The Sphinx's Lair

12:36 AM

@bobble Redaction requires one moderator to do it and another to approve it (since we're changing history). I've made the change; if at least one of our other mods thinks it's a reasonable thing to do then it'll go through.

bobble

12:51 AM

thanks, sorry for freaking out

Omega Krypton

@Dmihawk lmaoo whats this

Dmihawk

the PSE convention floor plan :)

Omega Krypton

@Dmihawk we rly doin that?

Dmihawk

haha I wish, although based on the amount of interest it seemed to generate, it may be less of a fantasy than I thought

bobble

I'd say it's moved from 100% fantasy to 99.9% fantasy

Dmihawk

1:02 AM

@bobble that seems accurate

Deusovi

1:30 AM

@GarethMcCaughan approved

(@bobble)

bobble

I'm still feeling very stupid

Gareth McCaughan

well, your brain's made of meat. Stupidity is the human condition. :-)

Jeremy Dover

That's not true Gareth. I knew everything when I was 17. Of course, I've gotten nothing but dumber since.

bobble

I can still find the link in the revision history? Is it supposed to be hidden there?

Gareth McCaughan

It was supposed to be. Maybe I did the wrong thing, or didn't do all the right things. Let me look again.

bobble

1:33 AM

It looks like every revision after the censored one has the link

so you fixed one revision, problem is there are more afterwards

Gareth McCaughan

yeah, I'd hoped it would propagate through other revisions, but apparently I have to do them all separately sight

* sigh

Give me a sec and I'll do 'em.

(turns out my brain is also made of meat)

2

bobble

Maybe work from most recent backwards? So that it doesn't edit over you

@GarethMcCaughan is it yummy meat?

Gareth McCaughan

actually it looks like there's only one other revision I had to change

(there's one more but it changes tags and not content, and it doesn't look like I need to do that one separately, and then after that the next revision was you removing the link)

bobble

yep looks good now

Gareth McCaughan

so @Deusovi if you're still around, could you do the honours?

bobble

1:37 AM

I guess Puzzling mods don't have much occasion to use the censoring tools

Deusovi

already done

Gareth McCaughan

I don't know about the others, but I've never used them before.

thanks @Deusovi

Deusovi

yep, same here - it's never come up as far as I can remember

Omega Krypton

2:36 AM

sneak peek on the new metapuzzle

oAlt

2:57 AM

Oho

Speaking of which I also made progress in making mine so kinda relieved...

Omega Krypton

cool beans!

Sphinx

5:38 AM

0

Q: Selfmate In How Few? #2-Taking Flight

After my first one was solved so quickly, it's time for the next meal! It's another one that I created for the same mentioned site. Warning: this is a fairly long one, even with its simple strategy! Me, SuperProblem.ru on 4/7/2020, After Andrej Borodulin White Selfmates In How Many Moves?

jafe

6:10 AM

ugh, it's snaining

should have brought my snumbrella

Sphinx

6:28 AM

0

Q: My Secret Cabal

I'm in a cabal so secret and nefarious that very few of its members even know they are members. Our ranks include: Former Seattle police chief Carmen Best Physician and diplomat Deborah Birx Writer Edward Abbey Washington state representative Frank Chopp Model Kate Moss Postmaster General Louis ...

pattern lateral-thinking

oAlt

6:47 AM

@jafe wha–

Omega Krypton

7:03 AM

wh-

jafe

should probably invest in a proper snaincoat

Bubbler

w-

oAlt

OH

didn't even know that slang existed

A step closer to the perfection of the English language

jafe

7:27 AM

(for the avoidance of doubt, snain is a real thing and i made up snumbrella and snaincoat)

is there no active c4 at the moment?

Bubbler

I don't even know whose turn it is

oAlt

It's @Deusovi 's turn (no pressure)

jafe

well i made a cryptic clue in russian, anyone wanna try solving that in the meantime?

Deusovi

yeah, sorry, been busy - will try to get another one written soon

jafe

a "СССР" clue, if you will

3

oAlt

7:35 AM

@jafe well snaincoat's next in line to being coined

yeah again it's fine deus

(did you actually make one jafe or was that just for the punchline :P )

jafe

i did

here it is:

Ужасный человек принимает участие во всём – он страшный! (6)

oAlt

i have 0% chance of solving it but let's ~~hear~~ see it

intrsting

correction: not entirely 0%, thanks to Gareth and North solving athin's

Raw parsing leads me to "Horrible person takes (participation/involvement/share/partaking/immixture???) in all/whole/entire/total - he/it terrible!"

kinda weird that it's only 6 letters

will leave it at that for now

Sphinx

8:08 AM

0

Q: What is an Icy Word™?

This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles. If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Icy™ word. Here is a list of Icy™ and Not Icy™ Words: Icy Word™ Not Icy Word™ DAMAGE FIX RUNNER SLEEPER DOVER...

knowledge word-property

Mithical

8:53 AM

@Dmihawk I pretend to have creative writing skills

Dmihawk

lol ok...?

Mithical

(in other words: I can review stuff but I don't have a high opinion of my own skills)

Dmihawk

raiding for another 30 minutes - then I'll link

Mithical

9:15 AM

I'm waiting at a doctor in any case :D

Avigrail

I guess a review shouldnt hurt too much

Sphinx

9:48 AM

2

Q: What is a Fair Word?

If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Fair Word. If it does not conform to this rule, I call it an Unfair Word. Here is a list (not exhaustive) of some Fair Words and Unfair Words: Fair Words Unfair Words BEDSPREAD DUVET PRONUNCIATION SPELLING YETI BIGFOOT DEEP HIGH IC...

word word-property

Sphinx

2:54 PM

2

Q: Cryptic Family Reunion: It's been a long, long, long time

The answer to this puzzle is a list of ten thematically related words or proper names or phrases. Each of these is clued cryptically, and the theme is to be determined. Since the definition part of a cryptic clue would give away the theme, these cryptic clues use a family member (e.g., mom, siste...

knowledge cryptic-clues

Puzzling Meta

3:10 PM

0

Q: Trademarking puzzles or specific words/phrases

This referes to using a TM symbol for puzzles. On this site, there are a few instances where the OPs have decided to use the Trade Mark symbol TM for the type of puzzle they have come up with. For example Words/Phrases combination for a particular type of puzzle comes with a TM symbol. Having wor...

discussion policy

Sphinx

0

Q: cryptogram with one frequent letter and other letters random

I am trying to solve a difficult cryptogram puzzle with a very unusual letter distribution: Out of 98 letters, it has 13 O's but no more than 6 of any other letter. The remaining letters appear to occur in a normal random distribution: 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2...

cipher cryptography

Dmihawk

6:11 PM

morning folks, and a happy Christmas Eve :D

bobble

oh gods it's Christmas Eve? I still need to wrap my sister's present

no it's not

12/23 for me

phew

Dmihawk

go wrap it now, then you won't have to worry about it!

bobble

but I'm writing a question for Lit, this should be quick

poke me in an hour or so to make sure

Dmihawk

aye aye cap'n o7

matt

6:56 PM

@bobble [41-minute-later poke]

bobble

Just finished wrapping it

Dmihawk

well done :)

bobble

There are now both "yes" and "no" answers to my meta question, should people want to vote on them

bobble

7:19 PM

Gah, I don't want to have to create a Stack Overflow account to log into Winter Bash

And I strongly suspect that logging in will be required to get the Defender of the Unicorn hat...

Dmihawk

inspired by Bobble's motivation to wrap gifts, I finally sent off two job applications that I've been procrastinating on, so I can finally get back to trying to solve the Icy/Fair Word puzzles

bobble

how about a "Making Of" answer?

Dmihawk

I've got a plan for that...

bobble

9:27 PM

I see there is a hat for self-answering. On a completely unrelated note, would anyone be interested in a "Making Of" for my FTC puzzle?

Deusovi

CCCC: Ration with much flexibility (6)

bobble

ooh, C4 is out

@Deusovi SUPPLY ddef?

matt

9:52 PM

apparently my uncle tested + for covid

bobble

ack!

Dmihawk

oh no :(

bobble

this an uncle you know well or spend time with?

matt

yeah; used to occasionally

idk what the FPR is for the specific test he took, though

(false positive rate)

also, I haven't been able to see my grandma up in Utah for ... a year

Dmihawk

that's tough :(

matt

9:58 PM

F*** you, covid

(apologies for expletive; just had to say it)

Dmihawk

totally understandable, it's been a brutal year

bobble

I celebrated New Year's with one set of grandparents, who I haven't seen since and I'm doubting I'll be able to see soon. Grandma is just a whole host of pre-existing conditions...

matt

oh no :(

covid has basically made 2020 the worst year of our lives

(am I right?)

Dmihawk

hard to disagree with that

bobble

hey on the plus side being stuck at home made me join Puzzling

Sphinx

10:07 PM

0

Q: Does anybody know the history of this star/triangle puzzle?

Does anybody know the history of the puzzle posted by Mario Bilotti? Who created this puzzle? Who deserves the credit? Find 10 triangles in a five pointed star using two straight lines

mathematics geometry puzzle-history

bobble

@Sphinx I'm not entirely sure this is on-topic, but the presence of puzzle-history and the fact that this site was originally meant for questions about puzzles leads me to believe it's mostly fine.

Dmihawk

feels like it belongs on meta

matt

@bobble I actually found Puzzling last December but only bothered to make an account in quarantine

bobble

@Lembik: Depends on the question being asked. If it's "what is the answer?", then the question would still be too broad. But questions about the inventor, the original publication, the name, etc. are (probably) perfectly fine. — Deusovi ♦ Jan 3 '17 at 13:38

Deus saying in 2017 that puzzle-history questions are fine

(there's some more context if you click on the link)

Sphinx

10:58 PM

1

Q: rectangular tilings with no "fault lines"

I recently came across this question: One rectangle, indivisible The goal is, by tiling 2x1 rectangles, to create a larger rectangle that cannot be split into 2 smaller rectangles. But my question is this: if using m x n rectangles, when is it impossible to create such a tiling? Obviously this is...