Oceanside City (pop., 2000: 161,029), southwestern California, U.S. Located along the Pacific coast on the Gulf of Santa Catalina, north of San Diego, it is a beach resort. The city was incorporated in 1888, and its growth was spurred in 1942 by the opening of a U.S. Marine Corps base, Camp Pendleton, to the north. Nearby is the restored Mission San Luis Rey (founded 1798).
ocelot \'a-S3-,lat\ Species (Leopardus pardalis ) of CAT found in forests, grasslands, and brush-covered regions from Texas to northern Argentina. The ocelot is 36-52 in. (90-130 cm) long, excluding the 12-16-in. (30- 40-cm) tail. It stands about 18 in. (45 cm) and weighs 24-35 lbs (11-16 kg). The upper body varies from whitish to tawny yellow to gray. The head, neck, and body are marked by specific patterns of black stripes and
spots: spots on the head, two stripes on each cheek, oblong spots arranged in chainlike bands on the body, and bars or blotches on the tail.
The ocelot hunts at night for small mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish. It is listed as an endangered species in the U.S.
Ochoa, Ellen (b. May 10, 1958,
Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) U.S. astro¬ naut. She earned a master’s degree (1981) and a doctorate (1985) in electrical engineering at Stanford University. Specializing in the devel¬ opment of optical systems, she later helped create several systems and methods that were awarded patents.
In 1990 Ochoa was selected to par¬ ticipate in NASA’s astronaut pro¬ gram, and the following year she completed her training to become the first Hispanic female astronaut. In April 1993 she served as mission specialist aboard the shuttle Discovery. Ochoa’s later missions included traveling to the International Space Station in 1999 and 2002.
Ochoa \o-'cho-3\, Severo (b. Sept. 24, 1905, Luarca, Spain—d. Nov. 1, 1993, Madrid) Spanish-born U.S. molecular biologist. He received his M.D. and subsequently studied in Germany and Britain before immigrat¬ ing to the U.S. in 1941, where he taught principally at New York Univer¬ sity. In 1955, while researching high-energy phosphates, he discovered an enzyme in bacteria that enabled him to synthesize RNA. The enzyme nor¬ mally breaks down RNA, but in a test tube it runs its natural reaction in reverse. It has been valuable in enabling scientists to understand and re¬ create the process whereby the hereditary information contained in genes is translated into enzymes that determine each cell’s functions and char¬ acter. With Arthur Kornberg he received a 1959 Nobel Prize.
Ochs \'aks\, Adolph Simon (b. March 12, 1858, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.—d. April 8, 1935, Chattanooga, Tenn.) U.S. newspaper publisher. Ochs grew up in Tennessee, where he worked for various newspapers. At age 20 he borrowed $250 to become proprietor of the moribund Chatta¬ nooga Times, which he developed into one of the South’s leading news¬ papers. He gained control of the financially faltering New York Times in 1896. Despising yellow journalism, he adopted the slogan “All the News That’s Fit to Print” and emphasized comprehensive and trustworthy news gathering. Under his ownership the Times became one of the world’s out¬ standing newspapers. From 1900 he was a director of the Associated Press. Ochs’s son-in-law, Arthur H. Sulzberger, was the first in a succession of family heirs to lead the New York Times Co.
Ockeghem Vo-ks-genA, Johannes or Jean d'Ockeghem (b. c.
1410—d. Feb. 6, 1497, Tours, France?) Flemish composer and singer. He is first mentioned as a member of an Antwerp choir in 1443. He held a series of posts in the Low Countries and France; he may have been asso¬ ciated with Gilles Binchois (c. 1400-60) and Guillaume Dufay, and Ant¬ oine Busnois (c. 1430-92) may have been his student. Though universally admired, his output over a career of more than 50 years was small, com¬ prising 14 mass cycles, about 10 motets, and about 20 chansons. His richly sonorous works often reflect intricate structural principles.
Ockham Va-komV, William of or William of Occam (b. c. 1285, Ockham, Surrey?, Eng.—d. 1347/49, Munich, Bavaria) English Fran¬ ciscan philosopher, theologian, and political writer. A late Scholastic thinker, he is regarded as the founder of a form of nominalism, the school of thought that denies that universals have any reality apart from the indi¬ vidual things signified by the universal or general term. He is also remem¬ bered as the originator of the medieval rule of logical economy known as Ockham's razor. He was excommunicated by Pope John XXII for his defense of the Franciscan notion of poverty and the rights of the empire against the papacy.
Ockham's razor Methodological principle of parsimony in scientific explanation. Traditionally attributed to William of Ockham, the principle prescribes that entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity. In prac¬ tice, this means that if a phenomenon can be explained without assuming
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1398 I Ocoee River ► ode
the existence of an entity, then philosophers and scientists should not assume the entity’s existence. The history of science provides many examples of the principle’s application (e.g., the rejection by scientists of the hypothesis of a luminiferous ether in response to Albert Einstein’s Spe¬ cial Theory of Relativity). See also materialism.
Ocoee \o-'ko-e\ River River, rising in the Blue Ridge in northeastern Georgia and flowing through southeastern Tennessee, U.S. In northern Georgia it is called the Toccoa River; at the Blue Ridge Dam its waters form Blue Ridge Lake. Three other dams on the river are all in Tennes¬ see. The four dams are run by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The river is about 70 mi (115 km) long.
O'Connell, Daniel known as the Liberator (b. Aug. 6, 1775, near Cahirciveen, County Kerry, Ire.—d. May 15, 1847, Genoa, Kingdom of Sardinia) Irish nationalist leader. A lawyer, he gradually became involved in the struggle for Catholic Emancipation, organizing nationwide “aggre¬ gate meetings” of Irish Catholics to petition for their legal rights. In 1823 he cofounded the Catholic Association, which won support from Irish political and church leaders. After helping win passage of the 1829 Eman¬ cipation Act, which allowed Irish Catholics to serve in the British Parlia¬ ment, he was elected to the House of Commons. He supported the Whig Party in return for Irish reform measures but became disenchanted with the administration’s inaction. In 1839 he formed the Repeal Association to dissolve the Anglo-Irish Act of Union. A series of illegal mass meet¬ ings in Ireland led to his arrest for sedition in 1843. After his release in 1844, he faced dissension from William Smith O'Brien’s radical Young Ire¬ land movement.
O'Connor, Feargus Edward (b. c. July 18, 1796, Connorville, County Cork, Ire.—d. Aug. 30, 1855, London, Eng.) Irish leader of Char¬ tism. He practiced law and served in the British Parliament (1832-35). He turned to radical agitation in England and was active in the Chartist move¬ ment as a popular public speaker. His journal Northern Star (1837) gave his views wide circulation. He became the Chartists’ leader in 1841 but was unable to effect passage of the Chartist petition in 1848. After a men¬ tal collapse, he was declared insane in 1852.
O'Connor, (Mary) Flannery (b. March 25, 1925, Savannah, Ga., U.S.—d. Aug. 3, 1964, Milledgeville, Ga.) U.S. writer. She spent most of her life on her mother’s farm in Milledgeville, Ga. A devout Roman Catholic, she usually set her works in the rural South and often examined the relationship between the individual and God by putting her charac¬ ters in grotesque and extreme situations. Her first novel. Wise Blood (1952), combines a keen ear for common speech, a caustic religious imagination, and a flair for the absurd that characterized all of her work. With the story collections A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955) and Every¬ thing That Rises Must Converge (1965), she was acclaimed as a master of the form. Her other work of fiction was the novel The Violent Bear It Away (1960). Long crippled by lupus, she died at age 39. The Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction is the preeminent American award of its kind.