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12:51 AM
2
Q: Aperiodic Table of Alien Elements

deep thoughtYes, yes, aliens again... ... so, what is the next row in this aperiodic table of alien elements? (To save you from drawing and uploading an image to answer the question, 25 possibilities follow. 5 are the elements in question, and the other 20 are not elements. Which 5, and in what order? I ...

 
1:23 AM
1
Q: Four Directions #3 - Where and what am I?

puzzle-guesserTo the North, a mule may serve you in copper. To the South, you may end up rich or a pauper. To the West, "Keep it Weird" you may hear them mutter. To the East, if you visit, bring plenty of butter. I slithered for ages while the devils looked on. Where and what am I? Four Directions #1 Four ...

 
 
2 hours later…
3:02 AM
0
Q: A la la Lord Raven

jafe A friend created a shopping center killer whale, thereby confusing the calm pro-llama DEA. (15) The tavern string instrument is not available if you're walking sideways like an ole crab. (9) After the fifth beer with gas, the spy organization had finally infiltrated the rival agencies a...

 
3:17 AM
0
Q: Circular Arrangement 4 parameters

samP, Q, R, S, T, and U are six sports persons who are also recipients of Arjuna award for the year 2017. During the felicitation ceremony, the six persons were seated around a circular table. Three of them play a different team sport among - cricket, football, and hockey, and the other three play d...

 
3:34 AM
0
Q: No pharaohs here, move along

jafe A bowl can hold my start in place, But try not catch one with your face. No continent do I embrace; You may think "pharaohs" – not the case. A Dutchman caught me in his sight, But no one thought that could be right. A white-head giant of some might, Of my own kind none match...

 
4:22 AM
0
Q: A "Find the Path" Puzzle

user477343I invented a puzzle, inspired by Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection. Is there anything that it could improve on? Was it too easy, or was it too hard? Anything I could add? What must I call it? Is this the right site to post this? Perhaps Meta is better. Puzzle: You have the following ...

0
Q: Hard 4x6 chocolate bar Riddle

stelioballYou have the following 4x6 chocolate bar. The question is what is the least amount of cuts you have to do in order to create 24 pieces of 1x1 chocolates. the cuts can have any shape they want as long as they start from a point in the perimeter and end on another point of the perimeter. The line c...

 
 
1 hour later…
5:28 AM
0
Q: The athletes puzzle

stelioballAthletes put themselves into x rows and y columns. We then pick the tallest of every column and then name as "A" the shortest of them. We also pick the shortest of each row and then name as "B" the tallest of them. What is the relationship between A and B (and why).

 
6:10 AM
@Quintec Well, I'm not the authority on Cryptic Clues, but I don't think it is a good clue. Whether you say "inbox" or "in box" doesn't really matter, because the sentence itself doesn't make a lot of sense. (I know, It's only a quick example.) Splitting in-box works better than splitting less-en, though, so yeah, it might be acceptable. Just.
Something I don't like is "the last" to clue E. I think there should be a possesive somewhere: "the's last" (ugh) or "last of the". The simple construction with nouns instead of adjectives as indicator (i.e. "end" or "tail" instead of "last") is not elegant, but "works" more or less. You could object even to that, but then chestnuts like "sweetheart", "letterhead" and so on won't work.
(But I don't object to "the French" to clue LE or LA or LES, even if it should probably be "the in French" to be grammatical. So I'm not very consistent with what I think is "acceptable". In general I think rules can be tweaked for fun and effect occasionally, but that such cases should be exceptions.)
 
 
2 hours later…
8:06 AM
@EricTressler I think it is PRO + MUL(GAT<)E
 
8:59 AM
1
Q: Hard 4x6 chocolate bar Riddle v2

OrayThis is inspired from this puzzle: You have $4$x$8$ chocolate, you can cut only straight with the knife. What is the least amount of cutting required to have $32$ pieces of 1x1 chocolates?

 
 
2 hours later…
10:39 AM
1
Q: I shouldn't have asked him.. again

malioboroMy roommate (rm) always looks busy in front of his laptop, so I try to start talking to him Me: Hi, the last time we talked you told me your favorite book, and I like your taste! it's a very good book! Rm: really? I'm glad you liked it Me: I wonder do you have any favorite movie...

 
10:55 AM
0
Q: Teapot Riddle (No. 34) Strikes Again!

Kevin LWill make these more in the future RULES : I have one word which has several (2 or more) meanings Each of the meanings is a teapot (first, second ...) Try to figure out the word with my hints. Hint 1 : The first teapot can be loud While the second...

 
@MOehm it is indeed
 
 
1 hour later…
12:00 PM
0
Q: Minesweeper challenge #2

gparyaniAgain, I seem to have run into another situation where there doesn't seem to be a definitive set of squares to tap to solve a Minesweeper puzzle. What squares should I tap to maximize my chances of solving the puzzle, and what is the probability I can solve this puzzle without hitting a single m...

 
12:48 PM
0
Q: Staggered Race Puzzle

samThis is puzzle on staggered race Question : What could be the maximum time for which Neeraj could have been in the second position in the race? I am facing issues in visualization of the puzzle. Pls help.

 
1:04 PM
0
Q: Grandpa and Sports: Another Grandpa Mystery

DEEMI can never figure out why Grandpa likes and dislikes a lot of things, But sports? He likes Tennis but not Field Hockey He likes Football but not Baseball He likes Squash but not Bowling He likes _____eball but not _____ Fill in the blanks and tell me why Note: While there c...

 
 
3 hours later…
3:45 PM
0
Q: I'm valuable to many, especially to those who need me

Joe-You-Know Beware if you see me, great horrors may await. Over where I run free, in me life runs straight. Nick me open, a city's worth of traffic passes by. Dressed in poems, especially when one is about to die. So by me, men are made mortal. What am I?

0
Q: A Kingly Riddle

Excited RaichuI am sometimes meant to educate, Sixteen against but my size is just eight, Warfare recorded a few letters at a time, But death over me considered a crime, I'm French or Scandinavian in my opening days, But the world can participate, in their own ways, I consistently prize skill over dice,...

 
4:12 PM
CCCC: Optical instrument reflects short period in history, initially showing with what we all started (9)
 
1
Q: Do you like puzzles?

PerpetualJI hope this isn't too easy, nor too hard; this is my first enigmatic puzzle! Good luck to you all, and have fun! I like puzzles. What Do you like puzzles Yes That is why you came Well I have a puzzle just for you today Solve it It is not all that hard ...

 
5:10 PM
-
Please disregard that
 
0
Q: A Communication Barrier

PerpetualJToday I am working on some code for a translation portion of my company's application. While debugging a known issue, I encountered an odd string of text. I couldn't figure out how it got there, nor what it meant. Perhaps the community can help me out here? I think you will have to unscramble it,...

 
5:28 PM
Oh, I enjoyed reading that. :)
 
I didn't realize upon first googling that it was Hungarian :(
 
The only thing I know about Cryptic Hungarian Notation is that "goulash" is an anagrind.
 
cryptics in hungarian notation are too easy, all words have their intention indicated
 
dCapital faUpset, faBad iaUpset[8];
 
5:46 PM
Okay, I'll make one more guess along those lines and then probably stop, but:
@MOehm Could it be VITAS + [-h]COPE<?
no, that would be more like showing what we had done... and it's the wrong part of speech anyway
Any ideas, @ffao? There are lots of types of scopes
There's a niloscope... but if we're using "initially" to put everything in front of "cope", I then I can't see how to justify the "os"
 
@EricTressler No, it's not that. Never heard of it. How do you get the vitas before the scope?
 
at this point I'm just brute forcing all scopes too
 
You're too metaphysical when you think about what we started with.
 
somascope looks reasonable too
though MOehm asking that question makes me think using "initially showing" to get the vitas before the scope is not right
(I would say it's valid, if it were)
yeah, I think I looked at all scopes I could find and didn't find it, good luck to the others :P
 
6:02 PM
I mean, the obvious answer is telescope, but I can't make it fit, so I guess I also have to stop for now
 
I didn't take into account that there were so many possible scpoes. Sorry about that. But it's not an obscure word. I'm pretty sure you have heard it.
 
6:17 PM
well... the only common optical ____scopes are telescope, periscope, endoscope (in decreasing order of how much they might be considered to be optical instruments). So maybe this isn't the right angle. This is based on the list I have here, though. Maybe I'm missing something.
 
Well, I can't comment on that list. Are you satisfied with your parsing of -scope?
 
Not anymore (and it was "[-h]COPE", I had to get the "s" from elsewhere)
 
I like the surface, BTW
 
Hmmm. Perhaps you should have more confidence in your parsing abilities and have a second look at the list above.
Thanks, John.
 
I spent a lot of time yesterday writing cryptics with better surface readings, to atone for the nonsense I inflicted upon the room earlier
Yeah, me too
 
6:22 PM
I think I see it
I don't have a cryptic ready though, and I wouldn't have any of it if not for Eric though
 
Feel free, I've been staring at it. I wouldn't put my ideas in the channel if I were worried about someone else solving it first
 
Yeah, parsing scope in the middle of such a big clue is already commendable
 
Eric's cryptic shotgun is often very useful.
 
(PER I+S_+(-h)COPE)<; we all started on PSE with 1 REP
 
Bingo!
(Bit of a groaner, I admit.)
 
6:27 PM
I wouldn't have gotten that
 
SE in general is more accurate; many started here with 100 due to the association bonus
 
101
 
Well, I've left the "we" vague. (I'm only active here on PSE and used to be active on SO.)
 
6:57 PM
CCCC: Act before, look after (7)
 
@ManyPinkHats PRE+TEND
 
Yeah, that's precisely it
 
Nice surface; terrible advice
 
Yes, very concise. Nice.
 
CCCC: Take fitting-in drug (7)
 
7:17 PM
@MOehm That rhymes! :P
@EricTressler C(APT)URE
 
Only if you use the ABCC scheme with an unusually short meter :P
 
@JohnDvorak did you see my 5 second answer ;)
 
@Quintec correct
 
Yep. It doesn't have positive score. Sorry.
 
It does, though?
+2
 
7:20 PM
Hmm... link me again?
 
CCCC: Pluck a town valued evenly previously (8)
 
Ah, okay. Thanks.
Now can you do that on SO? :P
 
Anyone up for a game?
 
O/
 
7:24 PM
...we might need to specify which one...
 
@JohnDvorak I think it’s your turn :P
 
@Quintec Ha! If only there were a tag for that ...
 
Any game
 
My vote is always for Contact, but I would play something else if you'd rather.
 
Something we haven’t done in a while... spyfall
 
7:25 PM
Not great in four
 
We definitely need more than 3 for spyfall.
We could maybe do Zendo?
Or Codenames if we can find a fourth.
 
I’d be fine with that
 
I'd like Zendo, actually
 
Zendo is happening. Come join in!
 
8:08 PM
Codenames is happening. One extra soul would be nice.
 
...so that we can sacrifice it
 
9:08 PM
1
Q: Four Directions #4 - Where and what am I?

MetaZenTo the North a dusty foot philosopher was born To the South as you go, the colder the weather To the West is a brown leaf - wait is that a horn? To the East is a place to get back together I'm with a group of fellow ghosts hanging out at the park. Where and what am I? Four Directions #1 Four D...

 
9:24 PM
0
Q: It's a brand new age

Zimonze A brand new age of technology Six in Greek terminology Of not only French but Spanish too After that, I certainly approve Falling with sickness, in bed I wait But that was the past, so conjugate This is a useful English article An Egyptian god, undeniable ...

 
9:54 PM
@Quintec is your CCCC AUD+A CITY = pluck (AUD was valued evenly to... USD? previously?)
 
@EricTressler Pretty sure you're right but "valued evenly" means "even-numbered letters of the word VALUED".
 
oh, ugh. sorry
 
10:28 PM
@EricTressler Correct.
 
CCCC: Scriptures topped life consumed by disease, for priest (8)
 

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