The Sphinx's Lair

merrybot

00:00

also yes i do aspire to be a linguist ... one of these days

Deusovi

linguistics is fun!

merrybot

@Deusovi yeah especially learning all those fancy symbols and IPA and allophones and grammar and tenses and cases and syntax... the list goes on

Deusovi

mentioned this before, but I'm a big fan of linguistics-based puzzles

merrybot

what's one of your favorites in that category?

North Læraðr

@Deusovi Oh, one of my favorite puzzles of all times was that alien recipe puzzle from the Galactic Puzzle Hunt

Deusovi

00:02

the Linguistics Olympiad puzzles are great - ioling.org/problems/samples

North Læraðr

Ooh that looks cool

merrybot

first one confuses my brain so much:

Deusovi

one of my favorites there is the Aymara problem. it's a neat combination of linguistics and logic puzzle

North Læraðr

Danggg that looks fun

Deusovi

(word of warning: the PDF is currently incorrect. one of the small fish in (d) should be moved to (f).)

merrybot

00:04

aaand the last page is toki pona. i have nothing against it but it just seems too easy for a linguistic olympiad

Deusovi

@merrybot do you speak toki pona? if not, have you tried the puzzle?

merrybot

@Deusovi no, and not yet

North Læraðr

@merrybot It might be the easiest language to learn, but doesn't make it easy

merrybot

i can definitely tell that jan Powi = Boris

Deusovi

it has a small vocabulary, but the point of these puzzles isn't to learn the entire language. the puzzle is definitely challenging

North Læraðr

00:06

And this is my time to dip (whooshy whoosh)

Deusovi

oh, one thing before you go

North Læraðr

okay?

Deusovi

another good linguistics puzzle thing is the 2019 Galactic Puzzle Hunt round 2

North Læraðr

ooh ok i'll look into it

Deusovi

where in addition to the regular puzzles, you got "artifacts" that were entirely written in an alien language (that was actually very loosely based on the cooking puzzle you mentioned)

one of my favorite hunts I've done, both the mainline puzzles and the conlang deciphering

merrybot

00:08

@deus also i have a special interest in collation

(aka "alphabetical order" for the normies)

Deusovi

hm, what about it interests you?

merrybot

just like the rules for different languages and stuff

Deusovi

ahh - yeah, the way different languages tackle that problem is interesting

in some of my recent Wikipedia dives, I've been looking into how Chinese radicals work! it's a pretty neat system

merrybot

like Kiowa... vowels come first, then stop consonants, then the affricates, fricatives, liquids, and nasals.

> A, AU, E, I, O, U, B, F, P, V, D, J, T, TH, G, C, K, Q, CH, X, S, Z, L, Y, W, H, M, N

Deusovi

huh, neat

merrybot

00:12

i almost wanna make a conlang with a similar principle

i just have to decide on the actual phonemes first

unfortunately this isn't the linguistics chat (which isn't very active anyway)

Deusovi

I don't think alphabetical order is generally a prominent factor in conlangs (or languages in general)

merrybot

well yeah but surely if you're making a vocabulary for it you have to have some consistent order

Deusovi

for your own notes, it's probably helpful, but not necessarily for anything else

merrybot

hm

i'm legit thinking abt making a conworld populated by intelligent friendly bears

probably sounds boring though

hey @deusovi lets see if you can solve the cccc in 15 minutes :P

Deusovi

it's already been solved - we're waiting for jafe to post the next one

merrybot

00:23

self facepalm

Sphinx

03:14

0

Q: 10 dummies play a game of Among Us

This puzzle is based on Among Us; however, knowledge of the game is not required for this puzzle. 10 dummies are on a spaceship, in which there are 3 impostors and 7 crewmates. For the sake of simplicity, let's assume that the dummies will do nothing but calling Emergency Meetings one after anot...

Sphinx

04:05

0

Q: How do I make an Around the Bend crossword?

This post is not a puzzle. There is nothing puzzly hidden inside it or the self-answer, posted at the same time. What exactly is an Around the Bend crossword, and how do I make one?

puzzle-creation crosswords

Avi

@msh210 thanks :)

Sphinx

07:53

0

Q: Hero Wars RPG - The Sudoku!

In the popular online action RPG game Hero Wars, the player has to solve some simple but fun puzzles to win loot such as weapons and cash – assuming the incessant ads I’ve seen on Facebook are all legit. The left image shows 4 purple question marks embedded in a grid (a5/d4/e4/d1 in algebraic che...

steganography sudoku humor

jafe

10:30

CCCC: Acceptable to be a bit feverish among others gathering? (11)

sorry about the delay

Sphinx

13:23

1

Q: An odd looking Sudoku

Somewhat in the spirit of Stiv's This new puzzle type needs a name, can you solve this odd looking Sudoku and give it a name?

enigmatic-puzzle no-computers sudoku

North Læraðr

14:59

@Sphinx @bobble Nice self-post

Sphinx

0

Q: But wait! We skipped a day!

Today is October 4th and tomorrow will be October 6th. Explain! Note: I just thought of this one day and decided to post it here. Please don't leave too many downvotes. :(

riddle

bobble

@NorthLæraðr Thanks! Hopefully it inspires someone else to make one of them... Around the Bends seem cool to solve, but I'm the only one setting them 'round here.

merrybot

15:43

@bobble do you still insist on calling diaereses "dotties"?

bobble

of course. I can't pronounce, or spell, the "proper" way

merrybot

"die air a sis" /daɪˈɛrəsɪs/

merrybot

15:56

hello there, @xnero :)

bobble

16:57

@jafe The answer to this question is NO.

user435118

@merrybot Hi!

bobble

I haven't seen you 'round the chatroom before

user435118

I haven't been or posted here a while, but my first post here was a while ago (I changed my display name).

user435118

May 9 at 4:29, by Daniil

@Sphinx Can someone give me feedback on my first puzzle please?

user435118

Proof: Look at the logo and click on the user's chat profile

bobble

17:07

any reason to change?

user435118

Part of many changes to increase my internet security and to reduce traces of PII online (Personally Identifiable Information).

Sphinx

0

Q: My infix and suffix are given, but my prefix is not

My prefix is not known, Rather it has some meaning or some mark, But my suffix has magic powers, And my infix depends on smart remark. My whole is about choice, has a meaning or two. Can you guess what I am? I will add hints as time goes :) .

logical-deduction lateral-thinking affix-riddle

Avi

For the record, this puzzle had a hint posted 1 year ago

i don't think anybody's worked on it since then

80

Q: My God, it's full of stars!

An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #32: Grid Deduction Hybrids My dear friend, unknown to us, may have relocated again. He sent me imagery and constellation maps indicating that a distant red spiraling galaxy was at his zenith, and nearly collinear with the largest local galactic cores. ...

enigmatic-puzzle visual grid-deduction reverse-puzzling

Mithical

17:22

Ooh I miss those fortnightly topic challenges

bobble

grrrrrr I've now been "sir"ed twice recently, I think by the same person (same writing style), when I was telling them to edit in attribution

I'M NOT A SIR

I REALLY HATE BEING CALLED A SIR

grrrr

Mithical

That's very common in Indian English, I'm afraid

They're big on the honorifics

bobble

What's funny (ish) is they did it on the two most recent days when I would've cared. There have been quite a few days this past week where I wouldn't have minded, for various reasons.

Sphinx

0

Q: Pigpen cipher makes no sense

My father in law made a pig pen cipher. Gave me a coding matrix and I know the message is spelled backwards but I still can’t figure it out. Can someone help?

cipher

0

Q: row and column palindrome

A matrix of size n×m is called nice, if all rows and columns of the matrix are palindromes. A sequence of integers (a1,a2,…,ak) is a palindrome, if for any integer i (1≤i≤k) the equality ai=ak−i+1 holds. Given a matrix a of size n×m. In one operation he can increase or decrease any number in the ...

logical-deduction

Gareth McCaughan

17:54

@Mithical I think bobble's issue is not so much "they're using too many honorifics at me" but "they're using wrong honorifics at me".

Mithical

Yeah, I got that. But the default assumption is male - especially in India - and since they tend to use the (gendered) honorifics a lot more than, say, Americans or Brits, it winds up that "Sir" gets used a lot... for everybody.

The issue would be avoided by simply not using the honorifics, but... culture clash.

North Læraðr

@bobble You’d prefer ma’am?

That sounds really weird over chat ngl

bobble

I'd prefer nothing, to be honest

Mithical

"comrade"

bobble

There's a running joke with one of my friends where I call them "Honorable Justice". It was the first gender-neutral honorific I could think of on the fly.

msh210

18:09

@jafe This looks suspiciously like centripetal (gathering) = cen (acceptable) trip (to be a bit feverish) et al (among others). But I don't see how cen = acceptable.

@bobble Can I call you Your Holiness?

(kidding)

bobble

@msh210 If you wish

msh210

@Mithical you said that forthrightly

3

Lukas Rotter

should we bring them back?

Mithical

yes

Lukas Rotter

Hmmm I don't seem to have the code for the automation anymore, but I hereby sacrifice myself to do it again if we decide to bring them back.

North Læraðr

18:20

@bobble Your Holiness, may I beseech you to uh

I don't know

@Mithical Yes comrade

Lukas Rotter

Note to self: "It's 2020, and 3 years ago was 2017. Why would you 1) delete anything at all and 2) not backup anything anywhere 3) not use clouds. I've been telling you this for you're entire life, what is wrong with you?"

msh210

18:33

@msh210 @jafe Maybe C (acceptable, as a school grade) en (to, as in "en garde") trip (be a bit feverish) and the rest as before?

merrybot

@bobble hopefully no one calls you "your nothingness" ... you would probably grrrrrr them away though

i'm going to start actually grrrrrr-ing things now

North Læraðr

18:57

@Deusovi Confirmed, lingustic puzzles are my favorite types of puzzles :P

I solved the Japanese Braille problem fairly quickly, but that was bc I'm familiar with how Japanese vowelization works, and that one was supposed to be easy

Still super cool though

I want to make one, but I'm not sure how

bobble

Someone downvoted the Q of my Q+A, and I have no idea as to why

anyone else have an explanation?

North Læraðr

@bobble Sure. Some people are jerks and downvote everything for no reason

They probably unwittingly thought that it belonged in meta

bobble

First time I got a question downvote :(

North Læraðr

Wow

Yeah, they probably thought it belong in meta. Don't worry about it, we all get random downvotes here and there for no explanation

In Literature SE for three straight days in a row my all my posts got downvoted once for seemingly no reason

bobble

I just thought that everyone else got random downvotes. Not, you know, everyone.

North Læraðr

19:11

Happens to everyone except me

@bobble You should check out linguistics puzzles. I think you'd enjoy them, considering you like ciphers

ioling.org/problems/samples

bobble

... I don't like ciphers

North Læraðr

Oh. Hm who was it that liked ciphers then?

Lukas Rotter

<-

bobble

Sep 1 at 20:55, by bobble

I just don't even try for any [enigmatic-puzzle] or [riddle] or [cipher]. My brain does not work that way :)

North Læraðr

Oh it was LukasRotter

Sep 3 at 21:14, by Lukas Rotter

- sees new questions with [cipher] tag - gets excited - hopes its not "heres a code. can you crack it" - it is

But Bobble was in that conversation :p

Sphinx

19:18

0

Q: They are all names of Movies ; aren't they?

Here is a simple list of some of my favorite movies. Please fill out the blank. I will even give you 4 choices! 1 The Sting 2 In the Heat of the Night 3 ? 4 Unforgiven 5 Braveheart 6 The Aviator The ? is either The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring The Bridge on the River Kwai Rifi...

riddle logical-deduction

jafe

@msh210 not the answer, i'm afraid

bobble

both wordplay and answer?

jafe

yeah

merrybot

19:59

@bobble exact same here lol... i like making ciphers and things but i can't solve other people's

@NorthLæraðr a linguistics puzzle? or a japanese braille system? :P

Sphinx

0

Q: Across and down? Who needs those?

One you raise as your own U.S. damming org. Norwich area Tartan Aerial lift Paracetamol and emotional support, for example BSN, in some schools Vampire of film Written-works journal of JHU Borrow and get rid of Ireland Break down Vietnam neighbor Egglike Do away with Howdy! Space org. Unpolishe...

crosswords

Lukas Rotter

20:58

Will there ever be a crossword puzzle that Deusovi doesn't solve first? Related

bobble

How about the highest voted crossword?

Deus is in the comments but the three answers are all non-Deus

Lukas Rotter

sockpuppets

all of them

Deusovi

@LukasRotter There have been a few! I've only been first to about half of jafe's recent cryptic barrage.

Lukas Rotter

even gareth

bobble

@GarethMcCaughan, are you a Deus sockpuppet?

Lukas Rotter

21:28

everyone except me is. i dunno, capgras delusion, except it isn't really capgras delusion at all. Capdeus delusion - The delusion that the whole of PSE accounts have been taken over by Deusovi.

Avi

I'm not sure I'm qualified to be fake Deusovi

Lukas Rotter

For some accounts he just has an AI running in the background simulating different levels of personality, activity, puzzle-solving skills, etc.

Avi

I guess it's a robot ekat

bobble

If we take that as true, he also has these bots tutoring each other, collaborating on puzzles, and idly chatting about school stuff.

Lukas Rotter

It has to look realistic

bobble

21:33

how high up does this go?

Avi

they say jafe's the last human left

but that's probably just a rumor spread by Deusovi to trick you into trusting him

bobble

How about Rand?

Also, if we're all Deus bots, why did we have extended arguments about pickles?

Avi

@Randal'Thor What's the Great Puzzling War?

@bobble It was a highly codeword-based encryption cipher for concealing a discussion on new and improved puzzling strategies

bobble

makes sense, makes sense

also - if we're all Deus bots, why are we able to discuss the possibility of us being Deus bots?

Lukas Rotter

AI becoming self-aware.

Avi

21:37

Gaslighting

Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or group, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgment, often evoking in them cognitive dissonance and other changes, including low self-esteem. Using denial, misdirection, contradiction, and misinformation, gaslighting involves attempts to destabilize the victim and delegitimize the victim's beliefs. Instances can range from the denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents occurred, to belittling the victim's emotions and feelings, to the...

bobble

Anyone else watch S.H.I.E.L.D?

There's this great scene in Season 4, episode "Self Control", where the star-crossed lovers try to prove to each other that they're not robots

Avi

also @ anyone else who knows, details on the Great Puzzling War would be greatly appreciated

bobble

and this conversation is reminding me of that

*star-crossed

Mithical

@Avi eesh

Avi

hallo!

Lukas Rotter

21:40

guten tag!

Mithical

I wasn't around then, but IIRC it was the giant mess at the very beginning of the site

there were debates over whether the site should be about puzzles or for puzzles

as in... should puzzles themselves be on-topic, or should it be restricted to questions about puzzles

there were... strong opinions on both sides

Avi

ohhh

bobble

-15

Q: Is it time for us to disallow challenge-only questions?

While it is somewhat out of form to edit a question with these kinds of notes, this is designed to clear up potential confusion. status-declined's tag wiki reads: Indicates that a request (usually a feature request) has been considered, but will not be implemented. Generally speaking... / .....

discussion status-declined question-quality challenges close-reasons

Mithical

that's the only puzzling war i'm aware of unless you count the riddle sandbox

Avi

+31/-46

Lukas Rotter

21:42

In my humble estimation this site would be dead if the first one got implemented.

Mithical

i happen to agree

bobble

The answer saying "keep the puzzles" is +66/-6

Avi

"we're not here to have fun." - LOL

we are here to learn, to some extent

if we find that fun, then who can stop us

bobble

Dec 11 '16 at 18:01, by Rand al'Thor

You young'uns weren't here for the Great Puzzling War.

Avi

alright alright I should probably vanish

bobble

21:46

and I'm older than Beastly!

Lukas Rotter

What the **** am I doing there in that conversation from 2016 :o

Avi

I have a sneaking premonition that I've asked what the GPW was before, and already forgot

Lukas Rotter

Any other major historical PSE events one should know about?

bobble

The Riddle Sandbox

it didn't go over well

Lukas Rotter

oh I think I actually remember that

Mithical

21:49

fun times

Gareth McCaughan

@bobble No. If I were, I'd be a little quicker at solving crosswords.

bobble

I've read a lot of meta posts in the hopes I could use them to sound smart

Mithical

I've just given up on sounding smart. The best I can hope for is sounding snarky.

2

bobble

@GarethMcCaughan OR.... maybe Deus coded you to be only okay at crosswords, for plausible deniability

Gareth McCaughan

Well, I'm better than "okay".

Anyway, in that case I'd be a Deus bot not a Deus sock. Not the same thing.

bobble

21:51

only "great", but not "impossibly fast"?

I think the conspiracy theory switched from socks to bots at some point

North Læraðr

@Mithical You do that well. Too well

Mithical

y'all go through conspiracy theories like water around here

Lukas Rotter

i made that switch because it seemed unrealistic that the entirety of PSE are Deusovi's socks. So making them bots makes this hypothesis much more realistic and not far-fetched at all

North Læraðr

We can prove I'm not a sock of Deus in three logical statements:
1) If I was Deus's sock, that means I am Deus.
2) Deus is smart
3) I am not smart
4)Because I am stupid, I cannot be Deus's sock
5) Therefore I am not Deus

bobble

If you were a Deu?

North Læraðr

21:55

That logical argument messed up in every possible place

Lukas Rotter

I think, therefore I am Deus.

2

North Læraðr

1) If I was Deus's sock, I would be smart
2) I am not smart
3) Therefore, I cannot be Deus's sock

Now there is a properly framed logical argument

Lukas Rotter

Why would I believe 2)?

What's your proof for that

North Læraðr

I'm a tree

Mithical

when's the last time you met a tree that proved it was smart

bobble

21:58

in a book

fantasy trees

Gareth McCaughan

The Proving Tree. Famous children's book.

2

Mithical

Taurnemornalome does not count

Gareth McCaughan

The child keeps demanding that the tree provide proofs of more and more difficult things, until eventually it proves that 1=0, which is a contradiction, and therefore ceases to exist.

2

North Læraðr

Asking Deus for math help does not inherently mean I am stupid, but it shows I don't know what Deus does know

Lukas Rotter

That's all just an act

Mithical

22:00

@GarethMcCaughan Written by Shel Provenstein?

Gareth McCaughan

Ha, probably.

bobble

someone please summarize this discussion

North Læraðr

@LukasRotter Are you inciting I am Deus's sock?

msh210

@GarethMcCaughan "Given:…"

Mithical

> inciting

North Læraðr

22:02

@Mithical That went straight over my head

Mithical

@bobble "war, tree, smort, math, socks"

4

Lukas Rotter

@NorthLæraðr possibly

ah yes, the msh210 tactical reload

msh210

@LukasRotter Sorry?

Lukas Rotter

On my end I often get the "left the room", "joined the room" animation on your avatar consecutively

msh210

@LukasRotter Ah. I'll often join a room to say something and then leave. Generally when I lurk in a SE chatroom, I do so from outside the room.

I assume that's the order you meant?

Lukas Rotter

22:20

nope. Your avatar fades out to the bottom and then instantly fades in from the top sometimes. I guess that might be a lucky consequence of the described behavior, since it takes some time for the chat to fade out a user who's left.

Or I am the only one who gets that? :(

bobble

I get that as well

Mithical

@LukasRotter that's... what leaving and rejoining does

Lukas Rotter

yes. what am i missing?

Sphinx

23:06

0

Q: Take a look at my aquarium

This is intended as a gentle introduction to one of my current favourite grid-deduction puzzle types: Aquarium. The puzzle is played on a rectangular grid divided into regions called "aquariums" (delineated by thick black lines). Your aim is to "fill" each aquarium with water up to a certain leve...

word grid-deduction humor

North Læraðr

@LukasRotter same

bobble

23:23

@Stiv, I don't have time to solve the Aquariums, but it occurs to me you could do a mashup of Aquarium + LITS, just based on how both are clued by small bounded regions.

(No idea how hard that would be to set up & solve, I just think it would be cool)

oAlt

23:35

[test]

weird

bobble

what's weird?

Transcript for