Season 259

Used by the Minoans of Bronze Age Crete, this undeciphered writing system consists of incised lines on clay tablets rather than pictographic hieroglyphs, encoding an unknown language that has yet to be identified.
Named by archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans and predating a related Mycenaean script decoded by Michael Ventris in 1952 as an early form of Greek, by what name is this writing system known?

Proposed in 1964 by a Soviet radio astronomer, this theoretical framework measures the technological advancement of extraterrestrial civilizations based on their ability to harness energy across planetary, stellar, or galactic environments.
Dividing societies into Types I, II, and III, with the hypothetical Dyson sphere often linked to its second tier, by what eponymous name is this scale known?

During this year, Finnish voters elected the world's first female members of parliament to the newly formed Eduskunta, while Robert Baden-Powell held an experimental camp on Brownsea Island that launched the Boy Scout movement.
Also marked by the Lumière brothers' commercial release of the Autochrome color photography process, Pablo Picasso's completion of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, and Rudyard Kipling's Nobel Prize in Literature, what year saw all of these events take place?

While recording nighttime sound effects for a low-budget slasher film, a Philadelphia audio technician captures a fatal car crash and discovers that the apparent tire failure was caused by a gunshot.
Reworking the premise of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 photography thriller through the audio-surveillance lens of The Conversation, by what title is this 1981 Brian De Palma film starring John Travolta known?

Celebrated in mid-April to mark Thailand's traditional New Year, this festival combines the ceremonial pouring of scented water over Buddha statues and elders' hands with exuberant street-wide water fights.
Referring in Sanskrit to the astrological passage of the Sun into a new zodiac sign, by what name is this Thai holiday known?

Studied by the medieval scholar Ibn al-Haytham and later employed by Renaissance artists to trace realistic perspective, this optical device uses a small opening to project an inverted image of the outside world onto an interior surface.
Sometimes constructed as an entire darkened room and given its enduring moniker by Johannes Kepler in 1604, by what two-word Latin name is this precursor to modern photography known?

Serving as a critical maritime chokepoint, which narrow strait was the site of a disastrous 1915 Allied naval and amphibious campaign masterminded by Winston Churchill? The objective was to secure a sea route to the Russian Empire and capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople, but it ultimately resulted in a massive strategic defeat and the withdrawal of Allied forces.

Popularized by the 2001 French film Amélie and later adopted as the mascot of Travelocity's long-running advertising campaign, this decorative ornament became the focus of a prank in which it is secretly taken on holiday and photographed at famous landmarks around the world before being returned to its unsuspecting owner.
By what name is this ornament commonly known?

Known in antiquity as Thera, this Greek island in the southern Aegean was reshaped by a catastrophic Bronze Age volcanic eruption that buried the settlement of Akrotiri beneath ash and created a flooded caldera.
Celebrated today for the whitewashed villages and blue-domed churches clinging to its steep cliffs, by what Venetian-derived name is this Cycladic island known?

Founded in 495 CE during China's Northern Wei dynasty, this temple complex on Mount Song in Henan province became the historical birthplace of Chan Buddhism.
Associated with the Indian monk Bodhidharma and centuries of saffron-robed warrior monks who helped popularize Chinese kung fu, by what name is this monastery known?

Invented in 1891 by James Naismith, this indoor court sport features tactical maneuvers such as the "pick and roll," the "Eurostep," and the mid-air "alley-oop" inside a rectangular zone known as "the paint."
Enforcing infractions such as "traveling," "double dribble," and "goaltending," in what game can a versatile player record a statistical "triple-double"?

Produced by Mark Ronson with a vintage 1960s Motown sound, this 2006 soul hit recounts the British singer's real-life refusal to seek professional treatment for alcohol addiction despite pressure from management.
In which signature track does the narrator repeatedly dismiss that suggestion with the defiant refrain "No, no, no"?

Founded in Brooklyn in 1849 by two German-born cousins, this pharmaceutical company mass-produced penicillin for Allied forces during World War II before releasing the cholesterol medication Lipitor and the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra in the late 1990s.
Having later partnered with a Mainz-based biotechnology firm to produce a leading mRNA vaccine against COVID-19, by what name is this corporation known?

Stretching between northeastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, this narrow body of water connects to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal and to the Gulf of Aden through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Known for its high salinity, extensive coral reefs, and traditional association with the biblical Exodus, by what name is this sea known?