M.E.L.A.S Jeopardy Template

Movies
This is the coat of arms of a famous European family that traces its origin to Mr. Thomas X,1st Baronet, an English landowner and Comptroller of the household of Queen Henrietta Maria in the 17th century. The most famous member of this family has been around in pop culture. He uses the family motto Orbis non sufficit, twice.

James Bond

E-stuff
The Hieroglyphics Initiative, a machine learning research project to help in the deciphering and translation of hieroglyphics. It was Launched in September 2017 by X in collaboration with Google. whilst working in an Ancient Egyptian setting. The team realized how challenging it still is to unlock the secrets of the past and wondered how modern technology could help.

Ubisoft

Linguistics

First use of this term in its present meaning was by Horace Mann (dated 28 January 1754) .He said he formed it from a Persian fairy tale. The term used extensively in scientific communities stems from an old name for Sri Lanka(aka Ceylon). Parts of Sri Lanka were under the rule of South Indian kings-cheras for extended periods of time in history. “The island belonging to cheras” were called ------ by Arab traders looking for India. From this word the term evolved.

Serendipity

Archeology

Amir Aczel is an Israeli author and historian who concluded an important quest 2 years ago in the Angkor Conservation in Cambodia. The object he was seeking was documented in 1931 by a French scholar named George Coedès. Assigned the identifying label K-127, which includes references to slaves, five pairs of oxen, and sacks of white rice. The object predates an Indian counterpart in Gwalior by 2 years – a fact not very well known to the world. But the K-127 disappeared during the Khmer Rouge’s rule of terror when more than 10,000 artifacts were deliberately destroyed. What is the significance of this object, that inspired this long trail?

The first-ever use of Zero

Sport

Following an important sponsorship deal in late 2014, Real Madrid FC made a subtle change to their emblem in order to undergo an image makeover. This is their old logo, what was the change and why was it made?

For the sponsorship deal with Emirates (UAE), they removed the cross at the top on team apparel that sells in various countries in the Middle East.

Movies

The Bath Film Festival in England last year introduced the ‘F-rating’ for films, with the intention of addressing a larger cultural issue. 17 of the 42 films that premiered at the festival were given this status. Studies show that about 15% of the top-grossing films of 2013 would fit the required criteria, including Gravity, The Hunger Games Saga, and the animated hit Frozen. What is this rating given for?

Movies with Female protagonists

Everything Else

The successful launching of the first Sri Lankan-designed satellite in June 2019 established the capabilities of two young Lankan engineers, Tharindu Dayaratne and Dulani Chamika. But the launching also brought to the forefront of Sri Lankan consciousness its ancient revered symbols of technology, aviation, medicine, state craft, and music.

It was but appropriate, that the country’s first indigenously designed satellite was named “_______________-1”.

Ravana

Language

Originally called Night Code, X was a cipher created for the French military to communicate during the night. In 1810, a captain in Napoleon’s army visited a school 10-year-old Louis was a student, who made some changes to the system and thus established this that we know today.

Braille

Archeology

Birhana is a small village located in the Fatehabad district of Haryana that has been the subject of much archaeological research over the years. Using a simple moisture flux method, it has been estimated that the region suffered an unusual low-monsoon period for a couple of centuries around 4000 years ago which converted the perennial rivers into dry ones and forced a change in crop patterns from large-grained cereals like wheat and barley to drought-resistant species of millet and rice, moving from a large storage system to an individual household one. What fatal effect did the resulting de-urbanization lead to in the decades that followed?

The fall of Indus Valley Civilization. Not the attack of the Aryans, as theorized.

Sport

Alan Plaskett is a British electrical scientist whose biggest contribution to the world was in 1999 while studying audio signal systems. He modelled his invention by recording the sound of a certain frequency, using a resonance filter to keep out the ambient noise – which was then amplified and plotted at the receiver’s end with the help of an oscilloscope, an instrument typically used to monitor life in hospitals. It came into prominence in the early 2000s and has been used all over the world ever since. What creation, has helped resolve many a conflict over the years?

Snickometer

Movies

X sold the movie rights for Y for just $5000, but he never cashed the cheque. Instead, when the movie came out, years later, he had it framed and mailed back to the director with the message, “in case you ever need bail money”. The director even modified the name of this picture from Y to Z because he did not want people to misunderstand that it was a biopic of a 40’s movie star.

Rita Hayworth, Shawshank Redemption, Stephen King

Everything Else
In 2015, this number plate was auctioned for $100,000 at a Dallas Based Heritage auction. This belongs to a car that is still sound at the Henry Ford Museum. What is its claim to fame?

JFK died in this

Linguistics

This phrase derives from the name of a band of Javanese and Malay warriors who were known for their indiscriminate violence, initially a source of fascination for Westerners. It was popularized in the 18th and 19th centuries, when European visitors to Malaysia learned of a peculiar mental affliction that caused otherwise normal tribesmen to go on brutal and seemingly random killing sprees. Once thought to be the result of possession by evil spirits, the phenomenon later found its way into psychiatric manuals. It remains a diagnosable mental condition to this day. What phrase is being described here?

Running Amok

Architecture

During its construction in the 19th century, European architect Augustus Pugin brought about a couple of innovations that would be replicated at several other similar structures the world over.

1. He used a longer-than-usual 4.5-metre rod made from concentric tubes of zinc and steel. The differing composition helped guard against certain fluctuations over months seen in other variants that just used steel.

2. A dedicated team of 4 people working throughout the year would place these coins whenever necessary to solve another recurring problem due to heat expansion / cold contraction.

Which structure and what?

Big Ben, to ensure accuracy of time.

Science

The name was given by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru when he likened the blue radiation coming out of the experimental setup. He related the beauty of the radiation to the beauty of Indra's court dancers. What was the name given by Nehru to that experimental setup?

Apsara

Mafia

Y could not appear for this photo titled X due to a supposed scheduling conflict, but it is said he did not like being called X.

Elon Musk, Paypal Mafia

Elections
In a bold move, Sukumar Sen, the first Chief Election Commissioner of India, struck out the names of over three million women from the registered list. He was criticized, but he was unwavering in his decision. Why did he take that step?

Women were reluctant to give their names. They gave their names in reference to the male family members

Literature

Brave New World is Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel. Borrowing from The Tempest, Huxley imagines a genetically engineered future where life is pain-free but meaningless. The book heavily influenced George Orwell’s 1984 and science-fiction in general.

In Huxley's dystopian novel titled Brave New World, X is portrayed as a messianic figure whose technological advances shape a future in which mass production could be applied to human society. Mass production in Huxley's novel is carried out by the specialization of workers, each of whom has a single, specific job.

The citizens of this fictional universe use a calendar that takes a year as '0 AF'. This is the starting year, when X started manufacturing Z.

Henry Ford and the Model T

Architecture

The Ruisui monument is a structure located in the Hualien county of Taiwan. At noon on 22 June every year, the monument shows no shadow due to the position of the sun exactly above it. What is so special about this monument?

It is on the Tropic of Cancer

Stories
In the 14th century , Europe suﬀered a prolonged period of winter storms resulting in widespread ﬂooding and destruction. Due to the adverse conditions, there were widespread crop failures and livestock drowned or starved. The period is marked by extreme level of crimes, even cannibalism. The death of the mother/stepmother just after the death of the antagonist, meant that both women were metaphorically the same. Folklorists believe that this played a role in emergence of ‘hostile stepmother’ motif. ID the tale.

Hansel and Gretel

Movies

In 1956, as part of his mission to push infrastructure, President Eisenhower introduced the Interstate Highway Act that ensured over 10,000 miles of new asphalt roads, putting the older highways and the small businesses along with them completely out of order in a few years. In its aftermath, it alienated a large number of small-town communities around the nation whose lives depended on highway businesses – especially in states like Arizona. Commentators say this would’ve remained unknown for a long time if it weren’t brought to light by the efforts of a certain British-American. How did these conditions come to the fore for the first time a few years after the act was put in place?

The deserted state of Bates Motel in the movie Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock

E-stuff

The following sequence in Casino Royale involves the breathless pursuit of one of the criminals in the plot by James Bond, with the help of some technology that turns out to be timely and useful. In one of the well-documented stories of the technology world, this clip was viewed by a certain Canadian immigrant dwelling in San Francisco around the time of the film’s release which made him change profession for the better. What resulted from his watching this portion of the film?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-21uPJGXFQ

Uber

Literature

In the days following 3 December 1926 in Berkshire, more than 1000 policemen were assigned to a certain case along with hundreds of civilians. For the first time, aeroplanes were employed to help with an operation of this kind. Two of Britain’s most famous crime writers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy L. Sayers were also drawn into the case to chip in with their expertise. After the discovery of an abandoned car on a steep slope near Guildford and days of relentless international publicity that followed, the case reached a favourable conclusion on 14 December at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate. What was it all about?

The disappearance of Agatha Christie (She was missing for 11 days)

Art
Hong Yi is a Malaysian-born artist, who is also known as a painter who 'paints without a paintbrush’. Most famous in this genre is the portrait of the Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jay Chou. What had been used to paint the portrait?

Coffee Mug Stains

Sport
Born on March 2, 1944 in Tunisia, X’s World Cup career spanned five matches including an appearance in a Round of 16 match between Denmark and Spain. However, all these distinctions faded into irrelevance due to what X claimed was an adverse reaction to the treatment X was receiving for a latent haemorrhoidal condition which caused X’s medium-distance vision to suddenly become unfocused, causing X to miss Y. What is Y?

Maradona's Hand of God