marketing: Off-price retailers: Off-price retailers offer a different approach to discount retailing. As discount houses tried to increase services and offerings in order to upgrade, off-price retailers invaded this low-price, high-volume sector. Off-price retailers purchase at below-wholesale prices and charge less than retail prices. This practice…

offroad racing, form of motor racing conducted over rough, unmarked, often desert terrain. An outgrowth of the post-World War II popularity of motorcycle trail racing, offroad racing involves contestants racing from checkpoint to checkpoint along improvised routes. Numerous offroad race circuits

petroleum refining: Off-sites: The individual processing units described above are part of the process-unit side of a refinery complex. They are usually considered the most important features, but the functioning of the off-site facilities are often as critical as the process units themselves. Off-sites consist of tankage,…

hazardous-waste management: Remedial action: This so-called off-site solution is usually the most expensive option. An alternative is on-site remediation, which reduces the production of leachate and lessens the chance of groundwater contamination. On-site remediation may include temporary removal of the hazardous waste, construction of a secure landfill on the same site,…

technology of photography: Exposure-metering systems: Such off-the-film (OTF) measurement is also used for electronic flash control (see below).

Virgil Abloh: Off-White: Abloh characterized Off-White as “the gray area between black and white,” a description that was befitting for a label that seemingly hovered between streetwear and luxury fashion. The debut menswear collection featured screen-printed hoodies, denim shirts, anoraks, basketball shorts, and similar garments favored by…

Offa was one of the most powerful kings in early Anglo-Saxon England. As ruler of Mercia from 757 to 796, Offa brought southern England to the highest level of political unification it had yet achieved in the Anglo-Saxon period (5th–11th century ce). He also formed ties with rulers on the European

Offa, town, Kwara state, southwestern Nigeria. It lies along the railroad from Lagos and at the intersection of roads from Ilorin town, Lafiagi, and Ikirun. A traditional settlement of the Yoruba people in a savanna area, it now serves as a collecting point for the yams, cassava (manioc), corn

Offa of Angel was a continental Anglian ruler from whom the royal house of Anglo-Saxon Mercia claimed descent. According to the Old English poem “Widsith,” Offa saved his aged father, King Wermund, from falling under Saxon domination by defeating a Saxon king’s son in single combat. Later Offa

Offa’s Dyke, great English earthwork extending linearly, with some gaps, from the River Severn near Chepstow to the seaward end of the Dee estuary, passing for 169 miles (270 kilometres) through the counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Radnorshire, Montgomeryshire, Shropshire, Denbighshire,

offal, any of various nonmuscular parts of the carcasses of beef and veal, mutton and lamb, and pork, which are either consumed directly as food or used in the production of other foods. Variety meats have been a part of the human diet since the invention of cooking, which rendered the otherwise

Offaly, county in the province of Leinster, central Ireland. Offaly is bounded by Counties Westmeath and Meath (north), Kildare (east), Laoighis and Tipperary (south), and Galway and Roscommon (west). The River Shannon forms its western boundary. Tullamore, in central Offaly, is the county town

Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th earl of Kildare was the leader of a major Irish rebellion against King Henry VIII of England. The failure of the uprising ended the Fitzgerald family’s hereditary viceroyalty of Ireland and led to the tightening of English control over the country. When his father, the Irish

Offenbach, city, Hessen Land (state), west-central Germany. Offenbach, a river port, lies on the left bank of the canalized Main River just southeast of Frankfurt am Main. First mentioned in 977, it was part of the imperial forest of Dreieich, and a mint was established there in 1407. It was

Offenbach, city, Hessen Land (state), west-central Germany. Offenbach, a river port, lies on the left bank of the canalized Main River just southeast of Frankfurt am Main. First mentioned in 977, it was part of the imperial forest of Dreieich, and a mint was established there in 1407. It was

Jacques Offenbach was a composer who created a type of light burlesque French comic opera known as the opérette, which became one of the most characteristic artistic products of the period. He was the son of a cantor at the Cologne Synagogue, Isaac Juda Eberst, who had been born at Offenbach am

Jacques Offenbach was a composer who created a type of light burlesque French comic opera known as the opérette, which became one of the most characteristic artistic products of the period. He was the son of a cantor at the Cologne Synagogue, Isaac Juda Eberst, who had been born at Offenbach am

Offenburg, city, Baden-Württemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. It is situated in the Kinzig River valley, at the western edge of the Black Forest (Schwarzwald), southeast of Strasbourg, France. First mentioned in 1101, it was founded by the Zähringen margraves on the site of a Roman

crime: Common law: …Malicious Damage Act, and the Offences Against the Person Act being among the most important. Because those statutes were consolidations rather than codifications, many of the inconsistencies of the earlier legislation were preserved. The Offences Against the Person Act is still largely in force, though the others have been replaced…

airport: Airport security: …adopted in an international context:

police: Criminal profiling: Criminal or offender profiling, also known as criminal investigative analysis, rests on the assumption that characteristics of an offender can be deduced by a systematic examination of characteristics of the offense. Criminal profiling is most effective in investigations of serial crimes, such as…

Peter Handke: …first important drama, Publikumsbeschimpfung (1966; Offending the Audience), in which four actors analyze the nature of theatre for an hour and then alternately insult the audience and praise its “performance,” a strategy that arouses varied reactions from the crowd. Several more plays lacking conventional plot, dialogue, and characters followed, but…

fehmic court: …were of two types: the offenes Ding, or open assembly, to which all free men were admitted, judging property offenses and ordinary misdemeanours; and the Stillding, or secret assembly, attended only by the judge, the Schöffen (aldermen), and parties to the case. The Stillding had entirely superseded the offenes Ding…

baseball: Records and statistics: …in the delicate balance between offense and defense, statistics also reveal much of baseball’s history on the playing field. Lengthening the pitching distance to 60 feet 6 inches (18.4 meters) in 1893 initially touched off an offensive barrage. But increasing the size of the plate in 1900, counting the first…

crime, the intentional commission of an act usually deemed socially harmful or dangerous and specifically defined, prohibited, and punishable under criminal law. Most countries have enacted a criminal code in which all of the criminal law can be found, though English law—the source of many other

nuclear strategy: Conventional strategy: The Soviet Union preferred the offensive because it would make it possible to defeat the enemy quickly, before the full weight of its power could be brought to bear. Soviet doctrine during the 1970s suggested that a key aspect of that offensive would be the neutralization of NATO’s nuclear assets…

Bob Zuppke: …(in the early 1920s) the offensive huddle, enabling the team with the ball to plan each play immediately before executing it. He inspired his former player, George Halas, to help form the National Football League (NFL) by lamenting that college players quit playing just as they were beginning to learn…

John J. Mearsheimer: …view, which he called “offensive realism,” holds that the need for security, and ultimately for survival, makes states aggressive power maximizers. States do not cooperate, except during temporary alliances, but constantly seek to diminish their competitors’ power and to enhance their own.

tactics: The armoured offensive: In the decade following World War I, some armies accepted the superiority of the defense as a critical characteristic of modern warfare—a train of thought that caused the Maginot Line to be constructed in France. Elsewhere, there was a lively debate concerning the best…

tower: …peoples also used offensive, or siege, towers, as raised platforms for attacking troops to overrun high city walls. Military towers often gave their name to an entire fortress; the Tower of London, for example, includes the entire complex of buildings contiguous with the White Tower of William I the Conqueror.

contract: Offer and acceptance: Some of the rules respecting offer and acceptance are designed to operate only when a contrary intention has not been indicated. Thus, in German law an offer cannot be withdrawn by an offeror until the time stipulated in the offer or, if…

sacrifice, a religious rite in which an object is offered to a divinity in order to establish, maintain, or restore a right relationship of a human being to the sacred order. It is a complex phenomenon that has been found in the earliest known forms of worship and in all parts of the world. The

Amy Poehler: Parks and Recreation and Inside Out: …a talented cast that included Nick Offerman as her grumpy libertarian-leaning boss and comic foil, Ron Swanson. Poehler also served as producer of the show, which ran until 2015.

Gregorian chant: The Offertory originally consisted of a psalm and refrain, but by the 12th century only the refrain remained. The music is quite melismatic. Peculiar to the Offertory is repetition of text. The Communion is, like the Offertory, a processional chant. The music is neumatic in style.

history of the organization of work: The office workplace: Office automation represents a further mechanization of office work, a process that began with the introduction of the typewriter and the adding machine in the 19th century. The introduction of computers also affected the organization of work in the information sector of the…

accountability: Some rough distinctions: …to apply to positions of public office. These comprise both political positions, where representatives or people covering other institutional roles deal with public affairs in the name and interest of the citizens, and administrative positions, where the link with the citizens is mediated by the government. The chain of accountability…

Western architecture: Construction in iron and glass: …new building types, the large office building. This building type was made necessary by the concentration of markets, banks, railroad terminals, and warehouses in small sections of growing cities, and it pushed skyward as a result of the attempt to get maximum income from expensive urban properties, the desire for…

Jason Bateman: Later life and career: … and its 2014 sequel, and Office Christmas Party (2016).

quarantine: International cooperation: …it came in 1907 the Office International d’Hygiène Publique (International Office of Public Health), the forerunner of the World Health Organization. (The forerunner of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau had been established five years earlier, in 1902).

World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), intergovernmental organization established to gather and disseminate information about animal diseases around the world and to create health standards to protect international trade in animals and their products. It was founded in 1924 as the Office

Cindy Sherman: …directed the dark comedic film Office Killer. Two years later she exhibited disturbing images of savaged dolls and doll parts that explored her interest in juxtaposing violence and artificiality. Sherman continued these juxtapositions in a 2000 series of photographs in which she posed as Hollywood women with overblown makeup and…

interior design: Space planning: …office design is known as office landscape (from the German word Bürolandschaft). Above, in Modes of composition, it was noted that the appearance of a “landscaped” space might seem chaotic. Actually, however, the system was developed in the 1960s by a German team of planning and management consultants who made…

printing: Office printing: The development of industry and commerce, in the 19th and 20th centuries, accompanied by an increase in administrative activity, created a demand for an abundance of printed information at various levels. In the field of office printing the first tool was the typewriter,…

Office of Management and Budget (OMB), agency of the U.S. federal government (executive branch). It assists the president in preparing the federal budget and in supervising the budget’s administration in executive agencies. It is involved in the development and resolution of all budget, policy,

Office of Strategic Services (OSS), agency of the U.S. federal government (1942–45) formed for the purpose of obtaining information about and sabotaging the military efforts of enemy nations during World War II. It was headed by William J. (“Wild Bill”) Donovan (1883–1959). With some 12,000 staff

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), U.S. government bureau that regulates national banks and federal savings associations. The primary mission of the OCC is to ensure the safety and soundness of the national banking system. The OCC employs a staff of examiners who conduct onsite

Wilfrid Sheed: …the editorial pecking order in Office Politics (1966), whereas compulsive analysis and perfectionism destroy the life of a critic in Max Jamison (1970). A reporter views the moral hypocrisy of a candidate in People Will Always Be Kind (1973).

Mike Judge: …and directing the workplace comedy Office Space (1999). The movie was a box-office flop but subsequently gained a massive cult following on DVD and was hailed for its incisive lampooning of the drudgeries of office work. Judge’s next film was Idiocracy (2006), a vicious satire of anti-intellectualism and consumerism. Like…

Faith Baldwin: …as Those Difficult Years (1925), The Office Wife (1930), Babs and Mary Lou (1931), District Nurse (1932), Manhattan Nights (1937), and He Married a Doctor (1944). Her last completed novel, Adam’s Eden, appeared in 1977.

election: Balloting: Conversely, on the office-bloc ballot, voters choose individual candidates grouped by office rather than party, which discourages voting exclusively for members of one party, though some jurisdictions that use the office-bloc ballot allow voters to cast a straight ticket.

David Caruso: …films as First Blood (1982), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), and Mad Dog and Glory (1993) before being cast in the television series NYPD Blue. Premiering in 1993, the police drama generated strident condemnations from religious leaders and other conservatives because of its unabashed use of explicit language, sexual…

officer cadet, a young person undergoing training to become an armed forces officer. The term cadet arose in France, where it was applied to younger sons of the nobility who gained commissioned rank after being attached for a time without pay to active army units. The word is applied in most

Sword of Honour, trilogy of novels by Evelyn Waugh, published originally as Men at Arms (1952), Officers and Gentlemen (1955), and Unconditional Surrender (1961; U.S. title, The End of the Battle). Waugh reworked the novels and published them collectively in one volume as Sword of Honour in 1965.

Antonio Banderas: Later films: The Legend of Zorro and Pain and Glory: …Cruz in Competencia oficial (2021; Official Competition), a satire about the making of a movie.

Ted Kooser: …of poetry was published as Official Entry Blank (1969). His later volumes included Sure Signs (1980), One World at a Time (1985), Weather Central (1994), and Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry (2003), which was written with Jim Harrison.

New Zealand: Constitutional framework: In addition, the Official Information Act of 1982 permits public access, with specific exceptions, to government documents.

Bokmål, a literary form of Norwegian developed by the gradual reform of written Danish in conformity to Norwegian usage. Bokmål means in Norwegian “book language” and Riksmål approximately “official language” (meaning literally, “language of the

Canada: Constitutional framework: Thus, the Official Languages Act of 1969 declares that the English and French languages “enjoy equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all the institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada.”

Nicholas I: Ideology: …in the doctrine of so-called Official Nationality.

United Kingdom: Political process: …the British phenomenon of the official opposition. Its decisive characteristic is that the main opposition party forms an alternative, or “shadow,” government, ready at any time to take office, in recognition of which the leader of the opposition receives an official salary.

baseball: The scorecard: …scorecard filled out by an official scorer, an employee of Major League Baseball who sits in the press box during a game and keeps track of the game’s activities. The official scorer rules on each play, deciding, for example, whether a pitch that gets away from the catcher is a…

Ralph Fiennes: …Keira Knightley) in the drama Official Secrets (2019). His credits from 2021 include The Dig, about the discovery of the archaeological site Sutton Hoo in England, and The King’s Man, an action film centering on a spy agency. The following year Fiennes starred as an egotistical chef in The Menu…

international payment and exchange: Assessing the balance: Official Settlements Balance reckoned an increase in non-central-bank foreign holdings of short-term dollar assets as an inflow of short-term capital into the United States; similarly an increase in U.S. resident holdings of short-term foreign assets was an outflow of short-term capital. This was a logical…

lishu, in Chinese calligraphy, a style that may have originated in the brush writing of the later Zhou and Qin dynasties (c. 300–200 bc); it represents a more informal tradition than the zhuanshu (“seal script”), which was more suitable for inscriptions cast in the ritual bronzes. While examples of

Maserati, Italian automobile manufacturer known for racing, sports, and GT (Grand Touring) cars. It is a subsidiary of Stellantis NV and is based in Modena, Italy. Officine Alfieri Maserati SA was founded in Bologna, Italy, in December 1914 by the brothers Alfieri, Ettore, and Ernesto Maserati. The

Baldassare Castiglione: …the qualities of the ideal courtier, put into the mouths of such friends as Pietro Bembo, Ludovico da Canossa, Bernardo da Bibbiena, and Gasparo Pallavicino. The dialogue claims to represent conversations at the court of Urbino on four successive evenings in 1507, with the duchess Elisabetta Gonzaga and her “lieutenant,”…

Fritz von Unruh: …military establishment in his play Offiziere (“Officers”), staged by Max Reinhardt in 1911, and his antiwar sentiments expressed in the dramatic poem Vor der Entscheidung (1914; “Before the Decision”) are early variations on the two themes basic to his entire work: the nature of the social order into which the…

clay mineral: Kaolin-serpentine group: …consists of tetrahedral and octahedral sheets in which the anions at the exposed surface of the octahedral sheet are hydroxyls (see Figure 4). The general structural formula may be expressed by Y2 - 3Z2O5(OH)4, where Y are cations in the octahedral sheet such as Al3+ and Fe3+ for dioctahedral species…

Jean-Paul Marat: Early scientific work: >Offrande à la patrie (“Offering to Our Country”), in which he indicated that he still believed that the monarchy was capable of solving France’s problems. In a supplement published a few months later, though, he remarked that the king was chiefly concerned with his own…

offroad racing, form of motor racing conducted over rough, unmarked, often desert terrain. An outgrowth of the post-World War II popularity of motorcycle trail racing, offroad racing involves contestants racing from checkpoint to checkpoint along improvised routes. Numerous offroad race circuits

bulbil: Bulbils, called offsets when full-sized, fall or are removed and planted to produce new plants. They are especially common among such plants as onions and lilies.

offset printing, in commercial printing, widely used printing technique in which the inked image on a printing plate is printed on a rubber cylinder and then transferred (i.e., offset) to paper or other material. The rubber cylinder gives great flexibility, permitting printing on wood, cloth,

offset printing, in commercial printing, widely used printing technique in which the inked image on a printing plate is printed on a rubber cylinder and then transferred (i.e., offset) to paper or other material. The rubber cylinder gives great flexibility, permitting printing on wood, cloth,

automobile: Axles: The adoption of hypoid or offset spiral bevel gears in the rear axle provided an increase in this clearance by lowering the drive pinion below the centre of the axle shafts.

bulbil: Bulbils, called offsets when full-sized, fall or are removed and planted to produce new plants. They are especially common among such plants as onions and lilies.

offshore balancing, theory of international relations that views multipolarity—when international relations are dominated by many superpowers—as an opportunity rather than as a threat. In the example of the United States during the early 21st century, proponents of offshore balancing believe that

Cayman Islands: Economy: …Islands are renowned as an offshore banking centre, owing to the absence of direct taxes and to liberal banking laws that generally ensure confidential transactions. Hundreds of banks and trust companies, including most of the world’s 50 largest banks, are registered in the Caymans, making the islands one of the…

sandbar, submerged or partly exposed ridge of sand or coarse sediment that is built by waves offshore from a beach. The swirling turbulence of waves breaking off a beach excavates a trough in the sandy bottom. Some of this sand is carried forward onto the beach and the rest is deposited on the

Atlantic Ocean: Submarine hydrocarbons: …the United States, revenues from offshore leases have been one of the largest sources of federal income, and receipts from offshore production have been important for the economies of the United Kingdom and Norway since the 1970s.

permafrost: Permafrost zones: …is known as subsea or offshore permafrost.

offshoring, the practice of outsourcing operations overseas, usually by companies from industrialized countries to less-developed countries, with the intention of reducing the cost of doing business. Chief among the specific reasons for locating operations outside a corporation’s home country are

Jafar Panahi: Offside (2006) centres on six young female soccer fans who try to sneak into a qualifying match for the World Cup between Iran and Bahrain on June 8, 2005. Women are prohibited from attending sporting events in Iran, so the fans disguise themselves as men.…

football: Rules: …came in 1925, when the offside rule was rewritten. Previously, an attacking player (i.e., one in the opponent’s half of the playing field) was offside if, when the ball was “played” to him, fewer than three opposing players were between him and the goal. The rule change, which reduced the…

Nebraska: Statehood and growth: In 1948 this location, renamed Offutt Air Force Base, became the headquarters of the Strategic Air Command (now U.S. Strategic Command), which stimulated the growth of the greater Omaha area.

Juan Perón: Early life and career: …of colonel, and joined the United Officers Group (Grupo de Oficiales Unidos; GOU), a secret military lodge that engineered the 1943 coup that overthrew the ineffective civilian government of Argentina. The military regimes of the following three years came increasingly under the influence of Perón, who had shrewdly requested for…

Rosario Castellanos: …novel, Oficio de tinieblas (1962; The Book of Lamentations), re-creates an Indian rebellion that occurred in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas in the 19th century, but Castellanos sets it in the 1930s, when her own family suffered from the reforms brought about by Lázaro Cárdenas del Rio…

Spain: Prehistory: …such as El Argar and El Oficio (Almería), where the richest women were adorned with silver diadems while their male consorts were equipped with bronze swords, axes, and polished pottery. At Fuente-Álamo (Almería) the elite lived apart from the village, in square stone houses with round granaries and a water…

Chris Ofili is a British painter and sculptor known for his multilayered paintings that marry the sacred with the profane. Ofili gained notoriety early in his career for his controversial use of elephant dung and provocative imagery, but his work transcends shock value. It draws from a wide range

oganesson (Og), a transuranium element that occupies position 118 in the periodic table and is one of the noble gases. Oganesson is a synthetic element, and in 1999 scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, announced the production of atoms of oganesson as a

Ögödei was the son and successor of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, who greatly expanded the Mongol Empire. The third son of Genghis, Ögödei succeeded his father in 1229. He was the first ruler of the Mongols to call himself khagan (“great khan”); his father used only the title khan. He made his

Ogaden, arid region of eastern Ethiopia. It occupies the barren plain between the Somalia-Ethiopia border and the Ethiopian Eastern Highlands (on which Harer and Dire Dawa are situated). The major river of the region is the Shebeli, fed by ephemeral streams. At the southwestern edge of the Ogaden

Ethiopia: Winds of change: …also removed Ginbot 7, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), and the OLF from its list of organizations deemed to be terrorist groups. In August the ONLF declared a cease-fire, and in October the government and the group signed a peace agreement that was intended to end the hostilities that…

Ōgaki, city, Gifu ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Ibi River. The site was settled in prehistoric times, but the present city developed around the castle built in 1535. Since the end of the Meiji period (1868–1912), Ōgaki has become a textile and chemical centre aided by abundant

aquifer: Recharge: Similarly, the massive Ogallala Aquifer of the Great Plains in the United States no longer receives the water recharge from the Rocky Mountains that formed it during the Pliocene Epoch (5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago). The use of such water, which is not being recharged under…

ogham writing, alphabetic script dating from the 4th century ad, used for writing the Irish and Pictish languages on stone monuments; according to Irish tradition, it was also used for writing on pieces of wood, but there is no material evidence for this. In its simplest form, ogham consists of

oganesson: …it oganesson after Russian physicist Yuri Oganessian, who led the group at Dubna that discovered it and several other of the heaviest transuranium elements. The name oganesson was approved by IUPAC in November 2016.

oganesson (Og), a transuranium element that occupies position 118 in the periodic table and is one of the noble gases. Oganesson is a synthetic element, and in 1999 scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, announced the production of atoms of oganesson as a

Soviet Union: The Interregnum: Andropov and Chernenko: …dynamic chief of staff, Marshal Nikolay Ogarkov, was moved sideways and replaced by Marshal Sergey Akhromeyev, another formidable soldier. Ogarkov was blamed for his aggressive promotion of the SS-20 missile program and for the shooting down of a Korean jet, Flight 007, with 269 passengers and crew on board, after…

Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen: Early life.: Herzen and his friend Nikolay Ogaryov, who, like Herzen, was influenced by the heroic libertarianism of the German playwright Friedrich Schiller, took a solemn oath to devote their lives to continuing the Decembrists’ struggle for freedom in Russia.

Bonin Islands, some 30 volcanic islands and islets in the central Pacific Ocean, about 500 miles (800 km) southeast of Japan. They can be divided into three main groups: Chichijima (Beechey) Group: Ani and Chichi islands; Mukojima (Parry) Group: Muko Island; and Hahajima (Baily) Group: Haha Island.