TelexExternal LinkInternal LinkInventory Cache
Klaatu Barada Nikto
This nOde last updated June 10th, 2004 and is permanently morphing...
(8 K'an (Corn) / 7 Zots (Bat) - 164/260 - 12.19.11.6.4)

a most poweful meme within the constraints of cult filmmaking.

film _Army Of Darkness_ (vhs/ntsc) (part 3 of the _Evil Dead_ trilogy)

In order to destroy the book of the dead, the hero must memorize and say the words "Klaatu Barada Nikto". This is a tribute to _The Day the Earth Stood Still_. In that movie the alien instructs the girl to memorize and say the codewords "Klaatu Barada Nikto" to stop the robot from attacking. 

film _Tron_ (vhs/ntsc)

In the very beginning, the main character sits in his cubicle, shortly before he gets digitized into a games character. On the wall he has the text 'Klaatu barada nikto'. 

film _Return Of The Jedi_  (vhs/ntsc)  (1983)(Episode 6 in the _Star Wars_saga)

Klaatu: Green face, brown "vest", shiny metal helmet (After Luke makes it to the top deck of Jabba's sail barge, he kills Nikto with the large laser, and the very next alien that shoots at him is Klaatu.)

Barada: Green, pudgy face, white shirt, orange bandana. (Holding a long "staff" standing behind and to the left of Chewbacca on the desert skiff, heading towards the Sarlacc pit.)

Nikto: Orange face w/ smallish horns, brown helmet and "tunic". (Just before C-3PO gives Luke and company a last chance to "beg for mercy", there is a close-up of Lando's face in his guard disguise and Nikto is behind and to the left of Lando & also behind and to the right of Lando when Luke and lando exchange nods, just before the excitement begins.)  

• techno track _Step Up (Barada mix)_ by Bryan Zentz off of _Medicine Drum_ 12" on Tronic  #006 (1998)
• tech house track _Barada Fusebox (possibly truncated in the mix 3:02)_ MP3 by Steve Mason
• filmscore track _Klaatu_ MP3 by Bernard Hermann off of soundtrack to _The Day The Earth Stood Still_
  • Herrmann chose a most unusual instrumentation for director Robert Wise's picture, including electric violin, electric bass, two theremins, test oscillators, vibraphone, four pianos, four harps, and approximately 30 brass instruments. Unusual overdubbing and tape-reversal techniques were also used.

psychedelic pop release s/t 12" by Klaatu (1976)

In August of 1976, the self-titled debut album by an unknown group called Klaatu was released to little notice. The following February Steve Smith, a writer for the Providence Journal in Rhode Island, wrote an article titled "Could Klaatu Be the Beatles? Mystery Is a Magical Mystery Tour." The article began the rumor that Klaatu was "more than likely either in part or in whole the Beatles." These conjectures, fueled by a series of articles in trade magazines like Billboard created a huge amount of hype and Capitol did nothing to deny or confirm the rumors. Throughout 1977, record sales soared and radio stations ran "Is Klaatu the Beatles?" promotions. Reportedly, some of the "clues" as to whether or not Klaatu were the Beatles included backward messages, Morse code, references to the group's identities in the song lyrics, and the word "Beatles" hidden in various places on the record jacket. After several months of conjecture, the group's identity was revealed at the end of year -- it wasn't the Beatles after all, it was Terry Draper (songwriter, vocalist, drummer), John Woloschuck, and Dee Long. Immediately, their record sales declined, and due to a backlash generated by the Beatles hoax their four subsequent albums failed to sell. The group broke up in 1981.

• _Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft_ MP3 (256k)
  • covered by Carpenters
  • MP3 covered by Babes In Toyland off of _The Further Adventures Of Babes In Toyland_ compilation on Fuel (2000)
• _California Jam_
• _Anus Of Venus_
• _Sub-Rosa Subway_
• _True Life Hero_
• _Doctor Marvello_
• _Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III_
• _Little Neutrino_

track _So Said The Lighthouse Keeper_ MP3 (vK) off of _Hope_ 12" (1977)

track _Perpetual Motion Machine_ MP3 (160k) off of _Sir Army Suit_ 12" (1978)

track _Dog Star_ MP3 (160k) off of _Endangered Species_ 12" (1980)

first mention of Klaatu in Usenet:

From: C70:info-cpm (C70:info-cpm)
Subject: Better things than Unix
Newsgroups: fa.info-cpm
Date: 1982-07-31 22:04:35 PST
 

>From decvax!duke!uok!uokvax!mwm@Ucb-C70 Sat Jul 31 03:28:22 1982
    decvax!duke!uok!uokvax!jab at Ucb-C70,
    decvax!duke!uok!uokvax!bsteve at Ucb-C70
Cc: uok!duke!decvax!ucbvax!info-cpm at BRL,
    uok!duke!decvax!ucbvax!info-micro at BRL
Reply-To: decvax!duke!uok!uokvax!mwm at Ucb-C70
Via:  Ucb-C70; 31 Jul 82 5:31-EDT
Via:  Brl; 31 Jul 82 5:39-EDT
Via:  Brl-Bmd; 31 Jul 82 5:47-EDT

I got a request to describe the systems that I thought were much better than Unix and hope will be available by the time the hardware to run them reaches affordable prices. The following is my (belated) reply. I thought it of enough interest to be posted to the lists. My apologies to those who get it twice.

Eden, smalltalk, etc. are representatives of the what I hope will be the next generation of operating systems. These systems are generically referred to as "object" based systems. Their primary characteristic is that they don't have file systems; everything in an object driven system is always in memory, some memory is just slower than other memory.

Some of the features these systems can display:

        1) user supplied object topologies
        2) dynamic linking to objects
        3) I/O redirection by name substitution
        4) Automated desktop style command processors

These things imply some slick capabilities. User supplied topologies means that I can organize my `files' any way I please, using any naming convention I want. Dynamic linking to objects means that if a bug gets fixed in a library, I won't have to relink programs that use the library; they'll pick the new one up when I run them. Finally, I/O redirection by name means that you can do things like

        "run this program; when it asks for object klaatu, give it object barado instead"

Similar magic should apply to subroutine linkage, etc.

Smalltalk is a language/system (similar to BASIC in the binding of the operating system and the language) developed by Xerox, to be release to the public "soon". The Rossetta Corporation has an implementation of Smalltalk '76 on a z80. See the August '81 issue of Byte for information.

Eden is a system being worked on by a group of people at the University of Washington. It is designed to run on 1 to 4 iAPX-432's (gulp) as part of a local ethernet system. One of the aims of the Eden project is to build a good environment for doing CS research.  See the Proceedings of the Eigth Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (December '81 OSR) for information.

The etc include iMAX-432, being developed by Intel for the iAPX-432. This is the only object driven system currently available to the public. For information, check the Eigth SOSP mentioned above.

In addition, I have been playing with the idea of putting some form of object driven system on my current (z80) hardware. It's not clear that such a thing is possible. The lack of a hard disk is particularly noticeable.

        mike

TelexExternal LinkInternal LinkInventory Cache