The Sphinx's Lair

bobble

12:00 AM

you've read WoT?

North Læraðr

Nope. I just assume that Rand al'Thor isn't fully human because he has cool magic stuff

bobble

provide examples

North Læraðr

And also he's called like the Dragonborn or something that Skyrim probably ripped off

bobble

He has a great chat profile

> The Stack Exchange turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving newbies who become users. Users rise to regulars, but even regulars should never have forgotten the Age that gave them birth.

North Læraðr

Hold on, wikipedia time (doot doot doot)

@bobble You tell me, haven't you read WoT?

bobble

12:09 AM

nope

North Læraðr

Oh

bobble

my only knowledge of the series comes from Mythcreants (a small blog) articles that critique it

I must away. poof of yellow smoke

North Læraðr

Apparently, Bobble can teleport as well

Avi

12:27 AM

@Bubbler welcome if new :)

Bubbler

@Avi Thanks. I occasionally visited Puzzling through HNQ, but I only started actively participating here a few days ago. The 40K is mostly from Code Golf.

Sphinx

0

Q: Citizens and Murderers

You are in a room with 20 people(including you). There are two murderers. You are stuck there for 150 minutes. Every 10 minutes, there will be a 'refreshed' batch of murderers. This means that the murderers may be murderers in the next round, or a citizen may be a murderer in the next round. Howe...

probability

Sphinx

1:03 AM

0

Q: 3x3 grid equations

Can you place all numbers from 1 to 9 into cells, such that the formed 5 equations hold? Good luck!

mathematics

oAlt

1:15 AM

Has the current CCCC been solved yet? I have an idea of what the answer could be, but I can't fully make sense of the wordplay

And to add to that my C4 material stockpile is empty and I'm lazy :P jk/2

Gareth McCaughan

1:26 AM

It has not yet been solved, at least not out loud. (Who knows what may have happened in the privacy of Deusovi's gigantic hyperspatial brain?)

4

bobble has, as usual, been asking for hints, but I think it's a little early for that yet.

oAlt

hahahah

Frick it, I'm going to give my interpretation of it and let someone else take it since it's going to take a while to make clues for me now.

EX (exercise first) then we have to manipulate CLUES in a way and get IV somehow and mix them together to get EXCLUSIVE (definition "only"). Now, how to actually interpret all of the clue correctly?

Avi

1:42 AM

well

it could also be CLU(-e_)S

EVE for morning?

E(CLU(-e_)S)VE

but then X would have to be from occasionally composed

oAlt

I got the X from EX (Merriam-Webster says EX can be an abbreviation for exercise)

Sent too early ;_;

Avi

but then -e_ doesn't work

wanting can mean "missing" iirc

so lacking the first letter of exercise, clues becomes clus

oAlt

Ah

Yeah that was my initial thought too

Also, I see you've changed profile pictures

Avi

yes

oAlt

I'm going to give up on this clue for now

Sphinx

2:19 AM

0

Q: 4x4 grid equations

Can you place all numbers from 1 to 16 into cells, such that the following 8 equations hold? Note that the operator "/" only works for non-remainder division, i.e. you can have "8 / 4" but not "8 / 3". As usual multiplication and division are performed before addition and subtraction. Good luck!

mathematics combinatorics

Avi

2:35 AM

Wild whale to engulf jellyfish's head! (3,2,3,6) - LAW OF THE (J_)UNGLE*

but not quite sure it's legit lol

Deusovi

looks like "to engulf" has to do double duty?

and also I'm not sure that's really a workable definition

Avi

3:15 AM

yeah it was more (WHALE TO ENGULF J_)* which is sketch

and the definition is sketch

matt

@avi new profile pic?

Avi

to some extent, yes

bobble

still a cool lookin' ambigram

Sphinx

3:34 AM

0

Q: Trying to Solve a Riddle of Word Association

I was given a riddle last week that I have been mulling over for quite a while. The answer to the riddle is apparently supposed to unlock an account of mine that my friend took from me (with my permission, of course). I would appreciate your help with this. The riddle is "Golden name, golden bloo...

riddle word

oAlt

@bobble I agree

bobble

4:43 AM

I got frustrated with my crossword so I make a minesweeper puzzle instead

it'll be ready to post sometime tomorrow :)

this site is okay with fairly easy puzzles, right?

jafe

sure

Deusovi

~~no, all puzzles must take several months to solve~~

7

easy puzzles are perfectly fine! the important thing isn't the difficulty but the quality of the puzzle

bobble

It's a fun twist on minesweeper that requires tetromino logic

at least I think it's fun, and I think it requires logic

no idea how you all will solve it

Bubbler

I like minesweeper (and most of the grid deduction genre), but I can't upload images from this PC :/

Sphinx

6:31 AM

0

Q: Was someone there in the room, or it was just an illusion?

We were a very happy family of $3$ members, me and my mother and father. Sometimes my parents would go outside to visit my grandmother and I used to live alone freely, doing my work and reading storybooks in my freetime. However one day turned out to be creepy. One day, my parents went out to vis...

logical-deduction lateral-thinking mystery

Rand al'Thor

7:24 AM

@bobble Yes. Not necessarily a sane one, mind you :-P

Bubbler

10:33 AM

I'm currently working on my first grid-deduction puzzle. It'll likely be finished by tomorrow, so stay tuned!

oAlt

10:54 AM

:00

Rand al'Thor

11:14 AM

@Sphinx Spammity spammity spam spam spam.

msh210

11:54 AM

@Randal'Thor The spammers should learn to tag their questions enigmatic-puzzle. Then at least the deleters will think twice before acting.

John Dvorak

meaning it will be deleted in 200ms instead of 100ms?

2

msh210

Something like that.

To do: Make an [enigmatic-puzzle] that looks like spam.

Jeremy Dover

@bobble Hoping to brighten your morning a little bit...my wife really liked your latest Around the Bend puzzle too. I would create a sockpuppet account to give you an extra upvote, but you've all figured out how to detect this :-)

msh210

@Bubbler oh, never heard of him afair

Mithical

51

Q: This is not a spam post

Smart enough to solve this puzzle? Practised in the art of counting in multiple ways? VACANCIES OPEN! PM me to learn more about fantastic employment opportunities for talented puzzlers such as yourself. Don't pass up this chance for an amazing career with advantages including the fol...

steganography

Sphinx

12:26 PM

1

Q: A Before and After puzzle (2)

This is a "B & A" puzzle linked to What is a " B & A" puzzle? It describes a before and after word chain which has a word in common. For example: First Lady Gaga: Before would be "First Lady" and after would be "Lady Gaga" Here are Three seperate Rebus B&As (three images) and one non Rebus. So ne...

wordplay rebus

oAlt

12:39 PM

@JeremyDover question: are all the topics of your cryptic family reunions those that you knew of way before you made the puzzles? Like, did you just go through your head knowledge and say "Oh, I think I can use that for another cryptic puzzle!"? Or did you have to research on a number of them to get topic ideas? :00

Jeremy Dover

1:06 PM

@oAlt I usually pick topics based on things that interest me, or that occur to me from life events. Once I find a topic, then I'll do some research to find good examples...there's nothing worse than having to bash out a clue for a word you're not excited about.

If I get to the point where I need to look for topics, I'll probably just stop. 33 is probably already way too many :-)

oAlt

1:48 PM

yay, my curiosity is sated now

bobble

2:28 PM

@JeremyDover aw, thanks! I could make my next one (when I get around to it) as a tribute to her... if she wants?

matt

i'm back :)

bobble

are you?

matt

@bobble what does that even mean

bobble

who knows?

certainly not me

matt

but yes, i am back

also yeah the conversion dictionary i set up will end up being ~6000 lines of Python ... surely we could shorten it somehow? import from a different file?

bobble

2:38 PM

There are ways to build it from another file, I can show you afterschool

matt

sounds good to me :)

bobble

but I am currently trying to catch up on ~~a burning hellfire~~ the latest political news

matt

about the president's coronavirus

oAlt

~~#KanyeForPresident~~

hOW DO STRIKETHROUGHS WORK

bobble

three - on either side

oAlt

2:49 PM

dang I have truly forgotten

matt

who is kanye

oAlt

He's a musical artist (particularly a rapper)

matt

never heard of him

oAlt

He's popular but I'm not a fan so

Yeah he's irrelevant 😎

matt

haha

speaking of emojis: which one(s) do you tend to overuse?

bobble

2:59 PM

smile :)

oAlt

(The thing about him running for president of the United States is legit though, but considering he has no political background/experience, I'd be surprised if people actually vote him at all, unironically or ironically)

@matt the :0

matt

i'd have to say my overused emoji is 🐻

emojis are different from emoticons

oAlt

>:0

I do have a different answer now, though, but let me find the emoji since the keyboard version is different from the Messenger version, and I use the latter more often

Jeremy Dover

@bobble No need :-)Just wanted to use the Internet to share something positive...which seems all too rare!

oAlt

😣

That's the one

bobble

3:04 PM

@JeremyDover how long did it take her to solve?

Jeremy Dover

About 45 minutes.

bobble

this is important data for... um... data

matt

@bobble ah yes, circular references

bobble

3:29 PM

@Mithical, I don't know if you care, but when browsing SF&F I found an answer of yours where the ending screenshot is now a dead link

(The question is highly downvoted, if that matters)

matt

hm

Mithical

fixed, thanks

(thank you Web Archive)

matt

4:02 PM

@bobble i just added conversions[angstrom][bohr]

North Læraðr

@matt 🤔

@bobble Oooh, I think I'll look into making an around-the-bend puzzle

bobble

Start with my guide :)

North Læraðr

Ahh, I see how it works. That's really cool!

matt

4:27 PM

@NorthLæraðr ?

North Læraðr

@matt You asked what my overused emoji is

matt

oh right

Avi

8:10 PM

well

somehow the phrase "Noodle Nonogram" has made it into my head - somebody, please, make this a reality

bobble

I'm grading a biology lab (introductory class), and some people really should've um... put any amount of effort into it

I mean seriously, these things are riddled with typos and misconceptions

North Læraðr

@bobble TA?

@bobble Typos I get. Misconceptions? Unacceptable

bobble

yes, this is me being a TA.

North Læraðr

Man, I wish our school still had TAs

bobble

example: "Why was detergent added to the solution?" with an answer "Dish Soap"

North Læraðr

8:16 PM

@bobble Wtf

bobble

I mean, yes, detergent = dish soap, BUT THATS NOT WHY IT WAS ADDED

also, they capitalized Soap. why? just why?

North Læraðr

@bobble Our district got rid of TAs because it wasn't like "academically challenging enough" or something bs

Deusovi

oh i know that feeling

i've TAed introductory logic classes before and it can be painful

North Læraðr

@bobble I TAed for a ELA class in 8th grade. That was... interesting

You can really tell the kids that cared about learning the language and kids that could not give a bamboo shoot about it

bobble

one person put time as the dependent variable and number of floating leaf disks OVER TIME as the independent variable

North Læraðr

8:20 PM

what...

What grade is this?

Freshmen?

bobble

It's open to all grades but traditionally mostly freshmen

Deusovi

i can see where that confusion comes from - "over time" could be used informally to mean "depending on time", or as "divided by time"

seems like they mostly had the right idea there

North Læraðr

I took AP Biology as a freshmen, so I can't relate to any of these shenanigans you're going through. Poor Bobble

@bobble Out of curiosity, why was the dish soap added to the solution?

bobble

To allow bicarbonate (added separately) to penetrate the leaves. Bicarbonate is a source of carbon, used since the leaves can't access CO2 when under water.

North Læraðr

Ah. That's actually a really cool experiment

The experiments in AP Biology were really fun, but they came with like a 15 or so lab report, so they were not fun

bobble

8:26 PM

It's also a great way to introduce controls. Unfortunately some of the students seemed to have missed the point of a control entirely.

"Why was one beaker covered?" "So that one beaker would be dark and the other would be light"

North Læraðr

I mean... they're not wrong XD

Can't photosynthesize if the beaker is covered right?

Okay but for real like the beaker is made of glass right? Light would still get in through the sides no?

bobble

Yeah, the correct answer is that we want to compare photosynthesis in the dark and in the light

The beaker is put in a cabinet

well, if they did the lab in person it would be

Avi

hehe xd

North Læraðr

So, they're not technically wrong

Better than "dish soap"

Avi

they seem to be correct

bobble

8:30 PM

It's "Dish Soap", with both caps

North Læraðr

@Avi Well, to be fair, they didn't answer the question all the way though

Avi

"Why was one beaker covered?" "Beaker Cap"

North Læraðr

@bobble Geez, imagine giving these kids a petri dish experiment. They would eat the bacteria and the bacteria food

Avi

cry

North Læraðr

Or worse, they would poke the glow-in-the-dark bacteria

Deusovi

8:32 PM

I think that's a bit unfair

Avi

or worse, they'd be glowing in the dark after eating the bacteria

North Læraðr

"Hehe, it's on my finger now"

bobble

my group was the only one whos recombinant bacteria experiment failed :(

North Læraðr

@bobble OOF

Mine was one of the only ones in the class where it worked

Avi

--strikethrough--?

darn

Deusovi

8:33 PM

(needs triple dashes)

Avi

~~thanks~~

North Læraðr

@Deusovi Well, I mean, "Dish Soap"

Avi

"Why did you eat the bacteria?" "It's a dish, after all. Delectable, no?"

Deusovi

you probably shouldn't judge people on a single question, even though it's pretty tempting when some of the answers are funny - for the longer answers, I found it to be good practice to try to figure out what their thought process was, and see what ideas could have led them there. often you'll discover that they had a perfectly consistent model of how things worked, it just happened to be slightly different from the correct one

North Læraðr

@Deusovi Okay, that's fair

Avi

8:35 PM

I bet pet dishes and petri dishes could make for an interesting CC

Deusovi

and for the short/nonsense answers? sometimes people are just having a bad day, or tired, or can't put more time into the assignment due to any number of real-life events, so they do the best they can with a limited amount of energy/effort/time available

bobble

The problem here is that most people are giving 1 line answers

It makes it difficult to figure out what they are thinking

Avi

if you can explain something in 1 line, it is generally unnecessary to use 2
unless...

Deusovi

doesn't mean you should automatically grade them more leniently, but it at least helps to try to be empathetic

Avi

but in general you should be giving people the benefit of the doubt

North Læraðr

8:37 PM

@Avi "Breaking News: School closed due to wide spread E. Coli infection. Sources say it came from a science experiment after a student tried to wash the petri dish down the sink... more in the next hour"

Avi

and anybody who is confused should theoretically have their confusions clarified by the teacher

Deusovi

theoretically

unfortunately, some teachers aren't very good

bobble

I'm planning on writing up a doc with the most common misconceptions/mistakes for the teacher

The main one being not putting units on the graph

North Læraðr

@bobble Just write "Dish Soap" in one of the points.

Avi

that would be mean

Deusovi

8:38 PM

as a TA, i had to clarify a lot of things for the students, and i ended up directly making posts on the class Q&A forum page explaining things where the professors were... less than perfect

North Læraðr

Well without context it's just random/funny. Okay, enough badgering the poor fellow, that's a good idea

On the misconceptions

bobble

I really enjoyed the walking-around part of TAing, helping students with their problems in the classroom

(obviously this doesn't happen anymore)

North Læraðr

I never got to do that as a TA :(

@bobble What did you TA last year?

Avi

the last TA I remember was near-blind but they were the best TA ever

bobble

AP Chemistry and Math 3 Honors

Year before that, General Chemistry (our Chem 101)

Avi

8:41 PM

I only survived OS because of badgering him lol

North Læraðr

@bobble You studying to be a teacher or something? You seem to really be involved in a lot of tutoring stuff

Avi

might be phd candidate

bobble

No, I just really like tutoring

matt

ah yes, Dish Soap

Avi

Sish doap

matt

8:42 PM

this could be a new meme

bobble

I can't for the life of me remember people's names, or plan a lesson

matt

@Avi ooh yay a spoonerism

Avi

that doesn't count

matt

?

Avi

it's too awful to count

Deusovi

8:43 PM

@bobble same - I'm interested in trying to plan lessons, but haven't done it before

bobble

@NorthLæraðr also I'm a teacher's pet who stayed in during elementary school lunch to sharpen pencils. The natural extension of that is TAing

Avi

tfw the stuff you're typing but don't mean to send gets sent...

North Læraðr

@Deusovi I've done some planning- I'm a section leader for my marching band and I've been planning out what to do in rehearsals and stuff

bobble

@Deusovi I actually got to teach a lesson when the teacher was out on paternity leave

matt

@bobble lucky

North Læraðr

8:44 PM

Teachers have it rough. I only have to deal with maybe 11-ish students and their emails and stuff, I don't know how all my hs teachers do it with like 150-200 kids

Avi

Big words and wig birds?

matt

meanwhile i have more algebra thingies piling on up

@Avi yes perfect

Avi

@Deusovi does it work

Deusovi

what

sure

Avi

spoonerism for "big words" being "wig birds"

Deusovi

8:46 PM

not sure why you need me to verify this

2

matt

fuzzles are pun (puzzles are fun)

North Læraðr

@bobble Ah, me too.

Avi

last time I did a spoonerism I got shot down

bobble

dot shown?

matt

oh no

Avi

8:47 PM

@bobble see that one doesn't work

bobble

the pronunciation changes, yeah

matt

@bobble not quite

North Læraðr

AHHHHH I have my driver's license tomorrow O_O

bobble

I'm not even trying to get one

matt

@NorthLæraðr is that a good scream or a bad scream

North Læraðr

8:48 PM

@matt Terrified

Avi

it's not that bad provided you practice 10 million hours

nothing is bad provided you practice 10 million hours

matt

@bobble good job for saving the planet

Avi

because you'll be perished after 10 million hours pass

bobble

Is practicing for 10 million hours bad?

matt

= ~1141.6 years

Avi

8:49 PM

👍

North Læraðr

@bobble No. Ling Ling can practice for 10 million hours

Avi

Ling Ling practiced 10 million hours before they were born.

matt

how

Avi

now they just practice 40 hours a day

ling-ling.com/products/chicken-and-vegetable-potstickers

bobble

my dog has decided to sit on my feet

Avi

8:51 PM

also, lol

bobble

she's quite insistent about this

matt

@bobble is that good or bad

i have a ... stepdog

his name's marshall

bobble

it'll be bad pretty quick, but it's fine right now

matt

@bobble hm

DISH SOAP

Avi

Flinging ersatz sample with aplomb (6)

matt

8:59 PM

pickle?

Avi

fake soap ain't gonna cut it around here

only Dish Soap will do the trick

matt

Dish Soap, my favorite

Avi

@matt no, _GING ER_

matt

i don't even know what "ersatz" and "aplomb" mean so uh

Avi

ersatz is fake/artificial

with aplomb = "having enthusiasm/energy"

I think there's some tense mismatch in the clue, however

shame, shame

matt

9:01 PM

@Avi when the markdown parser interprets your cryptic clues as legit markdown ... it is very annoying

Avi

yes

dish soap
pickles
Deusovi's socks

what other memes have come up recently?

bobble

no one being human

Avi

dish soap
pickles
Deusovi's socks
no humans here

alright, next

matt

@avi do my "pears" count?

Avi

no

matt

9:15 PM

ok then

Avi

my captchas don't count either

matt

re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-captcha

@Avi well, and pears lack the ability to do basic mathematics

Avi

yes

I have finally tricked YouTube's algorithm into recommending me different language songs again

bobble

9:39 PM

Has there been a drop in main-site activity recently?

matt

@bobble wdym?

bobble

Seems like there has been less new puzzles

matt

hm yeah

Dish Soap

i'd get to work on the replit if i didn't have to simplify 16 rational expressions

bobble

I'm tutoring someone soon

matt

aight

Avi

10:15 PM

yikes

puzzle came up with answer being "like" a word and not actually a word

so there goes "marigold"

unless they made it mariAu

bobble

10:42 PM

I can finally start my homework. Yay?

matt

@bobble maybe

bobble

I really do need to do it

Sphinx

10:59 PM

0

Q: Curious relations between numbers

Lets have the numbers $454+2√457, 16+8√85, 460+4√457, 83+√85, 14√457+42 , 87+3√85$. How are these numbers related? How are such numbers generated?

number-theory

Bubbler

11:19 PM

Has anyone seen something like this before? Problem, Solution

bobble

It's like a nurikabe, but not

You could ask with puzzle-identification

matt

i hath returned

Bubbler

Actually I came up with it myself, and I'm just checking if there were similar puzzles before (and yes, it's similar to Nurikabe)

bobble

People invent puzzles here all the time

and I haven't seen anything like it before except nurikabe

matt

Dish Soap

Avi

11:25 PM

it's very clever

I'd upvote

matt

@Bubbler looks to me like an inverse nurikabe

Avi

Reverse deduced rules
1. numbers must match the size of their white islands
2. black squares must be part of L-trominos
3. black L-trominos cannot be adjacent

Bubbler

@Avi Almost correct, with an additional rule that all the black L-trominoes must be connected diagonally.

Avi

hmmm the last one doesn't seem to be necessary to solve the one you posted

but it could be useful

Bubbler

It will be necessary for the main puzzle :)

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