Kaboom!
Kaboom! was a game for the Atari 2600 system, released in 1981. Much like Space Invaders, the premise of the game was very simple: bombs drop from the top of the screen, while the player controls a sliding platform at the bottom. The object was to keep the bombs from exploding by “catching” them (sliding the platform underneath each bomb as it hits the surface level).
Kah-if-farr
Vulcan for the occurrence of a betrothed female shunning her intended at their marriage ceremony for a mate of her own choosing, as shown in the original Star Trek episode “Amok Time.”
Kahless
The first emperor of the Star Trek universe’s Klingon Empire, Kahless not only united his planet’s people, but also set the standard for the conduct of honor and strength all Klingons live by. As the legend goes, Kahless and his brother Morath fought for 12 days and nights because Morath had broken his word, dishonored his family and killed their father. Morath then threw their father’s sword into the sea to prevent Kahless from having it, but Kahless held his breath for three days and found it. As an adult, Kahless forged the first bat’leth weapon and founded the Empire after slaying the tyrant Molor and conquering the Fek’Ihri. According to the tales, Kahless once fought off an entire army by himself at Three Turn Bridge, skinned the serpent of Xol, and carved a statue for his beloved Lukara, whom he met after they fended off 500 warriors at the Great Hall at Qam-Chee, when the city garrison fled. After delivering the laws of honor in later life, Kahless went to the edge of his city and made The Promise to his weeping people that he was leaving to guard the afterlife of the honored dead, in Sto-Vo-Kor, but would return one day.
Kal-El
See Superman.
Kal-if-fee
Vulcan for “challenge.” The word was spoken by T’Pring in the original Star Trek episode “Amok Time.”
Kamehameha
The first energy wave attack shown in the Dragon Ball series, the Kamehameha attack is formed when cupped hands are drawn to the user’s side and Ki is concentrated into a single point between the cupped hands, however, in the manga there are no energy spheres in the user’s hand. The hands are then thrust forward to shoot out a powerful streaming beam of energy. In extreme circumstances, the blast can be used with just one arm, or even the feet. In most uses, the user utters the word “Ka-me-ha-me-ha” as they charge and release the attack.
Kami-Con
An annual Alabama anime convention with an ongoing storyline that continues each year since 2009.
Kang
The Klingon military leader Kang, as portrayed by actor Michael Ansara (1922-2013), appeared in one episode each of three Star Trek series: “Day of the Dove” (Star Trek: The Original Series, 1968), “Blood Oath” (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, 1994), and “Flashback” (Star Trek: Voyager, 1996). In “Day of the Dove,” he uttered the well-remembered line “Only a fool fights in a burning house.”
Kar-i-far
Vulcan for “begin.” The word was spoken by T’Pau in the original Star Trek episode “Amok Time.”
Kara Zor-El
Known as Supergirl, Kara Zor-El is our Earth’s equivalent of the parallel Earth-Two’s Kara Zor-L, known there as Power Girl. The native Kryptonian is a cousin to Kal-El, the son of Krypton known on our Earth as Superman, but her origin and backstory have changed several times in DC Comics continuity. As Power Girl, the distinctive costume she wears lacks an emblem, which she uses to distract others in combat. She has been a member of the Justice League of America, the Justice Society of America, Infinity, Inc., Birds of Prey, the Suicide Squad and the Sovereign Seven.
Kara Zor-L
See Kara Zor-El.
Karpov, Anatoly
World chess champion Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov was born in Zlatoust, Russia (then the Soviet Union) on May 23, 1951. He learned to play chess when he was four years old. His early skills were developed in the Soviet manner, with intensive coaching and long hours of practice. In 1969, Karpov won the world junior championship and, after continuing to develop his chess game, became a grandmaster by the age of 19. After defeating another Russian grandmaster, Viktor Korchnoi, Karpov was set to play the American world chess champion Bobby Fischer in 1975. However, the eccentric and unpredictable Fischer refused to play when his numerous demands were not met, so Karpov took the title of world chess champion by default.
In 1978 and 1981, Karpov successfully defended his title against Korchnoi. By then, Korchnoi had defected from the Soviet Union, so Karpov’s victories won him acclaim from then-President Leonid Brezhnev. Being champion also made Karpov an acclaimed figure in the Soviet Union, as well as a millionaire. In 1984, Karpov faced another of his countrymen, Gary Kasparov, to fight for the world championship. The event turned into an extensive, drawn-out affair, with a series of games that continued for five months. The tournament only ended when the president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) suspended play, citing concerns for the participants’ health. With no winner, Karpov kept the title, but Kasparov defeated him in the next championship event, held in 1985. Karpov lost to Kasparov again in 1986, 1987 and 1990. In 1993, Karpov regained the FIDE world champion title, but only because Kasparov had left FIDE to form another chess organization. Karpov remained FIDE’s world champion until 1999.
In 2010, Karpov ran for president of FIDE. He garnered the support of many national chess federations by vowing to do away with the corruption in chess and to raise the sport’s profile. As their rivalry had eased over the years, Karpov also received Kasparov’s endorsement. However, Karpov was defeated by the organization’s sitting president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
Throughout his life, Karpov has extolled the benefits of chess, establishing chess schools in a number of countries. He has also been involved in outreach programs that teach the game to prison inmates. In addition to these activities, Karpov continues to play chess himself. In 2012, he won the Anatoly Karpov Trophy, which had been named in his honor. He has also met with Kasparov for exhibition games, including a competition held 25 years after their first championship showdown.
Away from the chessboard, Karpov’s other work has included being a UNICEF ambassador and serving as chair of the International Association of Peace Foundations.
Kasparov, Garry
Born Garri Kimovich Kasparov on April 13, 1963 in Baku, Azerbaijan to a Jewish father and an Armenian mother, Kasparov began playing chess at age 6. He studied under former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, becoming the Soviet youth champion by the age of 13, and winning his first international tournament at age 16. Kasparov became an international grandmaster in 1980. He first challenged the reigning world chess champion Anatoly Karpov in a 1984–85 match, after he survived a series of elimination matches through the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), the international chess federation. Kasparov lost four out of the first nine games, but then adopted a careful defensive stance, resulting in an extraordinarily long series of draws with the champion. With Kasparov finally winning three games from the exhausted Karpov, FIDE halted the series after a total of 48 games, a decision that Kasparov protested. In a 1985 rematch, Kasparov narrowly defeated Karpov in a 24-game series, thereby becoming the youngest official champion in the history of the game. In 1988, a computer program was devised to analyze a vast collection of chess statistics in order to create a ranking of the all-time chess greats. Top of the list was 25-year-old Russian Garry Kasparov, above Jose Capablanca, Karpov, Bobby Fischer and the rest.
In 1993, Kasparov and the English grandmaster Nigel Short left FIDE and formed a rival organization, the Professional Chess Association (PCA). In response, FIDE stripped the title of world champion from Kasparov, who defeated Short that same year to become the PCA world champion. In 1995, he successfully defended his PCA title against Viswanathan Anand of India.
The following year, Kasparov defeated a powerful chess computer custom-built by International Business Machines (IBM) known as Deep Blue in a match in Philadelphia that attracted worldwide attention. Kasparov and the team of Deep Blue programmers agreed to have a rematch in 1997. Deep Blue’s intelligence was upgraded, and the machine prevailed. Kasparov resigned in the last game of the six-game match after 19 moves, granting the win to Deep Blue. Apart from his match against Deep Blue, Kasparov has always been at the cutting edge of innovations in chess. For four months in 1999, he battled the world on the internet in a Microsoft-sponsored event that opened new frontiers for chess. In 2000, Kasparov lost a 16-game championship match to Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. In January 2003, a world championship challenge match was held between Kasparov, the world’s #1 ranked player, and the reigning world computer chess champion, an Israeli program called Deep Junior. The highly publicized and tightly contested New York City event saw Kasparov battle the computer to a 3-3 draw.
Kasparov retired from competitive chess play in 2005, though not from involvement in chess. In particular, he produced an acclaimed series of books, Kasparov on My Great Predecessors (2003-06), that covered all the world chess champions from Wilhelm Steinitz to Karpov, as well as many other great players. He has also stayed in the public eye in the arena of politics.
Katar Hol
See Hawkman.
Kato
Partner of the Green Hornet, the character of Kato debuted on Detroit’s WXYZ radio in the late 1930s. Originally portrayed as Japanese, his nationality was changed to simply “Oriental” following Japan’s 1937 invasion of China. According to the storyline, wealthy newspaper publisher Britt Reid befriended Kato when the American traveled to the Far East. Reid brought Kato back to the States as his assistant and driver. Valet by day and masked driver/sidekick by night, Kato is an excellent martial artist as well as a fine mechanic, and he built the Green Hornet’s vehicle, which he called the “Black Beauty.”
In the big-screen films The Green Hornet (1940) and The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1941), Keye Luke (later one of the stars of the TV series Kung Fu and the sci fi adventure Gremlins) starred as The Black Beauty’s driver. In 1966, Kato appeared on the small screen in the Green Hornet television series, which ran for 26 episodes. Kato was played by martial artist Bruce Lee, who also appeared in character in two episodes of the popular contemporary show Batman.
Now Comics, which featured many stories about Green Hornet and Kato from 1991-95, developed a whole genealogy and history for the Green Hornet and Kato. The original crimefighter was Ikano Kato, whose son Hayashi Kato took on the masked persona in the 1960s. In 1986, Hayashi Kato again sat behind the wheel of the Beauty, but then Hayashi’s younger half-sister Mishi took over for a time. After Mishi accepted an engineering job, Hayashi returned once more to fight his city’s villains. When Hayashi retired, his nephew Kono was introduced as the new Kato.
In Dynamite Entertainment’s comic pages, Hayashi Kato was said to be the son of an accomplished samurai, who was also a master of Ninjutsu and taught Hayashi everything he knew.
Although possessing no superpowers, Kato has a lifetime of martial arts training behind him, mastering Bushido and Shinobido to the highest degree. Mostly using his bare hands, he can also formidably use any martial arts weapon and is skilled at improvising weapons out of ordinary objects and using his surroundings. His martial arts training also allowed him to be at peak physical condition.
In the 2011 big-screen adventure The Green Hornet, Kato was played by Jay Chou.
Kawaii
A Japanese adjective commonly used by anime and manga fans meaning pretty, cute, etc. The term stems from two characters that combine to mean “can love.”
Kee Games
Named for partner Joe Keenan, who, along with Nolan Bushnell, set up the arcade game distribution company that distributed and serviced Atari games, as well as their own games and “clones” of Atari games, thereby doubling the number of potential outlets for Atari’s games. In 1974, Kee Games released the number one arcade hit Tank. Compared to Pong, Tank’s graphics – accomplished by storing them in ROM – were stunning. Kee Games sales began to dwarf Atari’s. Not only were its games better sellers, but its servicing/distribution routes were also highly lucrative. Later that year, Atari announced it was “merging” with Kee Games. Bushnell no longer feared losing half his distribution channels, since Pong and Tank were eating up quarters and leaving pinball games silent. It was only after the merger that the game industry learned the truth: that Kee Games was Atari. Curiously, few in the industry noticed that Kee’s games used an old Atari code library that would pop up Atari’s original name, Syzygy, on its trademark screen.
Kelley, DeForest
Born January 20, 1920 in Atlanta, Georgia, Star Trek’s Kelley was the son of a Baptist minister. He left Atlanta after high school to visit an uncle in Long Beach, California, and there, he joined a theater group. In the mid-1940s, he was discovered by a Paramount talent scout who saw him in a U.S. Navy training film. The scout offered him a screen test and later a contract. He made his film debut in a 1947 film noir called Fear in the Night, which showcased Kelley’s distinctive arched eyebrows and occasional wild-eyed expressions. He appeared in several more films before moving to New York, where he worked in theater and in early television anthology dramas such as Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. He returned to Hollywood in 1955 to resume film work, appearing in director Sam Fuller’s House of Bamboo and Tension at Table Rock.
Kelley was a supporting actor on film, stage and television for 20 years, spending most of those years portraying villains. His biggest role was as Morgan Earp in 1957’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which starred Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster. In 1960 he landed more television roles, including the lead in a pilot written and produced by Gene Roddenberry. Although Roddenberry later cast another actor, Edmond O’Brien, to star in the series Sam Benedict, he did not forget about Kelley. Kelley was not a fan of science fiction, but when Roddenberry invited him to a screening of the original pilot for Star Trek, which starred Jeffrey Hunter, he did not turn him down.
Initially, Roddenberry had one of two roles in mind for Kelley: Dr. McCoy or the stoic Vulcan science officer Mr. Spock. Kelley felt he wouldn’t be right for the emotionless alien, but was very attracted to the “old country doctor” role of McCoy. On the Enterprise crew, Kelley was the humanist, and the perfect foil for the coldly logical Mr. Spock played by Leonard Nimoy and the macho Capt. James Tiberius Kirk played by William Shatner. Kelley played Dr. McCoy on the entire three-year run of the original Star Trek series, as well as in the 1970s animated series, the first six Trek motion pictures, and one guest appearances as an elderly McCoy in the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Kenobi, Ben
In 1989, the same year that Paramount released Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Kelley received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Later in his life, he stated that he was most proud of the fact that Star Trek fans through the years had written him to say that McCoy’s character had inspired them to go to medical school. Kelley passed away in 1999 at the age of 79. Carolyn, his wife of 55 years, was at his side.
Kemonomimi
Found chiefly in Japanese fiction, anime and manga, a humanoid character with animal or animal-like features, such as ears or horns.
Kenobi, Ben
See Kenobi, Obi-Wan (“Ben”)
Kenobi, Obi-Wan (“Ben”)
As a Jedi in the Star Wars saga, Obi-Wan Kenobi was the headstrong padawan, or apprentice, of Qui-Gon Jinn, who would later mature into the teacher of young Anakin Skywalker, and later still, the teacher of Anakin’s son Luke.
Qui-Gon’s dying wish was for Obi-Wan to train Anakin as a Jedi. The Council granted Obi-Wan knighthood, and Anakin was named his padawan. As Obi-Wan continued to train the boy, the two were assigned as security for their friend Senator Padmé Amidala, after an assassination attempt on her life. After a second attempt, Obi-Wan began an investigation. On Kamino – a world which had been mysteriously erased from the Jedi Archives – he discovered that a massive army had been created for the Republic, cloned from Jango Fett, a Jedi knight who had been dead for nearly 10 years. Kenobi battled Fett, but the bounty hunter escaping in his ship. Obi-Wan tracked Fett to Geonosis, where he found Separatist forces had gathered under the leadership of former Jedi Count Dooku. While reporting back to the Jedi, Obi-Wan was ambushed, taken prisoner, and sentenced to die in the Geonosis arena. He survived, killing a vicious acklay, and alongside other Jedi and the new clone army, fought off battle droids as the Clone War erupted around him. He and Anakin then engaged Count Dooku, who had turned to the dark side. Both Jedi suffered injuries in their failure to stop the Separatist leader.
Obi-Wan Kenobi became a general in the Army of the Republic as the Clone Wars continued, having many adventures with Anakin Skywalker. Chief among them was the return of Darth Maul, the Sith Lord who Obi-Wan cut in two on Naboo. Maul sought vengeance, and eventually killing Obi-Wan’s former love Duchess Satine. Obi-Wan was shattered, but like a true Jedi, did not give in to anger or hate. After the Supreme Chancellor was kidnapped by General Grievous, leader of the droid army, Obi-Wan and Anakin led a daring rescue mission, on which they faced Count Dooku, who nearly killed Obi-Wan but could not best Anakin. At the urging of Chancellor Palpatine, the young Jedi beheaded the Sith Lord. Anakin carried an unconscious Obi-Wan on his back, and the three returned to Coruscant.
It was Obi-Wan who gave Anakin the assignment to be Palpatine’s representative on the Council, so that the prophesied Chosen One could secretly report on all the Chancellor’s dealings, and this assignment strained their friendship. Obi-Wan eventually destroyed General Grievous, the droid army leader, but then, the clones – who had been issued Order 66, the extermination of all Jedi – attacked. Obi-Wan survived, however, and made contact with Yoda. Yoda assigned Obi-Wan to deal with Anakin, who had left Coruscant for the lava planet Mustafar. The two former friends dueled to a stalemate until Anakin attempted to leap over his old Master, which Obi-Wan warned him not to try. The new Sith, filled with rage and hubris, ignored these pleas; Obi-Wan severed his legs and arm, leaving Anakin to his fate on the banks of a lava river. The Jedi Order vanquished and the galaxy under Sith rule, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Senator Bail Organa devised a plan: they would split up the children of Anakin and Padmé, who had died in childbirth, and protect them from the Emperor. Bail would adopt the girl, Leia (aka Princess Leia Organa), and raise her as his own; Obi-Wan would take Luke to the boy’s family on Tatooine, where Obi-Wan could watch over him personally. When the time was right, he would reveal to Luke his true origins, and train him to be a Jedi.
After the Jedi Order was all but eradicated by the Emperor and Darth Vader, Obi-Wan hid on Tatooine, watching over Luke Skywalker from afar, and waiting to teach him the ways of the Force. Finally, fate intervened, and Obi-Wan found himself rescuing Luke from Tusken Raiders. Obi-Wan, or “Ben Kenobi” as Luke knew him, revealed that he was friends with the boy’s father, who had been a Jedi Knight — until Darth Vader, a former Jedi, betrayed and murdered him. Obi-Wan gave Luke his father’s lightsaber, encouraging him to learn about the Force and leave Tatooine. The two then uncovered a hidden message from Princess Leia Organa hidden inside an R2-D2 droid unit, asking Obi-Wan for help. The Jedi Master, Luke, R2-D2, a C-3PO droid, and hired pilots Han Solo and Chewbacca headed for Alderaan, the Princess’ home planet.
On the journey, Obi-Wan began instructing Luke in the ways of the Force and lightsaber combat; upon arrival at Alderaan’s location, they found that the planet was gone, destroyed by the Empire’s Death Star. Obi-Wan took it upon himself to deactivate the tractor beam, allowing Luke, Han, and Chewbacca to rescue the Princess. The Jedi Master was successful, but then encountered Darth Vader, his former student once known as Anakin Skywalker. They dueled, and Obi-Wan willingly accepted his death so that Luke and his allies could escape.
Later, when Luke was piloting an X-wing in the Rebel Alliance’s desperate attempt to destroy the Death Star, the disembodied voice of Obi-Wan spoke to Luke and guided him to use the Force, not his ship’s technology. The young hero delivered an impossibly precise shot into the exhaust port of the doomsday weapon, and the Death Star was no more. “The Force will be with you,” Obi-Wan’s voice told Luke. “Always.”
After a savage wampa attack in the freezing cold, Luke was visited by the spectral form of Obi-Wan, who told him to go to Dagobah where he would be trained by a Jedi Master named Yoda. Luke went to the swamp planet, where he continued his Jedi lessons and received guidance from Obi-Wan, who could appear in spirit form through the power of the Force. He encouraged Luke to complete his training before facing Darth Vader, but the brash Jedi would not listen.
After being defeated by Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker returned to Dagobah to complete his training. The young Jedi had grown powerful, and a dying Yoda told him that his training was complete – but that he must confront Darth Vader, now revealed to be his father, in order to achieve full knighthood. That was not all; with his last words, the Jedi Master informed his student that there was another Skywalker. A shocked Luke left Yoda’s hut to find Obi-Wan waiting. Obi-Wan explained why he shielded Luke from the truth about his father, and confirmed that the other Skywalker was Leia, his twin sister. He encouraged the young Jedi to face Vader again; Luke would later do so, but on his own terms, and instead of killing his father, he showed him compassion. The good was awakened in the Sith Lord, and he would die not as Vader, but as Anakin Skywalker once more. In a celebration on Endor, Anakin joined Yoda and Obi-Wan in the Force, proudly watching over Luke.
Kenshirou (“Ken”)
Kenshirou (“Ken” for short) is the 64th successor of the Hokuto shinken martial art style in the Fist of the North Star anime series. A strong and stoic character, Kenshirou is compelled to punish evildoers. His mastery of the ancient martial art allows him to perform feats not possible for most people, such as kill or cripple with a single touch. When angry, his spiritual powers reach their peak. He typically utters his catchphrase “Omae wa mō shindeiru,” meaning “You are already dead,” just before a villain’s head explodes.
After surviving the nuclear war, he tries to live in peace with his fiancee Yuria, until Jagi instigates Shin (a jealous rival from the Nanto Seiken school) to challenge and defeat Kenshirou. Shin carves seven iconic scars on Kenshirou’s chest and leaves him for dead. After this event, Ken’s forgiving nature is altered, inspiring his rivals to remark that Kenshirou had acquired mercilessness. He embarks on a quest to reclaim Yuria from Shin. Through the course of the series, Kenshirou protects the weak and innocent from the numerous gangs roaming the post-apocalyptic wasteland, eventually gaining a reputation as the “Savior of the Century’s End.” Kenshirou’s skills improve through his encounters with members of the Nanto Roku Seiken and his Hokuto brothers.
Although still emotionally repressed and stoic like most male heroes in 1980s media, Kenshirou is notable in anime culture for being a sensitive and kind-hearted man who broke the then-ironclad “men don’t cry” cultural expectation. He is famous for openly shedding tears, if not outright weeping for the suffering of innocents and the deaths of his few noble enemies.
Kent, Clark
The alter-ego and secret identity of Superman, Clark Joseph Kent is a DC Comics character who was raised on the Kent farm in Smallville, Kansas by his Earth parents Jonathan and Martha Kent, after they discovered the infant alien from Krypton near his demolished spaceship. After high school, Clark attended Metropolis University, and upon graduating, took a job as a reporter for The Daily Planet, working for editor Perry White. There, he not only produced the first full-length story about Superman, but he has the reputation for having extended access to Superman for stories relating to the hero. He has won several awards for his journalism, and has published three novels.
On television, in the 1952-58 series Adventures of Superman, Kent was portrayed by George Reeves. On the big screen, the mild-mannered reporter has been portrayed by Christopher Reeve in Superman: The Movie (1978), Superman II (1980), Superman III (1983), and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987); by Brandon Routh in Superman Returns (2006); and by Henry Cavill in Man of Steel (2013), Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017).
Kent, Harvey
See Dent, Harvey.
Kernel
The core bit of a computer’s operating system; the part that actually does the “operating” and lets you communicate with the hardware.
Kernel memory
The portion of computer memory reserved for the parts of the operating system that have to stay in memory and is off-limits to any other software, in order to prevent any accidents, such as a badly-written application trying to access memory that is in use elsewhere.
Kessel Run
Route used in the Star Wars universe to smuggle spice from the mines on the planet Kessel, which rests within the Maw Nebulae. The 18-parsec run (which, according to pilot Han Solo, he completed in less than 12 parsecs) includes an unstable and particularly dangerous section known as The Maw (or The Maw Cluster), made up of a nearly unnavigable cluster of black holes.
Keyboard
A set of keys usually arranged in tiers, for operating a typewriter, typesetting machine, computer terminal, or other similar component. Along with the mouse, a keyboard is one of the primary input devices used with a computer. The keyboard’s design and key configuration come from the original design of typewriter keyboards, which arranged letters and numbers in a way that prevented the type-bars from getting jammed when typing quickly. This standard keyboard layout is known as the “QWERTY” design, which gets its name from the first six letters across in the upper-left-hand corner of the keyboard. While the original design of computer keyboards may have come from typewriters, today’s keyboards have many additional keys, as well. Modifier keys, such as Control (CTRL) and Alt/Option (ALT) can be used in conjunction with other keys as “shortcuts” to perform certain operations. For example, holding down the Control key and pressing the “S” key (on a Windows keyboard) typically saves a document or project you are working on. Most of today’s computer keyboards also have a row of function keys (F1 through F16) along the top of the keyboard, as well as arrow keys and a numeric keypad, and some keyboards have even more buttons.
Keyboard jockey
A coder, hacker, or other tech-savvy individual who uses a computer a great deal.
Keystone City
Like Batman’s Gotham City and Superman’s Metropolis, Keystone City, Kansas is home to DC Comics’ The Flash. However, it is different in a large way. Instead of being dark like Gotham or huge like Metropolis, Keystone City is a small blue-collar town. Situated on the Kansas-Missouri border, Keystone City is approximately 35 miles north of Kansas City, separated from its sister city Central City, Missouri by the Missouri River. According to DC lore, after the Louisiana Purchase, a small settlement was created near the Missouri River in 1806. Following the Civil War, Keystone City became a supply center, as most business dealt with heavy industry. The transcontinental railroad ran through the city, causing it to become a major transportation hub, which was a major boon to the city’s industry. During World War II, the city retooled for the war effort, manufacturing aircraft and supplies for the Allied forces.
The first Flash, Jay Garrick, was the first hero in Keystone City, and he lived there the longest. Introduced in 1940, he fought villains in Keystone like Thinker, Shade, Fiddler, and especially the Turtle. After ten years, Jay Garrick retired as Flash, which gave Turtle an opportunity, and he built a criminal empire in Keystone that flourished for years. However, the third Flash (Wally West) arrived and brought Turtle’s empire down. (The other two Flashes, Barry Allen and Bart Allen, have never actually resided in Keystone City.)
Originally, Jay Garrick lived and fought villains from his base residence in Keystone City, before retiring during a period when comics started to fall out of popularity. But when DC introduced the Barry Allen Flash, which kicked off The Silver Age of Comics, it was said that Allen lived in Central City, which had never been mentioned before Crisis on Infinite Earths. DC’s initial solution was oft-used before 1986: DC writers set Barry Allen’s Central City on a parallel Earth. It was noted that Keystone City was on Earth-2 with Garrick, while Central City was the home of Barry Allen here on our Earth. Eventually, DC pulled all of the universes together in the universe-altering Crisis on Infinite Earths, which bound all the universes together. DC covered the problem by setting the two sister cities across from each other, while keeping each Flash in his respective city.
Keystroke
One strike of any key on a machine operated by a keyboard, such as a typewriter, computer terminal or Linotype.
Keyword
- A significant word from a title or document used especially as an index to classify or organize digital content, or to facilitate an online search for information.
- In programming, a word that is reserved by a program because the word has a special meaning. Keywords can be commands or parameters. Every programming language has a set of keywords that cannot be used as variable names. These keywords are sometimes called “reserved names.”
- A word used by a search engine in its search for relevant internet pages.
Khal
In the HBO series Game of Thrones, as well as A Song of Ice and Fire, the George R. R. Martin novel series that inspired it, the title for the leader of a Dothraki khalasar. The title is equivalent to “warlord.”
Khal Drogo
See Drogo.
Khalasar
In the HBO series Game of Thrones, as well as A Song of Ice and Fire, the George R. R. Martin novel series that inspired it, a nomadic horde of Dothraki warriors.
Khaleesi
In the HBO series Game of Thrones, as well as A Song of Ice and Fire, the George R. R. Martin novel series that inspired it, the title given to the wife of a Dothraki khal.
Khan
See Singh, Khan Noonien.
Khitomer Accords
In the Star Trek universe, a treaty between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire, signed in 2293 (Old Earth date) at the Khitomer Conference. Decades earlier, the powerful Organians forced a peace between the Federation and the Klingons in 2267 (as shown in the original Star Trek series episode “Errand of Mercy”), in what became known as the Treaty of Organia. However, while the powerful Organians could prevent physical or military combat between the Klingons and the Federation, the two powers remained in competition with each other for disputed territories within the Klingon-Federation Neutral Zone, with each faction attempting to demonstrate that it could develop the territory more efficiently. For example, in the original Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles,” the Klingons engage some rather unsportsmanlike tactics in an attempt to gain control over Sherman’s Planet.
Still, there were several armed conflicts between the Federation and the Klingons, including events depicted in the original series episode “Elaan of Troyius” and the motion picture Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. In novels and comic books, as well as FASA’s Star Trek: The Role-Playing Game, this is explained by the existence of an “Organian Treaty Zone,” within which the Organians enforce the treaty; beyond this defined zone, they do not interfere. In the Trek novels and comic books, the Klingon Empire entered into an alliance with the Romulan Star Empire, giving the Romulans the advanced weaponry they need to exact vengeance against the Federation, and allowing the Klingons to weaken the Federation without breaching the Organian Treaty. In the original Star Trek episode “The Enterprise Incident,” while it is never made explicit on screen that there is an alliance between the Klingons and the Romulans, this seems to be the case. This suspected alliance has been used to explain how Romulans commanded ships of Klingon design (though in truth, this was probably a budgetary consideration in the original series), and how Klingons got access to cloaking device technology, as seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
The Accords appear to have held from 2293 to 2372, when Klingon Chancellor Gowron abolished them after the Federation condemned the Empire’s unprovoked attack on the Cardassian Union (as orchestrated by the Dominion). As seen in the DS9 episode “The Way of the Warrior,” this resulted in a direct armed confrontation between the Federation and the Klingons, which would later be referred to as the “First Battle of Deep Space 9.”
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