title: Lidar

text: A coherent imaging lidar uses synthetic array heterodyne detection to enable a staring single element receiver to act as though it were an imaging array.


title: Lidar

text: In 2014, Lincoln Laboratory announced a new imaging chip with more than 16,384 pixels, each able to image a single photon, enabling them to capture a wide area in a single image. An earlier generation of the technology with one fourth as many pixels was dispatched by the U.S. military after the January 2010 Haiti earthquake. A single pass by a business jet at 3,000 meters (10,000 ft.) over Port-au-Prince was able to capture instantaneous snapshots of 600-meter squares of the city at a resolution of , displaying the precise height of rubble strewn in city streets. The new system is ten times better, and could produce much larger maps more quickly. The chip uses indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs), which operates in the infrared spectrum at a relatively long wavelength that allows for higher power and longer ranges. In many applications, such as self-driving cars, the new system will lower costs by not requiring a mechanical component to aim the chip. InGaAs uses less hazardous wavelengths than conventional silicon detectors, which operate at visual wavelengths.


title: Lidar

text: In flash lidar, the entire field of view is illuminated with a wide diverging laser beam in a single pulse. This is in contrast to conventional scanning lidar, which uses a collimated laser beam that illuminates a single point at a time, and the beam is raster scanned to illuminate the field of view point-by-point. This illumination method requires a different detection scheme as well. In both scanning and flash lidar, a time-of-flight camera is used to collect information about both the 3-D location and intensity of the light incident on it in every frame. However, in scanning lidar, this camera contains only a point sensor, while in flash lidar, the camera contains either a 1-D or a 2-D sensor array, each pixel of which collects 3-D location and intensity information. In both cases, the depth information is collected using the time of flight of the laser pulse (i.e., the time it takes each laser pulse to hit the target and return to the sensor), which requires the pulsing of the laser and acquisition by the camera to be synchronized. The result is a camera that takes pictures of distance, instead of colors. Flash lidar is especially advantageous, when compared to scanning lidar, when the camera, scene, or both are moving, since the entire scene is illuminated at the same time. With scanning lidar, motion can cause "jitter" from the lapse in time as the laser rasters over the scene.


title: Lidar

text: As with all forms of lidar, the onboard source of illumination makes flash lidar an active sensor. The signal that is returned is processed by embedded algorithms to produce a nearly instantaneous 3-D rendering of objects and terrain features within the field of view of the sensor. The laser pulse repetition frequency is sufficient for generating 3-D videos with high resolution and accuracy. The high frame rate of the sensor makes it a useful tool for a variety of applications that benefit from real-time visualization, such as highly precise remote landing operations. By immediately returning a 3D elevation mesh of target landscapes, a flash sensor can be used to identify optimal landing zones in autonomous spacecraft landing scenarios.


title: Lidar

text: Seeing at a distance requires a powerful burst of light. The power is limited to levels that do not damage human retinas. Wavelengths must not affect human eyes. However, low-cost silicon imagers do not read light in the eye-safe spectrum. Instead, gallium-arsenide imagers are required, which can boost costs to $200,000. Gallium-arsenide is the same compound used to produce high-cost, high-efficiency solar panels usually used in space applications


title: Lidar

text: Lidar can be oriented to nadir, zenith, or laterally. For example, lidar altimeters look down, an atmospheric lidar looks up, and lidar-based collision avoidance systems are side-looking.


title: Lidar

text: Laser projections of lidars can be manipulated using various methods and mechanisms to produce a scanning effect: the standard spindle-type, which spins to give a 360-degree view; solid-state lidar, which has a fixed field of view, but no moving parts, and can use either MEMS or optical phased arrays to steer the beams; and flash lidar, which spreads a flash of light over a large field of view before the signal bounces back to a detector.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar applications can be divided into airborne and terrestrial types. The two types require scanners with varying specifications based on the data's purpose, the size of the area to be captured, the range of measurement desired, the cost of equipment, and more. Spaceborne platforms are also possible, see satellite laser altimetry.


title: Lidar

text: Airborne lidar (also "airborne laser scanning") is when a laser scanner, while attached to an aircraft during flight, creates a 3-D point cloud model of the landscape. This is currently the most detailed and accurate method of creating digital elevation models, replacing photogrammetry. One major advantage in comparison with photogrammetry is the ability to filter out reflections from vegetation from the point cloud model to create a digital terrain model which represents ground surfaces such as rivers, paths, cultural heritage sites, etc., which are concealed by trees. Within the category of airborne lidar, there is sometimes a distinction made between high-altitude and low-altitude applications, but the main difference is a reduction in both accuracy and point density of data acquired at higher altitudes. Airborne lidar can also be used to create bathymetric models in shallow water.


title: Lidar

text: The main constituents of airborne lidar include digital elevation models (DEM) and digital surface models (DSM). The points and ground points are the vectors of discrete points while DEM and DSM are interpolated raster grids of discrete points. The process also involves capturing of digital aerial photographs. To interpret deep-seated landslides for example, under the cover of vegetation, scarps, tension cracks or tipped trees airborne lidar is used. Airborne lidar digital elevation models can see through the canopy of forest cover, perform detailed measurements of scarps, erosion and tilting of electric poles.


title: Lidar

text: Airborne lidar data is processed using a toolbox called Toolbox for Lidar Data Filtering and Forest Studies (TIFFS) for lidar data filtering and terrain study software. The data is interpolated to digital terrain models using the software. The laser is directed at the region to be mapped and each point's height above the ground is calculated by subtracting the original z-coordinate from the corresponding digital terrain model elevation. Based on this height above the ground the non-vegetation data is obtained which may include objects such as buildings, electric power lines, flying birds, insects, etc. The rest of the points are treated as vegetation and used for modeling and mapping. Within each of these plots, lidar metrics are calculated by calculating statistics such as mean, standard deviation, skewness, percentiles, quadratic mean, etc.


title: Lidar

text: The airborne lidar bathymetric technological system involves the measurement of time of flight of a signal from a source to its return to the sensor. The data acquisition technique involves a sea floor mapping component and a ground truth component that includes video transects and sampling. It works using a green spectrum (532 nm) laser beam. Two beams are projected onto a fast rotating mirror, which creates an array of points. One of the beams penetrates the water and also detects the bottom surface of the water under favorable conditions.


title: Lidar

text: The data obtained shows the full extent of the land surface exposed above the sea floor. This technique is extremely useful as it will play an important role in the major sea floor mapping program. The mapping yields onshore topography as well as underwater elevations. Sea floor reflectance imaging is another solution product from this system which can benefit mapping of underwater habitats. This technique has been used for three-dimensional image mapping of California's waters using a hydrographic lidar.


title: Lidar

text: Drones are now being used with laser scanners, as well as other remote sensors, as a more economical method to scan smaller areas. The possibility of drone remote sensing also eliminates any danger that aircraft crews may be subjected to in difficult terrain or remote areas.


title: Lidar

text: Airborne LiDAR systems were traditionally able to acquire only a few peak returns, while more recent systems acquire and digitize the entire reflected signal. Scientists analysed the waveform signal for extracting peak returns using Gaussian Decomposition. Zhuang et al, 2017 used this approach for estimating aboveground biomass. Handling the huge amounts of full-waveform data is difficult. Therefore, Gaussian Decomposition of the waveforms is effective, since it reduces the data and is supported by existing workflows that support interpretation of 3D point clouds. Recent studies investigated voxelisation. The intensities of the waveform samples are inserted into a voxelised space (i.e. 3D grayscale image) building up a 3D representation of the scanned area. Related metrics and information can then be extracted from that voxelised space. Structural information can be extracted using 3D metrics from local areas and there is a case study that used the voxelisation approach for detecting dead standing Eucalypt trees in Australia.


title: Lidar

text: Terrestrial applications of lidar (also "terrestrial laser scanning") happen on the Earth's surface and can be either stationary or mobile. Stationary terrestrial scanning is most common as a survey method, for example in conventional topography, monitoring, cultural heritage documentation and forensics. The 3-D point clouds acquired from these types of scanners can be matched with digital images taken of the scanned area from the scanner's location to create realistic looking 3-D models in a relatively short time when compared to other technologies. Each point in the point cloud is given the colour of the pixel from the image taken at the same location and direction as the laser beam that created the point.


title: Lidar

text: Mobile lidar (also "mobile laser scanning") is when two or more scanners are attached to a moving vehicle to collect data along a path. These scanners are almost always paired with other kinds of equipment, including GNSS receivers and IMUs. One example application is surveying streets, where power lines, exact bridge heights, bordering trees, etc. all need to be taken into account. Instead of collecting each of these measurements individually in the field with a tachymeter, a 3-D model from a point cloud can be created where all of the measurements needed can be made, depending on the quality of the data collected. This eliminates the problem of forgetting to take a measurement, so long as the model is available, reliable and has an appropriate level of accuracy.


title: Lidar

text: Terrestrial lidar mapping involves a process of occupancy grid map generation. The process involves an array of cells divided into grids which employ a process to store the height values when lidar data falls into the respective grid cell. A binary map is then created by applying a particular threshold to the cell values for further processing. The next step is to process the radial distance and z-coordinates from each scan to identify which 3-D points correspond to each of the specified grid cell leading to the process of data formation.


title: Lidar

text: There are a wide variety of lidar applications, in addition to the applications listed below, as it is often mentioned in National lidar dataset programs. These applications are largely determined by the range of effective object detection; resolution, which is how accurately the lidar identifies and classifies objects; and reflectance confusion, meaning how well the lidar can see something in the presence of bright objects, like reflective signs or bright sun.


title: Lidar

text: Companies are working to cut the cost of lidar sensors, currently anywhere from about $1,200 to more than $12,000. Lower prices will make lidar more attractive for new markets.


title: Lidar

text: Agricultural robots have been used for a variety of purposes ranging from seed and fertilizer dispersions, sensing techniques as well as crop scouting for the task of weed control.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar can help determine where to apply costly fertilizer. It can create a topographical map of the fields and reveal slopes and sun exposure of the farmland. Researchers at the Agricultural Research Service used this topographical data with the farmland yield results from previous years, to categorize land into zones of high, medium, or low yield. This indicates where to apply fertilizer to maximize yield.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar is now used to monitor insects in the field. The use of Lidar can detect the movement and behavior of individual flying insects, with identification down to sex and species. In 2017 a patent application was published on this technology in the United States, Europe, and China.


title: Lidar

text: Another application is crop mapping in orchards and vineyards, to detect foliage growth and the need for pruning or other maintenance, detect variations in fruit production, or count plants.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar is useful in GNSS-denied situations, such as nut and fruit orchards, where foliage blocks satellite signals to precision agriculture equipment or a driverless tractor. Lidar sensors can detect the edges of rows, so that farming equipment can continue moving until GNSS signal is reestablished.


title: Lidar

text: Controlling weeds requires identifying plant species. This can be done by using 3-D lidar and machine learning. Lidar produces plant contours as a "point cloud" with range and reflectance values. This data is transformed, and features are extracted from it. If the species is known, the features are added as new data. The species is labelled and its features are initially stored as an example to identify the species in the real environment. This method is efficient because it uses a low-resolution lidar and supervised learning. It includes an easy-to-compute feature set with common statistical features which are independent of the plant size.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar has many uses in archaeology, including planning of field campaigns, mapping features under forest canopy, and overview of broad, continuous features indistinguishable from the ground. Lidar can produce high-resolution datasets quickly and cheaply. Lidar-derived products can be easily integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) for analysis and interpretation.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar can also help to create high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) of archaeological sites that can reveal micro-topography that is otherwise hidden by vegetation. The intensity of the returned lidar signal can be used to detect features buried under flat vegetated surfaces such as fields, especially when mapping using the infrared spectrum. The presence of these features affects plant growth and thus the amount of infrared light reflected back. For example, at Fort Beauséjour – Fort Cumberland National Historic Site, Canada, lidar discovered archaeological features related to the siege of the Fort in 1755. Features that could not be distinguished on the ground or through aerial photography were identified by overlaying hill shades of the DEM created with artificial illumination from various angles. Another example is work at Caracol by Arlen Chase and his wife Diane Zaino Chase. In 2012, lidar was used to search for the legendary city of La Ciudad Blanca or "City of the Monkey God" in the La Mosquitia region of the Honduran jungle. During a seven-day mapping period, evidence was found of man-made structures. In June 2013, the rediscovery of the city of Mahendraparvata was announced. In southern New England, lidar was used to reveal stone walls, building foundations, abandoned roads, and other landscape features obscured in aerial photography by the region's dense forest canopy. In Cambodia, lidar data were used by Damian Evans and Roland Fletcher to reveal anthropogenic changes to Angkor landscape.


title: Lidar

text: In 2012, Lidar revealed that the Purépecha settlement of Angamuco in Michoacán, Mexico had about as many buildings as today's Manhattan; while in 2016, its use in mapping ancient Maya causeways in northern Guatemala, revealed 17 elevated roads linking the ancient city of El Mirador to other sites. In 2018, archaeologists using lidar discovered more than 60,000 man-made structures in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, a "major breakthrough" that showed the Maya civilization was much larger than previously thought.


title: Lidar

text: Autonomous vehicles may use lidar for obstacle detection and avoidance to navigate safely through environments. The introduction of lidar was a pivotal occurrence that was the key enabler behind Stanley, the first autonomous vehicle to successfully complete the DARPA Grand Challenge. Point cloud output from the lidar sensor provides the necessary data for robot software to determine where potential obstacles exist in the environment and where the robot is in relation to those potential obstacles. Singapore's "Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART)" is actively developing technologies for autonomous lidar vehicles.


title: Lidar

text: In transportation systems, to ensure vehicle and passenger safety and to develop electronic systems that deliver driver assistance, understanding vehicle and its surrounding environment is essential. Lidar systems play an important role in the safety of transportation systems. Many electronic systems which add to the driver assistance and vehicle safety such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Emergency Brake Assist, and Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) depend on the detection of a vehicle's environment to act autonomously or semi-autonomously. Lidar mapping and estimation achieve this.


title: Lidar

text: Basics overview: Current lidar systems use rotating hexagonal mirrors which split the laser beam. The upper three beams are used for vehicle and obstacles ahead and the lower beams are used to detect lane markings and road features. The major advantage of using lidar is that the spatial structure is obtained and this data can be fused with other sensors such as radar, etc. to get a better picture of the vehicle environment in terms of static and dynamic properties of the objects present in the environment. Conversely, a significant issue with lidar is the difficulty in reconstructing point cloud data in poor weather conditions. In heavy rain, for example, the light pulses emitted from the lidar system are partially reflected off of rain droplets which adds noise to the data, called 'echoes'.


title: Lidar

text: Below mentioned are various approaches of processing lidar data and using it along with data from other sensors through sensor fusion to detect the vehicle environment conditions.


title: Lidar

text: This method proposed by Kun Zhou et al. not only focuses on object detection and tracking but also recognizes lane marking and road features. As mentioned earlier the lidar systems use rotating hexagonal mirrors that split the laser beam into six beams. The upper three layers are used to detect the forward objects such as vehicles and roadside objects. The sensor is made of weather-resistant material. The data detected by lidar are clustered to several segments and tracked by Kalman filter. Data clustering here is done based on characteristics of each segment based on object model, which distinguish different objects such as vehicles, signboards, etc. These characteristics include the dimensions of the object, etc. The reflectors on the rear edges of vehicles are used to differentiate vehicles from other objects. Object tracking is done using a 2-stage Kalman filter considering the stability of tracking and the accelerated motion of objects Lidar reflective intensity data is also used for curb detection by making use of robust regression to deal with occlusions. The road marking is detected using a modified Otsu method by distinguishing rough and shiny surfaces.


title: Lidar

text: Roadside reflectors that indicate lane border are sometimes hidden due to various reasons. Therefore, other information is needed to recognize the road border. The lidar used in this method can measure the reflectivity from the object. Hence, with this data road border can also be recognized. Also, the usage of sensor with weather-robust head helps detecting the objects even in bad weather conditions. Canopy Height Model before and after flood is a good example. Lidar can detect high detailed canopy height data as well as its road border.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar measurements help identify the spatial structure of the obstacle. This helps distinguish objects based on size and estimate the impact of driving over it.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar systems provide better range and a large field of view which helps detecting obstacles on the curves. This is one major advantage over RADAR systems which have a narrower field of view. The fusion of lidar measurement with different sensors makes the system robust and useful in real-time applications, since lidar dependent systems can't estimate the dynamic information about the detected object.


title: Lidar

text: It has been shown that lidar can be manipulated, such that self-driving cars are tricked into taking evasive action.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar has also found many applications in forestry. Canopy heights, biomass measurements, and leaf area can all be studied using airborne lidar systems. Similarly, lidar is also used by many industries, including Energy and Railroad, and the Department of Transportation as a faster way of surveying. Topographic maps can also be generated readily from lidar, including for recreational use such as in the production of orienteering maps. Lidar has also been applied to estimate and assess the biodiversity of plants, fungi, and animals.


title: Lidar

text: In addition, the Save the Redwoods League has undertaken a project to map the tall redwoods on the Northern California coast. Lidar allows research scientists to not only measure the height of previously unmapped trees, but to determine the biodiversity of the redwood forest. Stephen Sillett, who is working with the League on the North Coast lidar project, claims this technology will be useful in directing future efforts to preserve and protect ancient redwood trees.


title: Lidar

text: High-resolution digital elevation maps generated by airborne and stationary lidar have led to significant advances in geomorphology (the branch of geoscience concerned with the origin and evolution of the Earth surface topography). The lidar abilities to detect subtle topographic features such as river terraces and river channel banks, glacial landforms, to measure the land-surface elevation beneath the vegetation canopy, to better resolve spatial derivatives of elevation, and to detect elevation changes between repeat surveys have enabled many novel studies of the physical and chemical processes that shape landscapes.


title: Lidar

text: In 2005 the Tour Ronde in the Mont Blanc massif became the first high alpine mountain on which lidar was employed to monitor the increasing occurrence of severe rock-fall over large rock faces allegedly caused by climate change and degradation of permafrost at high altitude.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar is also used in structural geology and geophysics as a combination between airborne lidar and GNSS for the detection and study of faults, for measuring uplift. The output of the two technologies can produce extremely accurate elevation models for terrain – models that can even measure ground elevation through trees. This combination was used most famously to find the location of the Seattle Fault in Washington, United States. This combination also measures uplift at Mount St. Helens by using data from before and after the 2004 uplift. Airborne lidar systems monitor glaciers and have the ability to detect subtle amounts of growth or decline. A satellite-based system, the NASA ICESat, includes a lidar sub-system for this purpose. The NASA Airborne Topographic Mapper is also used extensively to monitor glaciers and perform coastal change analysis.


title: Lidar

text: The combination is also used by soil scientists while creating a soil survey. The detailed terrain modeling allows soil scientists to see slope changes and landform breaks which indicate patterns in soil spatial relationships.


title: Lidar

text: Initially, based on ruby lasers, lidar for meteorological applications was constructed shortly after the invention of the laser and represent one of the first applications of laser technology. Lidar technology has since expanded vastly in capability and lidar systems are used to perform a range of measurements that include profiling clouds, measuring winds, studying aerosols, and quantifying various atmospheric components. Atmospheric components can in turn provide useful information including surface pressure (by measuring the absorption of oxygen or nitrogen), greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide and methane), photosynthesis (carbon dioxide), fires (carbon monoxide), and humidity (water vapor). Atmospheric lidars can be either ground-based, airborne or satellite depending on the type of measurement.


title: Lidar

text: Backscatter from the atmosphere directly gives a measure of clouds and aerosols. Other derived measurements from backscatter such as winds or cirrus ice crystals require careful selecting of the wavelength and/or polarization detected. "Doppler lidar" and "Rayleigh Doppler lidar" are used to measure temperature and/or wind speed along the beam by measuring the frequency of the backscattered light. The Doppler broadening of gases in motion allows the determination of properties via the resulting frequency shift. Scanning lidars, such as the conical-scanning NASA HARLIE LIDAR, have been used to measure atmospheric wind velocity. The ESA wind mission ADM-Aeolus will be equipped with a Doppler lidar system in order to provide global measurements of vertical wind profiles. A doppler lidar system was used in the 2008 Summer Olympics to measure wind fields during the yacht competition.


title: Lidar

text: Doppler lidar systems are also now beginning to be successfully applied in the renewable energy sector to acquire wind speed, turbulence, wind veer, and wind shear data. Both pulsed and continuous wave systems are being used. Pulsed systems use signal timing to obtain vertical distance resolution, whereas continuous wave systems rely on detector focusing.


title: Lidar

text: The term, "eolics", has been proposed to describe the collaborative and interdisciplinary study of wind using computational fluid mechanics simulations and Doppler lidar measurements.


title: Lidar

text: The ground reflection of an airborne lidar gives a measure of surface reflectivity (assuming the atmospheric transmittance is well known) at the lidar wavelength, however, the ground reflection is typically used for making absorption measurements of the atmosphere. "Differential absorption lidar" (DIAL) measurements utilize two or more closely spaced (<1 nm) wavelengths to factor out surface reflectivity as well as other transmission losses, since these factors are relatively insensitive to wavelength. When tuned to the appropriate absorption lines of a particular gas, DIAL measurements can be used to determine the concentration (mixing ratio) of that particular gas in the atmosphere. This is referred to as an "Integrated Path Differential Absorption" (IPDA) approach, since it is a measure of the integrated absorption along the entire lidar path. IPDA lidars can be either pulsed or CW and typically use two or more wavelengths. IPDA lidars have been used for remote sensing of carbon dioxide and methane.


title: Lidar

text: "Synthetic array lidar" allows imaging lidar without the need for an array detector. It can be used for imaging Doppler velocimetry, ultra-fast frame rate (MHz) imaging, as well as for speckle reduction in coherent lidar. An extensive lidar bibliography for atmospheric and hydrospheric applications is given by Grant.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar speed guns are used by the police to measure the speed of vehicles for speed limit enforcement purposes. Additionally, it is used in forensics to aid in crime scene investigations. Scans of a scene are taken to record exact details of object placement, blood, and other important information for later review. These scans can also be used to determine bullet trajectory in cases of shootings.


title: Lidar

text: Few military applications are known to be in place and are classified (such as the lidar-based speed measurement of the AGM-129 ACM stealth nuclear cruise missile), but a considerable amount of research is underway in their use for imaging. Higher resolution systems collect enough detail to identify targets, such as tanks. Examples of military applications of lidar include the Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) for counter-mine warfare by Areté Associates.


title: Lidar

text: A NATO report (RTO-TR-SET-098) evaluated the potential technologies to do stand-off detection for the discrimination of biological warfare agents. The potential technologies evaluated were Long-Wave Infrared (LWIR), Differential Scattering (DISC), and Ultraviolet Laser Induced Fluorescence (UV-LIF). The report concluded that : "Based upon the results of the lidar systems tested and discussed above, the Task Group recommends that the best option for the near-term (2008–2010) application of stand-off detection systems is UV-LIF ", however, in the long-term, other techniques such as stand-off Raman spectroscopy may prove to be useful for identification of biological warfare agents.


title: Lidar

text: Short-range compact spectrometric lidar based on Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) would address the presence of bio-threats in aerosol form over critical indoor, semi-enclosed and outdoor venues such as stadiums, subways, and airports. This near real-time capability would enable rapid detection of a bioaerosol release and allow for timely implementation of measures to protect occupants and minimize the extent of contamination.


title: Lidar

text: The Long-Range Biological Standoff Detection System (LR-BSDS) was developed for the U.S. Army to provide the earliest possible standoff warning of a biological attack. It is an airborne system carried by helicopter to detect synthetic aerosol clouds containing biological and chemical agents at long range. The LR-BSDS, with a detection range of 30 km or more, was fielded in June 1997.


title: Lidar

text: Five lidar units produced by the German company Sick AG were used for short range detection on Stanley, the autonomous car that won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge.


title: Lidar

text: A robotic Boeing AH-6 performed a fully autonomous flight in June 2010, including avoiding obstacles using lidar.


title: Lidar

text: For the calculation of ore volumes is accomplished by periodic (monthly) scanning in areas of ore removal, then comparing surface data to the previous scan.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar sensors may also be used for obstacle detection and avoidance for robotic mining vehicles such as in the Komatsu Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) used in Rio Tinto's Mine of the Future.


title: Lidar

text: A worldwide network of observatories uses lidars to measure the distance to reflectors placed on the moon, allowing the position of the moon to be measured with millimeter precision and tests of general relativity to be done. MOLA, the Mars Orbiting Laser Altimeter, used a lidar instrument in a Mars-orbiting satellite (the NASA Mars Global Surveyor) to produce a spectacularly precise global topographic survey of the red planet. Laser altimeters produced global elevation models of Mars, the Moon (Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA)) Mercury (Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA)), NEAR–Shoemaker Laser Rangefinder (NLR). Future missions will also include laser altimeter experiments such as the Ganymede Laser Altimeter (GALA) as part of the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission.


title: Lidar

text: In atmospheric physics, lidar is used as a remote detection instrument to measure densities of certain constituents of the middle and upper atmosphere, such as potassium, sodium, or molecular nitrogen and oxygen. These measurements can be used to calculate temperatures. Lidar can also be used to measure wind speed and to provide information about vertical distribution of the aerosol particles.


title: Lidar

text: At the JET nuclear fusion research facility, in the UK near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, lidar Thomson Scattering is used to determine Electron Density and Temperature profiles of the plasma.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar has been widely used in rock mechanics for rock mass characterization and slope change detection. Some important geomechanical properties from the rock mass can be extracted from the 3-D point clouds obtained by means of the lidar. Some of these properties are:


title: Lidar

text: Some of these properties have been used to assess the geomechanical quality of the rock mass through the RMR index. Moreover, as the orientations of discontinuities can be extracted using the existing methodologies, it is possible to assess the geomechanical quality of a rock slope through the SMR index. In addition to this, the comparison of different 3-D point clouds from a slope acquired at different times allows researchers to study the changes produced on the scene during this time interval as a result of rockfalls or any other landsliding processes.


title: Lidar

text: THOR is a laser designed toward measuring Earth's atmospheric conditions. The laser enters a cloud cover and measures the thickness of the return halo. The sensor has a fiber optic aperture with a width of 7.5 inches that is used to measure the return light.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar technology is being used in robotics for the perception of the environment as well as object classification. The ability of lidar technology to provide three-dimensional elevation maps of the terrain, high precision distance to the ground, and approach velocity can enable safe landing of robotic and crewed vehicles with a high degree of precision. Lidar are also widely used in robotics for simultaneous localization and mapping and well integrated into robot simulators. Refer to the Military section above for further examples.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar is increasingly being utilized for rangefinding and orbital element calculation of relative velocity in proximity operations and stationkeeping of spacecraft. Lidar has also been used for atmospheric studies from space. Short pulses of laser light beamed from a spacecraft can reflect off tiny particles in the atmosphere and back to a telescope aligned with the spacecraft laser. By precisely timing the lidar 'echo,' and by measuring how much laser light is received by the telescope, scientists can accurately determine the location, distribution and nature of the particles. The result is a revolutionary new tool for studying constituents in the atmosphere, from cloud droplets to industrial pollutants, which are difficult to detect by other means."


title: Lidar

text: Laser altimetry is used to make digital elevation maps of planets, including the Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA) mapping of Mars, the Lunar Orbital Laser Altimeter (LOLA) and Lunar Altimeter (LALT) mapping of the Moon, and the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) mapping of Mercury. It is also used to help navigate the helicopter Ingenuity in its record-setting flights over the terrain of Mars.


title: Lidar

text: Airborne lidar sensors are used by companies in the remote sensing field. They can be used to create a DTM (Digital Terrain Model) or DEM (Digital Elevation Model); this is quite a common practice for larger areas as a plane can acquire 3–4 km wide swaths in a single flyover. Greater vertical accuracy of below 50 mm can be achieved with a lower flyover, even in forests, where it is able to give the height of the canopy as well as the ground elevation. Typically, a GNSS receiver configured over a georeferenced control point is needed to link the data in with the WGS (World Geodetic System).


title: Lidar

text: LiDAR are also in use in hydrographic surveying. Depending upon the clarity of the water LiDAR can measure depths from 0.9m to 40m with a vertical accuracy of 15 cm and horizontal accuracy of 2.5m.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar systems have also been applied to improve forestry management. Measurements are used to take inventory in forest plots as well as calculate individual tree heights, crown width and crown diameter. Other statistical analysis use lidar data to estimate total plot information such as canopy volume, mean, minimum and maximum heights, and vegetation cover estimates. Aerial LiDAR has been used to map the bush fires in Australia in early 2020. The data was manipulated to view bare earth, and identify healthy and burned vegetation.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar has been used in the railroad industry to generate asset health reports for asset management and by departments of transportation to assess their road conditions. CivilMaps.com is a leading company in the field. Lidar has been used in adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems for automobiles. Systems such as those by Siemens, Hella, Ouster and Cepton use a lidar device mounted on the front of the vehicle, such as the bumper, to monitor the distance between the vehicle and any vehicle in front of it. In the event, the vehicle in front slows down or is too close, the ACC applies the brakes to slow the vehicle. When the road ahead is clear, the ACC allows the vehicle to accelerate to a speed preset by the driver. Refer to the Military section above for further examples. A lidar-based device, the Ceilometer is used at airports worldwide to measure the height of clouds on runway approach paths.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar can be used to increase the energy output from wind farms by accurately measuring wind speeds and wind turbulence. Experimental lidar systems can be mounted on the nacelle of a wind turbine or integrated into the rotating spinner to measure oncoming horizontal winds, winds in the wake of the wind turbine, and proactively adjust blades to protect components and increase power. Lidar is also used to characterise the incident wind resource for comparison with wind turbine power production to verify the performance of the wind turbine by measuring the wind turbine's power curve. Wind farm optimization can be considered a topic in "applied eolics". Another aspect of Lidar in wind related industry is to use computational fluid dynamics over Lidar-scanned surfaces in order to assess the wind potential, which can be used for optimal wind farms placement.


title: Lidar

text: Lidar can also be used to assist planners and developers in optimizing solar photovoltaic systems at the city level by determining appropriate roof tops and for determining shading losses. Recent airborne laser scanning efforts have focused on ways to estimate the amount of solar light hitting vertical building facades, or by incorporating more detailed shading losses by considering the influence from vegetation and larger surrounding terrain.


title: Lidar

text: Recent simulation racing games such as rFactor Pro, iRacing, Assetto Corsa and Project CARS increasingly feature race tracks reproduced from 3-D point clouds acquired through Lidar surveys, resulting in surfaces replicated with centimeter or millimeter precision in the in-game 3-D environment.


title: Lidar

text: The 2017 exploration game Scanner Sombre, by Introversion Software, uses Lidar as a fundamental game mechanic.


title: Lidar

text: In Build the Earth, Lidar is used to create accurate renders of terrain in Minecraft to account for any errors (mainly regarding elevation) in the default generation. The process of rendering terrain into Build the Earth is limited by the amount of data available in region as well as the speed it takes to convert the file into block data.


title: Lidar

text: The video for the 2007 song "House of Cards" by Radiohead was believed to be the first use of real-time 3-D laser scanning to record a music video. The range data in the video is not completely from a lidar, as structured light scanning is also used.


title: Lidar

text: In 2020, Apple introduced the fourth generation of iPad Pro with a lidar sensor integrated into the rear camera module, especially developed for augmented reality (AR) experiences. The feature was later included in the iPhone 12 Pro lineup and subsequent Pro models. On Apple devices, LiDAR empowers portrait mode pictures with night mode, but also quickens auto focus and improves accuracy in the Measure app.


title: Lidar

text: In 2022, Wheel of Fortune started using lidar technology to track when Vanna White moves her hand over the puzzle board to reveal letters. The first episode to have this technology was in the Season 40 premiere. However, the technology has had mixed reviews from fans of the show.


title: Lidar

text: Recent development of Structure From Motion (SFM) technologies allows delivering 3-D images and maps based on data extracted from visual and IR photography. The elevation or 3-D data is extracted using multiple parallel passes over mapped area, yielding both visual light images and 3-D structure from the same sensor, which is often a specially chosen and calibrated digital camera.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is an American actress, activist, and theater director. For her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series "Sex and the City" (1998–2004), she won the 2004 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She reprised the role in the films "Sex and the City" (2008) and "Sex and the City 2" (2010), as well as the television show "And Just Like That..." (2021–present). Her other film credits include "Amadeus" (1984), "James White" (2015), and playing Emily Dickinson in "A Quiet Passion" (2016).


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Nixon made her Broadway debut in the 1980 revival of "The Philadelphia Story". Her other Broadway credits include "The Real Thing" (1983), "Hurlyburly" (1983), "Indiscretions" (1995), "The Women" (2001), and "Wit" (2012). She won the 2006 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for "Rabbit Hole", the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for "", the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for "An Inconvenient Truth", and the 2017 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for "The Little Foxes". Her other television roles include playing political figures Eleanor Roosevelt , Kade Prenall in NBC Hannibal "Warm Springs" (2005), Michele Davis in "Too Big to Fail" (2011), and playing Nancy Reagan in the 2016 television film "Killing Reagan". In 2020 she appeared in the Netflix drama "Ratched".


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: On March 19, 2018, Nixon announced her campaign for Governor of New York as a challenger to Democratic incumbent Andrew Cuomo. Her platform focused on income inequality, renewable energy, establishing universal health care, stopping mass incarceration in the United States, and protecting undocumented children from deportation. She lost in the Democratic primary to Cuomo on September 13, 2018, with 34% of the vote to his 66%. Nixon was nominated as the gubernatorial candidate for the Working Families Party; the party threw its support to Cuomo after Nixon lost in the Democratic primary.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Nixon has been an advocate for LGBT rights in the United States, particularly the right of same-sex marriage. She met her wife at a 2002 gay rights rally, and announced her engagement at a rally for New York same-sex marriage in 2009. She received the Yale University Artist for Equality award in 2013 and a Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign in 2018.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Nixon was born in Manhattan, the only child of Walter Elmer Nixon Jr., a radio journalist from Texas, and Anne Elizabeth (née Knoll), an actress originally from Chicago. She credits her mother with "indoctrinating" her into theatre. She is of English and German descent. Her grandparents were Adolph Knoll, Etta Elizabeth Williams, Walter E. Nixon, and Grace Truman McCormack. Nixon's parents divorced when she was six years old. According to Nixon, her father was often unemployed and her mother was the household's main breadwinner: Nixon's mother worked on the game show "To Tell the Truth", coaching the "impostors" who claimed to be the person described by the host.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Nixon made her first television appearance on the show at 9 as one of the "impostors", pretending to be a junior horse riding champion. Nixon was an actress all through her years at Hunter College Elementary School and Hunter College High School (class of 1984), often taking time away from school to perform in film and on stage. Nixon also acted in order to pay her way through Barnard College, where she received a B.A. in English Literature. Nixon was also a student in the Semester at Sea Program in the Spring of 1986.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Nixon's first onscreen appearance was as an imposter on "To Tell the Truth", where her mother worked. She began acting at 12 as the object of a wealthy schoolmate's crush in "The Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid", a 1979 ABC Afterschool Special. She made her feature debut co-starring with Kristy McNichol and Tatum O'Neal in "Little Darlings" (1980). She made her Broadway debut as Dinah Lord in a 1980 revival of "The Philadelphia Story". Alternating between film, TV, and stage, she did projects like the 1982 ABC movie "My Body, My Child", the features "Prince of the City" (1981) and "I Am the Cheese" (1983), and the 1982 Off-Broadway productions of John Guare's "Lydie Breeze".


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In 1984, while a freshman at Barnard College, Nixon made theatrical history by simultaneously appearing in two hit Broadway plays directed by Mike Nichols. They were "The Real Thing", where she played the daughter of Jeremy Irons and Christine Baranski; and "Hurlyburly", where she played a young woman who encounters sleazy Hollywood executives. The two theaters were just two blocks apart and Nixon's roles were both short, so she could run from one to the other. Onscreen, she played the role of Salieri's maid/spy, Lorl, in "Amadeus" (1984). In 1985, she appeared alongside Jeff Daniels in Lanford Wilson's "Lemon Sky" at Second Stage Theatre.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: She landed her first major supporting role in a movie as an intelligent teenager who aids her boyfriend (Christopher Collet) in building a nuclear bomb in Marshall Brickman's "The Manhattan Project" (1986). Nixon was part of the cast of the NBC miniseries "The Murder of Mary Phagan" (NBC, 1988) starring Jack Lemmon and Kevin Spacey, and portrayed the daughter of a presidential candidate (Michael Murphy) in "Tanner '88" (1988), Robert Altman's political satire for HBO. She reprised the role for the 2004 sequel, "Tanner on Tanner".


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: On stage, Nixon portrayed Juliet in a 1988 New York Shakespeare Festival production of "Romeo and Juliet", and acted in the workshop production of Wendy Wasserstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Heidi Chronicles", playing several characters after it came to Broadway in 1989. She was the guest star in the second episode of the long running NBC television series "Law & Order". She played the role of an agoraphobic woman in a February 1993 episode of "Murder, She Wrote", titled "Threshold of Fear".


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Nixon succeeded Marcia Gay Harden as Harper Pitt in Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" (1994), received a Tony nomination for her performance in "Indiscretions" ("Les Parents Terribles") (1996), her sixth Broadway show, and, although she originally lost the part to another actress, eventually took over the role of Lala Levy in the Tony-winning "The Last Night of Ballyhoo" (1997).


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Nixon was a founding member of the Off-Broadway theatrical troupe Drama Dept., which included Sarah Jessica Parker, Dylan Baker, John Cameron Mitchell and Billy Crudup among its actors, appearing in the group's productions of "Kingdom on Earth" (1996), "June Moon" and "As Bees in Honey Drown" (both 1997), "Hope is the Thing with Feathers" (1998), and "The Country Club" (1999).


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: She had supporting roles in "Addams Family Values" (1993), "Baby's Day Out" (1994), "Marvin's Room" (1996), and "The Out-of-Towners" (1999).


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: She raised her profile significantly as one of the four regulars on HBO's successful comedy "Sex and the City" (1998–2004), as the lawyer Miranda Hobbes. Nixon received three Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (2002, 2003, 2004), winning the award in 2004, for the show's final season.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: The immense popularity of the series led Nixon to enjoy her first leading role in a feature, playing a video artist who falls in love, despite her best efforts to avoid commitment, with a bisexual actor who just happens to be dating a gay man (her best friend) in "Advice from a Caterpillar" (2000), as well as starring opposite Scott Bakula in the holiday television movie "Papa's Angels" (2000). In 2002, she also landed a role in the indie comedy "Igby Goes Down", and her turn in the theatrical production of Clare Boothe Luce's play "The Women" was captured for PBS' "Stage on Screen" series.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Post-"Sex and the City", Nixon made a guest appearance on "ER" in 2005, as a mother who undergoes a tricky procedure to lessen the effects of a debilitating stroke. She followed up with a turn as Eleanor Roosevelt for HBO's "Warm Springs" (2005), which chronicled Franklin Delano Roosevelt's quest for a miracle cure for his polio. Nixon earned an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance. In December 2005, she appeared in the Fox TV series "House" in the episode "Deception", as a patient who suffers a seizure.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In 2006, she appeared in David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Rabbit Hole" in a Manhattan Theatre Club production, and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Play). (This part was later played by Nicole Kidman in the movie adaptation of the play.)


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In 2008, she revived her role as Miranda Hobbes in the "Sex and the City" feature film, directed by HBO executive producer Michael Patrick King and co-starring the cast of the original series. Also in 2008, she won an Emmy for her guest appearance in an episode of "", portraying a woman pretending to have dissociative identity disorder.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In 2009, Nixon won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album along with Beau Bridges and Blair Underwood for the album "An Inconvenient Truth" (Al Gore).


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In March 2010, Nixon received the Vito Russo Award at the GLAAD Media Awards. The award is presented to an openly LGBT media professional "who has made a significant difference in promoting equality for the LGBT community". It was announced in June 2010 that Nixon would appear in four episodes of the Showtime series "The Big C".


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Nixon appeared in a "" episode based on the problems surrounding the Broadway musical "". Her character is "Amanda Reese, the high-strung and larger-than-life director behind a problem-plagued Broadway version of "Icarus"," loosely modeled after "Spider-Man" director Julie Taymor.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In 2012, Nixon starred as Professor Vivian Bearing in the Broadway debut of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize–winning play "Wit". Produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club, the play opened January 26, 2012 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Nixon received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play for the performance.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In 2012, Nixon also starred as Petranilla in the TV miniseries of Ken Follett's "World Without End" broadcast on the ReelzChannel, alongside Ben Chaplin, Peter Firth, Charlotte Riley, and Miranda Richardson.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In 2015, Nixon appeared in two films which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival: "Stockholm, Pennsylvania" and "James White". She received critical acclaim for both performances, especially for the latter, which many considered as "Oscar-worthy."


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Nixon played the leading role of reclusive American poet Emily Dickinson in the biographical film "A Quiet Passion" directed and written by Terence Davies. The film premiered in February 2016 at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. In May 2016, it was announced that Nixon would play Nancy Reagan in the upcoming television film adaptation of "Killing Reagan". Filming began in late May and the film aired in October 2016.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Nixon appeared on Broadway in the revival of "The Little Foxes", officially opening on April 19, 2017, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. She alternated the roles of Regina and Birdie with Laura Linney, winning her second Tony Award for her performance as Birdie.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In January 2019, it was announced that Nixon will star in the upcoming Netflix drama series "Ratched".


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Nixon is a long-time advocate for public education. She is a spokesperson for New York's Alliance for Quality Education, a public education fairness advocacy organization.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: She endorsed Bill de Blasio in the 2013 New York City mayoral election, who went on to win the Democratic nomination and the general election. Nixon campaigned actively for de Blasio, whom she had worked with since the early 2000s when campaigning against Michael Bloomberg's education policies. De Blasio credited Nixon and union leader George Gresham as the two "architects of (his) campaign" in the Democratic primaries, when he defeated the favorite Christine Quinn. After his election, de Blasio appointed Nixon as his representative to The Public Theater.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Nixon endorsed Bernie Sanders before campaigning for him in early February 2020 in Las Vegas. She stated, "In the same terrifying and muscular way that Trump is a force for so much of what is bad in this country, in this world, Bernie has that same kind of muscularity of vision but for good. A candidate who is too beholden to big money and the establishment and just basically doesn’t want to rock the boat is never going to be a powerful enough counterbalance to what Donald Trump has to offer. You need someone as vigorous and who is wanting to turn the system upside down."


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In 2018, it was reported that Nixon was preparing a progressive challenge to the incumbent governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. On March 19, 2018, she announced via Twitter that she was running for governor.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Nixon was expected to secure the nomination of the Working Families Party of New York during its annual convention in April 2018, thus guaranteeing her a spot on the general election ballot. On April 15, Nixon won 91.5 percent of the vote at the Party's statewide committee meeting after Cuomo withdrew himself from consideration at the last minute. Nixon stated that in the event that she did not also secure the Democratic nomination, she would "confer with the Working Families Party and we will make the decision we think is best".


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: The endorsement caused a schism in the party, as labor unions, including the Service Employees International Union, and Communications Workers of America, indicated they would not support the party in the election. The withdrawal, it was believed, would significantly hurt the party's finances which, in 2018, were at a level of $1.7 million and supported a statewide staff of about 15 people. The battle received considerable attention since there were concerns that Nixon might drain enough votes from Cuomo in the general election to allow a Republican to be elected (although Cuomo was comfortably leading the polls at the time). Cuomo had vigorously campaigned to get the nomination before withdrawing when it was clear he would not get it.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In contrast to Cuomo, Nixon supported the legalization of marijuana. The most important reason, she said, was racial justice. "People across all ethnic and racial lines use marijuana at roughly the same rate, but the arrests for marijuana are 80 percent black and Latino." To undo that damage, Nixon said that the revenues from legalization should be prioritized to the communities that had been harmed by them, as a form of "reparations." She said that people in jail on marijuana charges should be released, criminal records for marijuana use should be expunged, and marijuana revenues should be used to help them reenter society. However, many black leaders were offended by her use of the term "reparations".


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: On May 23, 2018, Nixon and other potential Democratic challengers to Cuomo were eliminated from the Democratic party endorsement at the state Democratic Convention after failing to meet the 25% state delegate threshold needed to appear on the ballot. Nixon filed a petition with 65,000 signatures, more than four times the 15,000 required, to force a primary election. The primary was held on September 13. With 93% of precincts reporting, Cuomo received 65% of votes and Nixon got 35%. On October 5, 2018, the Working Families Party removed Nixon's name from their ticket after agreeing to endorse Cuomo and Hochul, thus ensuring that Nixon would not appear on the general election ballot.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In August 2021, Cuomo was forced to resign as governor following allegations of sexual harassment by women who worked in his office. As a result of the scandal, he was stripped of the honorary Emmy given to him for his televised Covid briefings in 2020. After he left office, Nixon tweeted on August 24, 2021: "The difference between me and Andrew Cuomo? Neither of us is governor, but I still have my Emmy(s)." She has won two Emmys.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: From 1988 to 2003, Nixon was in a relationship with schoolteacher Danny Mozes. They have two children together. In June 2018, Nixon revealed that her older child is transgender.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In 2004, Nixon began dating education activist Christine Marinoni. Nixon and Marinoni became engaged in April 2009, and married in New York City on May 27, 2012, with Nixon wearing a custom-made, pale green dress by Carolina Herrera. Marinoni gave birth to a son in 2011.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: Regarding her sexual orientation, Nixon remarked in 2007: "I don't really feel I've changed. I'd been with men all my life, and I'd never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn't seem so strange. I'm just a woman in love with another woman." She identified herself as bisexual in 2012, but now identifies as queer. Prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Washington state (Marinoni's home state), Nixon had taken a public stand supporting the issue, and hosted a fundraising event in support of Washington Referendum 74.


title: Cynthia Nixon

text: In October 2006, Nixon was diagnosed with breast cancer during a routine mammography. She initially decided not to go public with her illness because she feared it might hurt her career, but in April 2008, she announced her battle with the disease in an interview with "Good Morning America". Since then, Nixon has become a breast cancer activist. She convinced the head of NBC to air her breast cancer special in a prime time program, and became an Ambassador for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.


title: Berserker

text: In the Old Norse written corpus, berserker were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word "berserk" (meaning "furiously violent or out of control"). Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources.


title: Berserker

text: The Old Norse form of the word was (plural ). It likely means "bear-shirt" (compare the Middle English word ', meaning 'shirt'), "someone who wears a coat made out of a bear's skin". Thirteenth-century historian Snorri Sturluson interpreted the meaning as "bare-shirt", that is to say that the warriors went into battle without armour, but that view has largely been abandoned.


title: Berserker

text: It is proposed by some authors that the northern warrior tradition originated from hunting magic. Three main animal cults appeared: the bear, the wolf, and the wild boar.


title: Berserker

text: The bas relief carvings on Trajan's column in Rome depict scenes of Trajan's conquest of Dacia in 101–106 AD. The scenes show his Roman soldiers plus auxiliaries and allies from Rome's border regions, including tribal warriors from both sides of the Rhine. There are warriors depicted as barefoot, bare-chested, bearing weapons and helmets that are associated with the Germani. Scene 36 on the column shows some of these warriors standing together, with some wearing bearhoods and some wearing wolfhoods. Nowhere else in history are Germanic bear-warriors and wolf-warriors fighting together recorded until 872 AD with Thórbiörn Hornklofi's description of the battle of Hafrsfjord when they fought together for King Harald Fairhair of Norway.


title: Berserker

text: In the spring of 1870, four cast-bronze dies, the Torslunda plates, were found by Erik Gustaf Pettersson and Anders Petter Nilsson in a cairn on the lands of the farm No 5 Björnhovda in Torslunda parish, Öland, Sweden, one of them showing what appears to be a berserker ritual.


title: Berserker

text: It is proposed by some authors that the berserkers drew their power from the bear and were devoted to the bear cult, which was once widespread across the northern hemisphere. The berserkers maintained their religious observances despite their fighting prowess, as the Svarfdæla saga tells of a challenge to single-combat that was postponed by a berserker until three days after Yule. The bodies of dead berserkers were laid out in bearskins prior to their funeral rites. The bear-warrior symbolism survives to this day in the form of the bearskin caps worn by the guards of the Danish monarchs.


title: Berserker

text: In battle, the berserkers were subject to fits of frenzy. They would howl like wild beasts, foam at the mouth, and gnaw the rims of their shields. According to belief, during these fits, they were immune to steel and fire, and made great havoc in the ranks of the enemy. When this fever abated, they were weak and tame. Accounts can be found in the sagas.


title: Berserker

text: To "go berserk" was to "hamask", which translates as "change form", in this case, as with the sense "enter a state of wild fury". Some scholars have interpreted those who could transform as a berserker as "hamrammr" or "shapestrong" – literally able to shapeshift into a bear's form. For example, the band of men who go with Skallagrim in Egil's Saga to see King Harald about his brother Thorolf's murder are described as "the hardest of men, with a touch of the uncanny about a number of them ... they [were] built and shaped more like trolls than human beings." This has sometimes been interpreted as the band of men being "hamrammr", though there is no major consensus. Another example of "hamrammr" comes from the "Saga of Hrólf Kraki". One tale within tells the story of Bödvar Bjarki, a berserker who is able to shapeshift into a bear and uses this ability to fight for king Hrólfr Kraki. "Men saw that a great bear went before King Hrolf's men, keeping always near the king. He slew more men with his fore paws than any five of the king's champions."


title: Berserker

text: Wolf warriors appear among the legends of the Indo-Europeans, Turks, Mongols, and Native American cultures. The Germanic wolf-warriors have left their trace through shields and standards that were captured by the Romans and displayed in the "armilustrium" in Rome.


title: Berserker

text: Frenzy warriors wearing the skins of wolves called "Ulfheðnar" ("Wolf-Coats"; singular "Ulfheðinn"), are mentioned in the "Vatnsdæla saga", the "Haraldskvæði" and the "Grettis saga" and are consistently referred to in the sagas as a group of berserkers, always presented as the elite following of the first Norwegian king Harald Fairhair. They were said to wear the pelt of a wolf over their chainmail when they entered battle. Unlike berserkers, direct references to ulfheðnar are scant. "Egil's Saga" features a man called Kveldulf ("Evening-Wolf") who is said to have transformed into a wolf at night. This Kveldulf is described as a berserker, as opposed to an ulfheðinn. Ulfheðnar are sometimes described as Odin's special warriors: "[Odin's] men went without their mailcoats and were mad as hounds or wolves, bit their shields...they slew men, but neither fire nor iron had effect upon them. This is called 'going berserk'." In addition, the helm-plate press from Torslunda depicts a scene of Odin with a berserker with a wolf pelt and a spear as distinguishing features: "a wolf-skinned warrior with the apparently one-eyed dancer in the bird-horned helm, which is generally interpreted as showing a scene indicative of a relationship between berserkgang ... and the god Odin".


title: Berserker

text: Swine played a central role in Germanic paganism, featuring in both mythology and religious practice, particularly in association with the Vanir, Freyr and Freyja. It has been proposed that similar to berserkers, warriors could ritually transform into boars so as to gain strength, bravery and protection in battle. It has been theorised that this process was linked to the wearing of boar helmets as a ritual costume.


title: Berserker

text: Berserkers appear prominently in a multitude of other sagas and poems. Many earlier sagas portrayed berserkers as bodyguards, elite soldiers, and champions of kings. This image would change as time passed and sagas would begin to describe berserkers as boasters rather than heroes, and as ravenous men who loot, plunder, and kill indiscriminately. Within the sagas, Berserkers can be narrowed down to four different types. The King's "Berserkr," the Hall-Challenging "Berserkr", the "Hólmgangumaðr", and the Viking "Berserkr". Later, by Christian interpreters, the berserker was viewed as a "heathen devil".


title: Berserker

text: The earliest surviving reference to the term "berserker" is in "Haraldskvæði", a skaldic poem composed by Thórbiörn Hornklofi in the late 9th century in honor of King Harald Fairhair, as "ulfheðnar" ("men clad in wolf skins"). This translation from the Haraldskvæði saga describes Harald's berserkers:


title: Berserker

text: The "tasters of blood" (a kenning) in this passage are thought to be ravens, which feasted on the slain.


title: Berserker

text: The Icelandic historian and poet Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241) wrote the following description of berserkers in his "Ynglinga saga":


title: Berserker

text: King Harald Fairhair's use of berserkers as "shock troops" broadened his sphere of influence. Other Scandinavian kings used berserkers as part of their army of hirdmen and sometimes ranked them as equivalent to a royal bodyguard. It may be that some of those warriors only adopted the organization or rituals of berserk Männerbünde, or used the name as a deterrent or claim of their ferocity.


title: Berserker

text: Emphasis has been placed on the frenzied nature of the berserkers, hence the modern sense of the word "berserk". However, the sources describe several other characteristics that have been ignored or neglected by modern commentators. Snorri's assertion that "neither fire nor iron told upon them" is reiterated time after time. The sources frequently state that neither edged weapons nor fire affected the berserks, although they were not immune to clubs or other blunt instruments. For example:


title: Berserker

text: Similarly, Hrolf Kraki's champions refuse to retreat "from fire or iron". Another frequent motif refers to berserkers blunting their enemy's blades with spells or a glance from their evil eyes. This appears as early as Beowulf where it is a characteristic attributed to Grendel. Both the fire eating and the immunity to edged weapons are reminiscent of tricks popularly ascribed to fakirs.


title: Berserker

text: In 1015, Jarl Eiríkr Hákonarson of Norway outlawed berserkers. Grágás, the medieval Icelandic law code, sentenced berserker warriors to outlawry. By the 12th century, organised berserker war-bands had disappeared.


title: Berserker

text: The Lewis Chessmen, found on the Isle of Lewis (Outer Hebrides, Scotland) but thought to be of Norse manufacture, include berserkers depicted biting their shields.


title: Berserker

text: Scholar Hilda Ellis-Davidson draws a parallel between berserkers and the mention by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII (CE 905–959) in his book "De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae" ("Book of Ceremonies of the Byzantine court") of a "Gothic Dance" performed by members of his Varangian Guard (Norse warriors in the service of the Byzantine Empire), who took part wearing animal skins and masks: she believes this may have been connected with berserker rites.


title: Berserker

text: The rage the berserker experienced was referred to as "berserkergang" (Berserk Fit/Frenzy or The Berserk movement). This condition has been described as follows:


title: Berserker

text: When Viking villages went to war in unison, the berserkers often wore special clothing, for instance furs of a wolf or bear, to indicate that this person was a berserker, and would not be able to tell friend from foe when in "bersærkergang". In this way, other allies would know to keep their distance.


title: Berserker

text: Some scholars propose that certain examples of berserker rage had been induced voluntarily by the consumption of drugs such as the hallucinogenic mushroom or massive amounts of alcohol. This is much debated but the theory is further supported by the discovery of seeds belonging to the plant henbane "Hyoscyamus niger" in a Viking grave that was unearthed near Fyrkat, Denmark in 1977. An analysis of the symptoms caused by "Hyoscyamus niger" are also similar to the symptoms ascribed to the berserker state, which suggest it may have been used to generate their warlike mood. Other explanations for the berserker's madness that have been put forward include self-induced hysteria, epilepsy, or mental illness, among other causes.


title: Berserker

text: One theory of the berserkers suggests that the physical manifestations of the berserker alongside their rage was a form of self-induced hysteria. Initiated before battle through a ritualistic process, also known as "effektnummer", which included actions such as shield-biting and animalistic howling.


title: Berserker

text: Jonathan Shay makes an explicit connection between the berserker rage of soldiers and the hyperarousal of posttraumatic stress disorder. In "Achilles in Vietnam", he writes:


title: John Huston

text: John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics, including "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948), "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950), "The African Queen" (1951), "The Misfits" (1961), "Fat City" (1972), "The Man Who Would Be King" (1975) and "Prizzi's Honor" (1985). During his 46-year career, Huston received 15 Academy Award nominations, winning twice. He also directed both his father, Walter Huston, and daughter, Anjelica Huston, to Oscar wins.


title: John Huston

text: In his early years, Huston studied and worked as a fine art painter in Paris. He then moved to Mexico and began writing, first plays and short stories, and later working in Los Angeles as a Hollywood screenwriter, and was nominated for several Academy Awards writing for films directed by William Dieterle and Howard Hawks, among others. His directorial debut came with "The Maltese Falcon", which despite its small budget became a commercial and critical hit; he would continue to be a successful, if iconoclastic, Hollywood director for the next 45 years. He explored the visual aspects of his films throughout his career, sketching each scene on paper beforehand, then carefully framing his characters during the shooting. While most directors rely on post-production editing to shape their final work, Huston instead created his films while they were being shot, with little editing needed. Some of Huston's films were adaptations of important novels, often depicting a "heroic quest," as in "Moby Dick", or "The Red Badge of Courage". In many films, different groups of people, while struggling toward a common goal, would become doomed, forming "destructive alliances," giving the films a dramatic and visual tension. Many of his films involved themes such as religion, meaning, truth, freedom, psychology, colonialism, and war.


title: John Huston

text: While he had done some stage acting in his youth and had occasionally cast himself in bit parts in his own films, he primarily worked behind the camera until Otto Preminger cast him in 1963's "The Cardinal", for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. He continued to take prominent supporting roles for the next two decades, including 1974's "Chinatown" (directed by Roman Polanski), and he lent his booming baritone voice as a voice actor and narrator to a number of prominent films. His last two films, 1985's "Prizzi's Honor", and 1987's "The Dead", filmed while he was in failing health at the end of his life, were both nominated for multiple Academy Awards. He died shortly after completing his last film.


title: John Huston

text: Huston has been referred to as "a titan", "a rebel", and a "renaissance man" in the Hollywood film industry. Author Ian Freer describes him as "cinema's Ernest Hemingway"—a filmmaker who was "never afraid to tackle tough issues head on." He traveled widely, settling at various times in France, Mexico, and Ireland. Huston was a citizen of the U.S. by birth but renounced this to become an Irish citizen and resident in 1964. He later returned to the U.S., where he lived the rest of his life. For his contributions to the American film industry, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 1960.


title: John Huston

text: John Huston was born on August 5, 1906, in Nevada, Missouri. He was the only child of Rhea (née Gore) and Canadian-born Walter Huston. His father was an actor, initially in vaudeville, and later in films. His mother worked as a sports editor for various publications but stopped after John was born. Similarly, his father ended his stage acting career for steady employment as a civil engineer, although he returned to stage acting within a few years. He later became highly successful on both Broadway and then in motion pictures. He had Scottish, Scots-Irish, English and Welsh ancestry.


title: John Huston

text: Huston's parents divorced in 1913 when he was six years old. For much of his childhood, he lived and studied in boarding schools. During summer vacations, he traveled separately with each of his parents  – with his father on vaudeville tours, and with his mother to horse races and other sports events. Young Huston benefited greatly from seeing his father act on stage, and he was later drawn to acting.


title: John Huston

text: Some critics, such as Lawrence Grobel, surmise that his relationship with his mother may have contributed to his marrying five times, and seeming to have difficulty in maintaining relationships. Grobel wrote, "When I interviewed some of the women who had loved him, they inevitably referred to his mother as the key to unlocking Huston's psyche." According to actress Olivia de Havilland, "she [his mother] was the central character. I always felt that John was ridden by witches. He seemed pursued by something destructive. If it wasn't his mother, it was his idea of his mother."


title: John Huston

text: As a child, Huston was often ill; he was treated for an enlarged heart and kidney ailments. He recovered after an extended bedridden stay in Arizona and moved with his mother to Los Angeles, where he attended Abraham Lincoln High School. He dropped out after two years to become a professional boxer. By age 15 he was a top-ranking amateur lightweight boxer in California. He ended his brief boxing career after suffering a broken nose.


title: John Huston

text: He also engaged in many interests, including ballet, English and French literature, opera, horseback riding, and studying painting at the Art Students League of Los Angeles. Living in Los Angeles, Huston became infatuated with the new film industry and motion pictures, as a spectator only. To Huston, "Charlie Chaplin was a god."


title: John Huston

text: Huston returned to New York City to live with his father, who was acting in off-Broadway productions, and had a few small roles. He later remembered that while watching his father rehearse, he became fascinated with the mechanics of acting:


title: John Huston

text: After a short period of acting on stage, and having undergone surgery, Huston travelled alone to Mexico. During two years there, among other adventures, he obtained a position as an honorary member of the Mexican cavalry. He returned to Los Angeles and married Dorothy Harvey, a girlfriend from high school. Their marriage lasted seven years (1926–1933).


title: John Huston

text: During his stay in Mexico, Huston wrote a play called "Frankie and Johnny", based on the ballad of the same title. After selling it easily, he decided that writing would be a viable career, and he focused on it. His self-esteem was enhanced when H. L. Mencken, editor of the popular magazine "American Mercury," bought two of his stories, "Fool" and "Figures of Fighting Men." During subsequent years, Huston's stories and feature articles were published in "Esquire," "Theatre Arts," and "The New York Times." He also worked for a period on the "New York Graphic." In 1931, when he was 25, he moved back to Los Angeles in hopes of writing for the blossoming film industry. The silent films had given way to "talkies", and writers were in demand. His father had earlier moved there and already gained success in a number of films.


title: John Huston

text: Huston received a script editing contract with Samuel Goldwyn Productions but, after six months of receiving no assignments, quit to work for Universal Studios, where his father was a star. At Universal, he got a job in the script department, and began by writing dialogue for a number of films in 1932, including "Murders in the Rue Morgue", "A House Divided", and "Law and Order". The last two also starred his father, Walter Huston. "A House Divided" was directed by William Wyler, who gave Huston his first real "inside view" of the filmmaking process during all stages of production. Wyler and Huston became close friends and collaborators on a number of leading films.


title: John Huston

text: Huston gained a reputation as a "lusty, hard-drinking libertine" during his first years as a writer in Hollywood. Huston described those years as a "series of misadventures and disappointments". In 1933 he was in a romantic relationship with actress Zita Johann. While driving drunk, with Johann as passenger, he hit a parked car sending Johann through the glass windshield. She suffered head trauma and Huston was charged with driving while intoxicated. His brief career as a Hollywood writer ended suddenly when he killed actress Tosca Roulien, wife of actor Raul Roulien, while driving drunk. There is a rumor that actor Clark Gable was responsible for the hit and run, but that MGM general manager Eddie Mannix paid Huston to take the blame. However it's only a rumor because Gable


title: John Huston

text: was on location filming a movie A coroner's jury absolved Huston of blame, but the incident left him "traumatized". He moved to London and Paris, living as a "drifter."


title: John Huston

text: By 1937, the 31-year-old Huston returned to Hollywood intent on being a "serious writer." He married again, to Lesley Black. His first job was as scriptwriter with Warner Brothers Studio, and he formed his personal longterm goal to direct his own scripts. For the next four years, he co-wrote scripts for major films such as "Jezebel, The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse", "Juarez", "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet," and "Sergeant York" (1941). He was nominated for Academy Awards for his screenplays for both "Ehrlich" and "Sergeant York." Huston wrote that "Sergeant York", which was directed by Howard Hawks, has "gone down as one of Howard's best pictures, and Gary Cooper had a triumph playing the young mountaineer."


title: John Huston

text: Huston was recognized and respected as a screenwriter. He persuaded Warners to give him a chance to direct, under the condition that his next script also became a hit.


title: John Huston

text: They indulged me rather. They liked my work as a writer and they wanted to keep me on. If I wanted to direct, why, they'd give me a shot at it, and if it didn't come off all that well, they wouldn't be too disappointed as it was to be a very small picture.


title: John Huston

text: His next script was "High Sierra" (1941), to be directed by Raoul Walsh. The film became the hit Huston wanted. It also made Humphrey Bogart a star with his first major role, as a gunman on the run. Warners kept their end of the bargain and gave Huston his choice of subject.


title: John Huston

text: For his first directing assignment, Huston chose Dashiell Hammett's detective thriller, "The Maltese Falcon", a film which failed at the box office in two earlier versions by Warners. However, studio head Jack L. Warner approved of Huston's treatment of Hammett's 1930 novel, and he stood by his word to let Huston choose his first subject.


title: John Huston

text: Huston kept the screenplay close to the novel, keeping much of Hammett's dialogue, and directing it in an uncluttered style, much like the book's narrative. He did unusual preparation for his first directing job by sketching out each shot beforehand, including camera positions, lighting, and compositional scale, for such elements as closeups.


title: John Huston

text: He especially benefited by selecting a superior cast, giving Humphrey Bogart the lead role. Bogart was happy to take the role, as he liked working with Huston. The supporting cast included other noted actors: Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet (his first film role), and his own father, Walter Huston. The film was given only a small B-movie budget, and received minimal publicity by Warners, as they had low expectations. The entire film was made in eight weeks for only $300,000.


title: John Huston

text: Warners was surprised by the immediate enthusiastic response by the public and critics, who hailed the film as a "classic", with many ranking it as the "best detective melodrama ever made." "Herald Tribune" critic Howard Barnes called it a "triumph." Huston received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay. After this film, Huston directed all of his screenplays, except for one, "Three Strangers" (1946).


title: John Huston

text: In 1942, he directed two more hits, "In This Our Life" (1942), starring Bette Davis, and "Across the Pacific", another thriller starring Humphrey Bogart.


title: John Huston

text: In 1942 Huston served in the United States Army during World War II, making films for the Army Signal Corps. While in uniform with the rank of captain, he directed and produced three films that some critics rank as "among the finest made about World War II: "Report from the Aleutians" (1943), about soldiers preparing for combat; "The Battle of San Pietro" (1945), the story (censored by the Army) of a failure by America's intelligence agencies that resulted in many deaths, and "Let There Be Light" (1946), about psychologically damaged veterans. It was censored and suppressed for 35 years, until 1981.


title: John Huston

text: Huston was promoted to the rank of major and received the Legion of Merit award for "courageous work under battle conditions." All of his films made for the Army were "controversial", and were either not released, were censored, or banned outright, as they were considered "demoralizing" to soldiers and the public. Years later, after Huston moved to Ireland, his daughter, actress Anjelica Huston, recalled that the "main movies we watched were the war documentaries."


title: John Huston

text: Huston performed an uncredited rewrite of Anthony Veiller's screenplay for "The Stranger" (1946), a film he was to have directed. When Huston became unavailable, the film's star, Orson Welles, directed instead; Welles had the lead role of a high-ranking Nazi fugitive who settles in New England under an assumed name.


title: John Huston

text: Huston's next picture, which he wrote, directed, and briefly appeared in as an American asked to "help out a fellow American, down on his luck", was "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948). It would become one of the films that established his reputation as a leading filmmaker. The film, also starring Humphrey Bogart, was the story of three drifters who band together to prospect for gold. Huston gave a supporting role to his father, Walter Huston.


title: John Huston

text: Warners studio was initially uncertain what to make of the film. They had allowed Huston to film on location in Mexico, which was a "radical move" for a studio at the time. They also knew that Huston was gaining a reputation as "one of the wild men of Hollywood." In any case, studio boss Jack L. Warner initially "detested it." But whatever doubts Warners had were soon removed, as the film achieved widespread public and critical acclaim. Hollywood writer James Agee called it "one of the most beautiful and visually alive movies I have ever seen." "Time" magazine described it as "one of the best things Hollywood has done since it learned to talk." Huston won Oscars for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay; his father won for Best Supporting Actor. The film also won other awards in the U.S. and overseas.


title: John Huston

text: Decades later, "Film Comment" magazine devoted four pages to the film in its May–June 1980 edition, with author Richard T. Jameson offering his impressions:


title: John Huston

text: This film has impressed itself on the heart and mind and soul of anyone who has seen it, to the extent that filmmakers of great originality and distinctiveness like Robert Altman and Sam Peckinpah can be said to have remade it again and again ... without compromising its uniqueness.


title: John Huston

text: Also in 1948, Huston directed "Key Largo", again starring Humphrey Bogart. It was the story about a disillusioned veteran who clashes with gangsters on a remote Florida key. It co-starred Lauren Bacall, Claire Trevor, Edward G. Robinson, and Lionel Barrymore. The film was an adaptation of the stage play by Maxwell Anderson. Some viewers complained that it was still overly stage-bound. But the "outstanding performances" by all the actors saved the film, and Claire Trevor won an Oscar for best supporting actress. Huston was annoyed that the studio cut several scenes from the final release without his agreement. That, along with some earlier disputes, angered Huston enough that he left the studio when his contract expired.


title: John Huston

text: In 1950 he wrote and directed "The Asphalt Jungle", a film which broke new ground by depicting criminals as somewhat sympathetic characters, simply doing their professional work, "an occupation like any other". Huston described their work as "a left-handed form of human endeavor." Huston achieved that effect by giving "deep attention" to the plot, involving a large jewelry theft, by examining the minute, step-by-step details and difficulties each of the characters had of carrying it out. Some critics felt that, by this technique, Huston had achieved an almost "documentary" style.


title: John Huston

text: Film critic Andrew Sarris considered it to be "Huston's best film", and the film that made Marilyn Monroe a recognized actress. Sarris also notes the similar themes in many of Huston's films, as exemplified by this one: "His protagonists almost invariably fail at what they set out to do." This theme was also expressed in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", where the group foundered on their own greed.


title: John Huston

text: It starred Sterling Hayden and Sam Jaffe, a personal friend of Huston. Marilyn Monroe had her first serious role in this film. Huston said, "it was, of course, where Marilyn Monroe got her start." Monroe said Huston was the first genius she had ever met; and he made her feel that she finally had a chance of becoming a professional actress:


title: John Huston

text: The film succeeded at the box office, and Huston was again nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay and best director, along with winning the Screen Directors Guild Award. This became a model for many similar movies by other filmmakers.


title: John Huston

text: Huston's next film, "The Red Badge of Courage" (1951), was of a completely different subject: war and its effect on soldiers. While in the army during World War II, he became interested in Stephen Crane's classic American Civil War novel of the same title. For the starring role, Huston chose World War II hero Audie Murphy to play the young Union soldier who deserts his company out of fear, but later returns to fight alongside them. MGM was concerned that the movie seemed too antiwar for the postwar period. Without Huston's input, they cut down the running time of the film from eighty-eight minutes to sixty-nine, added narration, and deleted what Huston felt was a crucial scene.


title: John Huston

text: The movie did poorly at the box office. Huston suggests that it was possibly because it "brought war very close to home." Huston recalls that at the preview showing, before the film was halfway through, "damn near a third of the audience got up and walked out of the theater." Despite the "butchering" and weak public response, film historian Michael Barson describes the movie as "a minor masterpiece."


title: John Huston

text: At the same time, the film was also the cause of a growing feud between MGM founder Louis B. Mayer and Producer Dore Schary to the point where Huston felt like stepping down to avoid growing the conflict. However, Mayer encouraged Huston to stay on telling him to fight for the picture regardless of what he thought of it.


title: John Huston

text: Before "The Red Badge of Courage" opened in theaters, Huston was already in Africa shooting "The African Queen" (1951), a story based on C. S. Forester's popular novel. It starred Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in a combination of romance, comedy and adventure. Barson calls it "one of the most popular Hollywood movies of all time." The film's producer, Sam Spiegel, urged Huston to change the ending to allow the protagonists to survive, instead of dying. Huston agreed, and the ending was rewritten. It became Huston's most successful film financially, and "it remains one of his finest works." Huston was nominated for two Academy Awards—Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Bogart, meanwhile, won his only Oscar for Best Actor for his role as Charlie Allnut.


title: John Huston

text: Hepburn wrote about her experiences shooting the film in her memoir, "The Making of the African Queen: Or How I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall, and Huston and almost lost my mind". Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the film "White Hunter, Black Heart", based on Peter Viertel's novel of the same name, which tells a fictional version of the making of the film.


title: John Huston

text: In 1952 Huston moved to Ireland as a result of his "disgust" at the "witch-hunt" and the "moral rot" he felt was created by investigation and hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), which had affected many of his friends in the movie industry. Huston had, with friends including director William Wyler and screenwriter Philip Dunne, established the "Committee for the First Amendment", as a response to the ongoing government investigations into communists within the film industry. The HCUA was calling numerous filmmakers, screenwriters, and actors to testify about any past affiliations.


title: John Huston

text: Huston took producing, writing, and directing credits for his next two films: "Moulin Rouge" (1952); and "Beat the Devil" (1953). "Moby Dick" (1956), however, was written by Ray Bradbury, although Huston had his name added to the screenplay credit after the completion of the project. Although Huston had personally hired Bradbury to adapt Herman Melville's novel into a screenplay, Bradbury and Huston did not get along during pre-production. Bradbury later dramatized their relationship in the short story "Banshee". When this was adapted as an episode of "The Ray Bradbury Theater," Peter O'Toole played the role based on John Huston. Bradbury wrote more poems, essays, and stories on his time in Ireland, but was reluctant to write a book because he did not want to gossip about Huston. It was not until after he read Katharine Hepburn's memoir, "The Making of the African Queen," that he decided that he could write "a book which is fair, which presents the Huston that I loved along with the one that I began to fear on occasion." He published "Green Shadows, White Whale", a novel about his time in Ireland with Huston, almost 40 years after he wrote the screenplay for "Moby Dick".


title: John Huston

text: Huston had been planning to film Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" for the previous ten years, and originally thought the starring role of Captain Ahab would be an excellent part for his father, Walter Huston. After his father died in 1950, Huston chose Gregory Peck to play the role. The movie was filmed over a three-year period on location in Ireland, where Huston was living. The fishing village of New Bedford, Massachusetts was recreated along the waterfront; the sailing ship in the film was fully constructed to be seaworthy; and three 100-foot whales were built out of steel, wood, and plastic. In the film, Huston's voice was dubbed for the voice of actor Joseph Tomelty and a Pequod lookout. But the film failed at the box office. Critics such as David Robinson suggested that the movie lacked the "mysticism of the book" and thereby "loses its significance."


title: John Huston

text: Of Huston's next five films, only "The Misfits" (1961), gained critical approval. Critics have since noted the "retrospective atmosphere of doom" which is associated with the film. Clark Gable, the star, died of a heart attack a few weeks after the filming was completed; Marilyn Monroe never finished another film, and died a year later after being suspended during the filming of "Something's Got to Give"; and costars Montgomery Clift (1966) and Thelma Ritter (1969) also died over the next decade. But two of the "Misfits" stars, Eli Wallach and Kevin McCarthy, lived another 50 years. During the filming, Monroe was sometimes taking prescribed drugs, which led to her arriving late on the set. Monroe also sometimes forgot her lines. Monroe's personal problems eventually led to the breakup of her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller, the scriptwriter, "virtually on set." Miller dramatized the making of "The Misfits" in his final play, "Finishing the Picture", where Huston is represented as the director. Huston later commented about this period in Monroe's career: "Marilyn was on her way out. Not only of the picture, but of life."


title: John Huston

text: He followed "The Misfits" with "", a film quite different from most of his others. Besides directing, he also narrates portions of the story. Film historian Stuart M. Kaminsky notes that Huston presents Sigmund Freud, played by Montgomery Clift, "as a kind of savior and messiah", with an "almost Biblical detachment." As the film begins, Huston describes Freud as a "kind of hero or God on a quest for mankind":


title: John Huston

text: This is the story of Freud's descent into a region as black as hell, man's unconscious, and how he let in the light.


title: John Huston

text: For his next film, Huston again traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, after meeting an architect, Guillermo Wulff, who owned property and businesses in the town. The filming of "The Night of the Iguana" took place in a beach cove called Mismaloya, about thirty minutes south of town. Huston adapted the stage play by Tennessee Williams. The film stars Richard Burton and Ava Gardner, and was nominated for several Academy Awards. The production attracted intense worldwide media attention, due to Burton bringing his celebrity mistress, actress Elizabeth Taylor (who was still married to singer Eddie Fisher at the time) to Puerto Vallarta. Huston liked the town where filming took place so much that he bought a house near there, as did Burton and Taylor. Guillermo Wulff and Huston became friends and always spent time together while Huston was in town, more frequently at Wulff's El Dorado Restaurant on Los Muertos Beach.


title: John Huston

text: Producer Dino De Laurentis traveled to Ireland to ask Huston to direct "". Although De Laurentis had ambitions for a broader story, he realized that the subject could not be adequately covered and limited the story to less than the first half of the Book of Genesis. Huston enjoyed directing the film, as it gave him a chance to indulge his love of animals. Besides directing he also played the role of Noah and the voice of God. "The Bible" earned rentals of $15 million in North America, making it the second highest-grossing film of 1966. However, because of its bloated budget of $18 million (which made it the most expensive movie of Huston's career), 20th Century Fox ended up losing $1.5 million.