The Sphinx's Lair

https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/posts/103953/edit/80c5badc-356e-4204-a9e0-cb947225ae0e Bubble got the images to display in the question but users kind of need the descriptions of the images so how do get a reversion to include the images and descriptions. Also I think I might draw the side ima...

Sciborg

But hey I had a lot of fun making it and I'm glad it was good this time :)

user478740

Noice

user478740

12:10 AM

Your turn, @NorthLæraðr

matt

you can make 106 words out of the letters in Sciborg

Sciborg

If you wanna just call me Mick instead of calling me Sciborg all the time you can :p

bobble

I backread and now I have to leave again :( see you!

Sciborg

Bye :)

North Læraðr

Au revoir!

matt

12:14 AM

unfortunately you can only make 8 words out of the letters in Mick

(they are here)

Sciborg

I mean, my friends also sometimes call me Mickey Mouse just to annoy me...

matt

which permits 289 words

fortunately I will never call you mickey mouse

Sciborg

Thank you :p

matt

also, you can make 120 words of of the letters in HOLY SHIT, the longest of which is hyloist.

Sciborg

What on earth does "hyloist" mean?

matt

12:18 AM

> Alternative form of hylotheist

thanks for nothing, wiktionary

Sciborg

"hyle, 'matter' and theos, 'God') is the belief that matter and God are the same, so in other words, defining God as matter. In Lutheran theology, hylotheism is the theory equating matter with God or merging one into the other."

That's actually pretty interesting.

North Læraðr

@Sciborg So, hyloists are pantheists?

Sciborg

Technically?

Yeah I guess they are actually

Today I learned

Sphinx

0

Q: Five cubic dice were rolled

Five cubic dice were rolled, and the product of the numbers obtained was 432. What is the largest possible sum of five such numbers?

mathematics

user478740

Hi @Sphinx

matt

12:23 AM

@Anonymus25 it's a bot

Sciborg

@NorthLæraðr How is your C4 going? :p

North Læraðr

@Sciborg I have my word, now doing the wordplay

Sciborg

I'm doubling up stitches at the moment so I've got plenty of time to throw myself at it

matt

TODAY I LEARNED* = A TRAINED YODEL

= DEAD LINEAR TOY

here are all of them (may load slowly depending on your wifi)

Sciborg

Are you bored and making anagrams?

matt

12:29 AM

not exactly; am using this site

but yes, i am bored

user478740

@NorthLæraðr Are you done?

North Læraðr

@Anonymus25 These take a while mate

Sciborg

Patience

user478740

@NorthLæraðr Mate? Are you an Aussie?

North Læraðr

@Anonymus25 Do I have to be?

user478740

12:38 AM

Just asking

Sciborg

@Anonymus25 I've been meaning to ask. How old are you?

North Læraðr

CCCC: Pick up lines end after hitting on a crusian. (9)

Sciborg

Oooh

North Læraðr

Pretty proud of the surface, if I say so myself

Sciborg

What does crusian mean?

I can't find a definition of that anywhere

North Læraðr

12:47 AM

crusian

Noun: crusian (plural crusians)

Alternative form of crucian (“kind of carp”)...

Sciborg

Hmm, okay

Oddly specific

I will ponder this while I stuff my bobblie

user478740

@Sciborg 12

Sciborg

@Anonymus25 Um... I think you're not old enough to use this website if you're 12.

Stack Exchange requires users to be 13.

user478740

Oh, oops

Sciborg

Admittedly this makes things make a lot more sense.

North Læraðr

12:58 AM

Yikes

user478740

Sorry

Sciborg

Aaaand now I feel bad I've been getting irritated at a 12-year-old...

North Læraðr

@Anonymus25 SE is REALLY strict on this. They're not allowed to collect personal data those under 13 (and 16 if you live in the EU)

user478740

Ok, bye

Sciborg

Yeah, it breaks child data laws.

I was beginning to think that maybe they were a bit young judging from some of their responses, so figured I would ask...

Didn't want to expose a kid to us swearing and stuff... :/

North Læraðr

1:02 AM

Well more than that, SE can get sued I think

Sciborg

Yeah

I just...*yikes*

user478740

Ummm

Sciborg

You need to come back with a parent or guardian okay? You're not legally allowed to use this site until your birthday and we don't want to keep swearing in front of you.

user478740

Tomorow's my Birthday

user478740

Coming back tomorrow

user478740

1:08 AM

Bye

Sciborg

Even if I believe you, you're still really young to be on a site like SE. You need to have a parent or guardian monitoring what you do on the Internet...

Do you have somebody who keeps an eye on you while you are on the Internet?

Your mom, your dad?

Sphinx

0

Q: Drawing a complete graph of 5 nodes on a torus

A complete graph of $n$ nodes is a graph where every node is connected to every other node. It is known that one cannot draw a complete graph of 5 nodes on a piece of paper (plane) without any crossing edges. However it is possible to draw this graph on a donut (torus) without any crossing edges....

mathematics geometry topology

matt

cccc time, anyone?

North Læraðr

for the first time I'm not the one trying to solve it :P

Sciborg

Yeah, but I kinda want a mod to get involved here since Anonymus25 is not old enough to use this site and they are insisting on staying.

matt

1:17 AM

@deusovi? bit of an issue in here

Sciborg

@Deusovi?

Deusovi

will take care of it

North Læraðr

@Anonymus25 SE would have to delete your account, I'm afraid.

Sciborg

Thanks Deus.

I am puzzling over the C4 while I stuff the bobblie

I'm inclined to think CARP is involved due to the crusian clue

And the first half must be the definition, so either "pick up" or "pick up lines"

Or maybe "pick up lines' end" if you add an apostrophe, but that's super broad.

ideas @matt?

It might be some kind of play on either "fishing", "more fish in the sea" or "hook line and sinker" with the references to pick up lines and fish

user478740

1:51 AM

@Sciborg Mom

user478740

Do it!

user478740

Erase me and you'll erase all the fun times we had together!

Gareth McCaughan

@NorthLæraðr Solution to your CCCC is ANACRUSIS. Def "pick up" (ha!), (-line)S after ACRUSIAN*.

It'll be some hours before I have time to make a new one, I'm afraid.

Sciborg

2:21 AM

@GarethMcCaughan Well done, as usual :)

merrybot

2:40 AM

@Sciborg sorry, was eating dinner and watching Deep Space Nine. dammit Gareth!

North Læraðr

@Anonymus25 That is not our choice, I'm afraid. That is the policy of Stack Exchange

@GarethMcCaughan Nice! I thought it'd stump some people for a bit longer, but I guess not

What did you think of the CC?

Feedback? (I didn't know if hitting on was a valid anagram indicator)

Deusovi

that seems a bit questionable to me - not sure what sense of the phrase you're using there

North Læraðr

hitting on was supposed to be like hit or strike, though the "on" part would be questionable

I mean, hit on can also mean "discover or think of, especially by chance." which could be anagram-y?

Sciborg

2:56 AM

I honestly would never have guessed that "hitting on" was an anagram indicator. Not to say it's invalid, but it would never have occurred to me

bobble

I'm back :)

North Læraðr

A bit sus, not gonna lie, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity

Apparently "kinky" can also be an indicator, but I couldn't quite get it to work

bobble

"clobbering"?

North Læraðr

Pick up lines end after clobbering a crusian? Maybe. It's not risque enough though

Sciborg

"Mixing with"?

bobble

3:00 AM

it has alliteration, though

Sciborg

or maybe "Mingling"

bobble

"with" would be an extra word

North Læraðr

@bobble Fair

bobble

"distressing"?

North Læraðr

"knotting"?

"naughty"?

bobble

3:01 AM

"harassing"?

North Læraðr

Ooooh, good one

bobble

ehh bad implication there

Sciborg

Yes we discourage harassment here :p

North Læraðr

"violating"?

Hm, nope

bobble

"mistreating"?

Sciborg

3:02 AM

YIKES

North Læraðr

This is becoming a bit more... illegal then I thought

Sciborg

Saying you're violating a carp is probably against the Terms of Service

I have no idea how, but it must be

North Læraðr

@Sciborg It's illegal in my state, California

Since animals can't consent

Sciborg

"Addendum 5B29948928 of the Stack Exchange Terms of Service: Users are not allowed to harass and/or attack a species of hypothetical fish"

bobble

"torturing"?

I actually have an enigmatic puzzle involving the TOS under construction right now

Side note: what's a good way to make sure it isn't a duplicate?

North Læraðr

3:06 AM

@bobble Urm, I'm not sure. If the idea is unique enough, it probably won't be a duplicate

bobble

It's a pretty simple idea, that's the worry

North Læraðr

Ah.

The rule of thumb I like to use is "If I can't search for it, other people probably can't either". It's a terrible rule but

bobble

I did a google search, restricted to this site, with two important keywords from the solving method and turned up nothing. Is that enough, you think?

North Læraðr

Hm, I'm not sure how good Google is. Perhaps peek through the site itself? Usually similar questions will also pop-up before you post anything on SE, though I don't know how effective it is

@bobble You can also always ask a mod or even Rand al'Thor- he's been around for a very long time in PSE and would recognize something or at least probably have some sort of algorithm?

Hey matt the merrybot

merrybot

hello :)

North Læraðr

3:16 AM

Still laughing over this:

yesterday, by Sciborg

Just imagining a big bobblie opening its mouth and saying in the deepest gravelly Batman voice, "i'm gonna suck the puzzle juice right outta ya"

bobble

the bobblie lore, it good

merrybot

yes

North Læraðr

It all started with my driver's test....

How do trees even drive

bobble

well?

North Læraðr

Yeah, I don't have an answer for that

Sciborg

3:18 AM

also @bobble I finished the base and I am in the process of stuffing it :)

bobble

yesssss

North Læraðr

Your R & D must've added that new feature on "puzzle draining metaphorical brains": I've lost all my idea for the new linguistics puzzle

Sciborg

stuffing in progress:

bobble

awww

Sciborg

they are not fully squishy yet but they will be soon

North Læraðr

3:21 AM

That's pretty amazing

Sciborg

i promise it will look better when done lmao, right now it's just a fluffy blob

North Læraðr

I would buy one, except I don't want to give you my address. No hard feelings

Sciborg

Totally understandable

I will squish it on your behalf

When it is fully stuffed I still have to add the little crowny tips and the eyes + smile :D

bobble

North appears to be the first person to realize that bobblecrowns are sentient: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/55742577#55742577

All previous references assume an inert crown or a crown that is a manifestation of me

Sciborg

they live

North Læraðr

3:24 AM

I saw right through it all

Sciborg

Even in its incomplete state, I swear the blobby crown whispers to me

bobble

Avi was the first one to try to kill bobblecrowns: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/55778256#55778256

Deusovi

@bobble I wouldn't do puzzles based on something that is subject to change like that

North Læraðr

@Sciborg Blobby bobblies?

Sciborg

@NorthLæraðr Blobbiecrown

North Læraðr

3:27 AM

@bobble Keyword, try

And I need to go. Good night, folks!

Sciborg

Good night :)

bobble

Oh, it's not directly related to the current TOS, just written as if it is a Terms Of Services agreement. So no worry about changing

See you North!

Deusovi

ah alright

night!

Sciborg

I always wanted to write a puzzle where the goal was to find the loophole in a contract

But I figured it would be too subjective

Deusovi

yeah, questions like that are often very difficult to do well

bobble

3:29 AM

And there would be loopholes that you wouldn't anticipate, probably

Sciborg

Right, yeah. It'd be way too open-ended

Sciborg

3:40 AM

I should probably get to my Sunday night chores, but I'll finish my little blobcrown monster when I get a chance :p

bobble

blobcrown? :(

Sciborg

It's not a bobblecrown yet, it is too blobby. It is blobcrown

bobble

will it become a bobblecrown?

Sciborg

It will, I promise

bobble

pinky promise

Sciborg

3:42 AM

bobble promise

bobble

that is a good promise

Sciborg

good night :)

bobble

night

Sphinx

5:20 AM

0

Q: Suko-kulink (Sudoku, Suko and Slitherlink tri-brid)

Rules: The lower part of the puzzle is a sudoku. Basic sudoku rules applied. The upper and right of the puzzle are suko puzzles. The circles with arrows shows that the number in the circle equals to the pointed square for clues for slitherlink. After solving the sukos and sudoku, the squares in...

sudoku slitherlink

user478740

6:05 AM

@NorthLæraðr I did not know this was a rule

Mithical

7:05 AM

It's annoying, but... blame COPPA.

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) is a United States federal law, located at 15 U.S.C. §§ 6501–6506 (Pub.L. 105–277, 112 Stat. 2681-728, enacted October 21, 1998). The act, effective April 21, 2000, applies to the online collection of personal information by persons or entities under U.S. jurisdiction about children under 13 years of age including children outside the U.S., if the company is U.S.-based. It details what a website operator must include in a privacy policy, when and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent or guardian, and what responsibilities an operator...

SE operates mostly on "don't ask, don't tell" with regard to age; if you don't explicitly say you're under 13 (or under the relevant age for various EU countries), then nobody can prove it and your account will stay intact. But once you've stated that you're under 13, SE isn't legally allowed to keep the user account around.

(But having been underage at one point isn't an issue as long as you are currently 13+.)

msh210

7:36 AM

@Mithical whew, I'm good then

Mithical

:)

Sphinx

9:06 AM

0

Q: Matchsticks: Fix the Equation

Here's a simple puzzle I just created: Move just one matchstick to fix the next equation:

visual lateral-thinking matches

msh210

@GarethMcCaughan Unless I'm missing something, that's wordplay+wordplay, no def. Now we have to go back to that C4 and continue from there: all the intervening ones are invalid. :-)

jafe

9:48 AM

:P

jafe

10:02 AM

i would never do something like that (oops)

2

Gareth McCaughan

11:23 AM

@msh210 Hmm, I guess you're right. (About the wp+wp bit, that is.) On the other hand, I'm not sure I'd object to that clue if I found it in a newspaper cryptic crossword.

Lukas Rotter

There should be an option to silently update an answer without bumping it all the time :)

Sphinx

1:30 PM

2

Q: Statue Park: Spare Parts

I've been doing a bunch of shape-placing puzzles lately, and I found some spare parts leftover. I figured I'd make a Statue Park out of them! The grid: Solver Note I know there are a lot of squares given...part of that is to keep the mirror symmetry, but part is to get a unique solution without ...

grid-deduction

North Læraðr

1:46 PM

@msh210 which clue?

msh210

1:58 PM

@NorthLæraðr The arrow that you see (or don't you?) at the left side of chat messages that are replies to other chat messages links to the latter.

In this case, I was replying to this chat message of Gareth's.

The clue itself is here.

What I like about the recentish spoiler-blockquote reboot is that now, if you hover over the spoiler and click, and you happen to click a hyperlink, the link "doesn't work". In the older version, it did, which was annoying, because it meant you'd have to first move your mouse in position, then see if a link was there, and only then click.

Gareth McCaughan

@NorthLæraðr In case it isn't obvious, that was something like the fourth ever C4 clue.

msh210

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention that. :-)

(eighth, according to the archive, but whatever)

North Læraðr

@msh210 Ohhhh, I never knew that!

@GarethMcCaughan Ah

matt

2:13 PM

hello people :) and crowns, trees, gentlepeople...

North Læraðr

@bobble So I'm in another chatroom called "The Reading Room" (Literature SE's chatroom), and I got asked about the crown XD

in The Reading Room, 29 mins ago, by Tsundoku

@NorthLæraðr You've added a crown to your avatar?

in The Reading Room, 28 mins ago, by Tsundoku

Prince NorthLæraðr?

oAlt

@LukasRotter I second this (and for questions too). Several times I have answered, there somehow seems to be more than one minor error in my question/answer every time (and it makes me facepalm at myself), and I just cannot ignore them. But most of the time it bumps the post to the top when I edit, and I don't want people to get the wrong idea about that.

bobble

It is a verrrryyy long story :)

North Læraðr

@bobble That's exactly the same words I used

in The Reading Room, 18 mins ago, by North Læraðr

@Tsundoku Oh, it's a verrrrryyy long story

Lukas Rotter

I assume there's no option for this because of potential unnoticed vandalism?

bobble

2:20 PM

yes, I clicked on the link and read the transript

Lukas Rotter

Mods could still get bumped by everything, just not everyone ;)

oAlt

@LukasRotter tru tho

North Læraðr

I quite like the sound of that though... Prince Læraðr

bobble

People with edit privileges should know not to do bad edits... but sometimes they don't

matt

@North yesss PRINCE LAERADHR

YouKnowMe

2:27 PM

Sorry for interruption, What is yellow coloured crown?

bobble

Me?

matt

see bobble? that's her

it's kind of a meme right now

North Læraðr

Alright name changed

YouKnowMe

Bobble,Matt and North avatar contains yellow crown.

bobble

I was the original yellow crown

matt

2:30 PM

it is a meme of sorts

bobble

Then there was photo editing of my crown into other people's profile pictures

By the way, my dear Prince, may I still call you North?

YouKnowMe

@matt Cool, I will also add it to my avatar.

matt

Go right ahead! :)

It'll take a while for it to show up here though

North Læraðr

Hm, my name change isn't showing up

Oh well

matt

might take a while

anyone seen sciborg?

bobble

2:42 PM

they may have Important Work

matt

such as Bobblie Stuffing?

Mithical

@NorthLæraðr you could ask a mod to refresh your profile

matt

and we all know who the go-to mod is...

bobble

Deus?

North Læraðr

@rubio!!!

matt

2:43 PM

(also, hey mith!)

Prince North Læraðr

Woah

matt

nope, it's there, i see it now

Prince North Læraðr

Who was that

matt

who was what

Mithical

@PrinceNorthLæraðr (lonely woof in the distance)

bobble

2:44 PM

bows to the Prince

Prince North Læraðr

@Mithical :((((

matt

@bobble ditto

is still calling you North acceptable?

Prince North Læraðr

Yes

matt

:)

hey melfnt!

seems like you haven't done anything in a chat for ... 3 months, if I'm not mistaken.

~~SCIBORG~~ MICK HAS ARRIVED

Sciborg

Hi matt :D

bobble

2:49 PM

Mick, you have to bow to the Prince

Sciborg

bows to Prince

I'm working at the moment but dropping in to say hello!

bobble

we are glad to see you say hello!

Sciborg

:)

matt

bobblie stuffing, or like actual work things?

Sciborg

Actual work things lol

matt

2:51 PM

ah ok :)

Sciborg

Rent doesn't pay itself :p

matt

indeed lol

hey jafe!

bobble

3:10 PM

bye jafe

hi jafe

Prince North Læraðr

LoL

@GarethMcCaughan Any news on your C4?

bobble

I'm making a write-up for a journal article right now (club stuff), and one of the steps in their experiment was "leave plastic bags in ocean for a month"

I mean, they hide it in science-speak, but they just tied bags to supports and left them. That's it.

matt

why would they put plastic bags in the ocean? whatever happened to SaVe ThE EnViRoNmEnT?

Prince North Læraðr

@bobble Right. Kill the TURTLES. For science?

bobble

So they could then take the bags out and SCIENCE them

Prince North Læraðr

3:20 PM

SCIENCE the Turtles?

NOT cool. SCIENCING sucks

matt

science the shit out of the turtles (the martian reference)

@PrinceNorthLæraðr in this case, yes

bobble

oops wrong item

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah can we just delete that?

bobble

I can't delete the other message, it's too old

Prince North Læraðr

@mod

matt

3:23 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr does that actually work?

Prince North Læraðr

No

Do I want to actually ping a mod?

Yes

@Deusovi

Deusovi

hm?

matt

see above

msh210

@bobble which one would you like deleted?

bobble

it was deleted

msh210

3:25 PM

k

Prince North Læraðr

I always feel a bit bad pinging mods

matt

why? th-

Prince North Læraðr

Unless I'm in Lit SE, then I I ping poor Tsundoku and Randy all the time

@matt Idk. Mods have their own stuff to do

@bobble Quick math qs: what's an oblique asymptote

bobble

another word for "slant asymptote"

Prince North Læraðr

Oh okay thank you

John Dvorak

3:38 PM

> A slant (oblique) asymptote occurs when the polynomial in the numerator is a higher degree than the polynomial in the denominator. To find the slant asymptote you must divide the numerator by the denominator using either long division or synthetic division. Examples: Find the slant (oblique) asymptote. y = x - 11.

Prince North Læraðr

@JohnDvorak We just went over slant asymptote a few minute ago, but the qs said oblique

@JohnDvorak wait... there's no oblique asymptote for x-11?

bobble

just the line

Prince North Læraðr

Oh i see

msh210

4:30 PM

there's a parabolic asymptote to y=x⁴/(x²+1)

Sphinx

6:06 PM