title: George Weston Limited

text: In 1998, the company made two major regional acquisitions, namely the 80 store Agora Foods chain in Atlantic Canada and Provigo, a 250 store chain of supermarkets in the province of Quebec. Then, in 2001, the company made a major new thrust into the U.S. fresh baked goods market with the purchase of Bestfoods Baking Co., a division of Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever, for (U-S) $1.76 billion. Bestfood, with nineteen plants throughout the United States, included such well-known brands as Entenmann's, Thomas' English Muffins, and Arnold Bread.


title: George Weston Limited

text: In 2006, chronic supply chain problems and the first year-end loss for Loblaw in almost two decades resulted in the resignation of John Lederer as president and W. Galen Weston as chairman. Galen G. Weston was appointed to the new position of executive chairman, with Allan Leighton as deputy chairman and Mark Foote president. The introduction of a 'fix the basics' program saw the company refocus attention on food retailing, with less emphasis on general merchandising. But senior executives acknowledged that the company's turnaround would take at least three years to accomplish. Meantime, Loblaw returned to profitability in 2007.


title: George Weston Limited

text: In spite of the deepening financial crisis of 2008, George Weston Limited signed two major deals. In October, it announced that Neilson Dairy was being sold to Saputo Inc. for (CAN) $465 million, followed months later by word that Grupo Bimbo, the Mexican baking conglomerate, had agreed to buy U.S. based George Weston Bakeries, which consisted of the former Bestfoods Baking assets, along with Stroehmann Bakeries, for (U-S) $2.5 billion. Chairman W. Galen Weston noted that the Grupo Bimbo sale represented the company's biggest deal ever and along with the sale of the dairy division would result in $5 billion in cash on corporate balance sheets, thereby allowing the company to consider future acquisitions. In 2009, T&T Supermarket, a Chinese grocery store chain, was acquired by Loblaw.


title: George Weston Limited

text: While the Grupo Bimbo deal saw George Weston Limited divest most of its fresh baked goods assets in the United States, the company still maintained U.S. market share. In addition to Interbake, a manufacturer of cookies and ice cream novelty treats, it acquired Keystone Bakery, a U.S. maker of frozen cupcakes, donuts, and cookies, for (U-S) $185 million in 2010. That year it also bought ACE Bakery, a Canadian maker of artisan and European-style breads, for (CAN) $110 million. In what press reports called "a surprise move," the company announced in late 2010 that it would pay a special dividend of $7.75 per share to stockholders, worth one billion dollars.


title: George Weston Limited

text: In 2011, Weston Foods worked out a deal to acquire bankrupt Colonial Cookies of Kitchener, Ontario - a baker of Loblaw private label products and in particular its bestselling President's Choice The Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookie.


title: George Weston Limited

text: In January 2018, Weston and its subsidiary Loblaws were implicated in price-fixing the cost of bread in Canada, taking part from 2001 until 2015.


title: George Weston Limited

text: Also in 2018, Weston subsidiary Loblaws was embroiled in the Tax Court of Canada in relation to a banking subsidiary in the Caribbean. It involved a Loblaws Inc. subsidiary in Barbados that had been renamed Glenhuron Bank. The Canada Revenue Agency claimed "that a vice-president at Loblaws parent company George Weston Ltd. 'was unable or unwilling to answer many questions' during pre-trial discovery hearings, and later requested that CEO Galen Weston Jr. answer under oath "some of its pre-trial discovery questions about 'the purpose for which GBL was established and the activities of GBL during the years at issue.'" The result was that Loblaws was order by Associate Chief Justice Lucie Lamarre to pay back taxes on foreign accrual property income (FAPI) of $368 million. The company appealed to Justice Judith Woods of the Federal Court of Appeal who reversed the Lamarre order when she found that Glenhuron "bought short-term U.S. debt securities, entered into swaps and managed investments on behalf of other companies related to Loblaw and its parent, George Weston Ltd., among other things — mostly did business at arm’s length with those it entered into contracts for the debt and swaps". The CRA appealed the Woods ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada. The leave was granted on 29 October 2020. On 18 February 2021 the appeal hearing was scheduled for 13 May, and on 22 March leave to intervene was granted to the Attorney General of Ontario and the Canadian Bankers’ Association.


title: George Weston Limited

text: In March 2021, Weston announced that it would soon hold an auction of its "Weston Foods bakery business", with sales "under brands such as Wonder Bread, ACE Bakery, Country Harvest, D'Italiano and others". The division accounted for $2.1 billion in 2020 sales, or less than 10% of total.


title: George Weston Limited

text: In October 2021 the deal to sell Weston Foods' fresh and frozen bread business to FGF Brands Inc. was announced, which was expected to close in early 2022.


title: George Weston Limited

text: The current members of the Board of Directors of George Weston Limited are: Galen G. Weston (Chairman), Alannah Weston (Deputy Chairman), Andrew A. Ferrier, Isabelle Marcoux, Sarabjit (Sabi) S. Marwah, Gordon M. Nixon, J. Robert S. Prichard, Robert Sawyer, Christi Strauss, and Barbara Stymiest.


title: George Weston Limited

text: Weston's operations include more than 50 facilities across Canada employing over 5,000 staff in manufacturing facilities, distribution centres and corporate environments.


title: Albert Dekker

text: Thomas Albert Ecke Van Dekker (December 20, 1905 – May 5, 1968) was an American character actor and politician best known for his roles in "Dr. Cyclops", "The Killers" (1946), "Kiss Me Deadly", and "The Wild Bunch".


title: Albert Dekker

text: Dekker was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the only child of Thomas and Grace Ecke Van Dekker. He attended Richmond Hill High School, where he appeared in stage productions. He then attended Bowdoin College, where he majored in pre-med with plans to become a doctor. On the advice of a friend, he decided to pursue acting as a career instead. He made his professional acting debut with a Cincinnati stock company in 1927. Within a few months, Dekker was featured in the Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's play "Marco Millions".


title: Albert Dekker

text: After a decade of theatrical appearances, Dekker transferred to Hollywood in 1937 and made his first film, 1937's "The Great Garrick". He spent most of the rest of his acting career in the cinema but also returned to the stage from time to time.


title: Albert Dekker

text: He replaced Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman in the original production of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", and during a five-year stint back on Broadway in the early 1960s, he played the Duke of Norfolk in Robert Bolt's "A Man for All Seasons".


title: Albert Dekker

text: Dekker appeared in some seventy films from the 1930s to the 1960s, but his four most famous screen roles were as a mad scientist in the 1940 horror film "Dr. Cyclops", as a criminal mastermind in 1946's "The Killers", as a dangerous dealer in atomic fuel in the 1955 film noir "Kiss Me Deadly", and as an unscrupulous railroad detective in Sam Peckinpah's Western "The Wild Bunch", released in 1969. In 1959 he played a convincing Texas Ranger, Captain Rucker, in "The Wonderful Country". He was rarely cast in romantic roles, but in the film "Seven Sinners", featuring a romance between Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne, Dietrich sails off with Dekker's character at the end of the film. Dekker was an often memorable guest star – usually a villain – in numerous TV series from the 50s through to 1968, such as "Rawhide", "The Man From UNCLE", "", "Climax!", "Bonanza", and "I Spy". Dekker's role as Pat Harrigan in "The Wild Bunch" was his last screen appearance; he died over a year before it was released.


title: Albert Dekker

text: On April 4, 1929, Dekker married former actress Esther Guerini. The couple had two sons, John and Benjamin, and a daughter, Jan, before divorcing in 1964.


title: Albert Dekker

text: In April 1957, Dekker's 16-year-old son, John, shot himself with a .22 rifle at the family's home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. He had reportedly been working on a silencer for the rifle for a year. His death was ruled accidental.


title: Albert Dekker

text: In his book-length account of the production of "The Wild Bunch", writer W.K. Stratton describes Dekker as "completely nuts," and possibly the most troubled person on a set filled with eccentrics. According to actor R.G. Armstrong, Dekker showed up to the remote Mexican shooting location of that film in 1968 with a thirteen-year-old girl he described as his wife, telling people (falsely) that he was a medical doctor, and that after filming he would retire from acting to help impoverished Africans.


title: Albert Dekker

text: Dekker's off-screen interest in politics led to his winning a seat in the California State Assembly for the 57th Assembly District in 1944. Dekker served as a Democratic member of the Assembly until 1946.


title: Albert Dekker

text: During the McCarthy era he was an outspoken critic of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy's tactics. As a result, Dekker was blacklisted in Hollywood and spent most of the blacklist period working on Broadway rather than in Hollywood (although he did work throughout the 1950's, including a part in "Kiss Me Deadly").


title: Albert Dekker

text: On May 5, 1968, Dekker was found dead in his Hollywood home by his fiancée, fashion model and future "Love Boat" creator Jeraldine Saunders. He was naked, kneeling in the bathtub, with a noose tightly wrapped around his neck and looped around the shower curtain rod. He was blindfolded, his wrists were handcuffed, there was a ball gag in his mouth, and two hypodermic needles were inserted in one arm. His body was covered in explicit words and drawings in red lipstick.


title: Albert Dekker

text: Money and camera equipment were missing, but there was no sign of forced entry. Police originally said it was suicide but the deputy coroner found no evidence of foul play nor any indication that he planned to take his life and ruled his death accidental, the result of autoerotic asphyxiation. Dekker was cremated, and his remains interred at the Garden State Crematory in North Bergen, New Jersey.


title: Albert Dekker

text: Dekker has a star, in the motion picture category, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6620 Hollywood Boulevard.


title: Direct-sequence spread spectrum

text: In telecommunications, direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) is a spread-spectrum modulation technique primarily used to reduce overall signal interference. The direct-sequence modulation makes the transmitted signal wider in bandwidth than the information bandwidth.


title: Direct-sequence spread spectrum

text: After the despreading or removal of the direct-sequence modulation in the receiver, the information bandwidth is restored, while the unintentional and intentional interference is substantially reduced.


title: Direct-sequence spread spectrum

text: The first known scheme for this technique was introduced by a Swiss inventor, Gustav Guanella. With DSSS, the message bits are modulated by a pseudorandom bit sequence known as a spreading sequence. Each spreading-sequence bit, which is known as a chip, has a much shorter duration (larger bandwidth) than the original message bits. The modulation of the message bits scrambles and spreads the pieces of data, and thereby results in a bandwidth size nearly identical to that of the spreading sequence. The smaller the chip duration, the larger the bandwidth of the resulting DSSS signal; more bandwidth multiplexed to the message signal results in better resistance against interference.


title: Direct-sequence spread spectrum

text: Some practical and effective uses of DSSS include the code-division multiple access (CDMA) method, the IEEE 802.11b specification used in Wi-Fi networks, and the Global Positioning System.


title: Direct-sequence spread spectrum

text: Direct-sequence spread-spectrum transmissions multiply the data being transmitted by a pseudorandom spreading sequence that has a much higher bit rate than the original data rate. The resulting transmitted signal resembles bandlimited white noise, like an audio recording of "static". However, this noise-like signal is used to exactly reconstruct the original data at the receiving end, by multiplying it by the same spreading sequence (because , and ). This process, known as despreading, is mathematically a correlation of the transmitted spreading sequence with the spreading sequence that the receiver already knows the transmitter is using. After the despreading, the signal-to-noise ratio is approximately increased by the spreading factor, which is the ratio of the spreading-sequence rate to the data rate.


title: Direct-sequence spread spectrum

text: While a transmitted DSSS signal occupies a much wider bandwidth than a simple modulation of the original signal would require, its frequency spectrum can be somewhat restricted for spectrum economy by a conventional analog bandpass filter to give a roughly bell-shaped envelope centered on the carrier frequency. In contrast, frequency-hopping spread spectrum pseudorandomly retunes the carrier and requires a uniform frequency response since any bandwidth shaping would cause amplitude modulation of the signal by the hopping code.


title: Direct-sequence spread spectrum

text: If an undesired transmitter transmits on the same channel but with a different spreading sequence (or no sequence at all), the despreading process reduces the power of that signal. This effect is the basis for the code-division multiple access (CDMA) property of DSSS, which allows multiple transmitters to share the same channel within the limits of the cross-correlation properties of their spreading sequences.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: Physical is the eleventh studio album by British-Australian singer Olivia Newton-John, released through MCA Records on 13 October 1981. The album was produced and partly written by her long-time record producer John Farrar. Recorded and mixed at Ocean Way and David J. Holman's studio in Los Angeles, "Physical" became one of Newton-John's most controversial and sexual records, and her most successful studio album. Musically, the album features considerable use of synthesizers, and it explores lyrical themes such as love and relationships, sex, kinesthetics and environmental protection. Upon its release, the album received positive reviews from music critics, many of them considering it to be Newton-John's best effort. The album charted high in several countries, including the United States, Japan and Newton-John's native Australia, becoming one of the most successful albums of the early 1980s. It also ranks among the best-selling albums by Australian solo artists, selling more than ten million copies worldwide.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: The album's title track was a commercial phenomenon, staying 10 weeks atop the "Billboard" Hot 100, at the time tying the record set by Debby Boone's 1977 single "You Light Up My Life". The song and its music video were controversial, having been banned or edited by several radio stations and television channels (such as MTV) for its sexual references. The single was followed by "Make a Move on Me", another top-ten worldwide hit. "Landslide", which failed to enter the majority of musical charts, had a music video featuring Newton-John's boyfriend (and later husband) Matt Lattanzi, to whom she had dedicated the album. A video compilation, "Olivia Physical", was produced, featuring music videos of all songs from the album. The material was a commercial and critical success, and earned Newton-John a Grammy Award for Video of the Year.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: The album was promoted with Newton-John's 1982 North American Physical Tour, performances from which a home video entitled "Olivia in Concert" was produced. The "Physical" era marked the height of Newton-John's solo career, gaining her wide acclaim as one of the most successful female artists of the early 1980s.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: In 1978, Newton-John starred as the female lead, "Sandy", in the musical film "Grease", which was a worldwide blockbuster and had a best-selling soundtrack. Before the film, Newton-John was known for country pop and adult contemporary songs. Following the huge success of "Grease", and inspired by her character's transformation from goody-goody "Sandy 1" to the sexy, spandex-clad "Sandy 2", she traded her previous musical styles for a sexier and more aggressive pop image. Later that same year, Newton-John released the studio album "Totally Hot", and two years later, the "Xanadu" soundtrack (1980), both with a more pop-oriented style than in her past albums. "Physical" was recorded and released in 1981, marking the longest gap between Newton-John studio albums at the time; from 1971 to 1978, she recorded at least one studio album per year. Newton-John feared that she could be overexposed with many works released in a short period.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: "Physical" followed Newton-John's new image, perceived as a more sexualized and mature record. It also marked her first studio album without any country tracks. The new music style generated some criticism from the country-music community and Newton-John's old fans. In a "Billboard" article, she said: "You might lose a few fans but you gain others. You have to do what's comfortable. [...] I've gotten the confidence to be more adventurous whereas in the past I didn't think it was time."


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: The lead single "Physical" (originally "Let's Get Physical") was written by Terry Shaddick and Newton-John's longtime friend Steve Kipner, and initially was intended for a "macho male rock figure like Rod Stewart", according to Kipner. When Newton-John's then-manager Lee Kramer accidentally heard the demo, he immediately sent the song to her, but initially she didn't want to release the song because it was "too cheeky". It was the first of several Newton-John releases written by Kipner. The songs "Recovery" and "Falling" had been originally featured on John Farrar's 1980 self-titled solo album, but were later remodeled for "Physical". The album's eighth track, "Carried Away", was written by Barry Gibb and Albhy Galuten for Barbra Streisand's "Guilty" album, but Streisand rejected the song, providing Newton-John the chance to record it. The song's original demo, sung by Gibb, was released on "The Guilty Demos", released through iTunes in 2006.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: "Physical" was the first Newton-John album to include environmentalism and animal rights themes. Tracks "Silvery Rain", written by The Shadows member Hank Marvin and released as single in 1971 by Cliff Richard, and "The Promise (The Dolphin Song)", a Newton-John-penned song, feature these themes. Newton-John also embraced ecological themes on later albums such as "The Rumour" and "".


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: "Physical"s nature- and sensuality-themed photos were shot primarily in Honolulu, Hawaii by the famous American photographer Herb Ritts in the first half of 1981. Newton-John also filmed the video for "The Promise (The Dolphin Song)" and some takes of "Olivia Physical" there. The album's cover ranks among the most popular and iconic photos of Newton-John, and as one of Ritts' most popular works. The cover has been compared to that of Madonna's "True Blue", also shot by Ritts.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: "Physical" is among Newton-John's most diverse albums, and set her career in a totally different direction. The album was completely produced by Newton-John's longtime collaborator John Farrar, who did a then-modern music production, which later became a musical trend during the 1980s. The songs feature mainly a pop rock sound, with Newton-John singing more high notes than usual during her country pop era. The album contains widespread use of synthesizers, which made it one of Newton-John's most dance-pop-oriented recordings, especially on the songs "Landslide" and "Physical". The vocoder background vocals made by John Farrar also were used, most notably on "Stranger's Touch" and "Recovery". The songs "Carried Away" and "Falling" have a more soft rock sound than Newton-John's past ballads, because of the more extensive use of guitars and synthesizers.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: Lyrically, "Physical" explores themes relating to the behavior of humans and their relationship with the world around. The songs "Falling" and "Landslide" tell about falling in love and love at first sight. The lyrics of "The Promise (The Dolphin Song)" deal with the killing of dolphins for commercial gain, with sounds of the marine mammal in the background. "Carried Away"'s lyrics talk about a relationship breakup, and "Recovery" tells of a lonely woman who is recovering from a troubled relationship. "Silvery Rain" denounces the aerial application of pesticides. "Love Make Me Strong" tells about the power of love in the determination of a person. The songs "Physical" and "Make a Move on Me" have more sexualized lyrics, with some suggestive innuendos.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: Each song from "Physical" has its respective music video. All the music videos were filmed for the "Physical" video album, which was directed by Brian Grant. The recordings were made in late 1981, in London, Honolulu and Newton-John's home at Malibu, California. The songs "Hopelessly Devoted to You", "A Little More Love" and "Magic" (Newton-John hit singles from the 1978 soundtrack "", the studio album of the same year, "Totally Hot", and the 1980 soundtrack "Xanadu", respectively) also had new music videos filmed for the video album. Newton-John's then-boyfriend (now ex-husband) Matt Lattanzi participated for the "Landslide" music video.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: The video debuted on 8 February 1982 on ABC as "Let's Get Physical", and boasted 35% of the United States viewing audience when its first aired. The home video version was released later as "Olivia Physical", on VHS, betamax and laserdisc formats by MCA Home Video. The television version has little differences from the home video version. The television version features video interludes starring Olivia, introducing some music videos, and the home video version features the music videos for "Love Make Me Strong" and "Falling".


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: The video was a critical and commercial success, being a "Billboard" top charting music video for many weeks in 1981, earning a Grammy Award for Video of the Year and a nomination for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety or Music Program.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: The album promotion was made throughout 1981–82, and included several appearances across the world. In the United States, Newton-John performed on the music television series "Solid Gold" (performing "Physical" and "Make a Move on Me") and at the award show of American Music Awards of 1982 (performing "Make a Move on Me"). She was interviewed on the television shows "Good Morning America" and "The Merv Griffin Show" (with the special guests John Travolta, The Carpenters and Rick Springfield). Additionally, Newton-John hosted the seventh season finale of "Saturday Night Live", performing "Physical", "Make a Move on Me" and "Landslide".


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: Newton-John also made performances and interviews to television programs in Japan, Brazil, South Africa (which was controversial because some verses of "Physical" were banned in the country), Venezuela and several countries of Europe. In Canada, the album was promoted in Vic Tanny's health clubs, which offered "Physical"-thematized club passes and discounts on the album purchase in Capitol-EMI's Mr. Sound stores. At the 24th Grammy Awards, Olivia presented the Record of the Year category, together with Lionel Richie.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: "Physical" was released as the album lead single on 28 September 1981 by MCA Records. The single is the most successful solo hit of Olivia's career, and became her fifth and final number one single on the "Billboard" Hot 100. "Physical" stayed for 10 weeks on the top of Hot 100, from 21 November 1981 through 23 January 1982. It was the largest permanence at the time, becoming the most successful song on the "Billboard" in the 1980s. The song and music video (which was recorded in a gym, with several men working out) were very controversial due to the implied sexual content, being innovative and provocative for the time. It was received positively by critics, with most of them calling it "good-naturedly sexy" and "an eighties gem". It was also her tenth and final Number One single in the Netherlands, where she had the most Number One singles anywhere in the world; it topped its chart for seven weeks. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: "Make a Move on Me" was released as the album's second single in early 1982. The song is one of more dance singles released by Newton-John and also was very well received by music critics, especially in Sweden, where it went to Number One. The music video was recorded in the same nightclub that the videos "Stranger's Touch", "Love Make Me Strong" and "Magic" were filmed. It was a worldwide top 10 hit, peaking at five on the "Billboard" Hot 100. "Landslide" was released as the third and final single from the album. Although it did not achieve the same success as the previous singles, it reached the top 20 on the UK Singles Chart (where it was the second single, and "Make a Move on Me" the third and last single). The song was not performed on the Physical Tour.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: The Physical Tour to promote "Physical" was the fifth concert tour by Newton-John. The tour was announced in July 1982 and began in August of the same year. It was Olivia's first tour in four years, since Totally Hot World Tour and visited only the North American countries United States and Canada. The tour had 64 shows through 40 cities, with a total attendance of 562,428 people. Newton-John friends John Travolta and Karen Carpenter attended some concerts. Jazz musician Tom Scott was the musical director and also served as opening act.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: The show consisted of four costume changes and three videos: for introduction, interlude and end credits. The encore consisted of the title song "Physical" (with Newton-John doing aerobic exercises and jumping rope through the performance) and "I Honestly Love You". The tour had generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Newton-John vocal performances and her ability to entertain the audience.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: Two concerts in Ogden, Utah (the state where "Physical" was banned by two local radio stations) were filmed for a television special (titled as "Olivia: Live in Concert") and a home video release, as "Olivia in Concert". The video was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video. It was the last concert tour by Newton-John for sixteen years (she originally said that would be her last tour), until The Main Event Tour, in 1998.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: "Physical" received generally positive reviews from music critics, many stating that was the best album by Newton-John at the time. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic, in a retrospective review written decades after the album's release, gave the album four and a half out of five stars, writing that ""Physical" was a damn good record, in many ways one of Olivia Newton-John's very best". He further explained "[The album] skillfully balances catchy yet mellow dance cuts with immaculately crafted adult contemporary pop and ballads". Stephen Holden, in a review for "Rolling Stone", said that "Physical" was "Newton-John's best album to date" and "a perfect aural milkshake from the Farrah Fawcett of rock". Holse also contemplated the Farrar's production, calling "a dazzling pop-rock bubblegum production". The album "Picks and Pans" review published by "People" magazine also was positive, stating that "This LP impressively completes the transformation that began with her 1979 album "Totally Hot" and has turned Newton-John into a much more aggressive, spirited and entertaining singer" and "This is mainly a pop-rock album, though, and it is a first-class production: danceable, listenable and beguiling".


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: The "Physical" era received three Grammy Award nominations. The song "Physical" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female and the video "Olivia Physical" won a Grammy Award for Video of the Year at the 25th Grammy Awards. "Olivia in Concert", the video recording of the Physical Tour, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Video Album at the 26th Grammy Awards. Newton-John won her fourth American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist at the 10th American Music Awards, making her the biggest winner on that category (tied with Whitney Houston). In 1981, at the time of "Physical" release, Newton-John was honoured with a Hollywood Walk of Fame, for her work in the music industry.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: In the United States, "Physical" debuted at number sixty-eight and peaked at number six on the "Billboard" 200, making it the sixth album by Newton-John to reach the top 10 on this chart (and the last, to date). According to "Billboard", it was the highest peak for a female singer album in 1982 (tied with Stevie Nicks' "Bella Donna"). This is Newton-John's only album which entered the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, peaking at thirty-two. At the 1982 Billboard Year-End, Newton-John appears as the fourth most successful pop artist and "Physical" as the fifteenth best-selling album of the year. For his work with Newton-John, John Farrar was the pop producer of the year. On 12 October 1984, "Physical" was certified two times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of over two million units.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: In Canada the album debuted at thirty-seven on the "RPM" Albums Chart. On 30 January 1982 the album reached its peak, the third position. "Physical" was the twelfth best-selling album of the country in 1982 (and the best-selling by a solo female singer). The album was certified four times platinum by Canadian Recording Industry Association (now Music Canada) for shipment of 400,000 copies. On the UK Album Charts the album peaked at number eleven, making the best position for a Newton-John studio album to date. "Physical" was certified gold by British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 2 April 1982 (100,000 copies shipped). The album also peaked at top 10 on several charts across the Europe. In Australia (Olivia's native country), "Physical" peaked at number three on the Kent Music Report albums chart and was one of the 25 best-selling albums of the year. Worldwide the album has sold more than ten million copies.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: "Physical" was re-released by MCA Records on 25 October 1990. The album was available on cassette and CD formats, without its original booklet. In 1998, the album was re-released in a new digitally remastered edition in Australia by Festival Records, along with many other albums of Newton-John discography. "Physical" also was re-released on 2 February 2012 in Japan by Universal Music Group. It is available only on a SHM-SACD remastered edition, and also as a part of the 2010 box set "40th Anniversary Collection", which was released to celebrate forty years of Newton-John's musical career (the box also contains other re-released albums from her MCA era). "Olivia Physical"'s music videos were re-released on "Video Gold" 2005 DVD compilation. The live recording "Olivia in Concert" was re-released on VHS in 1992, and also had a DVD version released in a few Asian countries (there are also several bootleg versions released by small distributors).


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: On 24 September 2021, Newton-John's official website announced that a deluxe edition of the album would be released on the next October 22, by Primary Wave. The 2xCD deluxe edition features the fully remastered original album, her original tracks from "Olivia's Greatest Hits Vol. 2" and "Two of a Kind", "Face to Face", as well as alternate versions and B-sides. It also includes a DVD with "Physical"'s video album and "Olivia in Concert". The vinyl version will not be available until May 2022. In addition to standard black vinyl, it will be offered in four different colored vinyl variants at Target, Walmart, Amazon, and Urban Outfitters, respectively. Each will contain an identical poster, with the exception of Target's edition, which will have its own exclusive poster design.


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: Newton-John was one of the first artists to invest in music videos. The 1978 album "Totally Hot" was her first one to feature videos accompanying all the singles from the album, but they were very simple, being primarily composed of Newton-John singing in the studio. The music videos of the songs of "Physical" are more complex, and were one of the firsts to present a plot line, and not just a video of the artist performing the song. According with "Olivia Physical" video album director, Brian Grant, Newton-John's record company and management were reluctant about the project at the first moment: "I suppose there was a little nervousness at first. But, [Olivia] got us out here because she liked what we had done [...]". Newton-John herself was a supporter of the music video industry, as she commented in a "Billboard" article about the "Olivia Physical" production:


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: "I think this is the way albums will go in the future: visuals with the music. I got to be a different personality and play an other side of myself."


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: The record company also was afraid of the public and media feedback about the themes featured on "Olivia Physical", especially these included in the music video made for the title track. The music video of "Physical" is considered very innovative, with a simple, but cohesive plot, and several sexual innuendos (including homosexual contexts) which also are featured in the song. The music video was a great success and helped the single to be one of the biggest commercial phenomenons of the early 1980s, but also attracted several controversies. After receiving numerous complaints, two Utah local radio stations (Provo's KFMY-FM and Salt Lake City's KSL-FM) banned the song from its playlists. According to a station's program manager "The lyrics are more suggestive than most songs. It goes the one additional step". These weren't the only radio stations which banned the song from its playlists. Several adult contemporary radios (many with Mormon affiliations) across the North America also banned the single, causing a lower peak at number twenty-nine on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart. Newton-John usually has a large audience on the adult contemporary radios (she has eight #1's on the U.S. AC chart), but the loss was rewarded with the massive audience that "Physical" had on the pop radios, which are listened by a more younger audience. Later she recovered the adult contemporary audience with the next single, "Make a Move on Me", which peaked at six on the U.S. AC chart. MTV originally cut the music video ending, because "the beefcakes surrounding Newton-John turned out to be gay".


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: "Physical" also caused controversies in South Africa. In 1982, Newton-John performed at the Bophuthatswana's Sun City Super Bowl and the special appearance was recorded by South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). When Olivia was performing the single, the transmission was withdrawn without explanation, but later was reinstated, omitting the verses "There's nothing left to talk about" / "Unless it's horizontally". According to "Billboard", the "committee of moral" of South Africa under apartheid had always employed a policy of restricting airplay on certain material considered "offensive". About all the controversies over the song and its music video, Newton-John stated:


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: "Five years ago I would have died over a controversy like this. But now I just think it's foolish of them to take it so seriously."


title: Physical (Olivia Newton-John album)

text: According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine: "'Physical' became such a monster hit – not just a hit, but a pop-culture phenomenon that was impossible to escape – that it became difficult to view its accompanying album as anything other than a conduit for the single". Since its release, "Physical" has been a very remarkable piece of 1980s culture, and has received numerous tributes and citations in several media. The "Physical" performances and its music video popularized the fitness clothing that turned to be a popular fashion style in and out of health clubs, being used by several other artists like Madonna and Kylie Minogue. Among the programs who have already made reference to "Physical" are "Late Night with David Letterman" (on the pilot episode), "Sesame Street", "Glee" (with Newton-John as a special guest), "The Office" and "The Simpsons".


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Freemasonry has had a complex relationship with women, which can be readily divided into many phases with no demonstrable relationship to each other until the 20th century. A few women were involved in Freemasonry before the 18th century; however the first printed constitutions of the Premier Grand Lodge of England appeared to bar them from the Craft forever.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: The French "Lodges of Adoption" which spread through Continental Europe during the second half of the 18th century admitted Masons and their female relatives to a system of degrees parallel, but unrelated to the original rite. In the early 20th century, these were revived as women-only lodges and later they adopted male degrees giving rise to French women's Masonry in the 1950s.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: 18th-century British lodges and their American offshoots remained male only. In the late 1800s, rites similar to adoption emerged in the United States, allowing masons and their female relatives to participate in ritual together. These bodies, however, were more careful to discriminate between the mixed ritual and the genuine Freemasonry of the men.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: In the 1890s, mixed lodges following a standard Masonic ritual started to appear in France, and quickly spread to other countries. Women-only jurisdictions appeared soon afterwards. As a general rule, the admission of women is now recognised in Continental (Grand Orient) jurisdictions. In Anglo-American Freemasonry, neither mixed nor all-female lodges are officially recognised, although unofficial relations can be cordial, with premises sometimes shared.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Women in Medieval and Renaissance Europe were legally assumed to be subject to their fathers, then to their husbands after marriage. The status of women within Medieval trades was largely dependent on the local interpretation of "femme sole", the legal term for a single woman. This was usually the widow of a tradesman, who was permitted to continue her husband's business after his death, and often established in the rights and privileges of his trade guild or company. More rarely, single women would achieve success in their father's trade. Exceptions occurred mainly in trades linked to traditional women's occupations, such as haberdashery and needlecraft.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: In Norwich, a woman called Gunnilda is listed as a mason in the Calendar for Close Rolls for 1256. It is reputed that Sabina von Steinbach, the daughter of the architect, worked on Strasbourg Cathedral in the early part of the 14th century, although the first reference to her work comes 300 years later. In England, hints of female participation appear in the Regius Manuscript (c. 1390–1425), and in the Guild records at York Minster in 1408. Women were employed in administrative roles in the London Mason's Company, and as such received the benefits of membership. Also, the charge in York Manuscript No 4, dated 1693 and used as a warrant by the later Grand Lodge of All England at York, contains the phrase "hee or shee that is to be made mason". While a number of masonic historians have categorised this as a "misprint", Adolphus Frederick Alexander Woodford, who studied and catalogued these documents, considered it genuine.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the status of women amongst masons in Britain is likely to be similar to that codified in the minutes of the lodge at St. Mary's Chapel in Edinburgh. A burgess could pay for the "Freedom" to employ and instruct masons. The widow of a master mason could accept commissions from his old clients, provided that she employed a journeyman of the lodge to supervise the work.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: As the Freemasonry of the Premier Grand Lodge of England spread in France, the French fraternity stayed within the letter of Anderson's proscription of women, but saw no reason to ban them from their banquets or their religious services. During the 1740s, lodges of adoption began to appear. Attached to a regular (men only) lodge, wives and female relatives of the masons would be admitted to a parallel system of degrees, with a similar moral undertone to the authentic rite of the lodge. The earliest had a nautical theme. In 1747, the Chevalier Beauchaine began the "Order of Woodcutters" (Ordre des Fendeurs), with rites supposedly based on an early version of the Carbonari. In 1774, the lodges of adoption came under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient de France, and the published regulations show a system of four degrees:


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Further degrees came and went, with a ten-degree system evolving at the end of the Eighteenth century. The idea spread widely in Europe, but never appeared in England. After a brief eclipse during the Reign of Terror at the start of the French Revolution, lodges of adoption flourished, with the Empress Josephine presiding over one in Strasbourg in 1805.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: In 1808, the Grand Orient decided that these lodges were unconstitutional, and they became marginalised until re-activated by the same Grand Orient in 1901. In their new incarnation, the chair was taken by a woman, where previously only a man could occupy the "Chair of King Solomon". Final separation occurred in 1935, and in 1959 they adopted the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, embracing regular masonry as Grande Loge féminine de France. Only one lodge, "Cosmos", holds to the adoptive rite.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Concordant rites exist with the blessing and often the active support of regular masonic lodges. There are several concordant bodies in the United States which admit the wives and female relatives of Freemasons. The Dutch "Order of Weavers" admits only women, while in the American orders the men and women share in the ritual. Like the lodges of adoption, they have their own ceremonies, which means that some grand lodges view them as irregular.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Many rites accepting women have ritual of a Masonic style, are founded by Masons, but at best have an ambivalent reception amongst Grand Lodge masons. Nonetheless, they actively recruit new members from within regular masonry.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: There have been a few reported cases of a woman joining a "masculine only" masonic lodge. These cases are exceptions and are debated by masonic historians.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: One account of a woman being admitted to Freemasonry in the 18th century is the case of Elizabeth Aldworth (born St Leger), who is reported to have surreptitiously viewed the proceedings of a Lodge meeting held at Doneraile House, the private house of her father, first Viscount Doneraile, a resident of Doneraile, County Cork, Ireland. Upon discovering the breach of their secrecy, the Lodge resolved to admit and obligate her, and thereafter she proudly appeared in public in Masonic clothing. Speculative attempts to link the lodge of her initiation with a documented lodge of the Grand Lodge of Ireland have proved futile, but there is no reason that her father should not have instituted a lodge in his home, and the authenticity of her initiation is generally accepted.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Lajos Abafi (Ludwig Aigner), the historian of Hungarian (and Austrian) Freemasonry in the 18th century, reports that in 1778 Márton Heinzeli, the head of the Eperjes (today Prešov in Slovakia) lodge named "Zurn tugendhaften Reisenden (Virtuous Traveler)", initiated three women as Freemasons. They wanted to admit more women and set up a separate women's lodge, but this was forbidden by Heinzeli's Viennese superiors.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: In 1779, it finally reached a point where neither lodge work nor Rosicrucian conventions could be held and chemical laboratories could not be subordinated. The main obstacle was the reluctance of the wifes, especially of the brethren: Emerich Pottornyay, Berzeviczy, Kapy and Krasznecz, against all kinds of practical experiments. To make the ladies more conciliatory and more inclined to the Order, Heinzeli initiated three of them into the 1st degree of Fremasonry in 1778. These, however, stormed him with the award of further degrees, because they wanted to gradually found their own Women's Lodge, on condition that this would at least indirectly benefit the Rosicrucian Order, "because more ... and we could more easily hide among them", - Heinzeli promised to do his best in this regard. For the time being, he translated the 3 lowest degrees from French into German and sent the translation to the Rosicrucians in Vienna for examination. 1) The Generalate of the Order, however, prohibited - with full appreciation of the good intention - under threat of suspension or exclusion, the frequency of the women's lodge, 2) and thus this electrification plan had also become into water. The Women's Lodge could not be built, and the ladies, whose expectations had been exchanged, became even more bitter against to brothers.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: In any case, it is clear from the hereinabove text that the initiation of the ladies as Freemasons was incidental, in order to revive the Order of the Rosicrucians. The recorders of the event have been so unaware of the significance of this - it was the first time in Hungary that women were initiated as Freemasons - that neither the names of the ladies have been recorded, nor which of the four of them was initiated by Heinzeli. Three of the four were inaugurated, but it is not known who they were, so only at the 75% level that they were Freemasons.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: German-born Marie-Henriette Heiniken was an adventurous woman, better known as "Madame de Xaintrailles," who disguised herself as a man in order to serve in the military during the Napoleonic Wars, earning her rank "at the point of the sword." In the attached portrait, she is shown wearing the military uniform of a French cavalry major. Heiniken purportedly acted as aide-de-camp to General Charles Antoine Xaintrailles, who is cited in most sources as her husband, and in others as her lover.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Heiniken was one of only a few women to become a Freemason during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. According to one account, she went to the Masonic Loge des Frères Artistes in Paris in hopes of joining the French Adoption Rite, a lodge specifically for women. Instead, when the brothers learned her identity, they decided to initiate her into the First, or Entered Apprentice, Degree in the male lodge because of her brave service. Period sources have yet to be uncovered to verify the details, but the story has been published repeatedly in Masonic histories.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: The first source about her was: F.-T. Begue Clavel, Histoire pittoresque de la franc-maçonnerie et des sociétés secrètes anciennes et modernes (Ed.1843). (Paris: Hachette, 2018), 34.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Countess Barkóczy (1833–1887) became fascinated by her grand-uncle's books on Freemasonry, browsing through his library after his death. By this time, she was married to Count Bela Hadik, Emperor Maximilian's aide-de-camp. The Countess' request for initiation into a Masonic lodge was supported by the Johannite Grand Master Ferenc Pulszky, and she was duly initiated in 1875 by a provincial lodge of Grand Orient, Lodge Egyenlőség (Equality) in Unghvár. (In Hungary in that time there were two masonic Grand Lodges, the Grand Lodge of St. John and the Grand Orient worked independently from each other.) Her initiation was then declared void by decision of Grand Orient and the perpetrators were punished, but the lodge wasn't erased, and only one officer was excluded. The countess defended her request and argued its validity in common law. In her reasoning she brought up her knowledge of freemasonry, her legal status as a son (praefectio) and the absence of any mention of candidates' gender in the constitution of the Grand Orient. The Orient, holding to Prussian law, considered the initiation null and void because the usual bureaucratic formalities were not adhered to. The next year, after debating her status, the Grand Orient demanded the return of her certificate, but she never complied. Masonic sources repeat Denslow and Truman (10,000 masons) giving her name as Countess "Helene" Hadik Barkóczy, while biographical and family sources use the Hungarian name "Ilona".


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Júlia (Julia) Apraxin (1830-1913) was initiated in Madrid in 1880 to a Masonic lodge named "Fraternidad Iberica" (Brotherhood of Iberia), however in addition to her Russian ethnicity she identified herself as Hungarian, since she had been brought up in Hungary, and her Hungarian foster father could probably be her real father.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Born on 16 October 1830 in Vienna, Julia Apraxin was registered as the daughter of the Russian aristocrat and diplomat Count Alexandre Petrovich Apraxin and Countess Hélène (Ielena) Bezobrazova, an aristocratic lady of Polish-Russian origin. In 1828 Julia's mother met Count József Esterházy and the couple married later in 1841, following the divorce from her first husband. Count Esterházy—as we know from his diary—treated Julia as his own daughter. In her childhood and youth, Julia lived with her parents and brother Demeter in Vienna and in the Esterhazy Castle in Cseklész, near Pozsony (today Pressburg, Bratislava).


title: Freemasonry and women

text: On 15 October 1849 she married Count Arthur (Artúr) Batthyány. Settling down in Vienna for about ten years with their five children, the couple lived the worriless life of the high society with balls, dances, masquerades and carriage ridings filling their days. In 1853 Johann Strauss II dedicated one of his polkas, the Tanzi Bäri (Dancing Bear) to her, insinuating that the Countess acted as a bear-leader making men dance like bears.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: She wrote novels, short stories and plays, which were staged. In one of her pieces, she depicted the supremacy of the spiritual aristocracy over the aristocracy of birth—and this may have been one of the reasons the aristocracy cast her out. The other reason was her divorce from her husband, the third and the most amazing thing was that despite her aristocratic roots, she became an actress.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Julia Apraxin travelled to Paris on 1 May 1863. In addition to the French press, Hungarian and Austrian newspapers also reported on their performances; while the Hungarians praised the Austrians gloated over the less successful ones. Julia Apraxin concluded a Russian orthodox marriage with Lorenzo Rubio Guillén y Montero de Espinosa (1835-1895), a Spanish cavalry captain in 1867. Still living in Paris, on 28 March 1879, the couple gave a party in a stylish hotel in Madrid for the elite of the Spanish capital including the representatives of the worlds of politics, science, the police and literature. Presumably, Julia met with the representatives of the "Fraternidad Iberica" Masonic lodge, allowing members of the Investigative Committee to prepare a recommendation of the countess.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: In any case, on 14 June 1880, the first woman in Spain was initiated in a masculin lodge with great interest, about which the French Masonic newspaper Chaîne d’Union reported in detail. Since some of the readers of Chaîne d’Union had argued about the correctness of the report and the regularity of the initiation, assuming that the Countess was admitted into a female, adoption lodge, in new articles, they clarified that Julia Apraxin had been admitted into a masculine lodge. Apart from her initiation, we have no knowledge of the countess ever visiting the works of the lodge. She probably moved to Madrid at the time; however, the Parisian newspapers did not mention her anymore and neither did the Spanish press. Her death was reported by the weekly Catholic La Lectura Dominical in the 24 May 1913 issue.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: In 1892, American newspapers hailed Salome Anderson, of Oakland, California, as "the only female Freemason in the world". She had, according to some, learned the secrets of masonry by hiding in the lodge room in her uncle's house, and was made a mason in order to pledge her to secrecy. She served on the board of trustees of her temple, and took higher degrees, as well as joining the Order of the Eastern Star.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: The theme of a young woman hiding in a lodge room had become a standard formula for this type of report, which was uncritically echoed and embellished as it spread from newspaper to newspaper. Anderson herself denied that it was possible for a woman to be made a mason, but remained non-committal or downright enigmatic when questioned as to the origin of her extensive knowledge of Freemasonry. Born in Alsace in 1818, she was raised in Paris after her parents died by her uncle, a "prominent mason". She met and married Captain Andrew Anderson in the 1840s, and settled in New Orleans, accompanying her husband on his coastal voyages in their own vessel, and managing their finances. They moved to Oakland, California, in 1854, where Andrew became a respected businessman and an active mason. He died in 1867, leaving Salome a wealthy widow, who turned her fortune to helping masonic charities. She became the founding treasurer of Oak Leaf Chapter No 8 of the Order of the Eastern Star, and when a Masonic Temple was built, she became the largest stock-holder. In spite of opposition, she was elected to the board of trustees. In 1892, the "Trestle Board" published a biography of her as a prominent citizen and implied that she had acquired some degree of masonic knowledge from the masons meeting at the house of her uncle. The "San Francisco News-Letter and Advertiser" then embellished the story by saying that she "claimed to be a mason", having cajoled the younger members of her uncle's lodge into clandestinely conferring the three Blue Lodge degrees on her. This story was rapidly picked up by the West Coast press, and various versions of the story were passed around. While she strenuously denied that she had come by her knowledge in an improper way, in subsequent interviews she refused to be drawn on the source of her masonic knowledge. It is not known if she was ever initiated.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: A similar story was published about Catherine Babington, first in her obituary, in Shelby, North Carolina, in 1886, then in a short book by her son outlining her masonic career. Hailed as the only female mason in the United States, she is said to have obtained the secrets at the age of 16 by hiding in her uncles' lodge room in Princess, Kentucky. Having lost her father at an early age, she spent much of her childhood at her grandfather's house, where she became a favourite of her uncles. They attended a lodge in an unused chapel above Catherine's school-room, which she often helped them clean. As a teenager, Catherine Sweet (Babington being her married name) attended lodge meetings for a year, hiding in the old pulpit, finally being discovered when one of her uncles returned unexpectedly for a rifle he had left in the ante-room. Being questioned by the lodge, it was discovered that she had committed much of the ritual to memory, and was, like Anderson, made a mason to swear her to secrecy, but in this instance not admitted to membership of the lodge. The sole source of the story is her son, and much of the detail remains unconfirmed. There is no account or recollection of such a lodge room in or around Princess.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: On 14 January 1882, Maria Deraismes was initiated into Freemasonry in Loge Libre Penseurs (Freethinkers Lodge), in Le Pecq, just outside Paris. Deraismes was a well known writer and campaigner for democracy, women's rights, and the separation of church and state. Her lodge, on 9 January, had seceded from "la Grande Loge Symbolique Ecossaise" in order to initiate her. She then resigned, to enable her lodge to rejoin their previous jurisdiction. She did, however, persist in her efforts to legitimately become a mason, with the assistance of Doctor Georges Martin, a fellow campaigner for women's rights, and a Freemason. After a decade of trying they started to form their own lodge, and between 1 June 1892 and 4 March 1893, assembled 16 women who wished to become masons. They were initiated as Apprentices on 14 March 1893, Companions on 24 March, and Master Masons on 1 April. This done, on 4 April the now mixed lodge of male and female masons proceeded to elect its officers and constitute itself as "La Grande Loge Symbolique Ecossaise de France, Le Droit Humain", soon to become "l’Ordre Maçonnique Mixte International Le Droit Humain." This would flourish as international co-masonry, which Deraismes never lived to see. She died the following February.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Having resolved at the outset to adopt the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite as their ritual, the new Grand Lodge found itself with only the three craft degrees, and aspiring to a 33-degree system. Male masons were sent into other jurisdictions to acquire the necessary ritual. In 1899, ten masons in the Droit Humain received the 33rd degree, allowing them to form a Supreme Council. Lodges had opened in Paris, Blois, Lyon, Rouen, and Zürich. By 1914, the movement had spread to Britain, the Far East, the United States, Belgium, and the Netherlands.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Co-Freemasonry was brought to the English-speaking world by the socialist and theosophist Annie Besant. Passing through the usual three degrees of craft masonry in 1902, she founded the Lodge of Human Duty No. 6 in London that same year. French-speaking lodges started to appear in the United States in 1903, but it was again Besant who opened the first English speaking lodge, in 1908. The French lodges took their lead from the Grand Orient de France in not requiring any religious belief in their members. Besant, with the blessing of Paris, followed the lead of the United Grand Lodge of England in requiring initiates to believe in a supreme being. Craft degrees in English speaking lodges took on a less continental, and more mystical flavour, with Besant importing the Dharma, or Besant Leadbeater ritual to both Britain and the United States.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Modern Co-Freemasonry is divided into self-governing Federations, Jurisdictions, and pioneer lodges, bound to an International Constitution and a Supreme Council, which delegates elect at an international convention every five years. In common with any other Masonic jurisdiction, the president of the Supreme Council is referred to as the Grand Master. It currently has 28,000 members spread through 60 countries and five continents.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: A women's lodge existed in Boston during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Hannah Mather Crocker, in an apology for Freemasonry written in 1815, claims to have presided over such a lodge, yet her description, "founded on the original principles of true ancient masonry, as far as was consistent with the female character" leaves the actual constitution open to question. It is also clear that St. Anne's lodge was extinct at the time of her writing about it. Crocker's leadership of this exclusively female Masonic lodge stands as an alternative to historical frameworks that emphasize the formal political exclusion and public silencing of women in the development of republican, liberal political practice in the West.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: As Co-Freemasonry spread in England from 1902, some members became alarmed by decisions taken by the governing body in Paris. There was a perceived threat to the ancient form of masonic ritual. Resignations resulted, in 1908, in the formation of a new Grand Lodge, which became the Honourable Fraternity of Antient Masonry, under a clergyman, the Rev. Dr. William Frederick Cobb, as Grand Master. His retirement after four years led to the election of a female Grand Master. Reverting to the original legal meaning of "Brotherhood", the members have addressed each other as "Brother" since 1908. A further split occurred in 1913, when those wishing to include higher degrees, specifically the Royal Arch, left to form the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons. Both societies are now exclusively female. The Honourable Fraternity of Antient Masonry restricted initiation to women and stopped admitting male visitors. The last male member left in 1935. The older society, having started working higher degrees, changed its name in 1958, appending the Order of Women Freemasons, as they are known today. Both bodies have lodges throughout the United Kingdom, and the Order of Women Freemasons also has lodges in Australasia, Zimbabwe, and Spain.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: La Grande Loge féminine de France, which emerged from adoptive masonry in 1959, spread to Belgium in 1974, and la Grande Loge féminine de Belgique was formed in 1981. By 2001, they had 35 lodges, three of which were in the United States. These arose due to "La Croisee des Chemins" (Crossroads), a lodge under la Grande Loge féminine de Belgique formed to spread Freemasonry amongst the women of other countries.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: The Anglo-American jurisdictions of "regular" Freemasonry follow a set of traditions referred to in ritual as the "Ancient Landmarks". These comprise the practices and precepts perceived as "ancient" at the beginning of the 18th century, and frozen in time by Anderson's "Constitutions" and similar works which followed and copied it. Among Anderson's "Ancient Charges", still enshrined in the constitutions of the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) and many other Grand Lodges, is a description of the person who may be admitted to Freemasonry, "good and true men, free-born, and of mature and discreet age and sound judgement, no bondmen, no women, no immoral or scandalous men, but of good report".


title: Freemasonry and women

text: Continental Freemasonry has no such problems. Le Droit Humain enjoys fraternal relations with the Grand Orient de France, the Grande Loge féminine de France, and the Grande Loge de France. The Grand Orient de France, in addition to recognising women's masonry, decided in 2010 that there was no reason that its lodges should not be able to initiate women, thus adding another strand to international co-masonry.


title: Freemasonry and women

text: In 2018, guidance was released by the United Grand Lodge of England stating that, in regard to transgender women, "A Freemason who after initiation ceases to be a man does not cease to be a Freemason". As well, the guidance states that transgender men are allowed to apply to become Freemasons.


title: First observation of gravitational waves

text: The first direct observation of gravitational waves was made on 14 September 2015 and was announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016. Previously, gravitational waves had been inferred only indirectly, via their effect on the timing of pulsars in binary star systems. The waveform, detected by both LIGO observatories, matched the predictions of general relativity for a gravitational wave emanating from the inward spiral and merger of a pair of black holes of around 36 and 29 solar masses and the subsequent "ringdown" of the single resulting black hole. The signal was named GW150914 (from "gravitational wave" and the date of observation 2015-09-14). It was also the first observation of a binary black hole merger, demonstrating both the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems and the fact that such mergers could occur within the current age of the universe.


text: This first direct observation was reported around the world as a remarkable accomplishment for many reasons. Efforts to directly prove the existence of such waves had been ongoing for over fifty years, and the waves are so minuscule that Albert Einstein himself doubted that they could ever be detected. The waves given off by the cataclysmic merger of GW150914 reached Earth as a ripple in spacetime that changed the length of a 4 km LIGO arm by a thousandth of the width of a proton, proportionally equivalent to changing the distance to the nearest star outside the Solar System by one hair's width. The energy released by the binary as it spiralled together and merged was immense, with the energy of "c" solar masses ( joules or foes) in total radiated as gravitational waves, reaching a peak emission rate in its final few milliseconds of about watts – a level greater than the combined power of all light radiated by all the stars in the observable universe.


text: The observation confirms the last remaining directly undetected prediction of general relativity and corroborates its predictions of space-time distortion in the context of large scale cosmic events (known as strong field tests). It was also heralded as inaugurating a new era of gravitational-wave astronomy, which will enable observations of violent astrophysical events that were not previously possible and potentially allow the direct observation of the very earliest history of the universe. On 15 June 2016, two more detections of gravitational waves, made in late 2015, were announced. Eight more observations were made in 2017, including GW170817, the first observed merger of binary neutron stars, which was also observed in electromagnetic radiation.


text: Albert Einstein originally predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916, on the basis of his theory of general relativity. General relativity interprets gravity as a consequence of distortions in space-time, caused by mass. Therefore, Einstein also predicted that events in the cosmos would cause "ripples" in space-time – distortions of space-time itself – which would spread outward, although they would be so minuscule that they would be nearly impossible to detect by any technology foreseen at that time. It was also predicted that objects moving in an orbit would lose energy for this reason (a consequence of the law of conservation of energy), as some energy would be given off as gravitational waves, although this would be insignificantly small in all but the most extreme cases.


text: One case where gravitational waves would be strongest is during the final moments of the merger of two compact objects such as neutron stars or black holes. Over a span of millions of years, binary neutron stars, and binary black holes lose energy, largely through gravitational waves, and as a result, they spiral in towards each other. At the very end of this process, the two objects will reach extreme velocities, and in the final fraction of a second of their merger a substantial amount of their mass would theoretically be converted into gravitational energy, and travel outward as gravitational waves, allowing a greater than usual chance for detection. However, since little was known about the number of compact binaries in the universe and reaching that final stage can be very slow, there was little certainty as to how often such events might happen.


text: Gravitational waves can be detected indirectly – by observing celestial phenomena caused by gravitational waves – or more directly by means of instruments such as the Earth-based LIGO or the planned space-based LISA instrument.


text: Evidence of gravitational waves was first deduced in 1974 through the motion of the double neutron star system PSR B1913+16, in which one of the stars is a pulsar that emits electro-magnetic pulses at radio frequencies at precise, regular intervals as it rotates. Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor, who discovered the stars, also showed that over time, the frequency of pulses shortened, and that the stars were gradually spiralling towards each other with an energy loss that agreed closely with the predicted energy that would be radiated by gravitational waves. For this work, Hulse and Taylor were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993. Further observations of this pulsar and others in multiple systems (such as the double pulsar system PSR J0737-3039) also agree with General Relativity to high precision.


text: Direct observation of gravitational waves was not possible for the many decades after they were predicted due to the minuscule effect that would need to be detected and separated from the background of vibrations present everywhere on Earth. A technique called interferometry was suggested in the 1960s and eventually technology developed sufficiently for this technique to become feasible.


text: In the present approach used by LIGO, a laser beam is split and the two halves are recombined after travelling different paths. Changes to the length of the paths or the time taken for the two split beams, caused by the effect of passing gravitational waves, to reach the point where they recombine are revealed as "beats". Such a technique is extremely sensitive to tiny changes in the distance or time taken to traverse the two paths. In theory, an interferometer with arms about 4 km long would be capable of revealing the change of space-time – a tiny fraction of the size of a single proton – as a gravitational wave of sufficient strength passed through Earth from elsewhere. This effect would be perceptible only to other interferometers of a similar size, such as the Virgo, GEO 600 and planned KAGRA and INDIGO detectors. In practice at least two interferometers would be needed because any gravitational wave would be detected at both of these but other kinds of disturbance would generally not be present at both. This technique allows the sought-after signal to be distinguished from noise. This project was eventually founded in 1992 as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). The original instruments were upgraded between 2010 and 2015 (to Advanced LIGO), giving an increase of around 10 times their original sensitivity.


text: LIGO operates two gravitational-wave observatories in unison, located apart: the LIGO Livingston Observatory () in Livingston, Louisiana, and the LIGO Hanford Observatory, on the DOE Hanford Site () near Richland, Washington. The tiny shifts in the length of their arms are continually compared and significant patterns which appear to arise synchronously are followed up to determine whether a gravitational wave may have been detected or if some other cause was responsible.


text: Initial LIGO operations between 2002 and 2010 did not detect any statistically significant events that could be confirmed as gravitational waves. This was followed by a multi-year shut-down while the detectors were replaced by much improved "Advanced LIGO" versions.  In February 2015, the two advanced detectors were brought into engineering mode, in which the instruments are operating fully for the purpose of testing and confirming they are functioning correctly before being used for research, with formal science observations due to begin on 18 September 2015.


text: Throughout the development and initial observations by LIGO, several "blind injections" of fake gravitational wave signals were introduced to test the ability of the researchers to identify such signals. To protect the efficacy of blind injections, only four LIGO scientists knew when such injections occurred, and that information was revealed only after a signal had been thoroughly analyzed by researchers. On 14 September 2015, while LIGO was running in engineering mode but without any blind data injections, the instrument reported a possible gravitational wave detection. The detected event was given the name GW150914.


text: GW150914 was detected by the LIGO detectors in Hanford, Washington state, and Livingston, Louisiana, USA, at 09:50:45 UTC on 14 September 2015. The LIGO detectors were operating in "engineering mode", meaning that they were operating fully but had not yet begun a formal "research" phase (which was due to commence three days later on 18 September), so initially there was a question as to whether the signals had been real detections or simulated data for testing purposes before it was ascertained that they were not tests.


text: The chirp signal lasted over 0.2 seconds, and increased in frequency and amplitude in about 8 cycles from 35 Hz to 250 Hz. The signal is in the audible range and has been described as resembling the "chirp" of a bird; astrophysicists and other interested parties the world over excitedly responded by imitating the signal on social media upon the announcement of the discovery. (The frequency increases because each orbit is noticeably faster than the one before during the final moments before merging.)


text: The trigger that indicated a possible detection was reported within three minutes of acquisition of the signal, using rapid ('online') search methods that provide a quick, initial analysis of the data from the detectors. After the initial automatic alert at 09:54 UTC, a sequence of internal emails confirmed that no scheduled or unscheduled injections had been made, and that the data looked clean. After this, the rest of the collaborating team was quickly made aware of the tentative detection and its parameters.


text: More detailed statistical analysis of the signal, and of 16 days of surrounding data from 12 September to 20 October 2015, identified GW150914 as a real event, with an estimated significance of at least 5.1 sigma or a confidence level of 99.99994%. Corresponding wave peaks were seen at Livingston seven milliseconds before they arrived at Hanford. Gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light, and the disparity is consistent with the light travel time between the two sites. The waves had traveled at the speed of light for more than a billion years.


text: At the time of the event, the Virgo gravitational wave detector (near Pisa, Italy) was offline and undergoing an upgrade; had it been online it would likely have been sensitive enough to also detect the signal, which would have greatly improved the positioning of the event. GEO600 (near Hannover, Germany) was not sensitive enough to detect the signal. Consequently, neither of those detectors was able to confirm the signal measured by the LIGO detectors.


text: The event happened at a luminosity distance of megaparsecs (determined by the amplitude of the signal), or billion light years, corresponding to a cosmological redshift of (90% credible intervals). Analysis of the signal along with the inferred redshift suggested that it was produced by the merger of two black holes with masses of times and times the mass of the Sun (in the source frame), resulting in a post-merger black hole of solar masses. The mass–energy of the missing solar masses was radiated away in the form of gravitational waves.


text: During the final 20 milliseconds of the merger, the power of the radiated gravitational waves peaked at about or 526dBm – 50 times greater than the combined power of all light radiated by all the stars in the observable universe.


text: Across the 0.2-second duration of the detectable signal, the relative tangential (orbiting) velocity of the black holes increased from 30% to 60% of the speed of light. The orbital frequency of 75 Hz (half the gravitational wave frequency) means that the objects were orbiting each other at a distance of only 350 km by the time they merged. The phase changes to the signal's polarization allowed calculation of the objects' orbital frequency, and taken together with the amplitude and pattern of the signal, allowed calculation of their masses and therefore their extreme final velocities and orbital separation (distance apart) when they merged. That information showed that the objects had to be black holes, as any other kind of known objects with these masses would have been physically larger and therefore merged before that point, or would not have reached such velocities in such a small orbit. The highest observed neutron star mass is two solar masses, with a conservative upper limit for the mass of a stable neutron star of three solar masses, so that a pair of neutron stars would not have had sufficient mass to account for the merger (unless exotic alternatives exist, for example, boson stars), while a black hole-neutron star pair would have merged sooner, resulting in a final orbital frequency that was not so high.


text: The decay of the waveform after it peaked was consistent with the damped oscillations of a black hole as it relaxed to a final merged configuration. Although the inspiral motion of compact binaries can be described well from post-Newtonian calculations, the strong gravitational field merger stage can only be solved in full generality by large-scale numerical relativity simulations.


text: In the improved model and analysis, the post-merger object is found to be a rotating Kerr black hole with a spin parameter of , i.e. one with 2/3 of the maximum possible angular momentum for its mass.


text: The two stars which formed the two black holes were likely formed about 2 billion years after the Big Bang with masses of between 40 and 100 times the mass of the Sun.


text: Gravitational wave instruments are whole-sky monitors with little ability to resolve signals spatially. A network of such instruments is needed to locate the source in the sky through triangulation. With only the two LIGO instruments in observational mode, GW150914's source location could only be confined to an arc on the sky. This was done via analysis of the ms time-delay, along with amplitude and phase consistency across both detectors. This analysis produced a credible region of 150 deg with a probability of 50% or 610 deg with a probability of 90% located mainly in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, in the rough direction of (but much farther than) the Magellanic Clouds.


text: The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reported that its Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) instrument detected a weak gamma-ray burst above 50 keV, starting 0.4 seconds after the LIGO event and with a positional uncertainty region overlapping that of the LIGO observation. The Fermi team calculated the odds of such an event being the result of a coincidence or noise at 0.22%. However a gamma ray burst would not have been expected, and observations from the INTEGRAL telescope's all-sky SPI-ACS instrument indicated that any energy emission in gamma-rays and hard X-rays from the event was less than one millionth of the energy emitted as gravitational waves, which "excludes the possibility that the event is associated with substantial gamma-ray radiation, directed towards the observer". If the signal observed by the Fermi GBM was genuinely astrophysical, INTEGRAL would have indicated a clear detection at a significance of 15 sigma above background radiation. The AGILE space telescope also did not detect a gamma-ray counterpart of the event.


text: A follow-up analysis by an independent group, released in June 2016, developed a different statistical approach to estimate the spectrum of the gamma-ray transient. It concluded that Fermi GBM's data did not show evidence of a gamma ray burst, and was either background radiation or an Earth albedo transient on a 1-second timescale. A rebuttal of this follow-up analysis, however, pointed out that the independent group misrepresented the analysis of the original Fermi GBM Team paper and therefore misconstrued the results of the original analysis. The rebuttal reaffirmed that the false coincidence probability is calculated empirically and is not refuted by the independent analysis.


text: Black hole mergers of the type thought to have produced the gravitational wave event are not expected to produce gamma-ray bursts, as stellar-mass black hole binaries are not expected to have large amounts of orbiting matter. Avi Loeb has theorised that if a massive star is rapidly rotating, the centrifugal force produced during its collapse will lead to the formation of a rotating bar that breaks into two dense clumps of matter with a dumbbell configuration that becomes a black hole binary, and at the end of the star's collapse it triggers a gamma-ray burst. Loeb suggests that the 0.4 second delay is the time it took the gamma-ray burst to cross the star, relative to the gravitational waves.


text: The reconstructed source area was targeted by follow-up observations covering radio, optical, near infra-red, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths along with searches for coincident neutrinos. However, because LIGO had not yet started its science run, notice to other telescopes was delayed.


text: The ANTARES telescope detected no neutrino candidates within ±500 seconds of GW150914. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory detected three neutrino candidates within ±500 seconds of GW150914. One event was found in the southern sky and two in the northern sky. This was consistent with the expectation of background detection levels. None of the candidates were compatible with the 90% confidence area of the merger event. Although no neutrinos were detected, the lack of such observations provided a limit on neutrino emission from this type of gravitational wave event.


text: Observations by the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission of nearby galaxies in the region of the detection, two days after the event, did not detect any new X-ray, optical or ultraviolet sources.


text: The announcement of the detection was made on 11 February 2016 at a news conference in Washington, D.C. by David Reitze, the executive director of LIGO, with a panel comprising Gabriela González, Rainer Weiss and Kip Thorne, of LIGO, and France A. Córdova, the director of NSF. Barry Barish delivered the first presentation on this discovery to a scientific audience simultaneously with the public announcement.


text: The initial announcement paper was published during the news conference in "Physical Review Letters", with further papers either published shortly afterwards or immediately available in preprint form.


text: In May 2016, the full collaboration, and in particular Ronald Drever, Kip Thorne, and Rainer Weiss, received the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for the observation of gravitational waves. Drever, Thorne, Weiss, and the LIGO discovery team also received the Gruber Prize in Cosmology. Drever, Thorne, and Weiss were also awarded the 2016 Shaw Prize in Astronomy and the 2016 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics. Barish was awarded the 2016 Enrico Fermi Prize from the Italian Physical Society (Società Italiana di Fisica). In January 2017, LIGO spokesperson Gabriela González and the LIGO team were awarded the 2017 Bruno Rossi Prize.


text: The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".


text: The observation was heralded as inaugurating a revolutionary era of gravitational-wave astronomy. Prior to this detection, astrophysicists and cosmologists were able to make observations based upon electromagnetic radiation (including visible light, X-rays, microwave, radio waves, gamma rays) and particle-like entities (cosmic rays, stellar winds, neutrinos, and so on). These have significant limitations – light and other radiation may not be emitted by many kinds of objects, and can also be obscured or hidden behind other objects. Objects such as galaxies and nebulae can also absorb, re-emit, or modify light generated within or behind them, and compact stars or exotic stars may contain material which is dark and radio silent, and as a result there is little evidence of their presence other than through their gravitational interactions.


text: On 15 June 2016, the LIGO group announced an observation of another gravitational wave signal, named GW151226. The Advanced LIGO was predicted to detect five more black hole mergers like GW150914 in its next observing campaign from November 2016 until August 2017 (it turned out to be seven), and then 40 binary star mergers each year, in addition to an unknown number of more exotic gravitational wave sources, some of which may not be anticipated by current theory.


text: Planned upgrades are expected to double the signal-to-noise ratio, expanding the volume of space in which events like GW150914 can be detected by a factor of ten. Additionally, Advanced Virgo, KAGRA, and a possible third LIGO detector in India will extend the network and significantly improve the position reconstruction and parameter estimation of sources.


text: Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a proposed space based observation mission to detect gravitational waves. With the proposed sensitivity range of LISA, merging binaries like GW150914 would be detectable about 1000 years before they merge, providing for a class of previously unknown sources for this observatory if they exist within about 10 megaparsecs. LISA Pathfinder, LISA's technology development mission, was launched in December 2015 and it demonstrated that the LISA mission is feasible.


text: A current model predicts LIGO will detect approximately 1000 black hole mergers per year after it reaches full sensitivity planned for 2020.


text: The masses of the two pre-merger black holes provide information about stellar evolution. Both black holes were more massive than previously discovered stellar-mass black holes, which were inferred from X-ray binary observations. This implies that the stellar winds from their progenitor stars must have been relatively weak, and therefore that the metallicity (mass fraction of chemical elements heavier than hydrogen and helium) must have been less than about half the solar value.


text: The fact that the pre-merger black holes were present in a binary star system, as well as the fact that the system was compact enough to merge within the age of the universe, constrains either binary star evolution or dynamical formation scenarios, depending on how the black hole binary was formed. A significant number of black holes must receive low natal kicks (the velocity a black hole gains at its formation in a core-collapse supernova event), otherwise the black hole forming in a binary star system would be ejected and an event like GW would be prevented. The survival of such binaries, through common envelope phases of high rotation in massive progenitor stars, may be necessary for their survival. The majority of the latest black hole model predictions comply with these added constraints.


text: The discovery of the GW merger event increases the lower limit on the rate of such events, and rules out certain theoretical models that predicted very low rates of less than 1 Gpcyr (one event per cubic gigaparsec per year). Analysis resulted in lowering the previous upper limit rate on events like GW150914 from ~140 Gpcyr to  Gpcyr.


text: Measurement of the waveform and amplitude of the gravitational waves from a black hole merger event makes accurate determination of its distance possible. The accumulation of black hole merger data from cosmologically distant events may help to create more precise models of the history of the expansion of the universe and the nature of the dark energy that influences it.


text: The earliest universe is opaque since the cosmos was so energetic then that most matter was ionized and photons were scattered by free electrons. However, this opacity would not affect gravitational waves from that time, so if they occurred at levels strong enough to be detected at this distance, it would allow a window to observe the cosmos beyond the current visible universe. Gravitational-wave astronomy therefore may some day allow direct observation of the earliest history of the universe.


text: The inferred fundamental properties, mass and spin, of the post-merger black hole were consistent with those of the two pre-merger black holes, following the predictions of general relativity. This is the first test of general relativity in the very . No evidence could be established against the predictions of general relativity.


text: The opportunity was limited in this signal to investigate the more complex general relativity interactions, such as tails produced by interactions between the gravitational wave and curved space-time background. Although a moderately strong signal, it is much smaller than that produced by binary-pulsar systems. In the future stronger signals, in conjunction with more sensitive detectors, could be used to explore the intricate interactions of gravitational waves as well as to improve the constraints on deviations from general relativity.


text: The speed of gravitational waves (v) is predicted by general relativity to be the speed of light (c). The extent of any deviation from this relationship can be parameterized in terms of the mass of the hypothetical graviton. The graviton is the name given to an elementary particle that would act as the force carrier for gravity, in quantum theories about gravity. It is expected to be massless if, as it appears, gravitation has an infinite range. (This is because the more massive a gauge boson is, the shorter is the range of the associated force; as with the infinite range of electromagnetism, which is due to the massless photon, the infinite range of gravity implies that any associated force-carrying particle would also be massless.) If the graviton were not massless, gravitational waves would propagate below lightspeed, with lower frequencies (ƒ) being slower than higher frequencies, leading to dispersion of the waves from the merger event. No such dispersion was observed. The observations of the inspiral slightly improve (lower) the upper limit on the mass of the graviton from Solar System observations to , corresponding to or a Compton wavelength (λ) of greater than km, roughly 1 light-year. Using the lowest observed frequency of 35 Hz, this translates to a lower limit on v such that the upper limit on 1-"v" /"c" is ~ .


title: OHSAS 18001

text: OHSAS 18001, Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series, was an international standard for occupational health and safety management systems that was subsequently adopted as a British Standard. Compliance with it enabled organizations to demonstrate that they had a system in place for occupational health and safety. BSI cancelled OHSAS 18001 to adopt ISO 45001. ISO 45001 was published in March 2018 by the International Organization for Standardization. Organizations that are certified to OHSAS 18001 were able to migrate to ISO 45001 by March 2021 to retain a recognized certification.


title: OHSAS 18001

text: Organizations worldwide recognize the need to control and improve health and safety performance and do so with occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS). However, before 1999 there was an increase of national standards and proprietary certification schemes to choose from. This caused confusion and fragmentation in the market and undermined the credibility of individual schemes.


title: OHSAS 18001

text: Recognising this deficit, an international collaboration called the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) Project Group was formed to create a single unified approach. The Group comprised representatives from national standards bodies, academic bodies, accreditation bodies, certification bodies and occupational safety and health institutions, with the UK’s national standards body, BSI Group, providing the secretariat. Drawing on the best of existing standards and schemes, the OHSAS Project Group published the OHSAS 18000 Series in 1999. The Series consisted of two specifications: 18001 provided requirements for an OHS management system and 18002 gave implementation guidelines.


title: OHSAS 18001

text: BSI Group decided to adopt OHSAS 18001 (OHSMS) and OHSAS 18002 (guidance specification) as British standards.


title: OHSAS 18001

text: OHSAS 18001 was updated in July 2007 in particular to better reflect ILO-OSH guidelines and additionally, the "health" component of "health and safety" was given greater emphasis.


title: OHSAS 18001

text: Since the publication of the International Standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems ISO 45001, BSI canceled its OHSAS 18001 standards and adopted the ISO standard.


title: OHSAS 18001

text: The OHSAS 18000 standards were written and published wholly outside of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) framework. To avoid confusion, ISO 18000 does exist – but it is a radio-frequency identification standard.


title: Fast Carrier Task Force

text: The Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 38 when assigned to Third Fleet, TF 58 when assigned to Fifth Fleet), was the main striking force of the United States Navy in the Pacific War from January 1944 through the end of the war in August 1945. The task force was made up of several separate task groups, each typically built around three to four aircraft carriers and their supporting vessels. The support vessels were screening destroyers, cruisers, and the newly built fast battleships.


title: Fast Carrier Task Force

text: With the arrival of the fleet carriers the primary striking power of the navy was no longer in its battleship force, but with the aircraft that could be brought to battle by the carriers. The means by which the US Navy operated these carriers was developed principally by Admiral Marc Mitscher. Mitscher determined that the best defense for a carrier was its own air groups, and that carriers were more easily defended if they operated together in groups, with supporting ships along with them to aid in air defense, anti-submarine defense, and rescue of downed airmen.


title: Fast Carrier Task Force

text: Said Mitscher: "The ideal composition of a fast-carrier task force is four carriers, six to eight support vessels and not less than 18 destroyers, preferably 24. More than four carriers in a task group cannot be advantageously used due to the amount of air room required. Less than four carriers requires an uneconomical use of support ships and screening vessels."


title: Fast Carrier Task Force

text: The ships of each task group sailed in a circle formation centered on the carriers. The supporting ships sailed relatively close by, and added their anti-aircraft fire to that of the carriers to help ward off attacking aircraft. When under attack by torpedo aircraft, the task group would turn toward the oncoming aircraft to limit attack angles. Other than this measure, the carriers in the task group would not take evasive action from their attackers. This was in marked contrast with the Imperial Japanese Navy, but the choice made for more stable platforms for the anti-aircraft fire of all the ships in the task group and allowed the ships in the group to sail more closely together. The primary defense of the group against air attack was the group's own fighter cover.


title: Fast Carrier Task Force

text: The individual primarily responsible for the development and operations of the task force was Admiral Mitscher. The overall command of the task force alternated between two very different admirals: Raymond Spruance and William "Bull" Halsey. Spruance was calculating and cautious, while Halsey was more aggressive and known for taking risks. Most higher-ranking officers preferred to serve under Spruance; most common sailors were proud to serve under Halsey. Their commander was Admiral Chester Nimitz.


title: Fast Carrier Task Force

text: When the force was part of Admiral Spruance's Fifth Fleet, the carrier task force was commanded by Mitscher and bore the designation Task Force (TF) 58. When led by Admiral Halsey as part of the Third Fleet, the carrier force was commanded by Vice Admiral John S. McCain Sr. and its designation was Task Force (TF) 38. Planning for upcoming operations was completed when each admiral and his staff rotated out of active command. This allowed the Navy to perform at a higher operational tempo, while giving the Japanese the general impression of naval assets greater than what were actually available.


title: Fast Carrier Task Force

text: The Fast Carrier Task Force took part in all the US Navy's battles in the Pacific during the last two years of the war. The task groups could operate independently or combine with the others as needs dictated. Raids against island strong points such as Iwo Jima or Chichi Jima might be undertaken by one or two task groups, but when a major operation was underway the task force would concentrate all four groups together. Each group would remain distinct but operate in close proximity to the other groups to provide the task force with maximum protection and maximum striking power.