in Los Angeles and have two sons: Oliver and Alexander.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: In 1985, Puck received a Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in a ceremony at Denver, Colorado, presented by Awards Council member Ray Charles.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: In 1993, Spago Hollywood was inducted into the Nation's Restaurant News Fine Dining Hall of Fame. The next year it received the James Beard Restaurant of the Year Award. In 2002, Puck received the 2001–2002 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Service Show, "Wolfgang Puck."


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: Spago Beverly Hills received a James Beard Foundation Outstanding Service Award in 2005. It was awarded two Michelin stars in the 2008 and 2009 Los Angeles Michelin Guide.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: CUT Beverly Hills was awarded a Michelin star in 2007. In 2013, Puck was inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame. In July 2016, CUT at the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore was awarded a Michelin Star.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: On April 26, 2017, Puck received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for his work in the TV industry, located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: On May 20, 2017, Puck was named the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IFMA) 2017 Gold Plate Winner.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: In June 2022, Puck was recognized by the International Hospitality Institute on the Global 100 in Hospitality, as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Global Hospitality.


title: Wolfgang Puck

text: Wolfgang Puck restaurants, catering services, cookbooks and licensed products are handled by Wolfgang Puck Companies, with three divisions: "Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, Wolfgang Puck Catering," and "Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc."


title: Vishwak Sen

text: Vishwak Sen (born Dinesh Naidu; 29 March 1995) is an Indian actor, director, and screenwriter who works in Telugu films. He made his debut in 2017 with "Vellipomakey" and went on to appear in films such as "Ee Nagaraniki Emaindhi," his directorial "Falaknuma Das""," and "."


title: Vishwak Sen

text: Dinesh Naidu was born on 29 March 1995 in Hyderabad, India. He changed his name to Vishwak Sen in adulthood as per numerology on the suggestion of his father who believed he would never achieve success with his birthname.


title: Vishwak Sen

text: Sen made his acting debut with "Vellipomakey" (2017). The film released to above average reviews and a reviewer from "The Times of India" stated that "Vishwak Sen does a good job at playing Chandu and is a natural". in 2018, he starred in "Ee Nagaraniki Emaindhi" directed by Tharun Bhascker Dhaassyam of "Pelli Choopulu" fame. The film received positive reviews upon release and was a success at the box office. Sen made his directorial debut with "Falaknuma Das" (2019), a remake of "Angamaly Diaries". The film released to mixed reviews, but the depiction of Old City, Hyderabad was praised. His next film was "" (2020) produced by actor Nani. "HIT" released to positive reviews from critics.


title: Inbar Lavi

text: Inbar Lavi (, born October 27, 1986) is an actress. She is known for portraying Raviva on the 2012 MTV series "Underemployed", Vee on the 2014 Fox television series "Gang Related", and Sheba on the Fox series "Prison Break". Lavi starred in the 2017–2018 Bravo television series "Imposters", and played Eve in the final three seasons of the Netflix series "Lucifer".


title: Inbar Lavi

text: Lavi was born and raised in Ramat Gan, Israel to a Jewish family from Holon. Lavi's mother has Moroccan origins while her father is of Polish descent. As a child, she suffered from asthma and had to use a nebulizer for 45 minutes at a time. During that time, she watched movies, and "fell in love with cinema". One of her early inspirations was the performance of Israeli-American actress Natalie Portman in "". Another of her role models was Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer.


title: Inbar Lavi

text: Lavi studied ballet and modern dance at the Kiryat Sharet high school in Holon, Israel. She then studied acting at the Sophie Moskowitz School of Acting in Tel Aviv, Israel.


title: Inbar Lavi

text: In 2004, at the age of 17, Lavi moved to New York City, where she performed in various off-Broadway productions. After eight months, she moved to Los Angeles, after being accepted with a full scholarship to the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Among her earliest English-speaking roles was Cordelia in a 2006 production of "King Lear", starring and directed by Tom Badal.


title: Inbar Lavi

text: Starting in 2009, Lavi began making guest appearances on television shows including "Entourage", "The Closer", "Ghost Whisperer", "Criminal Minds", "" and "In Plain Sight". She has also appeared in films including "Tales of an Ancient Empire" (2010), "" (2011) and "House of Dust" (2013).


title: Inbar Lavi

text: Lavi starred in the 2012 MTV television series "Underemployed" as Raviva, a pregnant, aspiring singer. She portrayed Veronica "Vee" Dotsen in the 2014 Fox television series "Gang Related". She appeared in the seventh season of "Sons of Anarchy" as street prostitute Winsome.


title: Inbar Lavi

text: In 2015 Lavi was cast in the lead role in the Bravo television series "Imposters" (originally titled "My So Called Wife"), playing "a Machiavellian con-artist and master of disguise"; the series premiered in February 2017. She was cast in the recurring role of Ravit Bivas, a highly trained Israeli soldier, on the second season of the TNT naval drama "The Last Ship" in summer 2015. In 2016 Lavi joined the "Prison Break" revival in the role of Sheba, a Yemeni activist. She joined the cast of "Lucifer" for the series' fourth season, playing Eve, the first woman made and mother to Cain and Abel.


title: Inbar Lavi

text: She married Israeli boyfriend Dan Bar Shira in Israel in August 2021. They reside together in Los Angeles.


title: Equestrianism

text: Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding (Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the use of horses for practical working purposes, transportation, recreational activities, artistic or cultural exercises, and competitive sport.


title: Equestrianism

text: Horses are trained and ridden for practical working purposes, such as in police work or for controlling herd animals on a ranch. They are also used in competitive sports including dressage, endurance riding, eventing, reining, show jumping, tent pegging, vaulting, polo, horse racing, driving, and rodeo (see additional equestrian sports listed later in this article for more examples). Some popular forms of competition are grouped together at horse shows where horses perform in a wide variety of disciplines. Horses (and other equids such as mules) are used for non-competitive recreational riding, such as fox hunting, trail riding, or hacking. There is public access to horse trails in almost every part of the world; many parks, ranches, and public stables offer both guided and independent riding. Horses are also used for therapeutic purposes both in specialized para-equestrian competition as well as non-competitive riding to improve human health and emotional development.


title: Equestrianism

text: Horses are also driven in harness racing, at horse shows, and in other types of exhibition such as historical reenactment or ceremony, often pulling carriages. In some parts of the world, they are still used for practical purposes such as farming.


title: Equestrianism

text: Horses continue to be used in public service, in traditional ceremonies (parades, funerals), police and volunteer mounted patrols and for mounted search and rescue.


title: Equestrianism

text: Riding halls enable training of horse and rider in all weathers as well as indoor competition riding.


title: Equestrianism

text: Though there is controversy over the exact date horses were domesticated and when they were first ridden, the best estimate is that horses first were ridden approximately 3500 BC. There is some evidence that about 3,000 BC, near the Dnieper River and the Don River, people were using bits on horses, as a stallion that was buried there shows teeth wear consistent with using a bit. However, the most unequivocal early archaeological evidence of equines put to working use was of horses being driven. Chariot burials about 2500 BC present the most direct hard evidence of horses used as working animals. In ancient times chariot warfare was followed by the use of war horses as light and heavy cavalry. The horse played an important role throughout human history all over the world, both in warfare and in peaceful pursuits such as transportation, trade and agriculture. Horses lived in North America, but died out at the end of the Ice Age. Horses were brought back to North America by European explorers, beginning with the second voyage of Columbus in 1493. Equestrianism was introduced in the 1900 Summer Olympics as an Olympic sport with jumping events.


title: Equestrianism

text: Humans appear to have long expressed a desire to know which horse or horses were the fastest, and horse racing has ancient roots. Gambling on horse races appears to go hand-in hand with racing and has a long history as well. Thoroughbreds have the pre-eminent reputation as a racing breed, but other breeds also race.


title: Equestrianism

text: Equestrian events were first included in the modern Olympic Games in 1900. By 1912, all three Olympic disciplines still seen today were part of the games. The following forms of competition are recognized worldwide and are a part of the equestrian events at the Olympics. They are governed by the rules of the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI).


title: Equestrianism

text: The additional internationally sanctioned but non-Olympic disciplines governed by the FEI are: combined driving; endurance; reining; and vaulting. These disciplines are part of the FEI World Equestrian Games every four years and may hold their own individual World Championships in other years. The FEI also recognizes horseball and tent pegging as its two regional disciplines.


title: Equestrianism

text: Para-equestrian competition at the international level, including the Paralympics, are also governed by the FEI and offer the following competition events:


title: Equestrianism

text: The "haute école" (F. "high school"), an advanced component of Classical dressage, is a highly refined set of skills seldom used in competition but often seen in demonstration performances.


title: Equestrianism

text: Other major classical teams include the South African Lipizzaners and the Hollandsche Manege of the Netherlands.


title: Equestrianism

text: Horse shows are held throughout the world with a tremendous variety of possible events, equipment, attire, and judging standards used. However, most forms of horse show competition can be broken into the following broad categories:


title: Equestrianism

text: In addition to the classical Olympic events, the following forms of competition are seen. In North America they are referred to as "English riding" in contrast with western riding; elsewhere in the world, if a distinction is necessary, they are usually described as "classic riding":


title: Equestrianism

text: Western riding evolved from the cattle-working and warfare traditions brought to the Americas by the Spanish Conquistadors, and both equipment and riding style evolved to meet the working needs of the cowboy on ranches in the American West.


title: Equestrianism

text: The most noticeable feature of western style riding is the western saddle, which has a substantial saddle tree that provides support to horse and rider when working long hours in the saddle. The western saddle features a prominent pommel topped by a horn (a knob used for dallying a lariat after roping an animal), wide stirrups, and in some cases, both front and back cinches. The depth of the seat may depend on the activity, a deeper seat used for barrel racing or cutting cows or a more shallow seat for general ranch riding or Steer wrestling.


title: Equestrianism

text: Finished western horses are asked to perform with a loose rein controlled by one hand. The headstall of a western bridle may utilize either a Snaffle bit or curb bit. Bitless headstalls are also seen, such as a bosal-style hackamore on youger horses, or various styles of mechanical hackamore. In Vaquero style training, a combination of a bosal and bit, called a "two-rein," is used at some stages of training. The standard western bridle lacks a noseband and usually consists of a single set of reins attached to a curb bit that has somewhat longer shanks than the curb of an English Weymouth bridle or a pelham bit. Western bridles have either a browband or else a “one ear” loop (sometimes two) that crosses in front of the horse's ear. Two styles of Western reins developed: The long split reins of the Texas tradition, which are completely separated, or the "Romal" reins of the California tradition, which are closed reins with a long single attachment (the romal) that can be used as a quirt. Modern rodeo competitors in timed events sometimes use a closed rein without a "romal".


title: Equestrianism

text: Western riders wear a long-sleeved shirt, long pants or jeans, cowboy boots, and a wide-brimmed cowboy hat. A rider may wear protective leather leggings called chaps. Riders may wear brighter colors or finer fabrics in competition than for work. In particular, horse show events such as Western pleasure may much flashier equipment. Saddles, bits and bridles are ornamented with substantial amounts of silver, rider clothing may have vivid colors and even rhinestones or sequins.


title: Equestrianism

text: Horses, ponies, mules and donkeys are driven in harness in many different ways. For working purposes, they can pull a plow or other farm equipment designed to be pulled by animals. In many parts of the world they still pull wagons for basic hauling and transportation. They may draw carriages at ceremonies, in parades or for tourist rides.


title: Equestrianism

text: As noted in "horse racing" "above", horses can race in harness, pulling a very lightweight cart known as a sulky. At the other end of the spectrum, some draft horses compete in horse pulling competitions, where single or teams of horses and their drivers vie to determine who can pull the most weight for a short distance.


title: Equestrianism

text: Roping includes a number of timed events that are based on the real-life tasks of a working cowboy, who often had to capture calves and adult cattle for branding, medical treatment and other purposes. A lasso or lariat is thrown over the head of a calf or the horns of adult cattle, and the animal is secured in a fashion dictated by its size and age.


title: Equestrianism

text: In spite of popular myth, most modern "broncs" are not in fact wild horses, but are more commonly spoiled riding horses or horses bred specifically as bucking stock.


title: Equestrianism

text: There are many other forms of equestrian activity and sports seen worldwide. There are both competitive events and pleasure riding disciplines available.


title: Equestrianism

text: Handling, riding and driving horses have inherent risks. Horses are large prey animals with a well-developed flight or fight instinct able to move quickly and unexpectedly. When mounted, the rider's head may be up to from the ground, and the horse may travel at a speed of up to . The injuries observed range from very minor injuries to fatalities.


title: Equestrianism

text: A study in Germany reported that the relative risk of injury from riding a horse, compared to riding a bicycle, was 9 times higher for adolescents and 5.6 times higher for younger children, but that riding a horse was less risky than riding a moped. In Victoria, Australia, a search of state records found that equestrian sports had the third highest incidence of serious injury, after motor sports and power boating. In Greece, an analysis of a national registry estimated the incidence of equestrian injury to be 21 per 100,000 person-years for farming and equestrian sports combined, and 160 times higher for horse racing personnel. Other findings noted that helmets likely prevent traumatic brain injuries.


title: Equestrianism

text: In the United States each year an estimated 30 million people ride horses, resulting in 50,000 emergency department visits (1 visit per 600 riders per year). A survey of 679 equestrians in Oregon, Washington and Idaho estimated that at some time in their equestrian career one in five will be seriously injured, resulting in hospitalization, surgery or long-term disability. Among survey respondents, novice equestrians had an incidence of any injury that was threefold over intermediates, fivefold over advanced equestrians, and nearly eightfold over professionals. Approximately 100 hours of experience are required to achieve a substantial decline in the risk of injury. The survey authors conclude that efforts to prevent equestrian injury should focus on novice equestrians.


title: Equestrianism

text: The most common injury is falling from the horse, followed by being kicked, trampled and bitten. About 3 out of 4 injuries are due to falling, broadly defined. A broad definition of falling often includes being crushed and being thrown from the horse, but when reported separately each of these mechanisms may be more common than being kicked.


title: Equestrianism

text: In Canada, a 10-year study of trauma center patients injured while riding reported that although 48% had suffered head injuries, only 9% of these riders had been wearing helmets at the time of their accident. Other injuries involved the chest (54%), abdomen (22%) and extremities (17%). A German study reported that injuries in horse riding are rare compared to other sports, but when they occur they are severe. Specifically, they found that 40% of horse riding injuries were fractures, and only 15% were sprains. Furthermore, the study noted that in Germany, one quarter of all sport related fatalities are caused by horse riding.


title: Equestrianism

text: Most horse related injuries are a result of falling from a horse, which is the cause of 60–80% of all such reported injuries. Another common cause of injury is being kicked by a horse, which may cause skull fractures or severe trauma to the internal organs. Some possible injuries resulting from horse riding, with the percent indicating the amounts in relation to all injuries as reported by a New Zealand study, include:


title: Equestrianism

text: Among 36 members and employees of the Hong Kong Jockey Club who were seen in a trauma center during a period of 5 years, 24 fell from horses and 11 were kicked by the horse. Injuries comprised: 18 torso; 11 head, face or neck; and 11 limb. The authors of this study recommend that helmets, face shields and body protectors be worn when riding or handling horses.


title: Equestrianism

text: In New South Wales, Australia, a study of equestrians seen at one hospital over a 6-year period found that 81% were wearing a helmet at the time of injury, and that helmet use both increased over time and was correlated with a lower rate of admission. In the second half of the study period, of the equestrians seen at a hospital, only 14% were admitted. In contrast, a study of child equestrians seen at a hospital emergency department in Adelaide reported that 60% were admitted.


title: Equestrianism

text: In the United States, an analysis of National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) data performed by the Equestrian Medical Safety Association studied 78,279 horse-related injuries in 2007: "The most common injuries included fractures (28.5%); contusions/abrasions (28.3%); strain/sprain (14.5%); internal injury (8.1%); lacerations (5.7%); concussions (4.6%); dislocations (1.9%); and hematomas (1.2%). Most frequent injury sites are the lower trunk (19.6%); head (15.0%); upper trunk (13.4%); shoulder (8.2%); and wrist (6.8%). Within this study patients were treated and released (86.2%), were hospitalized (8.7%), were transferred (3.6%), left without being treated (0.8%), remained for observation (0.6%) and arrived at the hospital deceased (0.1%)."


title: Equestrianism

text: Horseback riding is one of the most dangerous sports, especially in relation to head injury. Statistics from the United States, for example, indicate that about 30 million people ride horses annually. On average, about 67,000 people are admitted to the hospital each year from injuries sustained while working with horses. 15,000 of those admittances are from traumatic brain injuries. Of those, about 60 die each year from their brain injuries. Studies have found horseback riding to be more dangerous than several sports, including skiing, auto racing and football. Horseback riding has a higher hospital admittance rate per hours of riding than motorcycle racing, at 0.49 per thousand hours of riding and 0.14 accidents per thousand hours, respectively.


title: Equestrianism

text: Head injuries are especially traumatic in horseback riding. About two-thirds of all riders requiring hospitalization after a fall have sustained a traumatic brain injury. Falling from a horse without wearing a helmet is comparable to being struck by a car. Most falling deaths are caused by head injury.


title: Equestrianism

text: The use of riding helmets substantially decreases the likelihood and severity of head injuries. When a rider falls with a helmet, he or she is five times less likely to experience a traumatic brain injury than a rider who falls without a helmet. Helmets work by crushing on impact and extending the length of time it takes the head to stop moving. Despite this, helmet usage rates in North America are estimated to be between eight and twenty percent.


title: Equestrianism

text: Once a helmet has sustained an impact from falling, that part of the helmet is structurally weakened, even if no visible damage is present. Helmet manufacturers recommend that a helmet that has undergone impact from a fall be replaced immediately. In addition, helmets should be replaced every three to five years; specific recommendations vary by manufacturer.


title: Equestrianism

text: Many organizations mandate helmet use in competition or on show grounds, and rules have continually moved in the direction of requiring helmet use. In 2011, the United States Equestrian Federation passed a rule making helmet use mandatory while mounted on competition grounds at U.S. nationally rated eventing competitions. Also in 2011, the United States Dressage Federation made helmet use in competition mandatory for all riders under 18 and all riders who are riding any test at Fourth Level and below. If a rider competing at Prix St. Georges and above is also riding a test at Fourth Level or below, he or she must also wear a helmet at all times while mounted.


title: Equestrianism

text: The idea that riding a horse astride could injure a woman's sex organs is a historic, but sometimes popular even today, misunderstanding or misconception, particularly that riding astride can damage the hymen. Evidence of injury to any female sex organs is scant. In female high-level athletes, trauma to the perineum is rare and is associated with certain sports (see Pelvic floor#Clinical significance). The type of trauma associated with equestrian sports has been termed "horse riders' perineum". A case series of 4 female mountain bike riders and 2 female horse riders found both patient-reported perineal pain and evidence of sub-clinical changes in the clitoris; the relevance of these findings to horse riding is unknown.


title: Equestrianism

text: In men, sports-related injuries are among the major causes of testicular trauma. In a small controlled but unblinded study of 52 men, varicocele was significantly more common in equestrians than in non-equestrians. The difference between these two groups was small, however, compared to differences reported between extreme mountain bike riders and non-riders, and also between mountain bike riders and on-road bicycle riders. Horse-riding injuries to the scrotum (contusions) and testes (blunt trauma) were well known to surgeons in the 19th century and early 20th century. Injuries from collision with the pommel of a saddle are mentioned specifically.


title: Equestrianism

text: Organized welfare groups, such as the Humane Society of the United States, and animal rights groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have been known to criticise some horse sports with claims of animal cruelty.


title: Equestrianism

text: Horse racing is a popular equestrian sport which is practiced in many nations around the world. It is inextricably associated with gambling, where in certain events, stakes can become very high. Despite its illegality in most competitions, these conditions of extreme competitiveness can lead to the use of performing-enhancing drugs and extreme training techniques, which can result in negative side effects for the horses' well-being.


title: Equestrianism

text: The races themselves have also proved dangerous to the horses – especially steeplechasing, which requires the horse to jump hurdles whilst galloping at full speed. This can result in injury or death to the horse, as well as the jockey. A study by animal welfare group Animal Aid revealed that approximately 375 racehorses die yearly, with 30% of these either during or as a result of injuries from a race. The report also highlighted the increasing frequency of race-related illnesses, including bleeding lungs (exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage) and gastric ulcers.


title: Equestrianism

text: Animal rights groups are also primarily concerned that certain sports or training exercises may cause unnecessary pain or injuries to horse athletes. Some specific training or showing practices are so widely condemned that they have been made illegal at the national level and violations can incur criminal penalties. The most well-known is "soring," a practice of applying a caustic ointment just above the hooves of a Tennessee Walking Horse to make it pick up its feet higher. However, in spite of a federal law in the United States prohibiting this practice and routine inspections of horse shows by inspectors from the United States Department of Agriculture, soring is still widespread and difficult to eliminate. Some events themselves are also considered so abusive that they are banned in many countries. Among these are horse-tripping, a sport where riders chase and rope a loose-running horse by its front legs, throwing it to the ground.


title: Equestrianism

text: Secondary effects of racing have also recently been uncovered. A 2006 investigation by The Observer in the UK found that each year 6,000–10,000 horses are slaughtered for consumption abroad, a significant proportion of which are horses bred for racing. A boom in the number of foals bred has meant that there is not adequate resources to care for unwanted horses. Demand has increased for this massive breeding programme to be scaled back. Despite over 1000 foals being produced annually by the Thoroughbred horse industry, 66% of those bred for such a purpose were never entered into a race, and despite a life expectancy of 30 years, many are killed before their fifth birthday.


title: Equestrianism

text: Horse riding events have been selected as a main motif in numerous collectors' coins. One of the recent samples is the €10 Greek Horse Riding commemorative coin, minted in 2003 to commemorate the 2004 Summer Olympics. On the composition of the obverse of this coin, the modern horseman is pictured as he jumps over an obstacle, while in the background the ancient horseman is inspired by a representation on a black-figure vase of the 5th century BC.


title: Quality assurance

text: Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to ensure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design, reliability, and maintainability expectations of that customer. The core purpose of Quality Assurance is to prevent mistakes and defects in the development and production of both manufactured products, such as automobiles and shoes, and delivered services, such as automotive repair and athletic shoe design. Assuring quality and therefore avoiding problems and delays when delivering products or services to customers is what ISO 9000 defines as that "part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled". This defect prevention aspect of quality assurance differs from the defect detection aspect of quality control and has been referred to as a "shift left" since it focuses on quality efforts earlier in product development and production (i.e., a shift to the left of a linear process diagram reading left to right) and on avoiding defects in the first place rather than correcting them after the fact.


title: Quality assurance

text: The terms "quality assurance" and "quality control" are often used interchangeably to refer to ways of ensuring the quality of a service or product. For instance, the term "assurance" is often used in a context such as: "Implementation of inspection and structured testing as a measure of quality assurance in a television set software project at Philips Semiconductors is described." where ""inspection and structured testing"" are the measurement phase of a quality assurance strategy referred to as the DMAIC model (define, measure, analyze, improve, control). DMAIC is a data-driven quality strategy used to "improve" processes. The term "control" is the fifth phase of this strategy.


title: Quality assurance

text: Quality assurance comprises administrative and procedural activities implemented in a quality system so that requirements and goals for a product, service or activity will be accomplished. It is the systematic measurement, comparison with a standard, and monitoring of processes in an associated feedback loop that confers error prevention. This can be contrasted with quality control, which is focused on process output.


title: Quality assurance

text: Quality assurance includes two principles: "fit for purpose" (the product should be suitable for the intended purpose); and "right first time" (mistakes should be eliminated). QA includes management of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components, services related to production, and management, production and inspection processes. The two principles also manifest before the background of developing (engineering) a novel technical product: The task of engineering is to make it work once, while the task of quality assurance is to make it work all the time.


title: Quality assurance

text: Historically, defining what suitable product or service quality means has been a more difficult process, determined in many ways, from the subjective user-based approach that contains "the different weights that individuals normally attach to quality characteristics," to the value-based approach which finds consumers linking quality to price and making overall conclusions of quality based on such a relationship.


title: Quality assurance

text: During the Middle Ages, guilds adopted responsibility for the quality of goods and services offered by their members, setting and maintaining certain standards for guild membership.


title: Quality assurance

text: Royal governments purchasing material were interested in quality control as customers. For this reason, King John of England appointed William de Wrotham to report about the construction and repair of ships. Centuries later, Samuel Pepys, Secretary to the British Admiralty, appointed multiple such overseers to standardize sea rations and naval training.


title: Quality assurance

text: Prior to the extensive division of labor and mechanization resulting from the Industrial Revolution, it was possible for workers to control the quality of their own products. The Industrial Revolution led to a system in which large groups of people performing a specialized type of work were grouped together under the supervision of a foreman who was appointed to control the quality of work manufactured.


title: Quality assurance

text: During the time of the First World War, manufacturing processes typically became more complex, with larger numbers of workers being supervised. This period saw the widespread introduction of mass production and piece work, which created problems as workmen could now earn more money by the production of extra products, which in turn occasionally led to poor quality workmanship being passed on to the assembly lines. Pioneers such as Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford recognized the limitations of the methods being used in mass production at the time and the subsequent varying quality of output. Taylor, utilizing the concept of scientific management, helped separate production tasks into many simple steps (the assembly line) and limited quality control to a few specific individuals, limiting complexity. Ford emphasized standardization of design and component standards to ensure a standard product was produced, while quality was the responsibility of machine inspectors, "placed in each department to cover all operations ... at frequent intervals, so that no faulty operation shall proceed for any great length of time."


title: Quality assurance

text: Out of this also came statistical process control (SPC), which was pioneered by Walter A. Shewhart at Bell Laboratories in the early 1920s. Shewhart developed the control chart in 1924 and the concept of a state of statistical control. Statistical control is equivalent to the concept of exchangeability developed by logician William Ernest Johnson, also in 1924, in his book "Logic, Part III: The Logical Foundations of Science". Along with a team at AT&T that included Harold Dodge and Harry Romig, he worked to put sampling inspection on a rational statistical basis as well. Shewhart consulted with Colonel Leslie E. Simon in the application of control charts to munitions manufacture at the Army's Picatinny Arsenal in 1934. That successful application helped convince Army Ordnance to engage AT&T's George Edwards to consult on the use of statistical quality control among its divisions and contractors at the outbreak of World War II.


title: Quality assurance

text: After World War II, many countries' manufacturing capabilities that had been destroyed during the war were rebuilt. General Douglas MacArthur oversaw the rebuilding of Japan. He involved two key people in the development of modern quality concepts: W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran. They and others promoted the collaborative concepts of quality to Japanese business and technical groups, and these groups used these concepts in the redevelopment of the Japanese economy.


title: Quality assurance

text: Although there were many people trying to lead United States industries toward a more comprehensive approach to quality, the US continued to apply the Quality Control (QC) concepts of inspection and sampling to remove defective products from production lines, essentially unaware of or ignoring advances in QA for decades.


title: Quality assurance

text: It is valuable to failure test or stress test a complete consumer product. In mechanical terms this is the operation of a product until it fails, often under stresses such as increasing vibration, temperature, and humidity. This may expose many unanticipated weaknesses in the product, and the data is used to drive engineering and manufacturing process improvements. Often quite simple changes can dramatically improve product service, such as changing to mold-resistant paint or adding lock-washer placement to the training for new assembly personnel.


title: Quality assurance

text: Statistical control is based on analyses of objective and subjective data. Many organizations use statistical process control as a tool in any quality improvement effort to track quality data. Product quality data is statistically charted to distinguish between common cause variation or special cause variation.


title: Quality assurance

text: Walter Shewart of Bell Telephone Laboratories recognized that when a product is made, data can be taken from scrutinized areas of a sample lot of the part and statistical variances are then analyzed and charted. Control can then be implemented on the part in the form of rework or scrap, or control can be implemented on the process that made the part, ideally eliminating the defect before more parts can be made like it.


title: Quality assurance

text: The quality of products is dependent upon that of the participating constituents, some of which are sustainable and effectively controlled while others are not. The process(es) which are managed with QA pertain to Total quality management.


title: Quality assurance

text: If the specification does not reflect the true quality requirements, the product's quality cannot be guaranteed. For instance, the parameters for a pressure vessel should cover not only the material and dimensions but operating, environmental, safety, reliability and maintainability requirements.


title: Quality assurance

text: ISO 17025 is an international standard that specifies the general requirements for the competence to carry out tests and or calibrations. There are 15 management requirements and 10 technical requirements. These requirements outline what a laboratory must do to become accredited.


title: Quality assurance

text: Management system refers to the organization's structure for managing its processes or activities that transform inputs of resources into a product or service which meets


title: Quality assurance

text: the organization's objectives, such as satisfying the customer's quality requirements, complying with regulations, or meeting environmental objectives. WHO has developed several tools and offers training courses for quality assurance in public health laboratories.


title: Quality assurance

text: The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) model is widely used to implement Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA) in an organization. The CMMI maturity levels can be divided into 5 steps, which a company can achieve by performing specific activities within the organization.


title: Quality assurance

text: During the 1980s, the concept of "company quality" with the focus on management and people came to the fore in the U.S. It was considered that, if all departments approached quality with an open mind, success was possible if management led the quality improvement process.


title: Quality assurance

text: The company-wide quality approach places an emphasis on four aspects (enshrined in standards such as ISO 9001):


title: Quality assurance

text: The importance of actually measuring Quality Culture throughout the organization is illustrated by a survey that was done by "Forbes Insights" in partnership with the American Society for Quality. 75% of senior or C-suite titles believed that their organization exhibits “a comprehensive, group-wide culture of quality.” But agreement with that response dropped to less than half among those with quality job titles. In other words, the further from the C-suite, the less favorable the view of the culture of quality. A survey of more than 60 multinational companies found that those companies whose employees rated as having a low quality culture had increased costs of $67 million/year for every 5000 employees compared to those rated as having a high quality culture.


title: Quality assurance

text: QA is not limited to manufacturing, and can be applied to any business or non-business activity, including: design, consulting, banking, insurance, computer software development, retailing, investment, transportation, education, and translation.


title: Quality assurance

text: It comprises a quality improvement process, which is generic in the sense that it can be applied to any of these activities and it establishes a quality culture, which supports the achievement of quality.


title: Quality assurance

text: This in turn is supported by quality management practices which can include a number of business systems and which are usually specific to the activities of the business unit concerned.


title: Quality assurance

text: In manufacturing and construction activities, these business practices can be equated to the models for quality assurance defined by the International Standards contained in the ISO 9000 series and the specified specifications for quality systems.


title: Quality assurance

text: In the system of Company Quality, the work being carried out was shop floor inspection which did not reveal the major quality problems. This led to quality assurance or total quality control, which has come into being recently.


title: Quality assurance

text: QA is very important in the medical field because it helps to identify the standards of medical equipment and services. Hospitals and laboratories make use of external agencies in order to ensure standards for equipment such as X-ray machines, Diagnostic Radiology and AERB. QA is particularly applicable throughout the development and introduction of new medicines and medical devices. The Research Quality Association (RQA) supports and promotes the quality of research in life sciences, through its members and regulatory bodies.


title: Quality assurance

text: The term product assurance (PA) is often used instead of quality assurance and is, alongside project management and engineering, one of the three primary project functions. Quality assurance is seen as one part of product assurance. Due to the sometimes catastrophic consequences a single failure can have for human lives, the environment, a device, or a mission, product assurance plays a particularly important role here. It has organizational, budgetary and product developmental independence meaning that it reports to highest management only, has its own budget, and does not expend labor to help build a product. Product assurance stands on an equal footing with project management but embraces the customer's point of view.


title: Quality assurance

text: Software quality assurance refers to monitoring the software engineering processes and methods used to ensure quality. Various methods or frameworks are employed for this, such as ensuring conformance to one or more standards, e.g. ISO 25010 (which supersede ISO/IEC 9126) or process models such as CMMI, or SPICE. In addition, enterprise quality management software is used to correct issues such as supply chain disaggregation and to ensure regulatory compliance; these are vital for medical device manufacturers.


title: Quality assurance

text: Consultants and contractors are sometimes employed when introducing new quality practices and methods, particularly where the relevant skills and expertise and resources are not available within the organization. Consultants and contractors will often employ Quality Management Systems (QMS), auditing and procedural documentation writing CMMI, Six Sigma, Measurement Systems Analysis (MSA), Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Advance Product Quality Planning (APQP).


title: Europe (band)

text: Europe is a Swedish rock band formed in Upplands Väsby in 1979, by frontman Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson, and drummer Tony Reno. They obtained a major breakthrough in Sweden in 1982 by winning the televised competition ""Rock-SM"" (Swedish Rock Championships): it was the first time this competition was held, and Europe became a larger success than the competition itself.


title: Europe (band)

text: Since their formation, Europe has released eleven studio albums, three live albums, three compilations and twenty-four music videos. Europe's current lineup comprises Tempest, Norum, bassist John Levén, keyboardist Mic Michaeli, and drummer Ian Haugland.


title: Europe (band)

text: Europe rose to international fame in the 1980s with their third album, 1986's "The Final Countdown". Europe has sold 10 million albums worldwide. The band has had two top 20 albums on the "Billboard" 200 chart ("The Final Countdown" and "Out of This World") and three top 30 singles on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart ("The Final Countdown", "Rock the Night" and "Carrie", which reached number 3 on the "Billboard" Hot 100).


title: Europe (band)

text: Europe went on hiatus in 1992, reunited temporarily for a one-off performance in Stockholm on New Year's Eve 1999 and announced an official reunion in 2003. Since then the band has released six albums, "Start from the Dark" (2004), "Secret Society" (2006), "Last Look at Eden" (2009), "Bag of Bones" (2012), "War of Kings" (2015) and "Walk the Earth" (2017).


title: Europe (band)

text: Europe gained new attention in the US after being featured in a GEICO cable television commercial campaign during 2015–2016.


title: Europe (band)

text: The band is mainly influenced by Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, UFO and Michael Schenker Group.


title: Europe (band)

text: The first incarnation of the band was named "Force" and came together in 1979, in Upplands Väsby, Stockholm, and was integrated by vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bass guitarist Peter Olsson, and drummer Tony Reno. "I remember when we started the band Force we were playing covers in the rehearsal room, because we just wanted to learn our instruments, like all bands," Tempest said, "Then one day I said maybe we should do our own stuff. Nobody had any ideas, so I brought mine into the rehearsal room, and that is when we started writing our own stuff."


title: Europe (band)

text: The band sent several demos to record companies, but were told that in order to be published they had to cut their hair and sing in Swedish. Two years later, Olsson left the band and was replaced by John Levén. Just a couple of months later, Levén joined Yngwie Malmsteen's band Rising Force, and Malmsteen's former bassist, Marcel Jacob, joined Force. This only lasted for three months, though; Levén apparently had issues with Malmsteen, so he and Jacob traded places again.


title: Europe (band)

text: In 1982, Tempest's girlfriend entered Force in the Swedish rock talent contest "Rock-SM". Competing against 4000 bands, they won the contest thanks to two songs, "In the Future to Come" and "The King Will Return". The reward was a record deal with "Hot Records". Tempest won the individual award for "Best Lead Singer", and Norum won the award for "Best Guitarist". Just before the contest, Force changed their name to Europe. Tempest got the name from the "Made in Europe" album by Deep Purple.


title: Europe (band)

text: The self-titled debut album was released the following year, and sold well both in Sweden and Japan. The album charted at number 8 in the band's home country and the single "Seven Doors Hotel" became a Top 10 hit in Japan.


title: Europe (band)

text: The second album "Wings of Tomorrow" was released one year later. The album got interest from CBS Records who offered them an international contract in 1985. "I think one of the most important albums for the band was "Wings of Tomorrow"," Tempest said, "We were learning how to write songs and John started playing some really cool stuff on the guitar. We became a better band and that was a good period for the band." Keyboardist Mic Michaeli was soon recruited to play in live concerts, and became an official member of the band shortly after. At the same time, Tony Reno was fired because of his lack of motivation and alleged slacking off on rehearsals. Bassist Peter Olsson also claims that Reno was replaced on the albums by a drum machine. His replacement was Ian Haugland.


title: Europe (band)

text: In 1985 Europe recorded the soundtrack for the film "On the Loose", which gave them the hit "Rock the Night". Several months later Joey Tempest was asked to write a song for the charity project "". He wrote "Give a Helping Hand", which would feature the biggest stars of Swedish rock and metal. The income from the sales of the single, which was produced by Easy Action guitarist Kee Marcello, was donated to the starving people of Ethiopia.


title: Europe (band)

text: In September 1985, Europe was approached by an executive from Epic Records. They helped Europe start the recording of its next album with Journey producer Kevin Elson. The result was "The Final Countdown". Released on 26 May 1986, the album gave the band its international breakthrough, was certified Triple Platinum in the USA and reached number 8 on the Billboard 200 chart. The title track, which was based on a keyboard riff composed by Tempest as early as 1981-82, was released as the first single and became a worldwide success, peaking at number 1 in 25 countries, such as the UK, France, Spain, and Germany. The hit "Rock the Night" was in the top 10 charts in European countries. The power ballad "Carrie" peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Cherokee" was the other single released.


title: Europe (band)

text: Not satisfied with the album's keyboard-dominated production nor the band's commercialized image, John Norum decided to leave Europe in November 1986 to pursue a solo career. "I didn't really like the direction the band was going in," Norum said, "We became this teeny-bopper, bubblegum band and I hated that whole image, the spandex, poodle-rock type of thing. I was more into the heavier, guitar-oriented stuff and it seemed like the keyboards were taking over more and more, and we were becoming more commercial. So I decided to leave. I just wanted to move on and do something else."


title: Europe (band)

text: Kee Marcello was asked to replace him, and after some consideration, he decided to join the band. Marcello joined the band at its commercial peak, no less than three singles from "The Final Countdown" reaching the US Top 30. The following year included successful tours through Europe and the USA.


title: Europe (band)

text: The follow-up to "The Final Countdown" was entitled "Out of This World" and was released in 1988. The biggest hit from the album was "Superstitious" which peaked at number 31 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number 9 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks. "Superstitious" would be the last Europe song to chart in the USA. The album was certified platinum in the States and peaked at number 19 on the Billboard 200 chart. More touring followed, including an American tour with Def Leppard and a festival gig at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes, England with Bon Jovi, Skid Row and Vixen.


title: Europe (band)

text: In September 1989, Europe did a gig at the Whisky a Go Go club in West Hollywood, California, under the pseudonym "Le Baron Boys". That name would later be used as a title for a much-circulated Europe bootleg, which contained demo recordings from 1989-90. Two years later, the album "Prisoners in Paradise" was released, but received limited media attention due to the "boom" of the grunge movement, started by Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam. Although the sales were low compared to previous albums, the single "I'll Cry for You" managed to hit number 28 on the UK charts. On New Year's Eve 1991, Europe kicked off a new tour with a show at the Tokyo Dome, in which Tesla, Thunder and Metallica also performed. The show was called "Final Countdown '91".


title: Europe (band)

text: After ten years of living, recording, and touring together, Europe decided to take a break at the end of the 1992 tour. "I remember in the tour bus afterwards we were talking about where the whole thing was going and I think at the time the consensus of the band was we really felt ready for a break," Tempest said, "We felt that it was time to put some roots down and I was really into the idea of making my own solo album." In that time, Tempest, Norum and Marcello released solo albums whilst the other members participated in several different projects and bands. In return, Europe was dropped from Epic Records.


title: Europe (band)

text: The band members started to discuss the possibility of a Europe reunion in 1998. "Mic and Ian came over to see me in Ireland," Tempest said, "Then whilst we were there, John Norum called from LA, and we were like 'Yes, maybe now is the right time to get things started again'." For the 2000 millennium celebrations, Europe was asked to do a concert in Stockholm on New Year's Eve 1999. That would be Europe's first and, to date, only concert with both of their lead guitarists, since both John Norum and Kee Marcello had accepted the offer to play that evening with the rest of the group. They played "Rock the Night" and "The Final Countdown".


title: Europe (band)

text: Over the years, there were several reunion rumors, and on 2 October 2003 it was made official: Europe announced plans for a new album and world tour. The band then switched back to "The Final Countdown" line-up, with John Norum as the only lead guitarist. "There was no doubt that we wanted John back, and John wanted to get back," Tempest said, "For me it was important to get that spark going again that we had before." Kee Marcello claimed that he was too busy with his own projects. "I told them I didn't want to participate in a [new] studio album because musically, I want to go in a different kind of direction than the music Europe stands for," Marcello said, "Then we talked for a while about doing a six-piece tour – it didn't turn out that way because of different reasons."


title: Europe (band)

text: The songwriting for a new album, "Start from the Dark", began early in 2003. "It was just a matter of moving forward and writing songs for the new album," Tempest said, "That was always our intention. We thought that if we were gonna make a comeback, we wanted to do it properly, and that meant we wanted to write and record some new songs, a new album." For the recording of "Start from the Dark", the band decided to work with producer Kevin Elson, who had also produced "The Final Countdown". "We could either go with a younger producer, or we could go with someone that we knew, someone experienced who is on the same wavelength as the band," Tempest said, "So in the end we decided that Kevin would be the perfect choice."


title: Europe (band)

text: In the summer of 2004, Europe went on a festival tour through the European continent. The concert setlists included the old hits, but also introduced the title track from "Start from the Dark". The album was released on 22 September 2004, the same day that John Norum became a father. "Start from the Dark" featured a more modern sound compared to Europe's previous albums. "We wanted to be doing something at least that was a little bit relevant now; bit of a dry mix, detuned a bit," Tempest said, "So we felt like we didn't want to do an 1980s album per se, we just wanted to start like a fresh band really." Eventually, the album sold in excess of 600,000 copies worldwide.


title: Europe (band)

text: Europe released its seventh album, "Secret Society" on 26 October 2006. "We think it's one of the strongest albums that Europe has ever done," Tempest said, "There is definitely some more melodic stuff on this one. "Start from the Dark" was very raw and made a statement, which is cool but for us it felt like a debut album in a way, so we wanted to branch out a bit on this one and take it to new levels."


title: Europe (band)

text: On 26 January 2008, Europe did a semi-acoustic live concert at Nalen in Stockholm, calling the event "Almost Unplugged". The band was accompanied by a string quartet and played reworked versions of its own songs, as well as cover versions of songs by bands that have influenced Europe's sound throughout the years – Pink Floyd, UFO, Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy. The show was broadcast live over the Internet on Europe's official website. It was released on CD on 17 September 2008 and on DVD on 19 August 2009.


title: Europe (band)

text: On 23 July 2008, Europe did a co-headlining concert with Whitesnake in Padua, Italy. During Whitesnake's performance of their encore "Still of the Night", Joey Tempest joined David Coverdale on stage for the last chorus. In August 2008 Europe was the opening act for Deep Purple for two concerts in Sweden, in Linköping on 8 August and Ystad on 9 August. John Norum joined Deep Purple on stage in Ystad for a performance of "Smoke on the Water".


title: Europe (band)

text: On 21 July 2009, bass guitarist and former member of Force, Marcel Jacob, committed suicide. He was 45 years old.


title: Europe (band)

text: Europe's eighth studio album, "Last Look at Eden", was released on 9 September 2009. The title track was released as a single in June. The band has described it as a modern retro rock album. "This time, we're taking some new directions with our songs, and we're exploring different styles," they stated, "There is a definite classic rock vibe on some of the tracks... a tip of the hat to groovin', funkin' 1970s rock songs - but ones we have bought into the here and now." The second single, "New Love in Town", was released as a digital download on 3 September 2009.


title: Europe (band)

text: On 6 August 2011, Europe headlined the closing ceremonies of the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Rinkaby, Sweden before an audience of 40,061 Scouts and Guides which included King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Queen Silvia of Sweden.


title: Europe (band)

text: On 12 July 2011, Europe confirmed that Kevin Shirley would produce their ninth studio album. The recording sessions started on 3 October 2011. On 24 January 2012 the band announced the album title, "Bag of Bones". The album was released on 18 April 2012 in Japan by Victor Entertainment and on 25 April in Sweden by Gain Music Entertainment. "Bag of Bones" debuted at number 2 on the Swedish album chart on 4 May 2012[12] and was certified Gold in Sweden on 12 July 2012.[12]


title: Europe (band)

text: The band played at the Sweden Rock Festival in 2013, with their performance recorded for a 30th anniversary double CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc, which was released in October 2013.


title: Europe (band)

text: their second studio album "Wings Of Tomorrow". They performed the entire "Wings Of Tomorrow" album on several shows.


title: Europe (band)

text: Europe's tenth studio album, "War of Kings" was released on 2 March 2015 by UDR Records. It was produced by Dave Cobb, producer for bands such as Rival Sons. This was followed in March 2015 by a 14-date tour of the UK co-headlining with Black Star Riders, supported by The Amorettes.


title: Europe (band)

text: Europe participated in a major cable television GEICO advertising campaign which started airing September 2015 in the US; in a television commercial, they are featured singing "The Final Countdown" to the background of an office break room, as a microwave oven cooks a burrito.


title: Europe (band)

text: Europe released the War Of Kings Special Edition together with Live Performance From Wacken Open Air Festival which was performed on 29 July 2015. The digital version was released on 27 November 2015 by UDR Records and the Blu-ray & DVD version released in early 2016.


title: Europe (band)

text: In November 2016, Europe announced the 30th Final Countdown Anniversary Tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their top selling album "The Final Countdown". In this tour, they performed the entire "The Final Countdown" album and the entire "War Of Kings" album in every concert. They also filmed the concert performed in Roundhouse, London on 12 November 2016 and released it on 21 July 2017 via Blu-ray, DVD & iTunes Digital Download.


title: Europe (band)

text: In mid-2017, Europe announced their eleventh studio album, titled "Walk the Earth". The album was released on 20 October via CD with bonus DVD and digital download.


title: DOS

text: DOS (, ) is a platform-independent acronym for "disk operating system" that later became a common shorthand for disk-based operating systems on IBM PC compatibles. DOS primarily consists of Microsoft's MS-DOS and a rebranded version under the name IBM PC DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible systems from other manufacturers include DR DOS (1988), ROM-DOS (1989), PTS-DOS (1993), and FreeDOS (1998). MS-DOS dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995.


title: DOS

text: Dozens of other operating systems also use the acronym "DOS", beginning with the mainframe DOS/360 from 1966. Others include Apple DOS, Apple ProDOS, Atari DOS, Commodore DOS, TRSDOS, and AmigaDOS.


title: DOS

text: IBM PC DOS (and the separately sold MS-DOS) and its predecessor, 86-DOS, was developed to be similar to Digital Research's CP/M—the dominant disk operating system for 8-bit Intel 8080 and Zilog Z80 microcomputers—but instead ran on Intel 8086 16-bit processors, in order to easily port CP/M applications to MS-DOS.


title: DOS

text: When IBM introduced the IBM PC, built with the Intel 8088 microprocessor, they needed an operating system. Seeking an 8088-compatible build of CP/M, they initially approached IBM board member Mary Maxwell Gates' son, Bill Gates. IBM was then sent to Digital Research, and a meeting was set up. However, initial negotiations for the use of CP/M broke down: Digital Research wished to sell CP/M on a royalty basis, while IBM sought a single license, and to change the name to "PC DOS". Digital Research founder Gary Kildall refused, and IBM withdrew.


title: DOS

text: IBM again approached Bill Gates. Gates in turn approached Seattle Computer Products. There, programmer Tim Paterson had developed a variant of CP/M-80, intended as an internal product for testing SCP's new 16-bit Intel 8086 CPU card for the S-100 bus. The system was initially named QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System), before being made commercially available as 86-DOS. Microsoft purchased 86-DOS, allegedly for . This became Microsoft Disk Operating System, MS-DOS, introduced in 1981.


title: DOS

text: Within a year Microsoft licensed MS-DOS to over 70 other companies, which supplied the operating system for their own hardware, sometimes under their own names. Microsoft later required the use of the MS-DOS name, with the exception of the IBM variant. IBM continued to develop their version, PC DOS, for the IBM PC. Digital Research became aware that an operating system similar to CP/M was being sold by IBM (under the same name that IBM insisted upon for CP/M), and threatened legal action. IBM responded by offering an agreement: they would give PC consumers a choice of PC DOS or CP/M-86, Kildall's 8086 version. Side-by-side, CP/M cost more than PC DOS, and sales were low. CP/M faded, with MS-DOS and PC DOS becoming the marketed operating system for PCs and PC compatibles.


title: DOS

text: Microsoft originally sold MS-DOS only to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). One major reason for this was that not all early PCs were 100% IBM PC compatible. DOS was structured such that there was a separation between the system specific device driver code (IO.SYS) and the DOS kernel (MSDOS.SYS). Microsoft provided an OEM Adaptation Kit (OAK) which allowed OEMs to customize the device driver code to their particular system. By the early 1990s, most PCs adhered to IBM PC standards so Microsoft began selling MS-DOS in retail with MS-DOS 5.0.


title: DOS

text: In the mid-1980s Microsoft developed a multitasking version of DOS. This version of DOS is generally referred to as "European MS-DOS 4" because it was developed for ICL and licensed to several European companies. This version of DOS supports preemptive multitasking, shared memory, device helper services and New Executable ("NE") format executables. None of these features were used in later versions of DOS, but they were used to form the basis of the OS/2 1.0 kernel. This version of DOS is distinct from the widely released PC DOS 4.0 which was developed by IBM and based upon DOS 3.3.


title: DOS

text: Digital Research attempted to regain the market lost from CP/M-86, initially with Concurrent DOS, FlexOS and DOS Plus (both compatible with both MS-DOS and CP/M-86 software), later with Multiuser DOS (compatible with both MS-DOS and CP/M-86 software) and DR DOS (compatible with MS-DOS software). Digital Research was bought by Novell, and DR DOS became PalmDOS and Novell DOS; later, it was part of Caldera (under the names OpenDOS and DR-DOS 7.02/7.03), Lineo, and DeviceLogics.


title: DOS

text: Gordon Letwin wrote in 1995 that "DOS was, when we first wrote it, a one-time throw-away product intended to keep IBM happy so that they'd buy our languages". Microsoft expected that it would be an interim solution before Xenix. The company planned to improve MS-DOS over time, so it would be almost indistinguishable from single-user Xenix, or XEDOS, which would also run on the Motorola 68000, Zilog Z-8000, and LSI-11; they would be upwardly compatible with Xenix, which "BYTE" in 1983 described as "the multi-user MS-DOS of the future".


title: DOS

text: IBM, however, did not want to replace DOS. After AT&T began selling Unix, Microsoft and IBM began developing OS/2 as an alternative. The two companies later had a series of disagreements over two successor operating systems to DOS, OS/2 and Windows. They split development of their DOS systems as a result. The last retail version of MS-DOS was MS-DOS 6.22; after this, MS-DOS became part of Windows 95, 98 and Me. The last retail version of PC DOS was PC DOS 2000 (also called PC DOS 7 revision 1), though IBM did later develop PC DOS 7.10 for OEMs and internal use.


title: DOS

text: The FreeDOS project began on 26 June 1994, when Microsoft announced it would no longer sell or support MS-DOS. Jim Hall then posted a manifesto proposing the development of an open-source replacement. Within a few weeks, other programmers including Pat Villani and Tim Norman joined the project. A kernel, the COMMAND.COM command line interpreter (shell), and core utilities were created by pooling code they had written or found available. There were several official pre-release distributions of FreeDOS before the FreeDOS 1.0 distribution was released on 3 September 2006. Made available under the GNU General Public License (GPL), FreeDOS does not require license fees or royalties.


title: DOS

text: Early versions of Microsoft Windows ran on MS-DOS. By the early 1990s, the Windows graphical shell saw heavy use on new DOS systems. In 1995, Windows 95 was bundled as a standalone operating system that did not require a separate DOS license. Windows 95 (and Windows 98 and ME, that followed it) took over as the default OS kernel, though the MS-DOS component remained for compatibility. With Windows 95 and 98, but not ME, the MS-DOS component could be run without starting Windows. With DOS no longer required to use Windows, the majority of users stopped using it directly.


title: DOS

text: Available compatible systems in 2012 are FreeDOS, DR-DOS, ROM-DOS, PTS-DOS, RxDOS and REAL/32. Some computer manufacturers, including Dell and HP, sell computers with FreeDOS and DR-DOS as OEM operating systems.


title: DOS

text: DOS's structure of accessing hardware directly allows it to be used in embedded devices. The final versions of DR-DOS are still aimed at this market. ROM-DOS is used as operating system for the Canon PowerShot Pro 70.


title: DOS

text: On Linux, it is possible to run "DOSEMU", a Linux-native virtual machine for running DOS programs at near native speed. There are a number of other emulators for running DOS on various versions of Unix and Microsoft Windows such as DOSBox. DOSBox is designed for legacy gaming (e.g. "King's Quest", "Doom") on modern operating systems.


title: DOS

text: MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS related operating systems are commonly associated with machines using the Intel x86 or compatible CPUs, mainly IBM PC compatibles. Machine-dependent versions of MS-DOS were produced for many non-IBM-compatible x86-based machines, with variations from relabelling of the Microsoft distribution under the manufacturer's name, to versions specifically designed to work with non-IBM-PC-compatible hardware. As long as application programs used DOS APIs instead of direct hardware access, they could run on both IBM-PC-compatible and incompatible machines. The original FreeDOS kernel, DOS-C, was derived from DOS/NT for the Motorola 68000 series of CPUs in the early 1990s. While these systems loosely resembled the DOS architecture, applications were not binary compatible due to the incompatible instruction sets of these non-x86-CPUs. However, applications written in high-level languages could be ported easily.


title: DOS

text: DOS is a single-user, single-tasking operating system with basic kernel functions that are non-reentrant: only one program at a time can use them, and DOS itself has no functionality to allow more than one program to execute at a time. The DOS kernel provides various functions for programs (an "application program interface"), like character I/O, file management, memory management, program loading and termination.


title: DOS

text: DOS provides the ability for shell scripting via batch files (with the filename extension codice_1). Each line of a batch file is interpreted as a program to run. Batch files can also make use of internal commands, such as GOTO and conditional statements.


title: DOS

text: The operating system offers an application programming interface that allows development of character-based applications, but not for accessing most of the hardware, such as graphics cards, printers, or mice. This required programmers to access the hardware directly, usually resulting in each application having its own set of device drivers for each hardware peripheral. Hardware manufacturers would release specifications to ensure device drivers for popular applications were available.


title: DOS

text: The DOS system files loaded by the boot sector must be contiguous and be the first two directory entries. As such, removing and adding this file is likely to render the media unbootable. It is, however, possible to replace the shell at will, a method that can be used to start the execution of dedicated applications faster.


title: DOS

text: This limitation does not apply to any version of DR DOS, where the system files can be located anywhere in the root directory and do not need to be contiguous. Therefore, system files can be simply copied to a disk provided that the boot sector is DR DOS compatible already.


title: DOS

text: In PC DOS and DR DOS 5.0 and above, the DOS system files are named IBMBIO.COM instead of IO.SYS and IBMDOS.COM instead of MSDOS.SYS. Older versions of DR DOS used DRBIOS.SYS and DRBDOS.SYS instead.


title: DOS

text: Starting with MS-DOS 7.0 the binary system files IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS were combined into a single file IO.SYS whilst MSDOS.SYS became a configuration file similar to CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. If the MSDOS.SYS BootGUI directive is set to codice_2, the boot process will stop with the command processor (typically COMMAND.COM) loaded, instead of executing WIN.COM automatically.


title: DOS

text: DOS uses a filesystem which supports 8.3 filenames: 8 characters for the filename and 3 characters for the extension. Starting with DOS 2 hierarchical directories are supported. Each directory name is also 8.3 format but the maximum directory path length is 64 characters due to the internal current directory structure (CDS) tables that DOS maintains. Including the drive name, the maximum length of a fully qualified filename that DOS supports is 80 characters using the format drive:\path\filename.ext followed by a null byte.


title: DOS

text: DOS uses the File Allocation Table (FAT) filesystem. This was originally FAT12 which supported up to 4078 clusters per drive. DOS 3.0 added support for FAT16 which used 16-bit allocation entries and supported up to 65518 clusters per drive. Compaq MS-DOS 3.31 added support for FAT16B which removed the 32‑MiB drive limit and could support up to 512 MiB. Finally MS-DOS 7.1 (the DOS component of Windows 9x) added support for FAT32 which used 32-bit allocation entries and could support hard drives up to 137 GiB and beyond.


title: DOS

text: Starting with DOS 3.1, file redirector support was added to DOS. This was initially used to support networking but was later used to support CD-ROM drives with MSCDEX. IBM PC DOS 4.0 also had preliminary installable file system (IFS) support but this was unused and removed in DOS 5.0. DOS also supported Block Devices ("Disk Drive" devices) loaded from CONFIG.SYS that could be used under the DOS file system to support network devices.


title: DOS

text: In DOS, drives are referred to by identifying letters. Standard practice is to reserve "A" and "B" for floppy drives. On systems with only one floppy drive DOS assigns both letters to the drive, prompting the user to swap disks as programs alternate access between them. This facilitates copying from floppy to floppy or having a program run from one floppy while accessing its data on another. Hard drives were originally assigned the letters "C" and "D". DOS could only support one active partition per drive. As support for more hard drives became available, this developed into first assigning a drive letter to each drive's active primary partition, then making a second pass over the drives to allocate letters to logical drives in the extended partition, then a third pass to give any other non-active primary partitions their names (where such additional partitions existed and contained a DOS-supported file system). Lastly, DOS allocates letters for optical disc drives, RAM disks, and other hardware. Letter assignments usually occur in the order the drivers are loaded, but the drivers can instruct DOS to assign a different letter; drivers for network drives, for example, typically assign letters nearer the end of the alphabet.


title: DOS

text: Because DOS applications use these drive letters directly (unlike the /dev directory in Unix-like systems), they can be disrupted by adding new hardware that needs a drive letter. An example is the addition of a new hard drive having a primary partition where a pre-existing hard drive contains logical drives in extended partitions; the new drive will be assigned a letter that was previously assigned to one of the extended partition logical drives. Moreover, even adding a new hard drive having only logical drives in an extended partition would still disrupt the letters of RAM disks and optical drives. This problem persisted through Microsoft's DOS-based 9x versions of Windows until they were replaced by versions based on the NT line, which preserves the letters of existing drives until the user changes them. Under DOS, this problem can be worked around by defining a SUBST drive and installing the DOS program into this logical drive. The assignment of this drive would then be changed in a batch job whenever the application starts. Under some versions of Concurrent DOS, as well as under Multiuser DOS, System Manager and REAL/32, the reserved drive letter L: will automatically be assigned to the corresponding load drive whenever an application starts.


title: DOS

text: There are reserved device names in DOS that cannot be used as filenames regardless of extension as they are occupied by built-in character devices. These restrictions also affect several Windows versions, in some cases causing crashes and security vulnerabilities.


title: DOS

text: These names (except for NUL) have continued to be supported in all versions of MS-DOS, PC DOS and DR-DOS ever since. codice_7 was also available in some OEM versions of MS-DOS 1.25, whereas other OEM versions of MS-DOS 1.25 already used codice_8 (first line printer) and codice_9 (first serial communication device) instead, as introduced with PC DOS. In addition to codice_8 and codice_11 as well as codice_9 to codice_13, Hewlett-Packard's MS-DOS 2.11 for the HP Portable Plus also supported codice_7 as alias for codice_11 and codice_16 as alias for codice_17; it also supported codice_18 for plotters. Otherwise, codice_17, codice_11, codice_21 and the codice_22 (still named codice_23 in some issues of MS-DOS 2.11) clock device were introduced with DOS 2.0, and codice_13 and codice_25 were added with DOS 3.3. Only the multitasking MS-DOS 4 supported codice_26 and codice_27. DR DOS 5.0 and higher and Multiuser DOS support an codice_28 device for dynamic idle detection to saving power and improve multitasking. codice_29 is an optional built-in driver for a fourth line printer supported in some versions of DR-DOS since 7.02. codice_30 constitutes the real mode PnP manager in MS-DOS 7.0–8.0.


title: DOS

text: codice_4 typically defaults to codice_9, and codice_5 to codice_8 (codice_7), but these defaults can be changed in some versions of DOS to point to other serial or parallel devices. codice_18 was reconfigurable as well.


title: DOS

text: Filenames ended with a colon () such as codice_37 conventionally indicate device names, but the colon is not actually a part of the name of the built-in device drivers. Colons are not necessary to be typed in some cases, for example:


title: DOS

text: It is still possible to create files or directories using these reserved device names, such as through direct editing of directory data structures in disk sectors. Such naming, such as starting a file name with a space, has sometimes been used by viruses or hacking programs to obscure files from users who do not know how to access these locations.


title: DOS

text: DOS was designed for the Intel 8088 processor which can only directly access a maximum of 1 MiB of RAM. Both IBM and Microsoft chose 640 kibibytes (KiB) as the maximum amount of memory available to programs and reserved the remaining 384 KiB for video memory, the read-only memory of adapters on some video and network peripherals, and the system's BIOS. By 1985, some DOS applications were already hitting the memory limit, while much of reserved was unused, depending on the machine's specifications.


title: DOS

text: Specifications were developed to allow access to additional memory. The first was the Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) was designed to allow memory on an add-on card to be accessed via a 64 KiB page frame in the reserved upper memory area. 80386 and later systems could use a virtual 8086 mode (V86) mode memory manager like EMM386 to create expanded memory from extended memory without the need of an add-on card. The second specification was the Extended Memory Specification (XMS) for 80286 and later systems. This provided a way to copy data to and from extended memory, access to the 65,520-byte high memory area directly above the first megabyte of memory and the upper memory block area. Generally XMS support was provided by HIMEM.SYS or a V86 mode memory manager like QEMM or 386MAX which also supported EMS.


title: DOS

text: Starting with DOS 5, DOS could directly take advantage of the HMA by loading its kernel code and disk buffers there via the codice_38 statement in CONFIG.SYS. DOS 5+ also allowed the use of available upper memory blocks via the codice_39 statement in CONFIG.SYS.


title: DOS

text: The DOS emulation in OS/2 and Windows runs in much the same way as native applications do. They can access all of the drives and services, and can even use the host's clipboard services. Because the drivers for file systems and such forth reside in the host system, the DOS emulation needs only provide a DOS API translation layer which converts DOS calls to OS/2 or Windows system calls. The translation layer generally also converts BIOS calls and virtualizes common I/O port accesses which many DOS programs commonly use.


title: DOS

text: In Windows 3.1 and 9x, the DOS virtual machine is provided by WINOLDAP. WinOldAp creates a virtual machine based on the program's PIF file, and the system state when Windows was loaded. The DOS graphics mode, both character and graphic, can be captured and run in the window. DOS applications can use the Windows clipboard by accessing extra published calls in WinOldAp, and one can paste text through the WinOldAp graphics.


title: DOS

text: The emulated DOS in OS/2 and Windows NT is based upon DOS 5. Although there is a default configuration (config.sys and autoexec.bat), one can use alternate files on a session-by-session basis. It is possible to load drivers in these files to access the host system, although these are typically third-party.


title: DOS

text: Under OS/2 2.x and later, the DOS emulation is provided by DOSKRNL. This is a file that represents the combined IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM, the system calls are passed through to the OS/2 windowing services. DOS programs run in their own environment, the bulk of the DOS utilities are provided by bound DOS / OS2 applications in the \OS2 directory. OS/2 can run Windows 3.1 applications by using a modified copy of Windows (Win-OS/2). The modifications allow Windows 3.1 programs to run seamlessly on the OS/2 desktop, or one can start a WinOS/2 desktop, similar to starting Windows from DOS.