Misty asked:
>OK I give up....what is this??
>Klatuu barada nikto
>Did I miss something? What movie? I'm lost! HELP!!

The movie is "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), a science fiction
classic made at the height of the Cold War.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaatu_barada_nikto

The galactic community is worried that Earth developed atomic power but
also the bomb, and is still warlike. They send a spaceship with an
alien and a robot to evalutate the situation. Ultimately, we learn that
they destroy the earth if the situation seems hopeless. The alien is
shot, the robot starts on a rampage, a human woman the alien has gotten
to know says "klaatu barada nikto" to the robot, the robot stops his
rampage, retrieves the alien's body and resuscitates the alien. The
alien and robot basically say "you've been warned; now it's up to you"
and go off.

Gordon said " Michael [the alien] gave the woman those words (klatuu
barada nikto) to say to Gort[the robot]. In essence it meant to go
retrieve a valued thing or item."

I suppose that is a valid translation (no translation is given in the
film). But another translation is essentially "abort the mission". (The
creators of a web security scanner computer program used this
interpretation when they called it "Nikto" - they named it after the
alien's mission to assess the danger that Earth represented.)

Since the mission in the film possibly involved destroying the earth,
the phrase is commonly interpreted as a "stand down" order; "don't
destroy them now, they're not hopeless; give them a chance to shape
up". In geek fandom, it's often used as a response to the impulse to
totally give up on something.

So, Alexandra --
Are the ferrets simply gathering valuables, as Gordon would have you
believe?
Is the mission aborted? Which mission? A Ferret Liberation Front
mission?
Did you tell them to not give up on us? If so, what *exactly* are they
doing now?

Take notes! Your ferrets may, by their behavior, finally reveal what
"klaatu barada nikto" really means!

-Claire

[Posted in FML 6257]