The Sphinx's Lair

1:55 AM

@Randal'Thor , if this is my refuge, as long as it's not an interruption, hello again!

Recent attempt to confound this language, which by now is my native:

"Physics alone determines that jump height is generally independent of body size, down to smaller than a mouse, where limiting factors become the fluid properties of air resistance and viscosity, not the kinetic factors of gravity and musculoskeletal physiology."

(... hi boboquack. Your sometimes-Quixotic optimism has been mirrored by an admirer...)

(...preferably described as "rhetorical optimism"...)

humn

2:26 AM

(yes, looking at that monstrous sentence again, "deteremine(s)" would've been better and "musculoskeletology" should be a word.)

Ankoganit

Strange, that question got downvoted while the original question (of which that's a dupe) is pretty well-received.

humn

I just wanted to make people think again. All those downvotes represent cycles.

Ankoganit

Heh

humn

It's easier to take when foreseen. This time it was. Other times not.

Kind of like dropping a clue.

On purpose, that is.

Rubio

in Codenames, May 26 at 12:44, by Rubio

The biggest perk is I now have someone assigned to let me out in the mornings. It was so hit and miss before.

Ankoganit

2:35 AM

There should be a post like this here.

humn

That's a goodie!!

And so is that!!

Wish I had written that Math-SE-addiction post. But I have a comeback for the let-me-out-in-the-mornings one.

Sometimes I scratch on the door until someone opens it. Other times I just scratch.

Signed, Itchy.

Rubio

The comment is (a very little) funnier in context.

humn

(looking, surreptitiously as possible, chatroom links have a way of splatting down in the middle of it all)

You made that up on the fly, @Rubio! I assumed it was a Stephen Wright quote, or some such.

Well served, in either case.

Now do Emo Philips. Please?

"I was pulled over the other day, and what i should've said, was ...'

Rubio

2:57 AM

It's an ongoing riff on the ongoing rumor, with (it should be said) some anecdotal support, that I am in fact a dog

humn

(clicking lke crazy)

Rubio

Mar 24 at 17:53, by Rubio

^ the post that started it all.

humn

My vestigial tail is wagging

(And even that doesn't completely give away what I've evolved to.)

(Admittedly, it is between micellular and mitochondrial, alphabetically at least.)

Editor wouldn't let me correct that claim. Nature neither. Every part is false.

Rubio

I hope you're at least as surreal in meatspace as you are here.

humn

3:13 AM

Answer will arrive in meatspacetime, sooner or later, here or there, no matter how you slice it.

Or maybe it already did.

One good thing about matter. It don't after all.

I do have a favorite song that begins with barking. (Who doesn't?)

Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing (Video)

►

And the same good thing about music. When it hits you feel no pain.

Bob Marley - Trenchtown Rock

►

humn

3:41 AM

Here's another with a lot barking, while your browser allows it:

Hey Bulldog - Beatles

Rubio

Dogs barking isn't always the best criterion for what makes for a good song. (Point or counterpoint?)

humn

Point well taken.

And catlovers cringe:

The Shaggs "My Pal Foot Foot"

►

ffao

but you can definitely get good stuff with dogs barking

hydrodogs

►

humn

If that's a self-video, ffao, I respect you more than ever.

If not, even more.

(Actually, what a fun scatter of elements!)

3:53 AM

I'm never gonna kiss a dog or a cat, or a human, again.

Rubio

Why did I waste my time sharing that video?

*because I can*

humn

!

(just looked up "salad days." It was meant much more exaltingly)

Rubio

btw, is this still not accepted intentionally? puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/51303/a-mo-roman-sampler

Sphinx

1

Q: He forgot his own password

Avid puzzling stackexchange lurker Mr. Mnemonic (first name NOT Johnny, I promise) is having trouble remembering his login credentials. Knowing that he can be incredibly forgetful, he created a password clue device for himself that allows him to regenerate his forgotten password simply by looking...

cipher

Rubio

You've got a handful of questions with relatively recent, apparently good answers, that are unaccepted.

humn

3:58 AM

The Mo-Roman sampler is tied up in a custody battle.

I bountied it in an effort to get stack reader to acknowledge the intended answer to part 1.

Rubio

Sounds messy and unfortunate. :)

humn

Maybe I missed where it was resolved. Maybe I should just edit it and let it go.

Rubio

It seems complete, or at least complete-ish enough

humn

What other Ps are you mentioning, Rubio? I don't want to leave loose ends.

@Rubio , I know. But there is a precedent, set by Beastly Gerbil, for tidying up answers.

Rubio

11

Q: Day and night of the two timers

Make a non - 24 - hour day / night cycle with the most daylight and fewest pieces Specifically, devise schedules and an arrangement for two electromechanical 24 - hour light timers to control the flow of power from an outlet to a light bulb. The challenge is to obtain t...

optimization real time jigsaw-puzzle circuitry

I guess the others have been dealt with to one extent or another, as I'm no longer tracking them

humn

4:04 AM

^ The Day and night of the two timers is the one puzzle that brought me to this desolate world.

I will not rest until it is solved adequately.

Took me half a year in real life and another two years to formulate it as a puzzle.

Rubio

It seems convoluted. hehe

humn

Until then, the sun will not rise nor set.

Rubio

I finally stopped tracking the 3 timer variant as it didn't appear to have an answer. The original version seems to have an answer, just not clear that it isn't the answer

humn

I would/should like another try to make them clearer.

They are exquisitely precise, just impossibly conveyable.

Once I realized that nobody other than ___ growers were familiar with old-timey light timers, . . . .

Rubio

heh

humn

4:16 AM

Solutions exist, in my own ascii notation, but i was hoping that someone would come up with a parallel or better.

I've posed reckless puzzles as well, but those (that and it's 3-timered spawn) have been hammered out beyond ambiguity.

I don't mind waiting, though, and wish that more of my puzzles were yet unsolved.

(In other words, out of new ideas for now. Got some stale ones that might work out. Actually, two potentials that just require a loooot of work.)

Thank you for trying to keep me(us?) honest, Rubio.

(off to enjoy a more'n-half-moon walk for dinner - aooooooooooooooooooo)

humn

4:46 AM

Almost out the door, @Rubio, did I say I wished that more of my puzzles were yet unsolved? (No) Thanks to you!

(now really out)

Sphinx

6:49 AM

0

Q: Words and symbols

As a word moves through a symbol (either left to right or top to bottom in a straight line), it changes according to a definite rule. Each of the four symbols has a different rule. Insert the missing words into the empty boxes. **This is just my assumption. I might be totally wrong.** 'White ...

logical-deduction word symbols

humn

7:35 AM

In the interest of puzzles and mysteries.

Step 1. Soma Cube:

Soma cube

The Soma cube is a solid dissection puzzle invented by Piet Hein in 1936 during a lecture on quantum mechanics conducted by Werner Heisenberg. Seven pieces made out of unit cubes must be assembled into a 3×3×3 cube. The pieces can also be used to make a variety of other 3D shapes. The pieces of the Soma cube consist of all possible combinations of three or four unit cubes, joined at their faces, such that at least one inside corner is formed. There is one combination of three cubes that satisfies this condition, and six combinations of four cubes that satisfy this condition, of which two are mirror...

Step 2. Twin Mystery, from the same source:

Twin Mytery

To many people artists seem
undisciplined and lawless.
Such laziness, with such great gifts,
seems little short of crime.
One mystery is how they make
the things they make so flawless;
another, what they're doing with
their energy and time.

(from Piet Hein)