His fame as an explorer helped drive forward the obsession with discovering the sources of the River Nile that formed the culmination of the classic period of European geographical discovery and colonial penetration of the African continent.

* High Elves in the Warcraft Universe, or " Quel ' Dorei " in their native tongue, are the pale-skinned descendants of Night Elves, that were exiled from the continent of Kalimdor for their dangerous addiction and obsession over Arcane Magic.

His autobiography, " Burning Bright ", details both his obsession with collecting cigarette cards, as well as his business life, which included becoming President of Selection Trust-at the time, one of the largest mining companies in the world-as well as his lifelong passion for cricket, which culminated in his presidency of Kent Cricket Club.

In this adaptation ( based on the 1997 film, not the 1992 book ), the action is moved from London to Boston, the focus of the protagonist's obsession is shifted from football to baseball, and the story centres on the 2004 Boston Red Sox season, which culminated with the team's first Major League Baseball World Series victory in 86 years.

By manipulating the brain in this way, Emergent managers induce obsession with a single idea or specialty, which they call Focus, essentially turning people into brilliant appliances.

In private, he is actually quite even-tempered ( his obsession with brain surgery on particularly troublesome rival Sparks notwithstanding ), and has a dry, sardonic sense of humor.

Ito discusses over dinner his obsession with studying people, and states that trepanation increases blood flow to the brain, and, in theory, should elevate Nakoshi's brain to a higher level.

Except for his characteristically brilliant draftsmanship and obsession with the figure, the pictures created in this late period of his life bear little superficial resemblance to his early paintings.

Around these main characters revolves a cast of brilliant minor characters, each with his or her unique obsession.

Sidney Stratton, a brilliant young research chemist and former Cambridge scholarship recipient, has been dismissed from jobs at several textile mills in the north of England because of his demands for expensive facilities and his obsession with inventing an everlasting fibre.

Bassano's earliest paintings exhibit his lifelong obsession with brilliant colors that he had seen in Titian's beginning works, particularly in Bassano's Supper at Emmaus ( 1538 ).

A brilliant swordsman and Raoul's former best friend, he develops an obsession with beating Alanna after her skills threaten to surpass his.

The play's device is to explore society's obsession with disaster and violence through the eyes of a group of artist's models who remain part of someone else's painting rather than just be themselves.

The German poet Unica Zürn, who made extensive use of anagram techniques, came to regard obsession with anagrams as a " dangerous fever ", because it created isolation of the author.

" Forced to relocate to Fortson, Georgia, to live with his father because of a critical asthma condition, Atkins was a sensitive youth who made music his obsession.

Although the shooter claimed an obsession for " Goth ", his favorite music list was described, by the media, as a " who's who of heavy metal.

Here, Uncle Toby's obsession with the military leads to him and Trim -- who gets caught up in Toby's enthusiasm -- to begin acting out military actions.

" This is in contrast to the term originally coined by Michael Young in 1958, who critically defined it as a system where " merit is equated with intelligence-plus-effort, its possessors are identified at an early age and selected for appropriate intensive education, and there is an obsession with quantification, test-scoring, and qualifications.

He was widely known for his paranoia and his obsession with torturing people who disappointed him in any way, which included tardy girlfriends, friends who disagreed with him and, most notoriously, Iraqi athletes who performed poorly.

Britton, who had a profound obsession with Harding beginning in high school, also alleged that she was his mistress before and during his administration, at one point having sex with him in a closet at the White House.

Foucault was particularly interested in the work that Binswager had undertaken in studying a woman named Ellen West who, like himself, had a deep obsession with the idea of suicide, eventually killing herself.

Idle's work in Python is often characterised by an obsession with language and communication: many of his characters have verbal peculiarities, such as the man who speaks in anagrams, the man who says words in the wrong order, and the butcher who alternates between rudeness and politeness every time he speaks.

After a few months life becomes very idyllic on the island, with Richard making friends with a few other members of the beach community: Keaty, a fellow Englishman hooked on his Game Boy ; Gregorio, a Spanish traveller part of his fishing detail ; Unhygienix, the Italian head chef with an intense obsession for bath soap ; Jesse and Cassie, two lovers who work in the gardening and carpentry detail, respectively ; Ella, who works second-in-command with Unhygenix in the cooking detail ; and finally, Jed-the enigmatic loner of the group whose sole separate detail is shrouded in mystery.

We need someone who has the same obsession with the source material as Peter Jackson had with Lord of the Rings or Sam Raimi had with Spider-Man.

* " Jim " Moriarty, is played by actor Andrew Scott in the BBC's modern-day adaptation Sherlock as an extremely volatile " consulting criminal " who develops a murderous obsession with Sherlock Holmes.

The film centers around a married man who has a weekend affair with a woman who refuses to allow it to end, resulting in emotional blackmail, stalking, and an ensuing obsession on her part.

He also appeared in an episode of another Cartoon Network show, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, which features a character named Moltar who has an obsession with Estrada and CHiPS, as a guest.

* Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neary, an electrical lineman in Indiana who encounters and forms an obsession with unidentified flying objects.

For example, an individual who has been physically abused could either have a sexual obsession with intercourse, or they could be completely terrified by even the idea of being touched.

It is assumed that those who have been sexually abused create an obsession with being touched or touching others, and possibly even abuse someone else.

As Kennan shows, the judgment of the Allied governments about what was happening in Russia was warped by the obsession of defeating Germany.

His reception remained warmer in America than Britain, and he continued to publish novels and short stories, but by the late 1930s the audience for Milne's grown-up writing had largely vanished: he observed bitterly in his autobiography that a critic had said that the hero of his latest play (" God help it ") was simply " Christopher Robin grown up ... what an obsession with me children are become!

Before controversy erupted ( see below ) he exhibited an obsession with fire and his trademark phrase was " FIRE!

The same year, a study by the Boston Society for Psychical Research concluded that Chaplin was " an American obsession.

In 1993, The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom was a TV movie which told the true story of Wanda Holloway, the Texas mother whose obsession with her daughter's cheerleading career made headline news.

A constant obsession for Fox was the pursuit of " simplicity " in life, meaning humility and the abandonment of luxury, and the short time he spent as a shepherd was important to the formation of this view.

Kosiński was also very interested in polo, and compared himself to a character from his novel Passion Play: " The character, Fabian, is at the mercy of his aging and his sexual obsession.

In the latter part of his life, Wedgwood's obsession was to duplicate the Portland Vase, a blue and white glass vase dating to the first century BC.

With a focus that bordered on obsession, he was determined finally to make good on Kearny's old promise that the United States would " correct all this ".

There was an obsession with the bizarre and the supernatural.

There has been speculation that Heinlein's intense obsession with his privacy was due at least in part to the apparent contradiction between his unconventional private life and his career as an author of books for children, but For Us, The Living also explicitly discusses the political importance Heinlein attached to privacy as a matter of principle.

James's alleged obsession with Barbara Windsor was such that it was said he returned to his home one day to find that all of the furniture had been rearranged, and on another occasion that her husband of the time, Ronnie Knight, had put an axe in his floor.

The Unknown ( 1927 ), featuring Chaney as an armless knife thrower and Joan Crawford as his scantily clad carnival girl obsession, was originally titled Alonzo the Armless and could be considered a precursor to Freaks in that it concerns a love triangle involving a circus freak, a beauty, and a strongman.

The U. S. forces estimated they had killed at least 500 fighters over the duration of the battle, however journalists later noted that only 23 bodies were found-and critics suggested that after a couple days, the operation " was more driven by media obsession, than military necessity ".

Fuji was seen as the source of the secret of immortality, a tradition that was at the heart of Hokusai's own obsession with the mountain.

" To Paul Muni, acting was not just a career, but an obsession ", writes the New York Times.