The Sphinx's Lair

Sp3000

3:50 AM

@Alconja GRAV[it]Y

(aka inverse of this)

Sp3000

4:08 AM

On the assumption that the above is correct:

CCCC: Where @Deusovi will be on 2018-01-12, hiding in anonymity (1, 1, 1)

Alconja

@Sp3000 Well damn. There really are no new ideas left. (and correct of course)

Aug 17 at 7:59, by Rubio

I wasn't stealing, honest. that's damned funny

Sp3000

:P some words are easier to clash on than others, unfortunately

ffao

well, that can only be MIT

hiding in anonyMITy

Deusovi

gah, I just missed it

ffao

it would have been more fitting for you to get it :)

Deusovi

4:15 AM

yup. but for better or for worse, you did

Sp3000

:P yup (and I'm assuming that C4 is going to be factually accurate)

Deusovi

indeed it is

I've said this before, but if any of you can make it, you definitely should. It's absolutely worth it.

Sp3000

I'm still not sure whether I can atm, but if it turns out I can I'll probably ping about accommodation tips/how things work/etc

ffao

I'm about 80% sure I can atm

Deusovi

:o

:D

ffao

4:19 AM

so what happens if Deusovi and Sp3000 are in the same room? Do they need to say anything to communicate?

Deusovi

cool, we'll (probably) get to meet in person! (spoiler alert: I am not actually a fictional character with a ridiculous hairstyle)

@ffao well, I guess we'll find out

I didn't actually expect to convince anyone to go, so this is pretty surprising

boboquack

4:35 AM

What's happening in MIT?

The puzzle hunt?

Deusovi

Yeah, the MIT Mystery Hunt.

Rubio

4:57 AM

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/54584/… Deus shall we close? This seems way more maths than anything else, posted here on the scant hope it would turn out to have a clever solution more than because it's known to be a math puzzle.

I "vote" to close on those grounds :)

micsthepick

I saw that one earlier, It really does not look on topic here IMO

Deusovi

Yes, I think it's closeworthy.

Though...

the close votes currently are for "unclear what you're asking".

Rubio

not all

I'm going to close as off-topic, in any case

Deusovi

Yes, all. But anyway, go for it.

ffao

I don't get why it was even asked here - the answers on math are more than satisfactory

I'm not sure OP has actually tried to understand them

Rubio

5:04 AM

Oh sorry there was an off-topic flag not a review vote.

It showed up in review for me though as one of the close reasons.

ffao

5:44 AM

as long as we're involving fictional characters with ridiculous hairstyles

CCCC: Note: ditch chasing leader or @Deusovi may not see this with good eyes (3 or 5)

Deusovi

Pff.

well, now it's time for me to reverse-engineer the wordplay

RE + D_ or GREEN, of course, though I can't get the wordplay for the latter

Rubio

what is "with good eyes" doing there. and, in particular, what's it doing there.

Deusovi

yes, I'm not sure either

ffao

hmm, this was a goof of mine, apparently

Rubio

"Note: ditch chasing leader or @Deusovi may not see this" is valid for RED. "@Deusovi may not see this with good eyes" is presumably valid for GREEN, but I'm not seeing it

missing a word?

Deusovi

5:56 AM

I don't see where "chasing" comes in for RED though

ffao

does the expression "with good eyes" exist in English? I thought you were talking about the surface

Deusovi

no, never heard that expression

Rubio

it's not an expression, no

ffao

yeah, in Portuguese it means "look favorably upon"

M Oehm

No, but it may be part of the wordplay for GREEN: G (note) + _REEN (something meaning to chase).

Rubio

5:57 AM

I can't find a _REEN for that

M Oehm

Neither can I. It was just an idea.

Rubio

(I can't find a _REEN for eyes either)

ffao

I think I'll leave for a few mins lest I actually say something important

Rubio

heh. :)

So it's correct as it stands?

ffao

I think so

Deusovi

5:59 AM

I thought the RE in GREEN would be from "Note:". But I couldn't get the G out of it.

ffao

except for the fact that "with good eyes" is not an expression, which makes the surface wacky

Rubio

6:14 AM

"note" may well be "greenback" . is there a plausible way to get "back" out of "chasing leader" ?

football, say? a running back or something?

@ffao any chance this is the intent? -> Note (RE) + 'ditch chasing' leader (D) = RED ; Note (GREENBACK) ditch (-) chasing leader (BACK) = GREEN

Wen1now

Hopefully I get a chance to go (in person) to the MPH in a few years

ffao

@Rubio not the intent, no. To alleviate "too broad" concerns: I don't think "chasing leader" is an acceptable definition for BACK (it would have to be something like "he chases leader", and even then it would be a bit loose)

incidentally, I had a different solution for RED, but I see no reason to discard yours

Rubio

I dunno, "scoring leader" I could see being "forward" without it being unfair or even particularly loose. (I don't know if there's any such construct that would give "back", but that's not because of the wordplay)

ffao

6:31 AM

good point, you can parse it like that

but "scoring leader" for forward still seems much more clear cut than "chasing leader" for back

Wen1now

What's the def?

Rubio

yeah I agree. I don't think the definition works, but if it did I think the wordplay would be fine

Wen1now

'@Deusovi may not see this with good eyes (3 or 5)'?

Rubio

anyway. still pondering

Wen1now

Hey, is everybody just ignoring me?

Rubio

6:39 AM

@Wen1now We don't know. That's the operating assumption.

ffao

my solution for RED was RECORD (note) remove (ditch) COR ("chasing leader or")

Rubio

heh. that's cleaner, yes.

M Oehm

Cor blimey!

Sid

7:01 AM

So, now you have to get GREEN

Wen1now

That is an insightful observation

Sid

Lol

Wen1now

How come we can get two words from the same part of a clue?

Sid

Because those words are working overtime(doing double duty)

Wen1now

Hey, inciteful is a word, right?

Rubio

7:14 AM

insightful is. inciteful not really

M Oehm

Hmmm.

Sid

Google says it is

And it means exactly what it sounds

Rubio

hm

that's ugly

Sid

(Also, we have chasing. And only have to get a max of 4 letters out of that)

Wen1now

^What does that mean?

Sid

7:17 AM

(For the C4)

Wen1now

Why 'we have chasing'?

Sid

Because that is in the clue?

Maybe Note=RE. And we somehow get GEN to wrap around that. :P

Wen1now

Oh, I get it now

I thought chasing was a state we were in

Sid

....what?

Wen1now

I dunno, I can't think properly

Sid

7:31 AM

Hmm... I should leave this to the smarter guys and actually listen in class for now...

Rubio

7:47 AM

@Wen1now What made you decide puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/54560/… is steganography ?

Wen1now

Sorry, I think I meant enigmatic puzzle. It doesn't seem like it's grid-deduction or puzzle-identification

Mithrandir

@Rubio that's from geocaching.com/geocache/… by the way

According to Google image search, anyway

Rubio

yeah seems likely.

welp. on that note I'm off. good night folks.

Mithrandir

Night

Wen1now

gnight

Mithrandir

7:53 AM

And @rubio you can nuke puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/40387/gameofthronesseason7 at some point

Rubio

someone should maybe edit in the source. i really think the poster should be the one who does that (this may even be Meta worthy) since someone else fixing their plagiarism shouldn't make it ok, but others seem to be more tolerant than I

Mithrandir

@Rubio isn't it already on Meta? If not, I'll put one up.

Wen1now

To me it's just bad form if you don't attribute a puzzle that you stole from elsewhere

Rubio

dunno. i didn't look. (I mean - I am sure we have something saying "don't plagiarise", but maybe not something that says the OP bears the responsibility to fix it - not editors)

Sphinx

0

Q: A powerfully, powerfully, powerfully written number sequence

Find the missing terms a17 , a19 and a22 of the sequence, 15 , 20 , 13 , 2 , 20 , 17 , 17 , 19 , 19 , 15 , 14 , 4 , 21 , 4 , 20 , 17 , a17 , 19 , a19 , 15 , 14 , a22, 3 The sequence uses only basic Mathematics and less common English. ...

ffao

7:56 AM

I think we explicitly have something telling editors to fix it

but it's a bit old

Rubio

well. that's unfortunate. we may want to revisit. Ideally we'd have something that spells out quite specifically that plagiarised content is NOT ok, if you don't attribute it yourself it will be deleted - and then start enforcing that, instead of leaning on people to go find where it came from. Someone saying "This is from <x>" when the OP didn't shouldn't be what saves it, it should be what dooms it, to me.

5

food for thought. anyway. i'm off for reals.

@Mithrandir (deleted btw)

goodnight

Sphinx

8:24 AM

0

Q: Find out the rules from examples, then solve it

Fill the blank rectangles with numbers 6 to 16 Find out the rules from examples

mathematics logical-deduction enigmatic-puzzle

Sp3000

9:15 AM

If "chasing" could mean "greeting", then that would barely work. If only...

Wen1now

if only?

boboquack

9:40 AM

the woodpecker sighs...

Sp3000

10:42 AM

Re: GEN, I can't think of anything but GEN = general = "leader", but "ditch chasing" doesn't exactly sound like insertion

ffao

(slight C4 disclaimer: according to Google, this C4 is rather British, specifically Welsh)

Sp3000

G + REEN?

ffao

yes, I thought you wouldn't think reen was a word without the disclaimer

Wen1now

Is anybody up for contact?

Sp3000

Disclaimer helped, in the general "you probably don't know the word you're looking for" sense :P (not sure who goes now though)

ffao

10:50 AM

um, you can go, I probably am going to stop with the twofers now so we won't have this problem (unless someone decides to do it)

I like how different the two solutions look

M Oehm

But what's the "chasing leader or" doing in the GREEN wordplay, then? It can't be part of the definition.

ffao

RECORD (note) without (ditch) COR (chasing leader or)

G (note), with REEN (ditch) following (chasing leader)

M Oehm

And yes, I think that Sp3000 should set the next one, too.

ffao

"or" is a linking word

M Oehm

Hm.

Sp3000

10:52 AM

I feel like giving a shot myself (have tried in the past, but clean ones are really hard) - not any time soon though :P

Anyhow, carrying over the ~~same~~ a similar disclaimer

CCCC: Elevated tract leads to wide open vacant land (4)

Wen1now

Oh no, 'similar disclaimer'. This is bad news for me

ffao

I've seen "or" as a linking word plenty of times

what might be nonstandard is "chasing leader" instead of just chasing as juxtaposition indicator

but I thought it was acceptable given that G is only one letter, so it could be the leader

M Oehm

Yes, the "chasing leader" as redundant position indicator was a bit too verbose for my taste. No quibbles with "or".

Sp3000

Personally I don't mind "or" as a linking word in the "alternatively, you can get the solution this way" sense. "chasing leader" is extraneous though IMO, but I don't mind too much considering how hard it is to get a twofer (just like how I don't mind slightly looser clues if they're &lit)

ffao

well yeah, I would never use something like that in a regular clue

M Oehm

10:58 AM

If what you're trying to pull off is complicated, there should be more leeway, that's right.

Wen1now

I agree with all that

Sp3000

(Side note: "note ditch primarily" works in hindsight and is slightly less verbose, but completely lacks surface :P)

ffao

I considered using gen for general as Sp suggested, but I didn't know what to do with the required insertion indicator for the red clue

How would primarily work for green? Doesn't that say to put REEN before G?

Sp3000

Well it's extraneous, but in the "it's primarily/essentially/basically a ditch" sense

ffao

Oh, so it's still extraneous, but one word less so :p

Sp3000

11:05 AM

Yeah :P ("slightly less verbose")

GENDER is almost nice fodder for tossing out either D or GEN* and anagramming, but nope

ffao

That could work with zero surface: you can use something like "leader abbreviated" with D for director or GEN for general

M Oehm

Division leader?

Sp3000

Oh that's not bad

ffao

11:22 AM

Ooh, I like it

Sid

I think I got this C4

Wen1now

Nice

ffao

I still don't know how to put that together and have it make sense but it does have no extraneous words

Sid

But, I am missing one final piece and my only explanation for it so far seems tenuous

Sp3000

(if the def seems close then you're probably right)

Sid

11:25 AM

Is it: WOLD? W+O+ LD (LD from Land with Vacant meaning removing the middle letters?)

Sp3000

Yup

Sid

I have never seen Vacant being used in that sense, though

M Oehm

Vacant, empty, outskirts of, extremely ...: These can all be used to indicate the outre letters.

(Outer,of course; L and D aren't so outré after all.)

Sid

(My first idea was that both Open and Vacant give O)

Sp3000

(on a side note, the clue is almost an &lit with tract = wide open vacant land, but I couldn't work in "elevated/hilly")

TrojanByAccident

11:30 AM

sup

is there an active c4?

M Oehm

No, Sid has just solved one and is up for the next one.

Wen1now

nrn

TrojanByAccident

k

Sid

(Also,Sp3000 has been posting clues with short answers (Only 4-6 letters). *suspicious)

TrojanByAccident

lol

Wen1now

11:35 AM

Haha, sp3000 can't even do anything without people looking at him suspiciously anymore

TrojanByAccident

mine are usually short when i think of them

i can never get them to work tho lol

sigh, been inactive for so long

chat seems smaller than i remembered?

Wen1now

Nah, it's just because it's night time

TrojanByAccident

but only 15 people

also it's morning for me lol

Wen1now

Join this then:

Contact

For playing the game Contact, where one person tries to "defend"...

TrojanByAccident

lol why

Wen1now

11:38 AM

It has much more activity

TrojanByAccident

i don't even know what it's supposed to be

Sid

CCCC: The Earth is primarily wavy oceanic ripples with outskirts land (5)

Wen1now

WORLD

M Oehm

Trying out the new tools in your chest?

Sid

:)

Wen1now

11:40 AM

W[avy] O[ceanic] R[ipples] outskirts L[an]D

Sp3000

pokes in, pokes out

Sid

(Also, could I have used outskirts Being land? for better surface?)

TrojanByAccident

maybe edges of land?

or outskirts of land

M Oehm

The outskirts are the outer districts of a town, so outskirts of Leningrad or some such would have been more natural, but it doesn't fit your surface, of course. Unpopulated land?

Sid

Earth has too high a population. :P

M Oehm

11:50 AM

Yes, it's hard to find something good here.

TrojanByAccident

ey @Wen you're up

Apep

perhaps "surrounding land" replacing "with outskirts land"

TrojanByAccident

12:09 PM

surrounding land implies WOLANDR or some weird form of that

Apep

True, maybe with land surroundings, but it doesn't sound as good.

Wen1now

CCCC: Ruins swamp without gas (4)

MARS[h]

ah damn

✓

12:14 PM

CCCC: Crooked three, written after one, gives element number five (6)

Sid

12:33 PM

...is that enumeration correct?

M Oehm

Yes.

Sp3000

No, the answer's not 13oron :P

Sid

I expected it to be 1 actually

Only B. :P

M Oehm

That wouldn't be such a bad answer, since Boron (|3 ~ B) is the fifth element in the periodic system.

@Sp3000 But it's AETHER (Fifth element of classical philospohy) = THREE* after A (one)

Sp3000

:)

M Oehm

12:39 PM

CCCC: The brightest personal assistant of America (6)

Sphinx

12:52 PM

0

Q: How many multiplications to find n^k given n, for general k?

I was looking at the nice puzzle Find $n^{23}$ with the least multiplication. My first instinct for this would have been to find $n^{2^i}$ for each $i$ first and then multiply these together as necessary to get $n^{23}$. This basic algorithm will always work for any integer power of $n$, since we...

mathematics optimization arithmetic

Sconibulus

@MOehm SIRIUS

Contact

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