The Sphinx's Lair

(the original clue was for AGAPE but was entirely different - then I noticed that "gap" was roughly "mouth", thought it would work better as a surface, and saw A(-w)E surrounding it)

Alconja

4:26 AM

Feels like you could almost do something with "breathless" (to clue removing the middle)... Mouth in shock. Breathless. (5)

Deusovi

I'd considered something along those lines, but "heartless" and things of that ilk typically refer to the center letter, which doesn't exist in AW(GAP)E

Rubio

Mouth in shock, breathless - would have worked

Alconja

Depends how you parse it. "Mouth in [shock: breathless/heartless]"

Deusovi

I'm not entirely sure "breath" can refer to the middle, unfortunately

Alconja

No, me neither...

But now that I've dissected your clue, I suppose I should actually come up with one of my own.

Ankoganit

4:31 AM

What does the "regarding potentially common" bit mean in sp's clue?

Deusovi

Regarding --> "on", and I'm not sure about the rest.

Alconja

4:44 AM

Warning, possibly rule bending clue (not 100% sure):

CCCC: Die violently. Failure in mirror is worshipped. (8)

xnor

4:56 AM

You're sure it's (8)?

I have a solution for (7)

Alconja

(damn, too old to edit...) Yes, 7 :\

Rubio

no wonder

xnor

DEIFIED?

Alconja

Hey, I gave a warning it was broken /s

@xnor 'tis

Rubio

I don't think that exactly works, but the intent is clear enough

Alconja

5:00 AM

yeah, wasn't sure about the mirror bit, hence my warning

xnor

I don't have time to make a CCCC, who wants next?

Rubio

I could. I had the answer as well but left it to you hehe

Alconja

Sounds like rubio would've had it if it weren't for my failed enumerating

xnor

(I'm not cool enough to have a text file of premade ones, I have to make them on the spot)

Rubio

it takes me a little too long to make them up on the spot, and then I end up doing stupid things like indirect anagrams and make Deusovi use his angry eyes, and we can't have that now can we.

Though I do get a few semi-decent ones out in Contact from time to time ;)

CCCC: Perhaps a landlord. (6)

Alconja

5:04 AM

Is it LETTER? (ddef: perhaps A / landlord)

xnor

could you explain landlord -> LETTER?

Deusovi

they're synonyms, apparently

Apep

one who lets

Alconja

Someone who Lets. To let.

xnor

huh, I was thinking "lessor" for that

Alconja

5:05 AM

let = lease

Rubio

yah.

I knew that'd be quick :)

Alconja

Sneaky A. I like it. :)

xnor

yeah "perhaps a", clever

Alconja

But now I have to cobble another half baked idea... brb

Rubio

hehe

ffao

5:06 AM

letter for landlord is sneaky too

Rubio

I liked it.

Alconja

5:24 AM

CCCC: Tossed about shuffled cards go over peoples' heads? (11)

micsthepick

6:04 AM

there are no anagrams of "tossed about".

Rubio

oh. my.

@Alconja HEA(DSCAR)VES.

that looks right

or perhaps ---D

That it is

Tossed and heaves don't match

the typing it is hard

Alconja

6:07 AM

Oops. failed again.. broke the grammar in fixing the surface

Should've been Tosses

ffao

the definition should have a "they" somewhere too

Rubio

"Tosses about shuffled cards, what goes over peoples' heads? (11)" might be valid, eh wot?

Alconja

Heh.. ok, so we're agreed. I shouldn't do any more impromptu CCs

Rubio

CCCC: Share sorrow, about heart of sin and finally obsess about going back before Time ends (11)

Alconja

I liked shuffled cards and kind of crammed everything else around it

Rubio

6:11 AM

And I'm going to say this in advance. I am not sorry.

M Oehm

As if you ever were. :)

Rubio

Oh, there's been a few. hehe

micsthepick

This has a very interesting surface

Alconja

6:34 AM

@Rubio COMMISERATE - (def: share sorrow) COMM-A (, about) I+S+ER< (heart of sIn + and finally obsesS + about (RE) going back) TE (TimE ends)

Ankoganit

wait that's evil

Alconja

And he's not even sorry

Rubio

No. No, he's not.

Ankoganit

Oh well. What more can I expect.

Alconja

Evil, but fun to untangle.

Rubio

6:36 AM

(And the surface reading is a little clunky because I wanted that to be the one and only punctuation mark in it hehe)

Ankoganit

^^

Rubio

Nicely (and quickly) done, btw :)

Alconja

Thanks. Started from ISER bit, which fit with one of multiple possible defs. ...then the aha of trying to find a way to clue the COMM :)

Ok, apologies, but my CC will be a little while... Will aim to get something up within the hour...

Sphinx

7:40 AM

0

Q: A house facing North and South, but not East and West

How to build a house which faces to both North and South only, but not East and West?

situation

Mithrandir

@Sphinx ...what.

Alconja

Ok, back at a computer. Sorry for the delay...

CCCC: Cry from misunderstanding is useless (9)

Warning (seems like I'm doing that a lot lately): the above clue is a little bit... creative in its interpretation of rules (though hopefully not to the point of outright breaking them).

Sp3000

7:56 AM

@Rubio chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/14524?m=34489062#34489062 Heh

Rubio

wow. lol

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

Sp3000

@Ankoganit @Deusovi "Common time" as in 4/4 time (to fit with the rhythm theme)

Nah, some CCs are so good it's hard for them not to have been done before, so it's to be expected

Kind of like when I came up with "Put on a very quiet German song (7)" and immediately looked it up to see that yup that exact phrasing has appeared in a paper

John Dvorak

@Sp3000 that's the official version of your story, at least ;-)

ASCII-only

@Sp3000 including the 7? :P

Sp3000

8:12 AM

Apparently I misremembered slightly - looking it up finds "Made a request for a very quiet German song (7)". But you get the point :P

Sphinx

9:16 AM

0

Q: Sum of secret numbers is 101

Alice, Bob, and Charlie were given three numbers, respectively. They were said that all the three numbers were positive integers and the sum was 101. Alice: I know you two have different numbers. Bob: Aha, I got it. I found all the numbers. Charlie: Me, too. I know our numbers, now. Alice: Al...

logical-deduction

Mithrandir

10:06 AM

When you wake up, @Rubio ... puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/40067/mayweather-vs-mcgregor puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/40071/nflstreamfree puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/40092/mayweather-vs-mcgregor puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/40096/mayweather1277

Mithrandir

10:36 AM

boboquack

Also @Rubio How does it remind you of a biology class?

Mithrandir

@bobo what's /safe?

Wen1now

/safe??

Mithrandir

I don't know a lot about MathJax, which is one of the reasons I wanted the sandbox.

boboquack

It's a non-existent command

Mithrandir

10:45 AM

...explain?

boboquack

so basically use make a code block with like this:

 $ \require{begingroup} \begingroup   \def \safe {\text{\endgroup error}} $

      (Answer that contains MathJax blocks)

      $ \endgroup \safe $

So the thing is:

safe is defined in the group

so if the group works correctly

safe will not be defined outside

Wen1now

I don't understand

boboquack

and you should see the red \safe error

and the mathjax in the answer doesn't interfere with the mathjax on the rest of the page

but if the last \safe shows '\endgroup error'

then something's gone wrong

and the answer WILL interfere with other mathjax elements on the page

which makes trying to test things hard/impossible in some cases

look here for humn's explanation

9

Q: Dragons: Myth or MathJax?

Ever use MathJax to display mathematical expressions? Expressions related to fractals? Ever used it to display fractals themselves?! The time has come. These fractals are based on the iconic dragon curve and raise two questions. What is the rule behind these arrangements of letters? A c...

mathematics visual computer-puzzle open-ended mathjax

Wen1now

I still don't undersatnd

Mithrandir

From what I understand, it's a way of making sure that none of the MJ interacts with MJ in other answers, which could be dangerous.

boboquack

10:56 AM

I could write \def \sin {\text{LOL}} and then when someone tried \sin 2x it would render as LOL 2x.

Mithrandir

It's putting it in a box to make sure it doesn't escape.

boboquack

but if it's encased in a group which works, it will only affect what I wrote

^^ exactly

Wen1now

Okay gimme a sec

Okay, sorry guys

Sid

What is the primary use of safe?

Wen1now

I'm just tired and have work to do so I didn't make much of an effort to understand, but I get it now

Anyway, cool fact of the day:

If you put 'of the day' in front of anything, it makes it sound really important. Also, sometimes people make the assumption that you'll give more things 'of the day'.

2

Sid

11:03 AM

@boboquack what exactly goes wrong in such cases?

@Wen1now that actually makes perfect sense. :P

Wen1now

Missing close parentheses/end thingy/something

Puzzling Meta

1

Q: $%The MathJax sandbox$

$$The\ MathJax\ Sandbox$$ It's occasionally difficult to figure out if your MathJax will work in a post, even if it works/doesn't work in the preview. Also, sometimes you want to experiment with stuff that you might use in a puzzle. So... it's always good to have a sandbox. This is primarily for...

discussion mathjax sandbox

Sp3000

11:30 AM

@Deusovi I just dug through my puzzling notes and found CLAMBER/SCRAMBLE (along with BUSH/SHRUB) and remembered your comment

Wen1now

12:15 PM

Good night all!

Mithrandir

\o

Wen1now

On a side note, does anybody have any really interesting facts? Just ping me and I'll check in the morning

Mithrandir

@Wen1now daddy long-legs spiders are the most venomous spiders on Earth

The reason your hair bleaches in the sun is because it kills the melanin in it

John Stoneman

@Wen1now what Mithrandir said about daddy longlegs is not true

Mithrandir

meh

they just don't usually bite

but they theoretically could

and they're still venomous

i'm feeling curious results in a Cooking.SE question

there was a town with a population of 1

McDonalds started serving breakfast in 1972

baby echidnas are called puggles

human calls don't have cell walls

the first car was driven by a guy names Charles King

Wen1now

12:31 PM

Fact no. 9 if you make up a fact nobody will notice

Mithrandir

...why are you still awake?

Wen1now

Good night means that I've entered the night phase

Mithrandir

elephants have 26 teeth

as4s4hetic

the word "kangaroo" means "I don't know"

Wen1now

puggles sounds like a nice name

Mithrandir

12:35 PM

Brent Spiner - who played Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation - also lent his voice to a Star Wars character.

Wen1now

Ooh, I learnt a really cool thing today - AI has become better than humans at lip reading

as4s4hetic

cool

Talking about lip reading

I tried to learn some sign language jokes today

Wen1now

And..?

as4s4hetic

I don't understand any of them :P

They have puns the same way we do, except with actions

which would be great if I knew any sign language

Wen1now

Speaking of sign language

I need to go now

as4s4hetic

12:38 PM

gnight

Mithrandir

night

Wen1now

Do you guys do any maths contests?

Mithrandir

nope

i'm not good at math xD

as4s4hetic

^

Wen1now

This is the official goodbye

A widely held belief has it that the word kangaroo comes from an Australian Aboriginal word meaning "I don't know." This is in fact untrue. The word was first recorded in 1770 by Captain James Cook, when he...

as4s4hetic

12:43 PM

bonan nokton ~

ASCII-only

12:56 PM

@Wen1now I did every year in high school :P

@Wen1now yeah a ton, hang on I just need to find them: require 'interesting-facts'

Deusovi

4:00 PM

@Sp3000 Ha! So our Contact psychic ability apparently extends to puzzle design, too.

Quick, guess the final solution to my meta³puzzle!

Sphinx

0

Q: Man selling sheeps

a man with 90 sheeps, he wants to sell them in a market far from his farm by 30km (miles) he went searching for trucks to load his sheeps so he found out that every truck can carry 30 sheeps and he have to pay 1 sheep for every 1km to every truck driver (1sheep/km/driver). In the of the day he m...

mathematics calculation-puzzle

Sid

4:50 PM

What was our last election stats?

I mean, how many people voted?

Mithrandir

@Sid 397

puzzling.stackexchange.com/election has those stats

Sid

Hmm. Okay.

Soha Farhin Pine

5:14 PM

@Sid Hey!

Could you testsolve my puzzle?

Sid

Hi.

What tags do you intend to put in it?

Soha Farhin Pine

You know, my puzzlemaking skills are pathetic

It's crossword-clues most probably

but that can change over the course of testsolving

Sid

Okay. I will look at yours tomorrow.

Soha Farhin Pine

@Sid Make a private chat room now just to get started

Sid

Well, I am not a mod.

So, I can't. You need to ask a mod to do that for you

Soha Farhin Pine

5:16 PM

Oh, I see.

There's already a private room, we can use that.

Mithrandir

You already have a room; maybe we can just add @Sid to it.

Soha Farhin Pine

@Mithrandir Okay.

The CSR is frozen

Mithrandir

Interesting. I can't unfreeze a private room hosted on Puzzling.SE.

Maybe @Deus can help you.

Deusovi

Sure.

Soha Farhin Pine

@Deusovi Thanks. :-)

Could you add @Sid to it?

Sid

5:35 PM

@Gareth my puzzle was a near-dupe of the camel. Not an exact dupe. :P

near-dupe because I saw that and then changed one crucial data from that puzzle

Rubio

6:46 PM

@boboquack It looks like a cell drawing, complete with nucleus. hehe

@boboquack I do agree the \safe sandboxing in the sandbox should be there. Would you mind editing that into the top post as a ready-to-copy-pasta snippet with an explanation of why (and how) to use it?

Sphinx

0

Q: You have 13 minutes to unlock this safe

I want to share one more chapter of the puzzle crime story I make for my website. All of the information for solving this puzzle is contained in the text and the image below. As usual, any feedback will be highly appreciated. Thanks! In the moment Sanders entered the hut, the electricity insi...

visual

Rubio

Dear @EveryoneInTSL - A house facing North and South, but not East and West is attracting a lot of generally unique answers, many of which are not particularly great but none of which one could point to and say is plainly blatantly wrong. I suspect this is mainly because the puzzle is underspecified, so we're not really sure what its asker means by "facing". Does anyone feel this is close-worthy until the ambiguity is addressed?

(It's on HNQ, and isn't exactly putting Puzzling's best foot forward)

Mithrandir

Yes, it's close worthy. casts vote

Your cat puzzle was a rare example of a HNQ that deserved it.

dcfyj

7:03 PM

I say far too broad, 14 answers :S

Mithrandir

Off topic > not fully defined

dcfyj

@Mithrandir too broad still applies

Rubio

Splitting hairs.. It's both, so meh. :)

dcfyj

Also it's incorrectly tagged

Mithrandir

I'm voting to close this as off topic, with our custom 'not fully defined' off topic reason, until this is edited to be less broad and to have a confirmable answer. — Mithrandir 4 mins ago

Rubio

7:07 PM

confirmable

Mithrandir

@Rubio blame autocucumber

dcfyj

"...with out custom 'not fully defined' reason..."?

Ouch

the typing is hard.

lol

7:10 PM

wow that question was at +5 when I looked a few mins ago

dcfyj

The PSE, she giveth and she taketh away.

Rubio

indeed.

*thud*

Sid

Isn't there a too broad closing reason?

Deusovi

That seems too anticlimactic to be the modhammer sound.

Mithrandir

7:24 PM

@Sid there is

dcfyj

@Sid There is, I think @Mithrandir just wanted to use the custom one :P

Mithrandir

But we have a special one ;)

Deusovi

Yeah, the "too broad" close reason text was recently changed. It doesn't really apply to Puzzling anymore.

Mithrandir

TBH, we could close them as unclear, too broad, primarily opinion based, or off topic.

dcfyj

Would it be possible to put not fully defined under too broad? Saying off-topic is misleading.

Deusovi

7:26 PM

Nope. Custom reasons all go under "off topic".

dcfyj

ah ok

Still misleading though

Sid

Also, @mith what is autocucumber?:P

Deusovi

Autocorrect.

Mithrandir

scrolls through transcript of Root Access

chat.stackexchange.com/search?q=Autocucumber&room=118

Also chat.stackexchange.com/…

Also, FWIW

74

Q: Categories other than "off-topic" should allow custom close reasons

Custom close reasons are a great boon to Stack Exchange sites, allowing the community to provide more tailored advice to site-specific situations. Their big problem (aside from being limited to three by default) is that they are all lumped under "off-topic". This is often confusing. I suggest th...

feature-request close-reasons close-dialog custom-close-reasons

Gareth McCaughan

7:47 PM

@Sid Yes, I agree, the apples are not exactly equivalent to the bananas. But the sheep are almost exactly equivalent to the apples, because there are multiple trucks. Not quite exactly equivalent, but awfully similar.

Sid

...I guess I see your point.

Rubio

@Deusovi It was only a +2-weight close vote, so a solid thud seemed fitting.

@mith is the MJ Sandbox title intentional? It's not very question-list friendly.

Mithrandir

8:03 PM

Well, I was testing.

dcfyj

MJ? Mary Jane? Marijuana? Michael Jackson?

Mithrandir

In fact, that was one of the main reasons I posted it ;P

But if someone wants to edit it, feel free.

@dcfyj MathJax

Rubio

Well. I mean - if we intend to let people use it, it should be usable. ;)

Mithrandir

But yes, the title was intentionally invisible.

So was the invisible answer.

And the answer that was shorter than the minimum character length.

Title is now visible.

I intend to experiment with buttons at some point in the future.

Rubio

I know a pretty button example you can borrow from hehe

Mithrandir

8:12 PM

I'm planning on stealing it ;)

Rubio

9:43 PM

@BeastlyGerbil Nice answer edit. ;)

Beastly Gerbil

10:00 PM

@Rubio well if you have to lose 65 out of 90 sheep just to get to a market I think you're going to find maki profits is a pretty difficult thing to do... :P

Rubio

that was indeed the gist of my comment. all the questions of this type are implausible, but this one is just broken

Sphinx

0

Q: Hidden message in pictures 1 (easy-medium)

Trying something new here. The following is the first of a set of hidden messages from a story. Find the hidden sentence in this set of images. The order if from left to right and then to the second row. For full size image, right-click the image → open in new tab. For a little hint, check ...

visual

boboquack

10:17 PM

@Sid It can really stuff things up - for instance if you redefined \array, no-one else can use array from wherever your post is on the page to wherever someone else redefines \array to its original definition (I'm not even sure what that is).

boboquack

11:59 PM

I'm wondering whether this puzzle needs a tag clean-up:

-1

Q: Which letter completes this puzzle?

As shown in picture below, which letter completes the puzzle ? It bogging me for few days already ...

no-computers

Transcript for