Legendary arms dealer.

Great conceptual artist.

In 1909 the French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn launched a monumentally ambitious project: to produce a color photographic record of human life on Earth. An internationalist and pacifist, Kahn believed that he could use the new autochrome–the world’s first portable, true-color photographic process–to create a global photographic archive that would promote cross-cultural understanding and peace. Over the next twenty years, he sent a group of photographers to more than fifty countries around the world, amassing more than 72,000 images. Until recently his collection was all but forgotten. Now, a century after he began his “Archives of the Planet” project, this book–richly illustrated in color throughout–and the BBC series it follows are bringing Kahn’s dazzling early twentieth-century pictures to a wide audience for the first time, and putting color into what we usually think of as a monochrome world.

The diaolou are fortified multi-storey towers, which were constructed in the Kaiping area from the early Qing Dynasty, reaching a peak in the 1920s and 1930s, when there were more than three thousand of these structures. Today, approximately 1,800 diaolou are still standing. The diaolou served two purposes: housing and protecting against forays by bandits.

Amazing face. According to legend the Kalash are the lost warriors of Alexander the Great’s army.

Kalighat painting.

Kalighat painting originated in the 19th century Bengal, in the vicinity of Kalighat temple of Kolkata, India, and from being items of souvenir taken by the visitors to the Kali temple, the paintings over a period of time developed as a distinct school of Indian painting. From the depiction of Hindu gods, goddesses, and other mythological characters, the Kalighat paintings developed to reflect a variety of themes.

Kalyazin appeared in the 12th century as a sloboda, or the settlement for people relieved from paying taxes. The town’s importance grew significantly with the foundation of the Makaryevsky monastery on the opposite bank of the Volga in the 15th century. This abbey used to be the most conspicuous landmark of Kalyazin and comprised numerous buildings of historic interest, including a refectory from 1525. In 1940 the monastery and most of the old town were flooded during the construction of the Uglich Reservoir. After that, the town was effectively relocated to a new, higher spot.

Beginning in the 1960s, Polish-born animator Piotr Kamler created 10 films combining techniques of animation, stop-motion, and early CGI.

Kanchev, Stefan Kirov — applied graphic artist, honored with the Bulgarian State title “National artist” in 1971.

Christopher Kane.

The Kanun is a set of traditional Albanian laws. The Kanun was primarily oral and only in the 20th century was it published in writing. It was first codified in the 15th century but the use of it has been outspread much earlier in time. It used under that form until the 20th century, and revived recently after the fall of the communist regime in the early 1990s.

Karlovic holds the fastest serve recorded in professional tennis, measured at 251 km/h (156 mph) and he is considered one of the best servers on tour. His height enables him to serve with high speed and unique trajectory

Karosta was constructed in 1890-1906 as a naval base for the Russian Tsar Alexander III, and later served as a base for the Soviet Baltic Fleet. When the Russian army left Latvia in 1994 after Latvian independence, Karosta became largely uninhabited and most structures fell to ruin. In late 1990s, the area was troubled by high unemployment, street crime and drug problems. Some remaining residents are considered neither Latvian nor Russian and hold “alien passports”.

Kaschenism is a specific style of conversation in forums, blogs, Fido echos, etc. used by some people in Russian FidoNet and Internet. Its main feature is provocativeness and mockery while being formally polite. Historically, Kaschenist style uses many words and idioms of Jewish origin, and in conversations Kashenists often pretend to beJews, that’s because it makes anti-Semites annoyed and angry, and makes other people make excuses and prove that they are not anti-Semites. Also it is typical for Kaschenist style to use medical terms, especially from psychiatry, that’s because Kaschenists consider themselves jocularly as “network psychiatrists”, and imitate either medical staff or, on the contrary, patients of a mental hospital. The word Kaschenism also denotes a philosophy of people who use Kaschenist style in electronic conversations.

Kathasaritsagara is a 11th-century collection of Indian legends, fairy tales and folk tales as retold by a Saivite Brahmin named Somadeva. It consists of 18 books of 124 chapters and more than 21,000 verses in addition to prose sections. The principal tale is the narrative of the adventures of Naravahanadatta, son of the legendary king Udayana. A large number of tales are built around this central story, making it the largest existing collection of Indian tales.

Great graphic designer.

Elaine Kaufman, was something of a symbol of New York as the salty den mother of Elaine’s, one of the city’s best-known restaurants and a second home for almost half a century to writers, actors, athletes and other celebrities.

Jonathon Keats. Great conceptual artist.

Lindsay Kemp is a British dancer, actor, teacher, mime artist and choreographer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8fRThaVLsg

The Kengir uprising was a prisoner uprising that took place in the Soviet prison labor camp Kengir in May and June 1954. Its duration and intensity distinguished it from other Gulag uprisings in the same period. After the murder of some of their fellow prisoners by guards, Kengir inmates launched a rebellion and proceeded to seize the entire camp compound, holding it for weeks and creating a period of freedom for themselves unique in the history of the Gulag.

Interview with the ballerina Allegra Kent.

Harry Kessler. W.H. Auden called him probably the most cosmopolitan man who ever lived. Aesthete, patron, diplomat, diarist, peace campaigner, defender of the Weimar republic and exile from Nazism, this ultra-sophisticated German count belongs to a type that probably no longer exists: a moneyed and cultivated amateur whose brains and background brought him effortless access to politics, society and intellectual life in any capital where he set foot.

Keuken, a kind of Dutch Chris Marker.

Khan As’ad Pasha

During his days as Nizam, he was reputed to be the richest man in the world, having a fortune estimated at US$2 billion in the early 1940s or 2 per cent of the US economy then.

Khinalug is among the most ancient and continuously inhabited places in the world, with history of over 5,000 years. Before the conversion to Christianity of Caucasian Albania in the 3rd century and Islam in the 7th century, the people of Khinalug were followers of the prophet Zoroaster, who established Zoroastrianism. Because of the high altitude and remoteness of Khinalug it managed to survive and withstand many invasions and therefore many historical sites in Khinalug are still intact and are considered holy places of Zoroastrianism.

King Farouk!

Model.

Seth Kinman was an early settler of Humboldt County, California, a hunter based in Fort Humboldt, a famous chair maker, and a nationally recognized entertainer. He stood over six feet tall and was known for his hunting prowess and his brutality toward bears and Indians. Kinman claimed to have shot a total of over 800 grizzly bears, and, in a single month, over 50 elk. He was also a hotel keeper, barkeeper, and a musician who performed for President Lincoln on a fiddle made from the skull of a mule.

I don’t need food. I can live on this kind of stuff for a month.

To illustrate his belief in the magnetic relationship between the sun and the vegetable kingdom, Kircher designed this heliotropic sunflower clock by attaching a sunflower to a cork and floating it in a reservoir of water. As the blossom rotated to face the sun, a pointer through its center indicated the time on the inner side of a suspended ring.

Nicholas Kirkwood

One of the best Polish poster artists. Harold Pinter apparently had only admiration for him.

Absolutely insane photographic work from artist Nils Klinger.

Kobe beef

The Komodo dragon is a large species of lizard found in the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang.

Let’s hope this amazing Jeff Koons sculpture one day happens.

Olga Korbut is a Belarusian, Soviet-born gymnast who won four gold medals and two silver medals at the Summer Olympics. At the 1972 Olympics, her acrobatics and open display of emotion—notably, she wiped tears from her face after a disastrous uneven bars routine—in contrast to the stereotypically cold eastern bloc athlete, captivated the Munich audiences. There she became one of the first persons ever to do a backward somersault on the balance beam in competition. She was also the first to do a standing backward somersault on bars, and a back somersault to swingdown (Korbut Flip) on beam. Her bars move is no longer seen in high level gymnastics, but the tuck back and Korbut Flip are still very popular (2003 world beam champion Fan Ye performed both in her routine). This excellence in technical skills overthrew the sport’s traditional emphasis on artistry.

Piotr Kowalski worked in non-traditional materials including electronic and mechanical devices, neon, large earth works, explosions and other natural phenomena including plant growth and gravity. His work often expressed science or natural laws in direct and tangible ways, immediate to the senses and referring to artistic aesthetics.

The Kray twins were English gangsters who were foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London’s East End during the 1950s and ’60s. Ronald, commonly referred to as Ron or Ronnie, most likely suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. With their gang, “The Firm”, the Krays were involved in armed robberies, arson, protection rackets, assaults, and the murders of Jack “The Hat” McVitie and George Cornell. As West End nightclub owners, they mixed with prominent entertainers including Diana Dors, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and with politicians. The Krays were much feared within their milieu, and in the ’60s became celebrities in their own right, even being photographed by David Baileyand interviewed on television.

Gene Krell of Vogue Nippon.

Krubera Cave is the deepest known cave on Earth. It is located in Abkhazia, Georgia. It became the deepest-known cave in the world in 2001 when the expedition of the Ukrainian Speleological Association reached a depth of 7,185 feet (2,190 m) which well exceeded the depth of the previously deepest cave, Lamprechtsofen, in the Austrian Alps, by 80 m.

The Czech master of pop-up books. An architect by profession, Voitech Kubasta brought a decidedly contemporary “pop” sensibility to his innovative paper engineering.

Kuru – also known as laughing disease

Emir Kusturica’s ‘utopian’ village project in Serbia. More info here and here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5amWFUa6Kjk

Jiri Kylian. Czech dance choreographer.