The Sphinx's Lair

Khale_Kitha

00:00

pokes the CCCC before it fades off the starboard

Will

@Alconja Nope, no indirect anagrams.

TrojanByAccident

00:22

I think Elsa would be a great counselor

When someone gets emotional, she would just say "let it go"

Alconja

I think Elsa would be a great OH&S officer

When someone picked up a damaged electrical cable, she would just say "let it go"

TrojanByAccident

Or a police officer

When facing criminals with weapons, "let it go"

Volatility

I'm surprised this hasn't turned into a meme yet

TrojanByAccident

I shall make it one

incesterror21

TrojanByAccident

00:29

lmao

Alconja

Or a spanish identity thief... she would just say "le tigo"

TrojanByAccident

lol

e.e wtf

Page blocked as "prohibited memes content"

is that even a thing

...what did I just see

if you don't want to be disturbed, don't do a google image search for 'elsa fighting crime'

Sphinx

02:06

0

Q: More Visual Rebuses

Here are some rebuses for your entertainment! There is no central theme, although all of the solutions consist of multiple words. This is my first attempt at designing a rebus puzzle. I made these rebuses in an image editor. Some of them contain graphics that I found online. 4. 5. 6.

rebus

-2

Q: The longest word in the dictionary

What is the longest word in the dictionary? It is chemical name for Titin in the human body.

word wordplay

Ankoganit

03:57

@Will Is it (METAGROBOLOGIST)* (you=def)? Wikitionary says it's a word for a puzzler, but I haven't heard of that word before.

Gareth McCaughan

I bet it is, though I don't much like "than" as connective between def and wordplay.

And it is nice to know that after that no one is going to be complaining about the obscurity of commonplace words like RICERCAR or MENTATION or indeed YAR.

Is there any actual dictionary in which METAGROBOLOGIST appears? (It isn't e.g. in the OED.)

Sphinx

04:16

0

Q: Can we stand just one more number sequence puzzle?

Well since everyone else is doing it... The following is the first 7 numbers in a sequence: 1431, 135, 2321, 1730, 2166, 1177, 1211, ... What is the next number?

number-sequence knowledge

Alconja

04:45

@Ankoganit I think that's a pretty safe bet. You got a new one?

(and well done for finding it, I tried anagrams on multiple wordlists without success)

@GarethMcCaughan Damn. Should've got in a bit earlier. :)

Deusovi

Wow, apparently I'm the only one around here who can write a non-obscure cryptic clue. :P

TheGreatEscaper

05:36

Damn! I've heard of the word before, even so far as to belong to a forum with the same name.

i just saw that the cryptic was written by will, so didn't even attempt it...

boboquack

Have another hint @The and others.

@humn: Here's a p-w/o-w that I tried to obscure.

0

Q: A line in Connect Four

When I was young, I was playing with a friend. Of course, the topic soon turned to mathematics (as it always does), and we got into an argument over something. We went on for some time, then he got bored of rhetoric and grabbed a Connect Four board off the games shelf. Taking a marker from the s...

mathematics reverse-puzzling

(Since @-595 is always slow)

Hi @Vol

Volatility

hullo

humn

@boboquack , hey hey hey, what fun!

(you inspired me to start on another pwow-wow too, mainly about physics)

Gotta love they way you made A line in Connect Four into a proof-without-words with only words, about a proof-without-words.

boboquack

Wondered what you'd think - whether it would contradict your thoughts of what a p-w/o-w should be.

humn

Broadened it! ... Now to make one without even a proof ...

boboquack

05:50

Even if there was a tag proof-without-words, it would still need the tag reverse-puzzling.

humn

Yes, two of my favorites, the honest way

At this rate scientists may yet discover a planet where both tags exist

(Hi, @GentlePurpleRain, thanks for raising the possibility of tagging proofs-without-words with reverse-puzzling)

Sphinx

1

Q: A line in Connect Four

When I was young, I was playing with a friend. Of course, the topic soon turned to mathematics (as it always does), and we got into an argument over something. We went on for some time, then he got bored of rhetoric and grabbed a Connect Four board off the games shelf. Taking a marker from the s...

mathematics reverse-puzzling

boboquack

Oh, finally @-595

humn

6 minutes?

boboquack

@GentlePurpleRain, do mods have the option to re-assign accepted answers?

@humn -595 is the Sphinx's user number

humn

05:57

that completes the one thing i would learn today

... now to run off and see who beats me to your p-w/o-w-w/only-w ...

Alconja

@boboquack Fun fact: I'm user 5 on SuperUser (with the first 4 users being SO employees)

boboquack

@Alconja Wow! Does that mean you were first to commit?

@Deusovi, do mods have the option to re-assign accepted answers?

Alconja

SU predates Area51 commits. Used to be pretty active on SO, and just happened to be first through the door back when they opened beta for SU.

Deusovi

@boboquack Nope.

GentlePurpleRain

06:15

@boboquack Not that I'm aware of, but I keep finding new mod tools, so you never know what's out there.

Alconja

puzzling.stackexchange.com/tools?tab=nukeFromOrbit

boboquack

@humn Can we call proof-without-words a campaign?

Deusovi

@Alconja Well, we knew about that one.

boboquack

What are the criteria/is the criterion for making a new tag?

Alconja

Strictly speaking, as long as you have 300 rep you can do it. More realistically, you need some community consensus.

humn

06:29

@boboquack , oh yeah, cheered when i saw your call to rally for proof-without-words-without-a-tag

boboquack

@humn Should we go ahead and make the tag? We've got 3 examples, how many do you want?

humn

Seems like critical mass to me. And there'll be a 4th before long.

(I don't mind if my first solution for yours was off, but think i'll fill it out more anyway for variety)

Volatility

@humn you still have "...no existing row matches the colors of the diagonal..."

humn

@Volatility , not very clearly stated yet but it seems okay, what did i miss?

Volatility

you mean "no existing row matches the inverted colors of the diagonal"?

humn

06:38

another good one, @Vol! , thanks once again (this is why i usually wait a day for a puzzle's dust to settle instead of sprint answering)

Mike Q

I don't understand, why can't the rows and diagonals have matching/inverted colors?

boboquack

@humn I've made the tag - tag your posts too so we don't lose it!

Volatility

@MikeQ Cantor's diagonal argument is that if you take a list of numbers, read off the diagonal, and then change each digit, then the new number cannot be part of the original list, since there will always be at least one digit different from each number in the list.

humn

@MikeQ , because then there'd already be 4 in a row of your opponent's color somewhere before your winning move (at least that's my thinking)

@boboquack , whee, off to tag and re-release . . .

Mike Q

@humn You sure? Wouldn't that be equivalent to "One player cannot win after another player wins"?"

boboquack

06:43

@humn I'm doing the tag wiki now

humn

@MikeQ , right, did i get that wrong too?

when i said "before your winning move" i meant "before your supposed winning move"

think (hope) my thinker, and my explainer, could be working better

boboquack

@humn Tag wiki is ready, please do accept or accept and edit

humn

@boboquack , oops, the short one said "without diagrams" instead of "without words"

didn't give an option to edit

boboquack

Oops!

@humn @humn Edited!

Ping ping!

:D

humn

@boboquack :34874208 approved! (by at least one reviewer)

boboquack

06:57

I need 2! Anyone else around who can edit tag wikis?

Sphinx

1

Q: This is NOT a number sequence puzzle

Since everyone is trying their hand at this type of puzzle, I've decided to create a number seq - We interrupt your Puzzle Solving Entertainment to inform you of this Public Service Exclamation: This is NOT a number sequence puzzle, although you will be finding a number from a series of num...

number-sequence steganography

Mike Q

@boboquack As in 300+ rep?

boboquack

As in 5000+ rep

You need that to approve tag wiki edits

Yay!

It passed

I'm going now. Bye @humn!

humn

@boboquack , you've done enough good ... for now! (the new tag does work already, too)

Will

08:44

@Ankoganit Yeah that's the word. I figured that 1) although obscure, the word would be in peoples' lexicon here, and 2) if not, it'd be a word people here would find interesting

TheGreatEscaper

09:56

I was familiar with the word, just not good at cryptics :P

Anyhow, I'm working on another grid logic puzzle! I love this fortnightly too much :P

Volatility

Can I just comment that it's almost an anagram of "Garbologist? Me too!"

Volatility

10:14

In fact:

Ankoganit

10:33

Sorry, I'm just back from school

CCCC: Me, running after this thing (4)

Alconja

@Ankoganit ITEM? Assuming "running" is a reversal/anagram indicator giving EM after IT (this). Def: thing

Ankoganit

10:52

@Alconja Yup!

Alconja

11:14

CCCC: In public surrounds, I speak of change (10)

4

TheGreatEscaper

12:25

All quiet on the puzzling front...

Sphinx

1

Q: A Six-Faced Puzzle

Here is a grid-deduction puzzle, whose mechanics I have seen under several names such as 'Castle Wall', which is the one I'll use here. The goal of Castle Wall is to draw a loop enclosing all the numbers in the grid, such that the number represents how many cells it can 'see' orthogonally, includ...

enigmatic-puzzle mazes grid-deduction

Mithrandir

13:22

@TheGreatEscaper Everyone's at Literature.

dcfyj

Not I, I'm content not going there :P

TheGreatEscaper

I can't seem to find literature...

Everywhere says it was shut down?

dcfyj

I'm pretty sure the beta launched yesterday or something like that

It's in Private Beta

Mithrandir

But you can get in through A51

dcfyj

Of course, Rand has the highest rep :P

Mithrandir

13:25

But I've repcapped for the second time in a row, so don't upvote me

TheGreatEscaper

Yup I just got in through A51

dcfyj

While I like reading, I don't typically go asking questions about it.

TheGreatEscaper

Yeah... I don't feel much of a connection to anything being asked there.

Mithrandir

If you answer this I'll give you rep...

dcfyj

Bad

No bribing

TheGreatEscaper

13:28

I don't know the answer, anyhow :P

Mithrandir

Neither do I

That's why I asked :P

dcfyj

I'd say the given answer is pretty good

Mithrandir

But it's incorrect

She is in a coffin.

As seen in the quote I edited in.

dcfyj

The comment you posted says she's not confined to it though, "...the lid wasn't fastened..."

Mithrandir

It was after

hang on

I'll get the book

dcfyj

13:31

No idea, never read it

TheGreatEscaper

Additionally, the coffin might not be watertight. It seems like a really improbable situation.

You know, @Mith, sometimes the only answer to a question like that is 'oversight by the author', or 'creative license'. :)

dcfyj

Well, for her to survive 7 days, she had to have water

Mithrandir

> We replaced the coffin lid and screwed it down. Then we left the vault, fastening the iron door behind us...

TheGreatEscaper

@dcfyj of course we know that now, as its a well known fact.

dcfyj

Then she's really an intelligent zombie

TheGreatEscaper

13:34

These sorts of things don't always cross the mind of an author, though. I dunno. It seems weird.

Mithrandir

I like that an answer of mine got praised by Shoggy

in Literature, 14 hours ago, by Shog9

Something that'd be nice to see here would be more examination of how/why something was written rather than the in-universe explanations that are usually expected on SFF. Mithrandir's answer to the time travel question adds something there, and I wonder if y'all couldn't find a way to emphasize it.

Oh cool, 16k.

TheGreatEscaper

'Grats

dcfyj

lol

in Game Development, 37 secs ago, by Hjorthenify

Or a black hole

Yup, my earlier decision was correct. I browsed some of the questions in lit and it's not of any particular interest to me. Most questions I either don't know or care about.

TheGreatEscaper

Yup.

similar feelings here

incesterror21

14:10

Hello all!

TheGreatEscaper

Hello @incesterror21

incesterror21

Any news around here?

TheGreatEscaper

Not especially

incesterror21

I've seen something about the new Literature site. Might be worth a try.

TheGreatEscaper

It's not my kind of thing, but others seem to be enjoying it.

incesterror21

14:13

I see many parallels to SFF like someone mentioned.

I'll stay with puzzling for now!

What's your opinion on posting hints? How long should I wait before editing my question?

TheGreatEscaper

It's been less than 24 hours

+ Literature just went up

I wouldn't post any hints for now

A lot of Puzzling users wouldn't even have seen your question yet. It's been fairly quiet in chat today, a lot of the regulars are busy with other stuff.

incesterror21

I see. Thanks!

Out of curiosity, did you ever post a puzzle involving "paperfolding"?

TheGreatEscaper

Me? I haven't done so yet. But it's a concept that I've been keeping in mind.

incesterror21

Could turn out to be fun. One could print it out and try.

humn

(jumping in for a different reason but) We have at least one good paperfolding puzzle here (looking it up)

TheGreatEscaper

14:21

I know a good paper folding puzzle by a friend.

humn

49

Q: Folding paper into corners

Here is a piece of paper: Fold it once, and you can get a shape with 9 corners: Starting with a rectangular sheet of paper and folding twice (along any line), what is the largest possible number of corners that may result? Rule for counting corners: both concave and convex corners count (a...

geometry paper-folding

incesterror21

Interesting!

humn

Might have more, could always use more in any case.

incesterror21

@humn Thanks for looking it up. I know you were "jumping in for a different reason"

humn

(other matter of the moment:)

When you run out of great rectangular grid ideas, TGreatEscaper, how about a pentagonal one?

(Like a quasicrystal of course)

Hope you've seen some of the hexagonal ones around here.

TheGreatEscaper

14:25

Haha, sure :P

I believe I've come across a hexagonal question by none other than yourself on PSE before

incesterror21

You could make it 3D like your avatar

TheGreatEscaper

Ah, my 5 intersecting tetrahedra

incesterror21

I'll be back later again, bye!

TheGreatEscaper

Ive already had an idea of taking a standard grid logic type puzzle, and putting it on a cube or some other non-2d surface

bye!

humn

(on your way out, @incesterror21, been meaning to thank you for some nice visual puzzles! didn't realize they were coming from the same source until recently)

cross reference: one of incesterror21's puzzles is like a grid that folds in different directions 3-dimensionally

TheGreatEscaper

14:30

Yup!

i remember that one, it was very nice :)

humn

you get around

TheGreatEscaper

My life is a whirlwind, humn :P

humn

a fun hyperspace puzzle got closed (or even deleted?) for being too broad

TheGreatEscaper

Oh no, is this the time rebus?

humn

doesn't ring a bell, this was a putting a bar through a wormhole

TheGreatEscaper

14:33

oh, I haven't seen that one :(

what was the general question statement?

humn

i think it was specific to some video game but wound up allowing for more general creativity (will look again, in case it wasn't really deleted)

0

Q: Connecting ends of a single object through portals

You put a metal rod halfway through a portal and open another portal so that the end of the rod that went through the first portal touches the other end of the rod. If you weld the two ends of the rod together, how will you remove the rod from the portals? Assume that the portals cannot close if ...

lateral-thinking enigmatic-puzzle

oh.. closed for "unclear what you're asking"

4D torus fly-through cross-section

►

Khale_Kitha

humn sighting

humn

K_K! Still adore your artwork.

Khale_Kitha

:P

humn

Still miss the other chat room.

Khale_Kitha

14:38

Yeah, agreed.

humn

This one has picked up the slack real well but will never have the same service-entrance freedom

Khale_Kitha

Yeah, was just frozen for 'reasons' anyways afaik

I was busy at the time, so wasn't around for a little bit

TheGreatEscaper

What chat room is this?

humn

Puzzles, etc (i went in every now and then just to "lub-dub-lub-dub" but some power realized it wasn't really getting any traffic for a while)

in Puzzles Etc., Oct 16 '16 at 22:48, by humn

lub-dub lub-dub lub-dub

Khale_Kitha

:P

humn

14:45

^ my fave, as you know

Khale_Kitha

You should look at the most recent puzzle. It's just about ignored - considering deleting.

humn

better not!

TheGreatEscaper

Never delete a puzzle! :(

humn

I'm complete entranced by the glowing ? !!! but have no idea what to do about it

Khale_Kitha

hehe

actually, it's been 24 hours

another hint.

humn

14:47

another gorgeous example of hexagonal art

this is what happens, TheGr, K_K gets me eulogizing his artwork

Khale_Kitha

lol

This one I didn't do, sadly.

I would like to take credit

humn

?

Khale_Kitha

Just found the image

I did do the work on this one, though: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/48059/…

And of course, the one with the eggs was all me, too

That was an interesting learning experience

humn

took me back to the desert:

Khale_Kitha

Got to use a few new photoshop design techniques I've learned, recently, on that one.

humn

14:50

did i miss one? eggs?

Khale_Kitha

Oh, the one from last easter

That : puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/29571/…

humn

right!

TheGreatEscaper

I was looking for it as well! Thanks for the link

Khale_Kitha

Btw, I find your non-sequential number sequence interesting TGE - looking at it

humn

... same here, reminded me of:

"This is a test of the emergecy broadcast system and only a test.
If this were a real emergency you would be told where to go and what to do."

... but actually of:

This life is a test. It is only a test.
If this were a real life, you would be told where to go and what to do.

TheGreatEscaper

14:52

That's a little grim, humn

Khale_Kitha

But, unfortunately, this is only a test, so.... good luck!

TheGreatEscaper

In other words, I love it!

Khale_Kitha

I wish I could find some good information on using perhaps/maybe/etc in cryptic clues.

Looked for a while yesterday, but I just can't find anything useful.

TheGreatEscaper

I'm a bit of a cryptic newbie too :) could be a good learning experience for us both to chat about it

Khale_Kitha

Yeah, I just have to be careful - trying not to reveal a CCCC

TheGreatEscaper

14:54

Perhaps signals definition by example

So 'a cat, perhaps' can be the definition for ANIMAL

Khale_Kitha

hmm

humn

interesting you mention perhaps/maybe... my Comp Lit source says the two words are different, in English

Khale_Kitha

So....

TheGreatEscaper

I think maybe does the same thing

Khale_Kitha

a mitsubishi, perhaps

this could mean car?

TheGreatEscaper

14:55

Yup!

Khale_Kitha

Okay

Then I think I know what I have to do.

To the riddlermobile!

(which existed, for a short bit)

TheGreatEscaper

Glad I could help! :)

It appears that all our strongest solvers have been MIA for a while.

Khale_Kitha

Now to wait for @Will to get back so we can see if the guessed solution to his CCCC is correct

Yeah

TheGreatEscaper

Will already confirmed

Khale_Kitha

Oh, I missed that

TheGreatEscaper

14:56

Alconja has a new one

Khale_Kitha

I read...then read.....then started scrolling

Will

:P

Khale_Kitha

Silinius made the guess, iirc

Oh - well no one's starring them

I starred will, but did it ever get a pin?

got it starred

humn

[heading out again, meant to be a type-by, posing and other-choring soon]

Khale_Kitha

We need to solve it soon or we risk not getting a response - poor Alconja's busy lately =D

see you, later, meditation boy

:P

humn

14:59

om and out

Khale_Kitha

hehe

ultima online style - "om om om"

ty to whomever pinned

TheGreatEscaper

whOMever

Khale_Kitha

lol

@Will an amusing idea for a CC

Surface reading looks like a telegram, with 'STOP' at the end of each sentence.

TheGreatEscaper

Oooh, that'd be fun

Khale_Kitha

hehe

TheGreatEscaper

15:06

I only have two cryptic clues I think are fun

'forcibly move my first cryptic clues' (6)

Khale_Kitha

lol

TheGreatEscaper

and 'presently present, missing' (7)

Hmm lets see if I can think of a telegram one.

Khale_Kitha

My next CCCC sounds like an odd dictionary entry, hehe

Sphinx

15:21

1

Q: Proof without curves

Say, what’s that in the distance? Could be a road full of cars or a wire full of electricity, or whatnot, but this much is for sure: It is straight and infinitely long. Sure, but why does the picture have 3 of those infinitely straight things? Oh it’s just the same old thing a...

science proof-without-words

Khale_Kitha

Well done @Hugh :P hehe

dcfyj

Someone has a lot of time on their hands

Matt

that looks to me like the doppler effect

Khale_Kitha

I love it

dcfyj

Um... doppler effect is sound related

TheGreatEscaper

15:32

That looks really cool

dcfyj

Far beyond my skills

Khale_Kitha

It's easier than it looks - but still impressive

dcfyj

I'm more of a stick figures kind of creator at the moment

Well, I know how he put it together, but getting the textures just right and the lighting just right would be a pain

Khale_Kitha

It would make me sound arrogant to critique anything on an image, like that, so --- it looks impressive

dcfyj

lol

Matt

15:35

sound related - what else would bother you trying to sleep some distance from a super highway?

dcfyj

Well, you said: "that looks...like the doppler effect"

It's sound, you can't see it lol

Khale_Kitha

echolocation ftw

dcfyj

lol

Khale_Kitha

how much distance Matt?

dcfyj

Correct answer: "not far enough"

Khale_Kitha

15:38

don't care for your junk

Sorry, just came up with another dcfyj :P

dcfyj

At least it's a proper sentence

Khale_Kitha

hehe

lacking 'I'

dcfyj

but as I said before, no matter how hard you try you will not succeed in getting the meaning of the letters correctly

Khale_Kitha

Not trying - that just came to me, haha

alternate heads don a cape and fly to your special jail (5)

:P

(totally invalid, but I found it amusing)

dcfyj

>.<

A user of alternate heads don a cape and fly to your special jail (5)

Fixed it :p

Khale_Kitha

15:42

There you go

I love it

dcfyj

Has a definition and wordplay haha

TheGreatEscaper

Lol

Khale_Kitha

hehe

Yeah, I couldn't think of a defn

Sphinx

0

Q: Is progress possible in an infinite maze?

Inspired by Maze Solving Robot and the related one on code golf SE You are in a cell in a rectangular grid arbitrary/infinite size. An edge is either a wall or not a wall. You will choose to execute a series of moves, which will consist of 'north', 'south', 'east' and 'west' instructions. If a w...

mazes

0

Q: Faster, higher, stronger

Last week my local newspaper featured a crossword puzzle. Two things were strange about it: it was placed on the sports pages and the clues were numbered in a very peculiar way, with what looks like a country code added to each clue. I think I was able to solve all clues, but I still couldn't fin...

knowledge geography anagram cryptic-crosswords

dcfyj

Use the only thing you really know to be true, I'm a stack user hehe

Khale_Kitha

15:43

True enough

Could also use "a name of alternate..."

dcfyj

yup

Khale_Kitha

pity your name isn't a number

"a number of alternate heads don a cape...."

dcfyj

haha

this :P

Khale_Kitha

haha, you added it :P

dcfyj

And modified

Khale_Kitha

15:58

A person of alternate heads dons a cape and flies to yonder special jail (5)

:P

dcfyj

I made the surface reading flow better too

Khale_Kitha

hahaha

dcfyj

Although you changed it back just now?

Transcript for