Word: obsession
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...almost goes without saying that Dengler's story would attract (and obsess) Werner Herzog, a director drawn to portrayals of men driven to extreme behavior in extreme situations. Herzog's features - Aguirre the Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo - and his conditions - notably the great Grizzly Man- provide ample and thrilling testimony to the uniqueness of his enterprise. He is willing to go places no other filmmaker goes and he simply has no competitors when it comes to strenuous risk-taking. About a decade ago he made a hypnotic documentary about Dengler's exploits, entitled Little Dieter Needs...
...with the footage of a group of rusty thirty-somethings practicing in the woods. It’s as if an Opportunes recording were played over a video of a First-Year Outdoor Program excursion—the two just don’t jive. Most of the guys obsess over their ages, and the onset of their mid-life crises becomes the focus of the movie. Meanwhile, their wives and girlfriends form cliques, mock the men, and joke about swapping husbands. In fact, the characters refuse to discuss anything but sex and old age. The racy scenes spiral...
...will have to address environmental issues whether we want to or not. In the face of climate change and resource depletion, the vexing issues we obsess over now will suddenly seem very small. The standard-bearers of the future will be those who provide compelling answers to crucial environmental questions. Let us hope that Faust is willing to carry Harvard forward under this green banner...
...those issues may have been on his mind, Fitzgerald argued, but Libby still had time to obsess about what Chris Matthews was saying about him on Hardball - and time to call Tim Russert and complain about it. Fitzgerald had notes and witnesses to prove that Libby, for a least a few minutes a day, stopped thinking about "the next 9/11" and instead counted the number of times Matthews questioned why "the Vice President" had sent former ambassador Joe Wilson to look for evidence of Iraq's interest in WMDs. It was Fitzgerald's job in court to stress Libby...
This definition makes risk crucial to setting and understanding prices in financial markets. But we humans aren't so great at gauging risk. We pay too much heed to the recent past. We obsess over gruesome possible outcomes while ignoring the mundane but dangerous. And we often cannot envision what will happen next...