title: Washington (state)

text: The state's nickname, "The Evergreen State", was proposed in 1890 by Charles T. Conover of Seattle. The name proved popular as the forests were full of evergreen trees and the abundance of rain keeps the shrubbery and grasses green throughout the year. Although the nickname is widely used by the state, appearing on vehicle license plates for instance, it has not been officially adopted. The Evergreen State College, a state-funded institution in Olympia, also takes its name from this nickname.


title: Washington (state)

text: The state song is "Washington, My Home", the state bird is the American goldfinch, the state fruit is the apple, and the state vegetable is the Walla Walla sweet onion. The state dance, adopted in 1979, is the square dance. The state tree is the western hemlock. The state flower is the coast rhododendron. The state fish is the steelhead. The state folk song is "Roll On, Columbia, Roll On" by Woody Guthrie. The unofficial, but popularly accepted, state rock song is Louie Louie. The state grass is bluebunch wheatgrass. The state insect is the green darner dragonfly. The state gem is petrified wood. The state fossil is the Columbian mammoth. The state marine mammal is the orca. The state soil is Tokul soil. The state land mammal is the Olympic marmot. The state seal (featured in the state flag as well) was inspired by the unfinished portrait of President George Washington by Gilbert Stuart. The state sport is pickleball.


title: Nero

text: Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his death in AD 68. He was adopted by the Roman emperor Claudius at the age of 13 and succeeded him on the throne. Nero was popular with the members of his Praetorian Guard and lower-class commoners in Rome and its provinces, but he was deeply resented by the Roman aristocracy. Most contemporary sources describe him as tyrannical, self-indulgent, and debauched. After being declared a public enemy by the Roman Senate, he committed suicide at age 30.


title: Nero

text: Nero was born at Antium in AD 37, the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger, a great-granddaughter of the emperor Augustus. When Nero was two years old, his father died. His mother married the emperor Claudius, who eventually adopted Nero as his heir; when Claudius died in 54, Nero became emperor with the support of the Praetorian Guard and the Senate. In the early years of his reign Nero was advised and guided by his mother Agrippina, his tutor Seneca the Younger, and his praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus, but he soon sought to rule independently and to rid himself of restraining influences. His power struggle with his mother was eventually resolved when he had her murdered. Roman sources also implicate Nero in the deaths of his wife Claudia Octavia – supposedly so that he could marry Poppaea Sabina – and of his foster-brother Britannicus.


title: Nero

text: Nero's practical contributions to Rome's governance focused on diplomacy, trade, and culture. He ordered the construction of amphitheaters, and promoted athletic games and contests. He also made public appearances as an actor, poet, musician, and charioteer, which scandalised his aristocratic contemporaries as these occupations were usually the domain of slaves, public entertainers and infamous persons. The provision of such entertainments made Nero popular among lower-class citizens, but his performances undermined the Imperial dignity. The costs involved were borne by local elites either directly or through taxation, and were much resented.


title: Nero

text: During Nero's reign, the general Corbulo fought the Roman–Parthian War of 58–63, and made peace with the hostile Parthian Empire. The Roman general Suetonius Paulinus quashed a major revolt in Britain led by the Iceni's queen Boudica. The Bosporan Kingdom was briefly annexed to the empire, and the First Jewish–Roman War began. When the Roman senator Vindex rebelled, with support from the eventual Roman emperor Galba, Nero was declared a public enemy and condemned to death "in absentia". He fled Rome, and on 9 June AD 68 he committed suicide. His death sparked a brief period of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.


title: Nero

text: Most Roman sources offer overwhelmingly negative assessments of his personality and reign. The historian Tacitus claims the Roman people thought him compulsive and corrupt. Suetonius tells that many Romans believed that the Great Fire of Rome was instigated by Nero to clear land for his planned "Golden House". Tacitus claims that Nero seized Christians as scapegoats for the fire and had them burned alive, seemingly motivated not by public justice but by personal cruelty. Some modern historians question the reliability of the ancient sources on Nero's tyrannical acts, considering his popularity among the Roman commoners. In the eastern provinces of the Empire, a popular legend arose that Nero had not died and would return. After his death, at least three leaders of short-lived, failed rebellions presented themselves as "Nero reborn" in order to gain popular support.


title: Nero

text: Nero was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus on 15 December 37ADin Antium (modern Anzio). He was an only-child, the son of the politician Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger. His mother Agrippina was the sister of the third Roman emperor Caligula. Nero was also the great-great-grandson of former emperor Augustus (descended from Augustus' only daughter, Julia).


title: Nero

text: The ancient biographer Suetonius, who was critical of Nero's ancestors, wrote that emperor Augustus had reproached Nero's grandfather for his unseemly enjoyment of violent gladiator games. According to Jürgen Malitz, Suetonius tells that Nero's father was known to be "irascible and brutal", and that both "enjoyed chariot races and theater performances to a degree not befitting their position". Suetonius also mentions that when Nero's father Domitius was congratulated by his friends for the birth of his son, he replied that any child born to him and Agrippina would have a detestable nature and become a public danger.


title: Nero

text: Domitius died in 40 AD. A few years before his father's death, his father was involved in a serious political scandal. His mother and his two surviving sisters, Agrippina and Julia Livilla, were exiled to a remote island in the Mediterranean Sea. His mother was said to have been exiled for plotting to overthrow the emperor Caligula. Nero's inheritance was taken from him, and he was sent to live with his paternal aunt Domitia Lepida the Younger, the mother of later emperor Claudius's third wife, Messalina.


title: Nero

text: After Caligula's death, Claudius became the new Roman Emperor. Nero's mother married Claudius in 49AD, becoming his fourth wife. By February, 49 AD, his mother had persuaded Claudius to adopt her son Nero.


title: Nero

text: After Nero's adoption by the emperor, "Claudius" became part of his name: Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. Claudius had gold coins issued to mark the adoption. Classics professor Josiah Osgood has written that "the coins, through their distribution and imagery alike, showed that a new Leader was in the making." However, David Shotter noted that, despite events in Rome, Nero's step-brother Britannicus was more prominent in provincial coinages during the early 50s.


title: Nero

text: Nero formally entered public life as an adult in 51AD at approximately 14 years old. When he turned 16, Nero married Claudius' daughter (his step-sister), Claudia Octavia. Between the years 51AD and 53AD, he gave several speeches on behalf of various communities, including the Ilians; the Apameans (requesting a five-year tax reprieve after an earthquake); and the northern colony of Bologna, after their settlement had suffered a devastating fire.


title: Nero

text: Claudius died in 54AD; many ancient historians claim that he was poisoned by Agrippina. Shotter has written that "Claudius' death in 54AD has usually been regarded as an event hastened by Agrippina due to signs that Claudius was showing a renewed affection for his natural son". He also notes that among ancient sources, the Roman historian Josephus was uniquely reserved in describing the poisoning as a rumor.


title: Nero

text: Contemporary sources differ in their accounts of the poisoning. Tacitus says that the poison-maker Locusta prepared the toxin, which was served to the Emperor by his servant Halotus. Tacitus also writes that Agrippina arranged for Claudius' doctor Xenophon to administer poison, in the event that the Emperor survived. Suetonius differs in some details, but also implicates Halotus and Agrippina. Like Tacitus, Cassius Dio writes that the poison was prepared by Locusta, but in Dio's account it is administered by Agrippina instead of Halotus. In "Apocolocyntosis", Seneca the Younger does not mention mushrooms at all. Agrippina's involvement in Claudius' death is not accepted by all modern scholars.


title: Nero

text: Before Claudius' death, Agrippina had maneuvered to remove Claudius' sons' tutors in order to replace them with tutors that she had selected. She was also able to convince Claudius to replace two prefects of the Praetorian Guard (who were suspected of supporting Claudius' son) with Afranius Burrus (Nero's future guide). Since Agrippina had replaced the guard officers with men loyal to her, Nero was subsequently able to assume power without incident.


title: Nero

text: Most of what we know about Nero's reign comes from three ancient writers: Tacitus, Suetonius, and Greek historian Cassius Dio.


title: Nero

text: According to these ancient historians, Nero's construction projects were overly extravagant and the large number of expenditures under Nero left Italy "thoroughly exhausted by contributions of money" with "the provinces ruined". Modern historians, though, note that the period was riddled with deflation and that it is likely that Nero's spending came in the form of public-works projects and charity intended to ease economic troubles.


title: Nero

text: Nero became emperor in 54 AD, aged sixteen years. This made him the youngest sole emperor until Elagabalus, who became emperor aged 14 in 218. As Pharaoh of Egypt, Nero adopted the royal titulary "Autokrator Neron Heqaheqau Meryasetptah Tjemaahuikhasut Wernakhtubaqet Heqaheqau Setepennenu Merur" ('Emperor Nero, Ruler of rulers, chosen by Ptah, beloved of Isis, the sturdy-armed one who struck the foreign lands, victorious for Egypt, ruler of rulers, chosen of Nun who loves him').


title: Nero

text: Nero's tutor, Seneca, prepared Nero's first speech before the Senate. During this speech, Nero spoke about "eliminating the ills of the previous regime". H.H. Scullard writes that "he promised to follow the Augustan model in his principate, to end all secret trials "intra cubiculum", to have done with the corruption of court favorites and freedmen, and above all to respect the privileges of the Senate and individual Senators." His respect of the Senatorial autonomy, which distinguished him from Caligula and Claudius, was generally well received by the Roman Senate.


title: Nero

text: Scullard writes that Nero's mother, Agrippina, "meant to rule through her son". Agrippina murdered her political rivals: Domitia Lepida the Younger, the aunt that Nero had lived with during Agrippina's exile; Marcus Junius Silanus, a great-grandson of Augustus; and Narcissus. One of the earliest coins that Nero issued during his reign shows Agrippina on the coin's obverse side; usually, this would be reserved for a portrait of the emperor. The Senate also allowed Agrippina two lictors during public appearances, an honor that was customarily bestowed upon only magistrates and the Vestalis Maxima. In AD55, Nero removed Agrippina's ally Marcus Antonius Pallas from his position in the treasury. Shotter writes the following about Agrippina's deteriorating relationship with Nero: "What Seneca and Burrus probably saw as relatively harmless in Nero—his cultural pursuits and his affair with the slave girl Claudia Acte—were to her signs of her son's dangerous emancipation of himself from her influence." Britannicus was poisoned after Agrippina threatened to side with him. Nero, who was having an affair with Acte, exiled Agrippina from the palace when she began to cultivate a relationship with his wife Octavia.


title: Nero

text: Jürgen Malitz writes that ancient sources do not provide any clear evidence to evaluate the extent of Nero's personal involvement in politics during the first years of his reign. He describes the policies that are explicitly attributed to Nero as "well-meant but incompetent notions" like Nero's failed initiative to abolish all taxes in 58AD. Scholars generally credit Nero's advisors Burrus and Seneca with the administrative successes of these years. Malitz writes that in later years, Nero panicked when he had to make decisions on his own during times of crisis.


title: Nero

text: Nevertheless, his early administration ruled to great acclaim. A generation later those years were seen in retrospect as an exemplar of good and moderate government and described as "Quinquennium Neronis" by Trajan. Especially well received were fiscal reforms which among others put tax collectors under more strict control by establishing local offices to supervise their activities. After the affair of Lucius Pedanius Secundus who was murdered by a desperate slave, Nero allowed slaves to file complaints about their treatment to the authorities.


title: Nero

text: Outside of Rome, Nero had several villas or palaces built, the ruins of which can still be seen today. These included the Villa of Nero at Antium, his place of birth, where he razed the villa on the site to rebuild it on a more massive and imperial scale and including a theatre. At Subiaco, Lazio, near Rome he had 3 artificial lakes built, with waterfalls, bridges and walkways for the luxurious villa. He stayed at the Villa of Nero at Olympia, Greece, during his participation at the Olympic Games of 67 AD.


title: Nero

text: "The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome" cautiously notes that Nero's reasons for killing his mother in 59AD are "not fully understood". According to Tacitus, the source of conflict between Nero and his mother was Nero's affair with Poppaea Sabina. In "Histories" Tacitus writes that the affair began while Poppaea was still married to Rufrius Crispinus, but in his later work "Annals" Tacitus says Poppaea was married to Otho when the affair began. In "Annals" Tacitus writes that Agrippina opposed Nero's affair with Poppaea because of her affection for his wife Octavia. Anthony Barrett writes that Tacitus' account in "Annals" "suggests that Poppaea's challenge drove [Nero] over the brink". A number of modern historians have noted that Agrippina's death would not have offered much advantage for Poppaea, as Nero did not marry Poppaea until 62AD. Barrett writes that Poppaea seems to serve as a "literary device, utilized [by Tacitus] because [he] could see no plausible explanation for Nero's conduct and also incidentally [served] to show that Nero, like Claudius, had fallen under the malign influence of a woman." According to Suetonius, Nero had his former freedman Anicetus arrange a shipwreck; Agrippina survived the wreck, swam ashore and was executed by Anicetus, who reported her death as a suicide.


title: Nero

text: Modern scholars believe that Nero's reign had been going well in the years before Agrippina's death. For example, Nero promoted the exploration of the Nile river sources with a successful expedition. After Agrippina's exile, Burrus and Seneca were responsible for the administration of the Empire. However, Nero's "conduct became far more egregious" after his mother's death. Miriam T. Griffins suggests that Nero's decline began as early as 55AD with the murder of his stepbrother Britannicus, but also notes that "Nero lost all sense of right and wrong and listened to flattery with total credulity" after Agrippina's death. Griffin points out that Tacitus "makes explicit the significance of Agrippina's removal for Nero's conduct".


title: Nero

text: He began to build a new palace, the Domus Transitoria, from about AD 60. It was intended to connect all of the imperial estates that had been acquired in various ways, with the Palatine including the Gardens of Maecenas, Horti Lamiani, Horti Lolliani, etc.


title: Nero

text: In 62AD, Nero's adviser Burrus died. That same year, Nero called for the first treason trial of his reign ("maiestas" trial) against Antistius Sosianus. He also executed his rivals Cornelius Sulla and Rubellius Plautus. Jürgen Malitz considers this to be a turning point in Nero's relationship with the Roman Senate. Malitz writes that "Nero abandoned the restraint he had previously shown because he believed a course supporting the Senate promised to be less and less profitable."


title: Nero

text: After Burrus' death, Nero appointed two new Praetorian prefects: Faenius Rufus and Ofonius Tigellinus. Politically isolated, Seneca was forced to retire. According to Tacitus, Nero divorced Octavia on grounds of infertility, and banished her. After public protests over Octavia's exile, Nero accused her of adultery with Anicetus, and she was executed.


title: Nero

text: The Great Fire of Rome began on the night of 18 to 19 July 64, probably in one of the merchant shops on the slope of the Aventine overlooking the Circus Maximus, or in the wooden outer seating of the Circus itself. Rome had always been vulnerable to fires, and this one was fanned to catastrophic proportions by the winds. Tacitus, Cassius Dio, and modern archaeology describe the destruction of mansions, ordinary residences, public buildings, and temples on the Aventine, Palatine, and Caelian hills. The fire burned for over seven days before subsiding; it then started again and burned for three more. It destroyed three of Rome's 14 districts and severely damaged seven more.


title: Nero

text: Some Romans thought the fire an accident, as the merchant shops were timber-framed and sold flammable goods, and the outer seating stands of the Circus were timber-built. Others claimed it was arson committed on Nero's behalf. The accounts by Pliny the Elder, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio suggest several possible reasons for Nero's alleged arson, including his creation of a real-life backdrop to a theatrical performance about the burning of Troy. Suetonius wrote that Nero started the fire to clear the site for his planned, palatial Golden House. This would include lush artificial landscapes and a 30-meter-tall statue of himself, the Colossus of Nero, sited more or less where the Colosseum would eventually be built. Suetonius and Cassius Dio claim that Nero sang the "Sack of Ilium" in stage costume while the city burned. The popular legend that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned "is at least partly a literary construct of Flavian propaganda [...] which looked askance on the abortive Neronian attempt to rewrite Augustan models of rule".


title: Nero

text: Tacitus suspends judgment on Nero's responsibility for the fire; he found that Nero was in Antium when the fire started, and returned to Rome to organize a relief effort, providing for the removal of bodies and debris, which he paid for from his own funds. After the fire, Nero opened his palaces to provide shelter for the homeless, and arranged for food supplies to be delivered in order to prevent starvation among the survivors.


title: Nero

text: Tacitus writes that to remove suspicion from himself, Nero accused Christians of starting the fire. According to this account, many Christians were arrested and brutally executed by "being thrown to the beasts, crucified, and being burned alive". Tacitus asserts that in his imposition of such ferocious punishments, Nero was not motivated by a sense of justice, but by a penchant for personal cruelty.


title: Nero

text: Houses built after the fire were spaced out, built in brick, and faced by porticos on wide roads. Nero also built himself a new palace complex known as the Domus Aurea in an area cleared by the fire. The cost to rebuild Rome was immense, requiring funds the state treasury did not have. To find the necessary funds for the reconstruction, Nero's government increased taxation. Particularly heavy tributes were imposed on the provinces of the empire. To meet at least a portion of the costs, Nero devalued the Roman currency, increasing inflationary pressure for the first time in the Empire's history.


title: Nero

text: In 65AD, Gaius Calpurnius Piso, a Roman statesman, organized a conspiracy against Nero with the help of Subrius Flavus and Sulpicius Asper, a tribune and a centurion of the Praetorian Guard. According to Tacitus, many conspirators wished to "rescue the state" from the emperor and restore the Republic. The freedman Milichus discovered the conspiracy and reported it to Nero's secretary, Epaphroditus. As a result, the conspiracy failed and its members were executed, including Lucan, the poet. Nero's previous advisor Seneca was accused by Natalis; he denied the charges but was still ordered to commit suicide, as by this point he had fallen out of favor with Nero.


title: Nero

text: Nero was said to have kicked Poppaea to death in 65AD, before she could give birth to his second child. Modern historians, noting the probable biases of Suetonius, Tacitus, and Cassius Dio, and the likely absence of eyewitnesses to such an event, propose that Poppaea may have died after miscarriage or in childbirth. Nero went into deep mourning; Poppaea was given a sumptuous state funeral, divine honors, and was promised a temple for her cult. A year's importation of incense was burned at the funeral. Her body was not cremated, as would have been strictly customary, but embalmed after the Egyptian manner and entombed; it is not known where.


title: Nero

text: In 67, Nero married Sporus, a young boy who is said to have greatly resembled Poppaea. Nero had him castrated and married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil. It is believed that he did this out of regret for his killing of Poppaea.


title: Nero

text: In March 68, Gaius Julius Vindex, the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, rebelled against Nero's tax policies. Lucius Verginius Rufus, the governor of Germania Superior, was ordered to put down Vindex's rebellion. In an attempt to gain support from outside his own province, Vindex called upon Servius Sulpicius Galba, the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, to join the rebellion and to declare himself emperor in opposition to Nero.


title: Nero

text: At the Battle of Vesontio in May 68, Verginius' forces easily defeated those of Vindex, and the latter committed suicide. However, after defeating the rebel, Verginius' legions attempted to proclaim their own commander as Emperor. Verginius refused to act against Nero, but the discontent of the legions of Germania and the continued opposition of Galba in Hispania did not bode well for him.


title: Nero

text: While Nero had retained some control of the situation, support for Galba increased despite his being officially declared a "public enemy". The prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Gaius Nymphidius Sabinus, also abandoned his allegiance to the Emperor and came out in support of Galba.


title: Nero

text: In response, Nero fled Rome with the intention of going to the port of Ostia and, from there, to take a fleet to one of the still-loyal eastern provinces. According to Suetonius, Nero abandoned the idea when some army officers openly refused to obey his commands, responding with a line from Virgil's "Aeneid": "Is it so dreadful a thing then to die?" Nero then toyed with the idea of fleeing to Parthia, throwing himself upon the mercy of Galba, or appealing to the people and begging them to pardon him for his past offences "and if he could not soften their hearts, to entreat them at least to allow him the prefecture of Egypt". Suetonius reports that the text of this speech was later found in Nero's writing desk, but that he dared not give it from fear of being torn to pieces before he could reach the Forum.


title: Nero

text: Nero returned to Rome and spent the evening in the palace. After sleeping, he awoke at about midnight to find the palace guard had left. Dispatching messages to his friends' palace chambers for them to come, he received no answers. Upon going to their chambers personally, he found them all abandoned. When he called for a gladiator or anyone else adept with a sword to kill him, no one appeared. He cried, "Have I neither friend nor foe?" and ran out as if to throw himself into the Tiber.


title: Nero

text: Returning, Nero sought a place where he could hide and collect his thoughts. An imperial freedman, Phaon, offered his villa, located outside the city. Travelling in disguise, Nero and four loyal freedmen, Epaphroditus, Phaon, Neophytus, and Sporus, reached the villa, where Nero ordered them to dig a grave for him. At this time, Nero learned that the Senate had declared him a public enemy. Nero prepared himself for suicide, pacing up and down muttering "Qualis artifex pereo" ("What an artist dies in me"). Losing his nerve, he begged one of his companions to set an example by killing himself first. At last, the sound of approaching horsemen drove Nero to face the end. However, he still could not bring himself to take his own life, but instead forced his private secretary, Epaphroditus, to perform the task.


title: Nero

text: When one of the horsemen entered and saw that Nero was dying, he attempted to stop the bleeding, but efforts to save Nero's life were unsuccessful. Nero's final words were "Too late! This is fidelity!" He died on 9 June 68, the anniversary of the death of his first wife, Claudia Octavia, and was buried in the Mausoleum of the Domitii Ahenobarbi, in what is now the Villa Borghese (Pincian Hill) area of Rome. According to Sulpicius Severus, it is unclear whether Nero took his own life.


title: Nero

text: With his death, the Julio-Claudian dynasty ended. Chaos would ensue in the year of the Four Emperors.


title: Nero

text: According to Suetonius and Cassius Dio, the people of Rome celebrated the death of Nero. Tacitus, though, describes a more complicated political environment. Tacitus mentions that Nero's death was welcomed by senators, nobility, and the upper class. The lower class, slaves, frequenters of the arena and the theater, and "those who were supported by the famous excesses of Nero", on the other hand, were upset with the news. Members of the military were said to have mixed feelings, as they had allegiance to Nero but had been bribed to overthrow him.


title: Nero

text: Eastern sources, namely Philostratus and Apollonius of Tyana, mention that Nero's death was mourned as he "restored the liberties of Hellas with a wisdom and moderation quite alien to his character" and that he "held our liberties in his hand and respected them".


title: Nero

text: Modern scholarship generally holds that, while the Senate and more well-off individuals welcomed Nero's death, the general populace was "loyal to the end and beyond, for Otho and Vitellius both thought it worthwhile to appeal to their nostalgia".


title: Nero

text: Nero's name was erased from some monuments, in what Edward Champlin regards as an "outburst of private zeal". Many portraits of Nero were reworked to represent other figures; according to Eric R. Varner, over 50 such images survive. This reworking of images is often explained as part of the way in which the memory of disgraced emperors was condemned posthumously (see "damnatio memoriae"). Champlin, however, doubts that the practice is necessarily negative and notes that some continued to create images of Nero long after his death. Damaged portraits of Nero, often with hammer blows directed to the face, have been found in many provinces of the Roman Empire, three recently having been identified from the United Kingdom (see "damnatio memoriae").


title: Nero

text: The civil war during the year of the Four Emperors was described by ancient historians as a troubling period. According to Tacitus, this instability was rooted in the fact that emperors could no longer rely on the perceived legitimacy of the imperial bloodline, as Nero and those before him could. Galba began his short reign with the execution of many of Nero's allies. One such notable enemy included Nymphidius Sabinus, who claimed to be the son of Emperor Caligula.


title: Nero

text: Otho overthrew Galba. Otho was said to be liked by many soldiers because he had been a friend of Nero and resembled him somewhat in temperament. It was said that the common Roman hailed Otho as Nero himself. Otho used "Nero" as a surname and reerected many statues to Nero. Vitellius overthrew Otho. Vitellius began his reign with a large funeral for Nero complete with songs written by Nero.


title: Nero

text: After Nero's death in 68 AD, there was a widespread belief, especially in the eastern provinces, that he was not dead and somehow would return. This belief came to be known as the Nero Redivivus Legend. The legend of Nero's return lasted for hundreds of years after Nero's death. Augustine of Hippo wrote of the legend as a popular belief in 422 AD.


title: Nero

text: At least three Nero impostors emerged leading rebellions. The first, who sang and played the cithara or lyre, and whose face was similar to that of the dead emperor, appeared in 69 AD during the reign of Vitellius. After persuading some to recognize him, he was captured and executed. Sometime during the reign of Titus (79–81), another impostor appeared in Asia and sang to the accompaniment of the lyre and looked like Nero, but he, too, was killed. Twenty years after Nero's death, during the reign of Domitian, there was a third pretender. He was supported by the Parthians, who only reluctantly gave him up, and the matter almost came to war.


title: Nero

text: In Britannia (Britain) in 59AD, Prasutagus, leader of the Iceni tribe and a client king of Rome during Claudius' reign, had died. The client state arrangement was unlikely to survive following the death of Claudius. The will of the Iceni tribal King Prasutagus, leaving control of the Iceni to his daughters, was denied. When the Roman procurator Catus Decianus scourged Prasutagus' wife Boudica and raped her daughters, the Iceni revolted. They were joined by the Celtic Trinovantes tribe and their uprising became the most significant provincial rebellion of the 1st centuryAD. Under Queen Boudica, the towns of Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St. Albans) were burned, and a substantial body of Roman legion infantry were eliminated. The governor of the province, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, assembled his remaining forces and defeated the Britons. Although order was restored for some time, Nero considered abandoning the province. Julius Classicianus replaced the former procurator, Catus Decianus, and Classicianus advised Nero to replace Paulinus who continued to punish the population even after the rebellion was over. Nero decided to adopt a more lenient approach by appointing a new governor, Petronius Turpilianus.


title: Nero

text: Nero began preparing for war in the early years of his reign, after the Parthian king Vologeses set his brother Tiridates on the Armenian throne. Around 57AD and 58AD Domitius Corbulo and his legions advanced on Tiridates and captured the Armenian capital Artaxata. Tigranes was chosen to replace Tiridates on the Armenian throne. When Tigranes attacked Adiabene, Nero had to send further legions to defend Armenia and Syria from Parthia.


title: Nero

text: The Roman victory came at a time when the Parthians were troubled by revolts; when this was dealt with they were able to devote resources to the Armenian situation. A Roman army under Paetus surrendered under humiliating circumstances and though both Roman and Parthian forces withdrew from Armenia, it was under Parthian control. The triumphal arch for Corbulo's earlier victory was part-built when Parthian envoys arrived in 63 AD to discuss treaties. Given "imperium" over the eastern regions, Corbulo organised his forces for an invasion but was met by this Parthian delegation. An agreement was thereafter reached with the Parthians: Rome would recognize Tiridates as king of Armenia, only if he agreed to receive his diadem from Nero. A coronation ceremony was held in Italy 66AD. Dio reports that Tiridates said "I have come to you, my God, worshiping you as Mithras." Shotter says this parallels other divine designations that were commonly applied to Nero in the East including "The New Apollo" and "The New Sun". After the coronation, friendly relations were established between Rome and the eastern kingdoms of Parthia and Armenia. Artaxata was temporarily renamed Neroneia.


title: Nero

text: In 66, there was a Jewish revolt in Judea stemming from Greek and Jewish religious tension. In 67, Nero dispatched Vespasian to restore order. This revolt was eventually put down in 70, after Nero's death. This revolt is famous for Romans breaching the walls of Jerusalem and destroying the Second Temple of Jerusalem.


title: Nero

text: Nero studied poetry, music, painting and sculpture. He both sang and played the "cithara" (a type of lyre). Many of these disciplines were standard education for the Roman elite, but Nero's devotion to music exceeded what was socially acceptable for a Roman of his class. Ancient sources were critical of Nero's emphasis on the arts, chariot-racing and athletics. Pliny described Nero as an "actor-emperor" ("scaenici imperatoris") and Suetonius wrote that he was "carried away by a craze for popularity...since he was acclaimed as the equal of Apollo in music and of the Sun in driving a chariot, he had planned to emulate the exploits of Hercules as well."


title: Nero

text: In 67 AD Nero participated in the Olympics. He had bribed organizers to postpone the games for a year so he could participate, and artistic competitions were added to the athletic events. Nero won every contest in which he was a competitor. During the games Nero sang and played his lyre on stage, acted in tragedies and raced chariots. He won a 10-horse chariot race, despite being thrown from the chariot and leaving the race. He was crowned on the basis that he would have won if he had completed the race. After he died a year later, his name was removed from the list of winners. Champlin writes that though Nero's participation "effectively stifled true competition, [Nero] seems to have been oblivious of reality."


title: Nero

text: Nero established the Neronian games in 60AD. Modeled on Greek style games, these games included musical, gymnastic, and equestrian contests. According to Suetonius the gymnastic contests were held in the Saepta area of the Campus Martius.


title: Nero

text: The history of Nero's reign is problematic in that no historical sources survived that were contemporary with Nero. These first histories, while they still existed, were described as biased and fantastical, either overly critical or praising of Nero. The original sources were also said to contradict on a number of events. Nonetheless, these lost primary sources were the basis of surviving secondary and tertiary histories on Nero written by the next generations of historians. A few of the contemporary historians are known by name. Fabius Rusticus, Cluvius Rufus and Pliny the Elder all wrote condemning histories on Nero that are now lost. There were also pro-Nero histories, but it is unknown who wrote them or for what deeds Nero was praised.


title: Nero

text: The bulk of what is known of Nero comes from Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio, who were all of the upper classes. Tacitus and Suetonius wrote their histories on Nero over 50 years after his death, while Cassius Dio wrote his history over 150 years after Nero's death. These sources contradict one another on a number of events in Nero's life, including the death of Claudius, the death of Agrippina, and the Roman fire of 64 AD, but they are consistent in their condemnation of Nero.


title: Nero

text: Cassius Dio (c. 155–229) was the son of Cassius Apronianus, a Roman senator. He passed the greater part of his life in public service. He was a senator under Commodus and governor of Smyrna after the death of Septimius Severus; and afterwards suffect consul around 205, and also proconsul in Africa and Pannonia.


title: Nero

text: Books 61–63 of Dio's "Roman History" describe the reign of Nero. Only fragments of these books remain and what does remain was abridged and altered by John Xiphilinus, an 11th-century monk.


title: Nero

text: Dio Chrysostom (c. 40–120), a Greek philosopher and historian, wrote the Roman people were very happy with Nero and would have allowed him to rule indefinitely. They longed for his rule once he was gone and embraced imposters when they appeared:


title: Nero

text: Epictetus (c. 55–135) was the slave to Nero's scribe Epaphroditos. He makes a few passing negative comments on Nero's character in his work, but makes no remarks on the nature of his rule. He describes Nero as a spoiled, angry and unhappy man.


title: Nero

text: The historian Josephus (c. 37–100), while calling Nero a tyrant, was also the first to mention bias against Nero. Of other historians, he said:


title: Nero

text: Although more of a poet than historian, Lucanus (c. 39–65 AD) has one of the kindest accounts of Nero's rule. He writes of peace and prosperity under Nero, in contrast to previous war and strife. Ironically, he was later involved in a conspiracy to overthrow Nero and was executed.


title: Nero

text: Philostratus II "the Athenian" (c. 172–250 AD) spoke of Nero in the Life of Apollonius Tyana (Books 4–5). Although he has a generally bad or dim view of Nero, he speaks of others' positive reception of Nero in the East.


title: Nero

text: The history of Nero by Pliny the Elder (c. 24–79 AD) did not survive. Still, there are several references to Nero in Pliny's "Natural Histories". Pliny has one of the worst opinions of Nero and calls him an "enemy of mankind".


title: Nero

text: Plutarch (c. 46–127 AD) mentions Nero indirectly in his account of the Life of Galba and the Life of Otho, as well as in the Vision of Thespesius in Book 7 of the Moralia, where a voice orders that Nero's soul be transferred to a more offensive species. Nero is portrayed as a tyrant, but those that replace him are not described as better.


title: Nero

text: It is not surprising that Seneca (c. 4 BC–65 AD), Nero's teacher and advisor, writes very well of Nero.


title: Nero

text: Suetonius (c. 69–130 AD) was a member of the equestrian order, and he was the head of the department of the imperial correspondence. While in this position, Suetonius started writing biographies of the emperors, accentuating the anecdotal and sensational aspects. By this account, Nero raped the vestal virgin Rubria.


title: Nero

text: The "Annals" by Tacitus (c. 56–117 AD) is the most detailed and comprehensive history on the rule of Nero, despite being incomplete after the year 66AD. Tacitus described the rule of the Julio-Claudian emperors as generally unjust. He also thought that existing writing on them was unbalanced:


title: Nero

text: Tacitus was the son of a procurator, who married into the elite family of Agricola. He entered his political life as a senator after Nero's death and, by Tacitus' own admission, owed much to Nero's rivals. Realising that this bias may be apparent to others, Tacitus protests that his writing is true.


title: Nero

text: In 1562, Girolamo Cardano published in Basel his "Encomium Neronis", which was one of the first historical references of the Modern era to portray Nero in a positive light.


title: Nero

text: At the end of 66AD, conflict broke out between Greeks and Jews in Jerusalem and Caesarea. According to the Talmud, Nero went to Jerusalem and shot arrows in all four directions. All the arrows landed in the city. He then asked a passing child to repeat the verse he had learned that day. The child responded, "I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel" (Ezekiel 25:14). Nero became terrified, believing that God wanted the Second Temple to be destroyed, but that he would punish the one to carry it out. Nero said, "He desires to lay waste His House and to lay the blame on me," whereupon he fled and converted to Judaism to avoid such retribution. Vespasian was then dispatched to put down the rebellion.


title: Nero

text: The Talmud adds that the sage Reb Meir Baal HaNess lived in the time of the Mishnah, and was a prominent supporter of the Bar Kokhba rebellion against Roman rule. Rabbi Meir was considered one of the greatest of the Tannaim of the third generation (139–163 AD). According to the Talmud, his father was a descendant of Nero who had converted to Judaism. His wife Bruriah is one of the few women cited in the Gemara. He is the third-most-frequently-mentioned sage in the Mishnah. Roman and Greek sources nowhere report Nero's alleged trip to Jerusalem or his alleged conversion to Judaism. There is also no record of Nero having any offspring who survived infancy: his only recorded child, Claudia Augusta, died aged 4 months.


title: Nero

text: Non-Christian historian Tacitus describes Nero extensively torturing and executing Christians after the fire of 64 AD. Suetonius also mentions Nero punishing Christians, though he does so because they are "given to a new and mischievous superstition" and does not connect it with the fire.


title: Nero

text: Christian writer Tertullian (c. 155–230 AD) was the first to call Nero the first persecutor of Christians. He wrote, "Examine your records. There you will find that Nero was the first that persecuted this doctrine." Lactantius (c. 240–320) also said that Nero "first persecuted the servants of God". as does Sulpicius Severus. However, Suetonius writes that, "since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, the [emperor Claudius] expelled them from Rome" (""Iudaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantis Roma expulit""). These expelled "Jews" may have been early Christians, although Suetonius is not explicit. Nor is the Bible explicit, calling Aquila of Pontus and his wife, Priscilla, both expelled from Italy at the time, "Jews" (Acts 18:2).


title: Nero

text: The first text to suggest that Nero ordered the execution of an apostle is a letter by Clement to the Corinthians traditionally dated to around AD 96. The apocryphal Ascension of Isaiah, a Christian writing from the 2nd century, says, "the slayer of his mother, who himself (even) this king, will persecute the plant which the Twelve Apostles of the Beloved have planted. Of the Twelve one will be delivered into his hands"; this is interpreted as referring to Nero.


title: Nero

text: Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 275–339) was the first to write explicitly that Paul was beheaded and Peter crucified in Rome during the reign of Nero. He states that Nero's persecution led to Peter and Paul's deaths, but that Nero did not give any specific orders. However, several other accounts going back to the first century have Paul surviving his two years in Rome and travelling to Hispania, before facing trial in Rome again prior to his death.


title: Nero

text: Peter is first said to have been crucified specifically upside-down in Rome during Nero's reign (but not by Nero) in the apocryphal Acts of Peter (c. 200). The account ends with Paul still alive and Nero abiding by God's command not to persecute any more Christians.


title: Nero

text: The Sibylline Oracles, Book 5 and 8, written in the second century, speak of Nero returning and bringing destruction. Within Christian communities, these writings, along with others, fueled the belief that Nero would return as the Antichrist. In 310, Lactantius wrote that Nero "suddenly disappeared, and even the burial place of that noxious wild beast was nowhere to be seen. This has led some persons of extravagant imagination to suppose that, having been conveyed to a distant region, he is still reserved alive; and to him they apply the Sibylline verses." Lactantius maintains that it is not right to believe this.


title: Nero

text: In 422, Augustine of Hippo wrote about 2 Thessalonians 2:1–11, where he believed that Paul mentioned the coming of the Antichrist. Although he rejects the theory, Augustine mentions that many Christians believed Nero was the Antichrist or would return as the Antichrist. He wrote that, "in saying, 'For the mystery of iniquity doth already work,' he alluded to Nero, whose deeds already seemed to be as the deeds of Antichrist."


title: Nero

text: Some modern biblical scholars such as Delbert Hillers (Johns Hopkins University) of the American Schools of Oriental Research and the editors of the "Oxford Study Bible" and "Harper Collins Study Bible", contend that the number 666 in the Book of Revelation is a code for Nero, a view that is also supported in Roman Catholic Biblical commentaries. The statement concerns Revelation 17:1-18, "the longest explanatory passage in Revelation", which predicts the destruction of Rome by work of an "eighth emperor" who was also one of the "seven kings" of the most extended and powerful empire ever known in the human history: according to this lecture, Babylon the Great is identified with Rome which has poured the blood of saints and martyrs (verse 6) and subsequently become the seat of the Vatican State, reigning over all the kings existing on Earth.


title: Bill Hader

text: William Thomas Hader Jr. (born June 7, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is the creator, producer, writer, director, and star of the HBO dark comedy series "Barry" (2018–present), for which he has been nominated for eight Emmy Awards, winning two.


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader's initial success was for his eight-year stint (2005–2013) as a cast member on the long-running NBC variety series "Saturday Night Live", for which he received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Peabody Award. He became known for his impressions and especially for his work on the "Weekend Update" segments, in which he played Stefon Meyers, a flamboyant New York tour guide who recommends unusual nightclubs and parties with bizarre characters with unusual tastes. He is also the star and producer of the IFC mockumentary comedy series "Documentary Now!" (2015–present) which he co-created along with Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers.


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader has had supporting roles in the films "You, Me and Dupree" (2006), "Hot Rod" (2007), "Superbad" (2007), "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (2008), "", (2009), "Paul" (2011), "This Is 40" (2012), and "22 Jump Street" (2014), as well as leading roles in "The Skeleton Twins" (2014), "Trainwreck" (2015), and as an adult Richie Tozier in "It Chapter Two" (2019).


title: Bill Hader

text: He also is known for his extensive work in voice-over, portraying both leading and supporting characters in films such as the "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" franchise (2009–2013), "Turbo" (2013), "Inside Out" (2015), "The BFG" (2016), "Power Rangers" (2017), "Toy Story 4" (2019) and "Lightyear" (2022).


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 7, 1978, the son of dance teacher Sherri Renee (née Patton) (b. 1956) and air cargo company owner, restaurant manager, truck driver, and occasional stand-up comedian William Thomas Hader Sr (b. 1953). He has two younger sisters named Katie and Kara. His ancestry includes Danish, English, German, and Irish. Hader attended Patrick Henry Elementary School, Edison Junior High, and Cascia Hall Preparatory School. He grew up with writer Duffy Boudreau, with whom he would later collaborate. He says he "had a hard time focusing in class" and "was always joking around". With a feeling of not fitting in, he filled his time watching movies and reading. He appreciated Monty Python, British comedy, and the films of Woody Allen and Mel Brooks, originally being shown many of these by his father. He made short films with friends and starred in a school production of "The Glass Menagerie". He was unable to gain admission to top film schools because of his "abysmal" grades, so he instead enrolled at The Art Institute of Phoenix, and later Scottsdale Community College. His first job was as a Christmas tree salesman. He also worked as an usher at a Tempe cinema, which allowed him to see films for free, but he was fired for spoiling the ending of "Titanic" (1997) for unruly viewers. At Scottsdale Community College, he met Nicholas Jasenovec, who later directed "Paper Heart" (2009).


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader's aspirations of becoming a filmmaker eventually led him to drop out of college and move to Los Angeles in 1999. His parents were supportive of his decision and allowed him to use the money they had saved up for his education to cover his living expenses in Los Angeles. He found work as a production assistant (PA) while scouring the back pages of "The Hollywood Reporter", and hoped to advance far enough to become an assistant director. He spent much of his life as a young man "lonely and underemployed" and filled large amounts of his time by watching movies. He regularly worked 18-hour days as a PA, having little time to pursue his creative ambitions. He worked as a PA on the documentary "" (2004) and the feature films "James Dean" (2001), "Spider-Man" (2002), and "Collateral Damage" (2002). He also worked as a post-production assistant on the VH1 reality show "The Surreal Life" (2003–2006). He briefly worked as a PA and stage manager on Playboy TV's sexual fantasy show "Night Calls", but soon quit as he feared it would disappoint his parents. He eventually quit being a PA altogether after a bad experience while shooting "The Scorpion King" (2002).


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader subsequently secured a job working as a night-time assistant editor at the post-production facility Triage Entertainment. He invested money into his own short film, but was too embarrassed to release it. Shortly thereafter, he and his then-longtime girlfriend broke up. Desperate for a change, he began attending comedy classes with friends at improvisational comedy enterprise the Second City in March 2003. He quickly realized that comedy was the creative outlet that he had needed since he decided to leave higher education behind, and soon Hader, his new compatriot in comedy Matt Offerman, and their two friends and fellow humor enthusiasts Eric Filipkowski and Mel Cowan, elected to form their own sketch comedy group. Christening their group "Animals from the Future", the four frequently appeared to small audiences at backyard shows in Van Nuys. Matt's brother, actor Nick Offerman, told his wife, Megan Mullally, about the group. After attending one of the group's backyard appearances, Mullally told Hader of her intention to discuss him with Lorne Michaels of "Saturday Night Live" ("SNL"). As a result of Mullally's recommendation, Hader was asked to audition for the show and he soon flew to New York to audition for a group of "SNL" producers. Hader had no impressions prepared when he was invited to audition. He was nervous and struggled to display his strengths during the audition. This resulted in his spontaneous imitation of an Italian man he had once overheard. The impression would later become the first of Hader's many recurring characters on the show: Vinny Vedecci. As a result of the audition, Hader got an agent and manager. Just before he was officially invited to begin work on "SNL", Hader was working as an assistant editor on "Iron Chef America".


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader was hired as a featured player and made his debut on the show on October 1, 2005. His first role was as a psychologist giving his views about life and death during the emergency landing of JetBlue Airways Flight 292. He felt he had gone from "preschool to Harvard." He became the "impressions guy", hoping to fill a utility-player role "like his hero Phil Hartman". Hader has said that he performed impersonations of teachers and friends when he was growing up but did not do impersonations of famous people until his "Saturday Night Live" audition. His list of impressions includes Vincent Price in the Variety Vault sketches, Keith Morrison, Harvey Fierstein, Al Pacino, Rick Perry, John Malkovich, James Carville, Julian Assange, Eliot Spitzer, Alan Alda, Clint Eastwood, and Charlie Sheen. On July 19, 2012, Hader received his first nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on "SNL". He is the first male "SNL" cast member to receive this nomination since Eddie Murphy in 1984.


title: Bill Hader

text: Among the characters Hader played was Stefon, "Weekend Update"s flamboyant New York City correspondent, whose recommendations consist solely of bizarre nightclubs involving nightmarish characters. Stefon is in love with and married to Seth Meyers. He was originally a one-shot character on a season-34 sketch where a screenwriter named David Zolesky (played by Ben Affleck) invites his estranged brother Stefon over to pitch a family-friendly sports drama about a college student who bonds with his grandfather so he can try out for the college football team. He is based on two people "SNL" writer John Mulaney and Hader met: a wannabe club owner who always invited Mulaney to weird underground clubs and a barista Hader met who looks, speaks, and dresses like Stefon.


title: Bill Hader

text: After his film debut "You, Me and Dupree" (2006), Hader had a wide range of roles in 2007, such as Katherine Heigl's character's editor at E! in "Knocked Up", the acid-taking mechanic Dave in "Hot Rod" alongside" SNL" castmate Andy Samberg, a recumbent biker in" The Brothers Solomon" (which featured SNL castmate Will Forte in one of the film's co-leading roles) and, most famously, as Officer Slater in the Judd Apatow produced" Superbad". His role in "Superbad" helped boost his public awareness and allowed him to appear on mainstream programs like "Total Request Live", "The Tonight Show", and MTV's "Video Music Awards".


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader worked as a creative consultant, producer, and voice actor on "South Park", beginning in the series' 12th season. His involvement in the series stems from his friendship with Matt Stone; the two held a similar sense of humor and Hader began going on writers' retreats with the staff. He began working on the program hoping to learn story structure. Hader is among the series producers to win the 2009 Emmy Award for Best Animated Series. He also appeared on the commentary recorded for the 2009 Blu-ray edition of "", and the Comedy Central special "6 Days to Air", a documentary filmed during production of the 2011 "South Park" episode "HumancentiPad". Hader rejoined the writing staff for "South Park" for its 17th season. Hader won a 2008 Peabody Award in Political Satire for his participation in "Saturday Night Live". He also appeared on the MTV prank series "Punk'd" and voiced an array of characters on the second season of the Adult Swim animated series "". He also made several short films, including "Back in the Day", "Sounds Good to Me: Remastering the Sting", and "The Jeannie Tate Show", with "SNL" writer Liz Cackowski and then-wife Maggie Carey.


title: Bill Hader

text: In 2008, Hader starred in, and cowrote with Simon Rich, the web series "The Line" on Crackle. Hader lent his voice to the audiobook of Sarah Vowell's "The Wordy Shipmates". Also in 2008, Hader appeared on "Tim and Eric Awesome Show" impersonating the recurring character James Quall on the episode "Jazz". He appeared in two other Apatow projects: "Forgetting Sarah Marshall " and "Pineapple Express". He also starred alongside Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr. and Tom Cruise in the action comedy "Tropic Thunder". Hader re-teamed with "Superbad" director Greg Mottola in the comedy films "Adventureland" (2009) and "Paul" (2011). He lent his voice to his first video game role in "Grand Theft Auto IV", which also featured his SNL castmates Jason Sudeikis and Fred Armisen.


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader and "SNL" castmate Seth Meyers penned a Spider-Man one-off entitled "The Short Halloween". It was illustrated by Kevin Maguire and came out May 29, 2009. It was given three and a half out of five stars by Benjamin Birdie of Comic Book Resources. He made a small appearance in the 2009 comedy film "Year One", with Jack Black and Michael Cera. Hader lent his voice to the Sony Pictures Animation film "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", as well as its 2013 sequel, playing the lead role of Flint Lockwood as well as his invention in the films, the FLDSMDFR. He voiced a gazelle in "" and appeared in the fantasy film "" as Major General George Armstrong Custer. In April 2009, Hader was a part of "Vanity Fair" list of "Comedy's New Legends".


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader took on the voice role of Professor Impossible on the fourth season of "The Venture Brothers" (2010–2013), a part originated by Stephen Colbert. He voiced the Pod in the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" episode "IAMAPOD", as well as Hitler in the episode "Der Inflatable Fuhrer". Hader played Kevin, Matt Damon's copilot, in the live episode of "30 Rock", recorded October 14, 2010. He portrayed "The Voice" in the action-comedy film "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (2010), the disembodied voice that pops up during certain moments of the film's video game-inspired fight scenes. He also had a small cameo as the voice of the USS "Vengeance" computer in the science fiction film "Star Trek Into Darkness" (2013).


title: Bill Hader

text: From 2011 to 2014, Hader hosted "Essentials, Jr." on Turner Classic Movies. Hader received the gig after he was a guest programmer with host Robert Osborne who was impressed by Hader's eclectic choices, such as Billy Wilder's 1943 "Five Graves to Cairo" (1943), Robert Altman's 1970 "Brewster McCloud" (1970), and Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" (1950). TCM asked him if he would like to host its summer "Essentials Jr." showcase that introduces younger audiences to seminal movies from the golden age of Hollywood and international cinema. He was chosen because Hader has a "certain energy and appeal to younger people. He is very passionate about the subject. He isn't just reading a teleprompter. He really cares and knows the movies." During the "Essentials, Jr." program, Hader handpicked 13 films (one a week) to screen for the whole family each of those four years. The films he chose included "Singin' in the Rain" (1952), "Bringing Up Baby" (1938), "The Band Wagon" (1953), and "The Lavender Hill Mob" (1951).


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader was the guest star in the series premiere of the comedy series "The Mindy Project", where he played as Mindy's ex-boyfriend Tom McDougall. His character returned later in the first season. Hader voiced Dr. Malocchio in the Hulu animated comedy series "The Awesomes". In 2013, Hader replaced Robert Downey, Jr., as the voice of Mr. Peanut.


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader decided to leave "SNL" after eight seasons, informing cast and crew of his decision in February 2013. He came to the conclusion that he needed to leave when his then-wife and he were constantly having to travel to Los Angeles for work, which made it difficult for their children. His final episode was on May 18, 2013. "It was a hard decision, but it has to happen at some point," he told reporters. "It got to a point where I said, 'Maybe it's just time to go.'" On October 11, 2014, Hader returned as host with musical guest Hozier and on March 17, 2018, with musical guest Arcade Fire.


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader starred in a dramatic role in the 2014 film "The Skeleton Twins", opposite Kristen Wiig, with whom he worked on "Saturday Night Live". The film won for 'Best Screenplay' at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2015, Hader voiced the character of Fear in the Disney-Pixar film "Inside Out", and was attached to voice a dinosaur in the Pixar film "The Good Dinosaur". However, Hader, alongside John Lithgow, Lucas Neff, Neil Patrick Harris, and Judy Greer, left the project after their characters were redesigned.


title: Bill Hader

text: In 2015, Hader appeared in "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" as the captain of the 99th Precinct. Also in 2015, Hader reunited with fellow "SNL" alumni Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers for the IFC mockumentary series "Documentary Now!", wherein he was an actor and a writer.


title: Bill Hader

text: In December 2015, Drew McWeeny of HitFix reported that the voice of BB-8 was supplied by Hader and Ben Schwartz, both credited as "BB-8 vocal consultants" in the film. The voice was created by Abrams manipulating their voices through a talkbox, attached to an iPad running a sound-effects app. Hader also voiced multiple characters in YouTube channel Bad Lip Reading's parodies of the "Star Wars" original trilogy. Hader also played a minor supporting role in The Lonely Island's 2016 film "", produced by Judd Apatow.


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader had his first leading man role in the romantic-comedy opposite Amy Schumer in "Trainwreck" (2015) and continued in these romantic roles as a former college boyfriend to best friend of Greta Gerwig's title character in "Maggie's Plan" (2015). Hader voiced Alpha 5 in the 2017 film version of "Power Rangers".


title: Bill Hader

text: In 2018, Hader co-created (with Alec Berg) and began starring in the HBO dark comedy series "Barry", for which he received eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations as producer, writer, director, and actor. He won Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in both 2018 and 2019 and received consecutive nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for its first two seasons.


title: Bill Hader

text: In 2019, Hader starred in the supernatural horror film "It: Chapter Two" as Richie Tozier (sharing the role with Finn Wolfhard), alongside Jessica Chastain, Bill Skarsgård, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, and James McAvoy. Hader received acclaim for his performance.<ref name="facebook.com/gamesradarplus"></ref> In 2019, he voiced Leonard in "The Angry Birds Movie 2", Axel the Carnie in "Toy Story 4", The Wanderer in 4 episodes of "", and played Nick Kringle in "Noelle".


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader has stated that his comedy influences include Monty Python, Alan Alda, Mel Brooks, and Eddie Murphy.


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader has anxiety. During his tenure on Saturday Night Live, he suffered from anxiety and sleep problems. He never felt "truly comfortable" throughout his first four seasons. He was insecure that he had less comedy experience than his peers. He would often not sleep on Fridays before the show and would feel light-headed before broadcasts. He was neurotic regarding his performances; Hader called his early performances "rigid". On one occasion, he began having a panic attack, live on air, while impersonating Julian Assange. It was the final episode of 2010 (hosted by Jeff Bridges), and Hader remembered; "It felt like someone was sitting on my chest. I couldn't breathe, I started sweating. I thought, "This is not good — abort! abort!"" Hader is also prone to migraines, and also suffered one live on air; Jason Sudeikis had to guide him on and offstage as he couldn't see anything. Lorne Michaels tried to put him at ease after the incident by remarking to him, "You can work here as long as you want."


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader is an avid reader who has said that he "didn't really go to college, which is probably why [he] enjoy[s] reading the classics". He named works by Tobias Wolff, Fyodor Dostoevsky, William Faulkner, Richard Ford, George Saunders, and Jun'ichirō Tanizaki among the books on his shelves.


title: Bill Hader

text: Hader married writer and director Maggie Carey in 2006; they have three daughters together. They announced their separation in November 2017, with Hader filing for divorce that December. The uncontested divorce reached a settlement in March 2018, and was finalized three months later.


title: Bill Hader

text: In 2019, Hader began dating actress Rachel Bilson, with whom he had co-starred in "The To Do List". The couple made their first appearance at the 77th Golden Globe Awards in 2020, and it was reported that they had ended their relationship in July 2020. Hader began dating actress Anna Kendrick in late 2020 or early 2021. It was reported on June 28, 2022 that they had ended their relationship.


title: Mobile phone

text: A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture and, therefore, mobile telephones are called "cellular telephones" or "cell phones" in North America. In addition to telephony, digital mobile phones (2G) support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, multimedia messagIng, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, video games and digital photography. Mobile phones offering only those capabilities are known as feature phones; mobile phones which offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.


title: Mobile phone

text: The first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by Martin Cooper of Motorola in New York City in 1973, using a handset weighing c. 2 kilograms (4.4 lbs). In 1979, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) launched the world's first cellular network in Japan. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to over seven billion; enough to provide one for every person on Earth. In the first quarter of 2016, the top smartphone developers worldwide were Samsung, Apple and Huawei; smartphone sales represented 78 percent of total mobile phone sales. For feature phones (slang: ""dumbphones"") , the top-selling brands were Samsung, Nokia and Alcatel.


title: Mobile phone

text: Mobile phones are considered an important human invention as it has been one of the most widely used and sold pieces of consumer technology. The growth in popularity has been rapid in some places, for example in the UK the total number of mobile phones overtook the number of houses in 1999. Today mobile phones are globally ubiquitous and in almost half the world's countries, over 90% of the population own at least one.


title: Mobile phone

text: A handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering. In 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt filed a patent for a "pocket-size folding telephone with a very thin carbon microphone". Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships and trains. The race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries. The advances in mobile telephony have been traced in successive "generations", starting with the early zeroth-generation (0G) services, such as Bell System's Mobile Telephone Service and its successor, the Improved Mobile Telephone Service. These 0G systems were not cellular, supported few simultaneous calls, and were very expensive.


title: Mobile phone

text: The first handheld cellular mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing . The first commercial automated cellular network (1G) analog was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in 1979. This was followed in 1981 by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Several other countries then followed in the early to mid-1980s. These first-generation (1G) systems could support far more simultaneous calls but still used analog cellular technology. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone.


title: Mobile phone

text: In 1991, the second-generation (2G) digital cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard. This sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators. The GSM standard is a European initiative expressed at the CEPT ("Conférence Européenne des Postes et Telecommunications", European Postal and Telecommunications conference). The Franco-German R&D cooperation demonstrated the technical feasibility, and in 1987 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between 13 European countries who agreed to launch a commercial service by 1991. The first version of the GSM (=2G) standard had 6,000 pages. The IEEE and RSE awarded to Thomas Haug and Philippe Dupuis the 2018 James Clerk Maxwell medal for their contributions to the first digital mobile telephone standard. In 2018, the GSM was used by over 5 billion people in over 220 countries. The GSM (2G) has evolved into 3G, 4G and 5G. The standardisation body for GSM started at the CEPT Working Group GSM (Group Special Mobile) in 1982 under the umbrella of CEPT. In 1988, ETSI was established and all CEPT standardization activities were transferred to ETSI. Working Group GSM became Technical Committee GSM. In 1991, it became Technical Committee SMG (Special Mobile Group) when ETSI tasked the committee with UMTS (3G).


title: Mobile phone

text: In 2001, the third generation (3G) was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard. This was followed by 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G enhancements based on the high-speed packet access (HSPA) family, allowing UMTS networks to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity.


title: Mobile phone

text: By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as streaming media. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized fourth-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to ten-fold over existing 3G technologies. The first two commercially available technologies billed as 4G were the WiMAX standard, offered in North America by Sprint, and the LTE standard, first offered in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera.


title: Mobile phone

text: 5G is a technology and term used in research papers and projects to denote the next major phase in mobile telecommunication standards beyond the 4G/IMT-Advanced standards. The term 5G is not officially used in any specification or official document yet made public by telecommunication companies or standardization bodies such as 3GPP, WiMAX Forum or ITU-R. New standards beyond 4G are currently being developed by standardization bodies, but they are at this time seen as under the 4G umbrella, not for a new mobile generation.


title: Mobile phone

text: Smartphones have a number of distinguishing features. The International Telecommunication Union measures those with Internet connection, which it calls "Active Mobile-Broadband subscriptions" (which includes tablets, etc.). In the developed world, smartphones have now overtaken the usage of earlier mobile systems. However, in the developing world, they account for around 50% of mobile telephony.


title: Mobile phone

text: Feature phone is a term typically used as a retronym to describe mobile phones which are limited in capabilities in contrast to a modern smartphone. Feature phones typically provide voice calling and text messaging functionality, in addition to basic multimedia and Internet capabilities, and other services offered by the user's wireless service provider. A feature phone has additional functions over and above a basic mobile phone, which is only capable of voice calling and text messaging. Feature phones and basic mobile phones tend to use a proprietary, custom-designed software and user interface. By contrast, smartphones generally use a mobile operating system that often shares common traits across devices.


title: Mobile phone

text: Mobile phones communicate with cell towers that are placed to give coverage across a telephone service area, which is divided up into 'cells'. Each cell uses a different set of frequencies from neighboring cells, and will typically be covered by three towers placed at different locations. The cell towers are usually interconnected to each other and the phone network and the internet by wired connections. Due to bandwidth limitations each cell will have a maximum number of cell phones it can handle at once. The cells are therefore sized depending on the expected usage density, and may be much smaller in cities. In that case much lower transmitter powers are used to avoid broadcasting beyond the cell.


title: Mobile phone

text: In order to handle the high traffic, multiple towers can be set up in the same area (using different frequencies). This can be done permanently or temporarily such as at special events like at the Super Bowl, Taste of Chicago, State Fair, NYC New Year's Eve, hurricane hit cities, etc. where cell phone companies will bring a truck with equipment to host the abnormally high traffic with a portable cell.


title: Mobile phone

text: Cellular can greatly increase the capacity of simultaneous wireless phone calls. While a phone company for example, has a license to 1,000 frequencies, each cell must use unique frequencies with each call using one of them when communicating. Because cells only slightly overlap, the same frequency can be reused. Example cell one uses frequency 1–500, next door cell uses frequency 501–1,000, next door can reuse frequency 1–500. Cells one and three are not "touching" and do not overlap/communicate so each can reuse the same frequencies.


title: Mobile phone

text: Capacity was further increased when phone companies implemented digital networks. With digital, one frequency can host multiple simultaneous calls.


title: Mobile phone

text: As a phone moves around, a phone will "hand off" - automatically disconnect and reconnect to the tower of another cell that gives the best reception.


title: Mobile phone

text: Additionally, short-range Wi-Fi infrastructure is often used by smartphones as much as possible as it offloads traffic from cell networks on to local area networks.


title: Mobile phone

text: Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones and offer basic telephony. Handsets with more advanced computing ability through the use of native software applications are known as smartphones.


title: Mobile phone

text: Mobile phones have central processing units (CPUs), similar to those in computers, but optimised to operate in low power environments.


title: Mobile phone

text: Mobile CPU performance depends not only on the clock rate (generally given in multiples of hertz) but also the memory hierarchy also greatly affects overall performance. Because of these problems, the performance of mobile phone CPUs is often more appropriately given by scores derived from various standardized tests to measure the real effective performance in commonly used applications.


title: Mobile phone

text: One of the main characteristics of phones is the screen. Depending on the device's type and design, the screen fills most or nearly all of the space on a device's front surface. Many smartphone displays have an aspect ratio of , but taller aspect ratios became more common in 2017.


title: Mobile phone

text: Screen sizes are often measured in diagonal inches or millimeters; feature phones generally have screen sizes below . Phones with screens larger than are often called "phablets." Smartphones with screens over in size are commonly difficult to use with only a single hand, since most thumbs cannot reach the entire screen surface; they may need to be shifted around in the hand, held in one hand and manipulated by the other, or used in place with both hands. Due to design advances, some modern smartphones with large screen sizes and "edge-to-edge" designs have compact builds that improve their ergonomics, while the shift to taller aspect ratios have resulted in phones that have larger screen sizes whilst maintaining the ergonomics associated with smaller 16:9 displays.


title: Mobile phone

text: Liquid-crystal displays are the most common; others are IPS, LED, OLED, and AMOLED displays. Some displays are integrated with pressure-sensitive digitizers, such as those developed by Wacom and Samsung, and Apple's "3D Touch" system.


title: Mobile phone

text: In sound, smartphones and feature phones vary little. Some audio-quality enhancing features, such as Voice over LTE and HD Voice, have appeared and are often available on newer smartphones. Sound quality can remain a problem due to the design of the phone, the quality of the cellular network and compression algorithms used in long-distance calls. Audio quality can be improved using a VoIP application over WiFi. Cellphones have small speakers so that the user can use a speakerphone feature and talk to a person on the phone without holding it to their ear. The small speakers can also be used to listen to digital audio files of music or speech or watch videos with an audio component, without holding the phone close to the ear.


title: Mobile phone

text: The average phone battery lasts 2–3 years at best. Many of the wireless devices use a Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery, which charges 500–2500 times, depending on how users take care of the battery and the charging techniques used. It is only natural for these rechargeable batteries to chemically age, which is why the performance of the battery when used for a year or two will begin to deteriorate. Battery life can be extended by draining it regularly, not overcharging it, and keeping it away from heat.


title: Mobile phone

text: Mobile phones require a small microchip called a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM card, in order to function. The SIM card is approximately the size of a small postage stamp and is usually placed underneath the battery in the rear of the unit. The SIM securely stores the service-subscriber key (IMSI) and the K used to identify and authenticate the user of the mobile phone. The SIM card allows users to change phones by simply removing the SIM card from one mobile phone and inserting it into another mobile phone or broadband telephony device, provided that this is not prevented by a SIM lock. The first SIM card was made in 1991 by Munich smart card maker Giesecke & Devrient for the Finnish wireless network operator Radiolinja.


title: Mobile phone

text: A hybrid mobile phone can hold up to four SIM cards, with a phone having a different device identifier for each SIM Card. SIM and R-UIM cards may be mixed together to allow both GSM and CDMA networks to be accessed. From 2010 onwards, such phones became popular in emerging markets, and this was attributed to the desire to obtain the lowest calling costs.


title: Mobile phone

text: When the removal of a SIM card is detected by the operating system, it may deny further operation until a reboot.


title: Mobile phone

text: Feature phones have basic software platforms. Smartphones have advanced software platforms. Android OS has been the best-selling OS worldwide on smartphones since 2011.


title: Mobile phone

text: A mobile app is a computer program designed to run on a mobile device, such as a smartphone. The term "app" is a shortening of the term "software application".


title: Mobile phone

text: A common data application on mobile phones is Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging. The first SMS message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone in 1992 in the UK while the first person-to-person SMS from phone to phone was sent in Finland in 1993. The first mobile news service, delivered via SMS, was launched in Finland in 2000, and subsequently many organizations provided "on-demand" and "instant" news services by SMS. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) was introduced in March 2002.


title: Mobile phone

text: The introduction of Apple's App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch in July 2008 popularized manufacturer-hosted online distribution for third-party applications (software and computer programs) focused on a single platform. There are a huge variety of apps, including video games, music products and business tools. Up until that point, smartphone application distribution depended on third-party sources providing applications for multiple platforms, such as GetJar, Handango, Handmark, and PocketGear. Following the success of the App Store, other smartphone manufacturers launched application stores, such as Google's Android Market (later renamed to the Google Play Store), RIM's BlackBerry App World, or Android-related app stores like Aptoide, Cafe Bazaar, F-Droid, GetJar, and Opera Mobile Store. In February 2014, 93% of mobile developers were targeting smartphones first for mobile app development.


title: Mobile phone

text: As of 2022, the top five manufacturers worldwide were Samsung (21%), Apple (16%), Xiaomi (13%), Oppo (10%), and Vivo (9%).


title: Mobile phone

text: From 1983 to 1998, Motorola was market leader in mobile phones. Nokia was the market leader in mobile phones from 1998 to 2012. In Q1 2012, Samsung surpassed Nokia, selling 93.5 million units as against Nokia's 82.7 million units. Samsung has retained its top position since then.


title: Mobile phone

text: Aside from Motorola, European brands such as Nokia, Siemens and Ericsson once held large sway over the global mobile phone market, and many new technologies were pioneered in Europe. By 2010, the influence of European companies had significantly decreased due to fierce competition from American and Asian companies, to where most technical innovation had shifted. Apple and Google, both of the United States, also came to dominate mobile phone software.


title: Mobile phone

text: The world's largest individual mobile operator by number of subscribers is China Mobile, which has over 902 million mobile phone subscribers . Over 50 mobile operators have over ten million subscribers each, and over 150 mobile operators had at least one million subscribers by the end of 2009. In 2014, there were more than seven billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide, a number that is expected to keep growing.


title: Mobile phone

text: Mobile phones are used for a variety of purposes, such as keeping in touch with family members, for conducting business, and in order to have access to a telephone in the event of an emergency. Some people carry more than one mobile phone for different purposes, such as for business and personal use. Multiple SIM cards may be used to take advantage of the benefits of different calling plans. For example, a particular plan might provide for cheaper local calls, long-distance calls, international calls, or roaming.


title: Mobile phone

text: In 1998, one of the first examples of distributing and selling media content through the mobile phone was the sale of ringtones by Radiolinja in Finland. Soon afterwards, other media content appeared, such as news, video games, jokes, horoscopes, TV content and advertising. Most early content for mobile phones tended to be copies of legacy media, such as banner advertisements or TV news highlight video clips. Recently, unique content for mobile phones has been emerging, from ringtones and ringback tones to mobisodes, video content that has been produced exclusively for mobile phones.


title: Mobile phone

text: In many countries, mobile phones are used to provide mobile banking services, which may include the ability to transfer cash payments by secure SMS text message. Kenya's M-PESA mobile banking service, for example, allows customers of the mobile phone operator Safaricom to hold cash balances which are recorded on their SIM cards. Cash can be deposited or withdrawn from M-PESA accounts at Safaricom retail outlets located throughout the country and can be transferred electronically from person to person and used to pay bills to companies.


title: Mobile phone

text: Branchless banking has also been successful in South Africa and the Philippines. A pilot project in Bali was launched in 2011 by the International Finance Corporation and an Indonesian bank, Bank Mandiri.


title: Mobile phone

text: Mobile payments were first trialled in Finland in 1998 when two Coca-Cola vending machines in Espoo were enabled to work with SMS payments. Eventually, the idea spread and in 1999, the Philippines launched the country's first commercial mobile payments systems with mobile operators Globe and Smart.


title: Mobile phone

text: Some mobile phones can make mobile payments via direct mobile billing schemes, or through contactless payments if the phone and the point of sale support near field communication (NFC). Enabling contactless payments through NFC-equipped mobile phones requires the co-operation of manufacturers, network operators, and retail merchants.


title: Mobile phone

text: Mobile phones are commonly used to collect location data. While the phone is turned on, the geographical location of a mobile phone can be determined easily (whether it is being used or not) using a technique known as multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a signal to travel from the mobile phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone.


title: Mobile phone

text: The movements of a mobile phone user can be tracked by their service provider and, if desired, by law enforcement agencies and their governments. Both the SIM card and the handset can be tracked.


title: Mobile phone

text: China has proposed using this technology to track the commuting patterns of Beijing city residents. In the UK and US, law enforcement and intelligence services use mobile phones to perform surveillance operations.


title: Mobile phone

text: Hackers have been able to track a phone's location, read messages, and record calls, through obtaining a subscribers phone number.


title: Mobile phone

text: Mobile phone use while driving, including talking on the phone, texting, or operating other phone features, is common but controversial. It is widely considered dangerous due to distracted driving. Being distracted while operating a motor vehicle has been shown to increase the risk of accidents. In September 2010, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 995 people were killed by drivers distracted by cell phones. In March 2011, a U.S. insurance company, State Farm Insurance, announced the results of a study which showed 19% of drivers surveyed accessed the Internet on a smartphone while driving. Many jurisdictions prohibit the use of mobile phones while driving. In Egypt, Israel, Japan, Portugal, and Singapore, both handheld and hands-free use of a mobile phone (which uses a speakerphone) is banned. In other countries, including the UK and France and in many U.S. states, only handheld phone use is banned while hands-free use is permitted.


title: Mobile phone

text: A 2011 study reported that over 90% of college students surveyed text (initiate, reply or read) while driving.


title: Mobile phone

text: The scientific literature on the dangers of driving while sending a text message from a mobile phone, or "texting while driving", is limited. A simulation study at the University of Utah found a sixfold increase in distraction-related accidents when texting.


title: Mobile phone

text: Due to the increasing complexity of mobile phones, they are often more like mobile computers in their available uses. This has introduced additional difficulties for law enforcement officials when attempting to distinguish one usage from another in drivers using their devices. This is more apparent in countries which ban both handheld and hands-free usage, rather than those which ban handheld use only, as officials cannot easily tell which function of the mobile phone is being used simply by looking at the driver. This can lead to drivers being stopped for using their device illegally for a phone call when, in fact, they were using the device legally, for example, when using the phone's incorporated controls for car stereo, GPS or satnav.


title: Mobile phone

text: A 2010 study reviewed the incidence of mobile phone use while cycling and its effects on behaviour and safety. In 2013, a national survey in the US reported the number of drivers who reported using their cellphones to access the Internet while driving had risen to nearly one of four. A study conducted by the University of Vienna examined approaches for reducing inappropriate and problematic use of mobile phones, such as using mobile phones while driving.


title: Mobile phone

text: Accidents involving a driver being distracted by talking on a mobile phone have begun to be prosecuted as negligence similar to speeding. In the United Kingdom, from 27 February 2007, motorists who are caught using a hand-held mobile phone while driving will have three penalty points added to their license in addition to the fine of £60. This increase was introduced to try to stem the increase in drivers ignoring the law. Japan prohibits all mobile phone use while driving, including use of hands-free devices. New Zealand has banned hand-held cell phone use since 1 November 2009. Many states in the United States have banned texting on cell phones while driving. Illinois became the 17th American state to enforce this law. , 30 states had banned texting while driving, with Kentucky becoming the most recent addition on 15 July.


title: Mobile phone

text: Public Health Law Research maintains a list of distracted driving laws in the United States. This database of laws provides a comprehensive view of the provisions of laws that restrict the use of mobile communication devices while driving for all 50 states and the District of Columbia between 1992 when first law was passed, through 1 December 2010. The dataset contains information on 22 dichotomous, continuous or categorical variables including, for example, activities regulated (e.g., texting versus talking, hands-free versus handheld), targeted populations, and exemptions.


title: Mobile phone

text: In 2010, an estimated 1500 pedestrians were injured in the US while using a cellphone and some jurisdictions have attempted to ban pedestrians from using their cellphones.


title: Mobile phone

text: The effect of mobile phone radiation on human health is the subject of recent interest and study, as a result of the enormous increase in mobile phone usage throughout the world. Mobile phones use electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range, which some believe may be harmful to human health. A large body of research exists, both epidemiological and experimental, in non-human animals and in humans. The majority of this research shows no definite causative relationship between exposure to mobile phones and harmful biological effects in humans. This is often paraphrased simply as the balance of evidence showing no harm to humans from mobile phones, although a significant number of individual studies do suggest such a relationship, or are inconclusive. Other digital wireless systems, such as data communication networks, produce similar radiation.


title: Mobile phone

text: On 31 May 2011, the World Health Organization stated that mobile phone use may possibly represent a long-term health risk, classifying mobile phone radiation as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" after a team of scientists reviewed studies on mobile phone safety. The mobile phone is in category 2B, which ranks it alongside coffee and other possibly carcinogenic substances.


title: Mobile phone

text: Some recent studies have found an association between mobile phone use and certain kinds of brain and salivary gland tumors. Lennart Hardell and other authors of a 2009 meta-analysis of 11 studies from peer-reviewed journals concluded that cell phone usage for at least ten years "approximately doubles the risk of being diagnosed with a brain tumor on the same ('ipsilateral') side of the head as that preferred for cell phone use".


title: Mobile phone

text: One study of past mobile phone use cited in the report showed a "40% increased risk for gliomas (brain cancer) in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30 minutes per day over a 10‐year period)". This is a reversal of the study's prior position that cancer was unlikely to be caused by cellular phones or their base stations and that reviews had found no convincing evidence for other health effects. However, a study published 24 March 2012, in the "British Medical Journal" questioned these estimates because the increase in brain cancers has not paralleled the increase in mobile phone use. Certain countries, including France, have warned against the use of mobile phones by minors in particular, due to health risk uncertainties. Mobile pollution by transmitting electromagnetic waves can be decreased up to 90% by adopting the circuit as designed in mobile phone and mobile exchange.


title: Mobile phone

text: In May 2016, preliminary findings of a long-term study by the U.S. government suggested that radio-frequency (RF) radiation, the type emitted by cell phones, can cause cancer.


title: Mobile phone

text: A study by the London School of Economics found that banning mobile phones in schools could increase pupils' academic performance, providing benefits equal to one extra week of schooling per year.


title: Mobile phone

text: Studies have shown that around 40–50% of the environmental impact of mobile phones occurs during the manufacture of their printed wiring boards and integrated circuits.


title: Mobile phone

text: The average user replaces their mobile phone every 11 to 18 months, and the discarded phones then contribute to electronic waste. Mobile phone manufacturers within Europe are subject to the WEEE directive, and Australia has introduced a mobile phone recycling scheme.


title: Mobile phone

text: Apple Inc. had an advanced robotic disassembler and sorter called Liam specifically for recycling outdated or broken iPhones.


title: Mobile phone

text: According to the Federal Communications Commission, one out of three robberies involve the theft of a cellular phone. Police data in San Francisco show that half of all robberies in 2012 were thefts of cellular phones. An online petition on Change.org, called "Secure our Smartphones", urged smartphone manufacturers to install kill switches in their devices to make them unusable if stolen. The petition is part of a joint effort by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and was directed to the CEOs of the major smartphone manufacturers and telecommunication carriers. On 10 June 2013, Apple announced that it would install a "kill switch" on its next iPhone operating system, due to debut in October 2013.


title: Mobile phone

text: All mobile phones have a unique identifier called IMEI. Anyone can report their phone as lost or stolen with their Telecom Carrier, and the IMEI would be blacklisted with a central registry. Telecom carriers, depending upon local regulation can or must implement blocking of blacklisted phones in their network. There are, however, a number of ways to circumvent a blacklist. One method is to send the phone to a country where the telecom carriers are not required to implement the blacklisting and sell it there, another involves altering the phone's IMEI number. Even so, mobile phones typically have less value on the second-hand market if the phones original IMEI is blacklisted.


title: Mobile phone

text: Demand for metals used in mobile phones and other electronics fuelled the Second Congo War, which claimed almost 5.5 million lives. In a 2012 news story, "The Guardian" reported: "In unsafe mines deep underground in eastern Congo, children are working to extract minerals essential for the electronics industry. The profits from the minerals finance the bloodiest conflict since the second world war; the war has lasted nearly 20 years and has recently flared up again. For the last 15 years, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been a major source of natural resources for the mobile phone industry." The company Fairphone has worked to develop a mobile phone that does not contain conflict minerals.


title: Mobile phone

text: Due to concerns by the Orthodox Jewish rabbinate in Britain that texting by youths could waste time and lead to "immodest" communication, the rabbinate recommended that phones with text-messaging capability not be used by children; to address this, they gave their official approval to a brand of "Kosher" phones with no texting capabilities. Although these phones are intended to prevent immodesty, some vendors report good sales to adults who prefer the simplicity of the devices; other Orthodox Jews question the need for them.


title: Mobile phone

text: In Israel, similar phones to kosher phones with restricted features exist to observe the sabbath; under Orthodox Judaism, the use of any electrical device is generally prohibited during this time, other than to save lives, or reduce the risk of death or similar needs. Such phones are approved for use by essential workers, such as health, security, and public service workers.


title: 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami

text: An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time () on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. It was an undersea megathrust earthquake that registered a magnitude of 9.1–9.3 , reaching a Mercalli intensity up to IX in certain areas. The earthquake was caused by a rupture along the fault between the Burma Plate and the Indian Plate.


text: A series of massive tsunami waves grew up to high once heading inland, after being created by the underwater seismic activity offshore. Communities along the surrounding coasts of the Indian Ocean were devastated, and the tsunamis killed an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. The direct results caused major disruptions to living conditions and commerce in coastal provinces of surrounded countries, including Aceh (Indonesia), Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu (India) and Khao Lak (Thailand). Banda Aceh reported the largest number of deaths.