The Sphinx's Lair

bobble

00:02

in Codenames, 23 secs ago, by caird coinheringaahing

summons North from the Lair

Prince North Læraðr

Ack, I have HW :(

Omega Krypton

@Deusovi hmmmmm i wonder what the algorithm is

bobble

's fine, we have 4 without you

Prince North Læraðr

Wow, I feel rejected

Hmph

bobble

hmm, we only have 3 now

Anyone for Codenames?

Prince North Læraðr

00:12

Oh, how coincidental :P

I seriously do need to study though.

bobble

go and be a good little student then

Prince North Læraðr

(I say, as I finish making examples for Deus to send to him)

Prince North Læraðr

00:28

@Deusovi The puzzle has been sent. Ping me when you've received it :)

(To your email, that is)

(It should be from someone with the address "somebody"- that's my semi-spam account)

Deusovi

01:12

@PrinceNorthLæraðr got it! will give it a look

Prince North Læraðr

Yay! Perfect

Sphinx

01:36

1

Q: Reconstructing World Cup results

In the group stage of the World Cup, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each. Each group plays a round-robin tournament, in which each team plays three matches, one against each other team in the same group. This means that a total of six matches are played within a group. Points a...

Deusovi

03:03

@PrinceNorthLæraðr okay, giving it a look now, and the instructions are very hard to parse. the examples aren't immediately helping but i'll give it another look

Prince North Læraðr

Eeek. I was afraid of that.

Deusovi

also the grid is very hard to see - not sure what exactly is going on there

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah. I don't know why it's so hard for me to word it correctly: I swear it's not as convoluted as it comes across as

@Deusovi I have to go eat, but can I talk to you about it privately in a room? Maybe trying to explain it out and see where the confusion is might help

Oh, and maybe bobble can come too :D and give extra feedback since she made some of the clues anyways

(if she wants)

bobble

sure? I don't understand the directions either

Deusovi

the images are incredibly confusing

but sure, will make a room

Sphinx

03:44

0

Q: Construct a Triangel with Triangles

If you have a very large but finite number of equilateral triangels(of any/all sizes) is it then possible to construct an isosceles triangle? (By isosceles I mean a non-euqilateral isosceles triangle). Can you prove/disprove it?

mathematics geometry

Sphinx

04:36

0

Q: Decrypting an image-based cipher I found online

My buddy shared an image with me that has the following characters (above which are written interpretations my friend came up with). I have no idea what it says, but we're interested in finding out (hopefully not weird or offensive, but either way). It's a bit difficult to make out the letters, b...

cipher visual

Sphinx

08:26

0

Q: A theorem about angles in the form of arctan(1/n)

There is a famous classical geometry puzzle about the angles formed by integer coordinates: What is the sum of angle A and B in the following image? Do not use any advanced mathematics such as trigonometric formulas or complex numbers. with an elegant answer using pure geometry (spoiler-ed for...

mathematics geometry number-theory

Sphinx

08:51

0

Q: Gift After Jason?

Max's Dad Kevin loves puzzles. He has a gift for his son but wants him to guess when he will give him the gift. Kevin leaves some messages. Could you help Max in finding when he would receive his gift? Message 1 Message 2 Message 3

riddle enigmatic-puzzle

oAlt

09:46

nudge: there aren't any container/contents indicators in "In the end, In end end" either

Omega Krypton

WHA

oAlt

previous nudge: There are no letter selection indicators in "In the end, In end end". interpretations that are correct: "end" can be abbreviated, and the second "In" is in plaintext, as OmegaKrypton speculated in his first interpretation

Omega Krypton

@oAlt u sure the very first IN isnt containing the _N_G?

oAlt

nope

(i mean nope that isn't true and yes i'm sure) :P

Omega Krypton

coz then [In the end, In end end](EINE), In [the end, Volkswagen Touareg](NG)'s motor (6)

and EINE in NG is kinda erm

and if not that there are no possible interpretations afaik

oAlt

09:53

there are :P

Omega Krypton

hmmm ok

oAlt

i'm not gonna give out one again... yet. pacing would be too fast even for nudges

Omega Krypton

ok sure

@oAlt it is confirmed that Volkswagen Touareg are used to select NG right

did you confirm this with others

oAlt

well i mean i made the clue so i know it's correct lol

(i think i misunderstood smth oops)

but still stands, yes:

"In the end, Volkswagen Touareg" means _N _G

Omega Krypton

ok thanks

@oAlt you mean "the end, In end end"?

there must be somethign to contain _N_G

oAlt

10:05

2 days ago, by oAlt

(Include the "in" at the start too)

also nope

Omega Krypton

woah ok

ah

!

oAlt

(shame on me for providing a clue that can be interpreted in more than one way)

?

Omega Krypton

[In](IN) [the end](E), [In end](after, +) [end](E), [In the end, Volkswagen Touareg](_N_G)'s motor (6)

ENG + INE

oAlt

hmmmm

not sure whether to mark it right or not

Bubbler

My wild guess: use first "In the end" as a clue rearrangement indicator, to reverse the order of "In end = INE" and "end, In the end, Volkswagen Touareg = ENG" so ENG + INE

Omega Krypton

10:08

VERY interesting

oAlt

sorry @OmegaKrypton @jafe but @Bubbler got it right first D:

however,

Omega Krypton

ok then

oAlt

i still don't know who makes the clue

Omega Krypton

been fun solving

oAlt

either omega or bubbler

Omega Krypton

10:09

i have a very fun clue in mind, but if bubbler has then they do it

oAlt

omega solved the bulk but bubbler parsed it fully correctly

hmmm

im gonna decide that it's @Bubbler who gets to continue for now

Omega Krypton

@Bubbler congrats! you got a clue in mind?

@oAlt ok

imma save mine for later

Bubbler

I do have some on my scribble sheet

Omega Krypton

sure

imma solve yours too then XD

oAlt

hahah

Bubbler

10:13

CCCC: A grid-deduction puzzle about a broken tin chair (8)

Omega Krypton

*TRICHINA

lmao jk it's a genus

oAlt

TRICHAIN*

Omega Krypton

BRUH i was that near

oAlt

ikr

Omega Krypton

GJ

@Bubbler ^^ oalt did it?

Bubbler

10:26

Oh yes

Omega Krypton

nice one ngl

@oAlt congrats blitz solver

Bubbler

I'm actually like someone did remember my puzzle genre

oAlt

good thing i know the things that bubbler has posted :P

heh

Omega Krypton

:P

oAlt

CCCC: Legislature of the United Kingdom: Houses clean the crown of Elizabeth II, perhaps (8)

Omega Krypton

10:34

answer is IMMORTAL: legislature of the UK is written by people with opinion who are modest to the queen, therefore InMyModestOpinion, R (royalty) is a house and TAL is a cleaner

#BadC4Solutions

def is the crown of Elizabeth II, perhaps (8) obviously immortal

oAlt

i got scared for a second there

:P

wait hold on. oops. made another mistake -_-

Omega Krypton

okay, whats the new clue

u ruined my solution :c

oAlt

(whoever can delete the previous clue, that would be great >_< )

Omega Krypton

lol make up another oen now

oAlt

for reasons i will not disclose

ok hold on

Omega Krypton

10:38

lol sure

oAlt

i will bring that clue up again, but at another time, for reasons I won't disclose

what i wish to do would become obvious if i edited it now and released it now

so new clue for now

Omega Krypton

𝔎

Gareth McCaughan

I don't think I have ever seen "end" used simply to indicate "E" in a cryptic clue.

oAlt

oops

i did see it in MW once again, but tbh i don't know if it's used alone like that

Gareth McCaughan

The fact that I don't remember seeing something doesn't mean it's wrong, of course. But it's certainly unusual.

oAlt

10:53

i don't have time to make a hard one, so here's one right off the bat

CCCC: Formerly from Boston Celtics (4)

hi jafeee

jafe

11:08

...on ce...

hey

oAlt

:D your turn

jafe

couldn't find the underscore in my mobile keyboard, heh

recently reset my phone and the default kb is rubbish

tried to write "thanks for x" to someone and the keyboard literally corrected it to "thanks Ford x"

like gee thanks for the help

oAlt

oopsies

Omega Krypton

`lol

@oAlt ONCE

formatting smh

oAlt

jafe got it first :P

Omega Krypton

11:15

bostON CEltics

oh

didnt see that

oAlt

ahahah

jafe

CCCC: Great Depression-era mantra: "In free commerce, honest leaders" (7,6)

Omega Krypton

lol

jafe

well my formatting was off as well hehe

oAlt

AHA

MARIANATREN* + C_ H_

@jafe

jafe

11:23

that's correct

Ankoganit

Ah, nice

oAlt

yeah, i love that "great depression" disguise

CCCC: Case of infidelity not true (6)

Omega Krypton

11:39

@oAlt ooooh lmaoooo

that was a nice one

oAlt

indeed

Omega Krypton

wait nvm

oAlt

hah

msh210

@jafe nice

jafe

thanks :)

posting a crossword in a few minutes!

oAlt

11:49

oh no justwheniwasworryingaboutcollegeapplicationsandhomework

msh210

he meant "in a few months", typo

Omega Krypton

@jafe oh no

msh210

go back to your school stuff

oAlt

whew

msh210

12:15

o/ @Mithical how goes it?

Sphinx

3

Q: Scandal's beginnings

Across 6. A sign that it's time to stop payment: Serious warning signal (9,4) 8. Nonconformist man is in good shape (6) 9. Sorriest broken component (8) 10. Child keeping King softly in grip (5,3) 12. Dessert and wine brought back to a king and a queen? (6) 14. DJ's Maui resort shows faith (7) 1...

cryptic-crosswords

Mithical

@msh210 it goes

Sometimes it goes around the country on buses all day without really eating

msh210

12:38

@Mithical helpful if you're trying to slim

Mithical

I weigh 55kilo, if I lose any more weight you'll be able to shine a light on my stomach and light up the wall behind me

(Actually, I think it's less now, been a while since I got weighed. I'd estimate 52-53 now.)

Omega Krypton

Meanwhile my BMI is 16.88

Mithical

<--- knows nothing about BMI

oAlt

same but only to the units digit

16

Mithical

*looks it up* wow, everyone here is tiny

oAlt

12:46

when my BMI was being taken they had to pull up a chart specifically for underweight people

because they couldn't pinpoint my BMI on the normal chart hahah

Mithical

:O

oAlt

but what i lack in weight, i make up for in height (hopefully... i don't think 5'8" is above average yet, is it?)

Mithical

It's towering for me...

(bit of an exaggeration, but still much taller than I am)

oAlt

i see :0

msh210

13:08

@Mithical are you still working for the pikud haoref?

Mithical

Nope

msh210

at your real position now?

Mithical

More or less

(vague™ answers, I know)

msh210

ohhhhh I get it... you're in agaf hamodiin

Mithical

I'm not, but I also apparently can't say what I am doing :P

msh210

13:12

I actually work in a building with an office of R'fael, the state-owned company that makes missiles. Not that you can tell by looking at the building directory: they're unlisted. Oh, and if you meet someone in the elevator going up to that floor and ask him where he works, he won't tell you.

We sometimes pray in the hallway down the hall from them, and once while waiting for people to assemble for prayers I was hanging out outside their door instead of down the hall. Someone opened the door, asked me what I was doing there, and, when I told him, asked me to wait further down the hall.

@Mithical (half the time I can't say what I'm doing, either, but that's not for security reasons)

Mithical

Well, I can tell you what I haven't done yet today:

in Codenames, 8 hours ago, by Mithical

I'm gonna go focus on not hurling now, later

...but we'll see, there's still time before I get home.

msh210

<raised eyebrows> [I don't know how to do that as an emoticon]

why are you apt to hurl?

Mithical

I've been on buses all day, and haven't eaten anything

msh210

got it

Mithical

Not a great recipe for carsickness

msh210

13:19

I find the best (nonmedicinal) preventative for carsickness is looking at the scenery

good luck

oAlt

@msh210 small eyebrows but ô_ô

Mithical

@msh210 makes sense. I have to leave my phone behind at times going into places

@msh210 spoken like someone unfamiliar with highway 91

msh210

@Mithical never heard of it

. . . looks mountainous though

Mithical

Indeed. Winds around a lot, so you're constantly turning.

Main access point to the Golan.

Riding next to the Mediterranean in Akko was nice, though.

oAlt

('ello @00xxqhxx00 )

msh210

13:24

@oAlt not bothering with non-ASCII, but thanks. Maybe ` [:-O ` ??

oAlt

13:36

ooh interesting, although that's the unibrow version :P

Sphinx

13:58

0

Q: A Popular Lady?

Anita, Becky, Claire and Donna went to visit Emmy on Saturday. The times were as follows: Anita visited at 8'00, Becky at 9'00, Claire at 10'00, and Donna at 11'00. At least one woman visited Emmy between Anita and Becky. Anita did not visit Emmy before both Claire and Donna. Claire did not v...

logical-deduction word

00xxqhxx00

14:11

@oAlt you want a challenge?

Let a, b, c, d€R and ab=cd and a is not equal to c or d, proof that a+b is not equal to c+d.

oAlt

14:30

:o

I'm not the best at math but I'll attempt it (though not now cuz doing other stuff, one of which is jafe's crossword cuz I found free time)

msh210

14:55

@oAlt yeah I know :-/

oAlt

hahah

@oAlt never mind the latter part >_<

bobble

15:51

Is this kind of edit okay? I basically just swapped all the MathJax variables for the fancy Unicode mathematical italic ones

matt

@00xxqhxx00 "a,b,c,d€R" ... that's a euro sign

bobble

16:52

econ is now teacher telling us family war stories

matt

w-

what in the world is that for?

Sphinx

18:14

0

Q: What is a date word™?

This puzzle is in the spirit of the [What is a Word/Phrase™][1] series started by [JLee][2] with a special brand of [Phrase™][3] and [Word™][4] puzzles. If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Date word™ word. Here is a list of Date™ and not Date™ words: Date word™,not-date word™ SODA,...

pattern word-property

jafe

18:29

"true" can mean "fair" and "a-" is a prefix for "not" ... so "affair" could conceivably mean "not true" (but doesn't, afaict)

GentlePurpleRain

18:56

I was trying to make BELIEF fit. Something like BELIE (infidelity?) + F (not true). But BELIE doesn't really mean infidelity, and "Case of" doesn't mean BELIEF...

Maybe RELIEF? Re-lie could be stretched to mean infidelity... :P

bobble

"case of" is a tempting possible indicator, but then that would only give IY and how to get four more letters?

John Dvorak

&lit?

Deusovi

can't think of any sort of thing that the clue as a whole would define

Gareth McCaughan

19:34

@00xxqhxx00 Let u=a+b=c+d and v=ab=cd. Then (X-a)(X-b)=X^2-uX+v=(X-c)(X-d) but these polynomials can only be equal if {a,b}={c,d}.

msh210

20:09

I want the C4 to be ...NET, a kind of case (perhaps from the noun "net") from a three-letter word for "infidelity", NE, and T. But I can't find such. Infidelity is, I suppose, a lie, but LIENET doesn't seem to be a word.

Sphinx

20:21

2

Q: I can be short, occasionally lost, sometimes drawn but never colored

You can catch me and hold me but only for a while Tell someone I am bad and wipe out his smile I can be saved, I can be wasted I can be analyzed, I can be tested I can be taken, rarely seen and can be heard I can be short, occasionally lost, sometimes drawn but never colored. Who am I? One word.

word

msh210

Oh, LAYNET is a kind of fishing net ( google.com/search?q=%22laynet%22+fishing ) which is arguably a "case", and the rest works as above ("a lay" is slang for an instance of sex especially not with a steady partner, hence infidelity). @oAlt

Puzzling Meta

20:36

0

Q: How does the new Markdown table support affect the 'What is a ... word/phrase?' puzzles?

Many word-property puzzles are based on the series started by @JLee, and through carefully copying templates by the community, both have a nicely looking LaTeX table and a CSV version. The latter is useful because you somehow can't copy/paste the content of the LaTeX table. I have no idea what sc...

discussion formatting

jafe

"ne" is a slang word for "not"?

Deusovi

21:01

it's French, but i wouldn't use it without mentioning that

msh210

21:18

@jafe in English, too, (not slang,) according to English Wiktionary

John Dvorak

uh, what

msh210

ne

Adverb: ne (not comparable)

(obsolete) Not.
1481, William Caxton, Lyf of the Noble and Crysten Prynce, Charles the Grete:
I ne entende but onely to reduce thauncyent ryme in to prose.
I ne intend, but only to reduce thauncient rhyme into prose.
c1500, Melusine (translation):

(13 more not shown…)

jafe

russian as well, although i suppose in that case the answer would be layнеt

msh210

I suspect my solution is not @oAlt 's, though, since "laynet" is an unusual word and "case" is not a great word for a laynet.

jafe

maybe infidelity = TREASON, minus T making REASON (case)?

Sciborg

21:33

Can minus T be clued by "not true" or is that too stretchy?

Jeremy Dover

Looks good to me. But I'm just some random dude on the internet.

msh210

@Sciborg I wouldn't do it, personally, but shrug

Sciborg

It does seem plausible, though, I like this solution.

msh210

@jafe For what senses of "reason" and "case" does the latter clue the former?

John Dvorak

@Sciborg seems legit to me

now "timeless" might be a tad eviler :P

jafe

21:36

make one's case is kind of like explain one's reasons... not ideal as the def but maybe it fits

Sciborg

Case = reason seems plausible to me

msh210

@jafe hmm... I suppose

Sciborg

i'm on board

jafe

thesaurus.com lists "case" as a synonym for the "explanation of an action" sense

can't think of an example where they'd be interchangeable, though

msh210

@jafe @oAlt

Sciborg

21:38

@oAlt, see jafe

John Dvorak

it's used in exactly that sense in lawyers' circles

msh210

@Sciborg jinx

jafe

"i rest my reason"

Sciborg

Great minds think alike :p

msh210

@JohnDvorak "let me unhasp my briefreason and remove some papers"

2

jafe

21:39

:P

Sciborg

"Allow me to make my reason"

msh210

"line of casing"

Sciborg

"gotta just reason the joint"

msh210

"'just in reason', he cased"

3

Sciborg

choked on my coffee, thank you

msh210

21:42

np :-)

bobble

yesterday my sister got upset at me for laughing over "orange = spell"

Sciborg

It was really funny, I was dying too at the time

that and "spin = mug, maple"

msh210

Was that in this room? I must've missed it.

bobble

Codenames

Sciborg

The SMs had some ridiculous Hail Mary clues.

matt

21:50

@msh210 ahh

bobble

Okay, I just happened upon my first Suggested Edit that is solely converting an ASCII table to a Markdown one. That's good, Approved, but it someone tries to back-edit all of the What is a Word puzzles at once then we might have to start rejecting.

msh210

Got it.

Sciborg

Yeah, we don't want to bump a bunch of them - just a couple at a time

I had a crazy idea for my own Word(tm) puzzle and might post it later :p

jafe

would be great if we could edit minor stuff without the site being like "hey front page, check out this comma someone added!"

Sciborg

Yeah. I think there was a meta post a while back about giving people the option to make non-bumping edits, but there were good arguments against it, like catching the OP by surprise

Like somebody could make one of these "secret" edits to troll or damage the question

bobble

22:01

104

Q: Could we have the ability to mark a change as minor in questions or answers?

It would be nice to allow users to mark a change in an answer (or question) as minor (e.g. for a simple spelling or grammar correction). A change marked as minor wouldn't push the question on top of the list of questions on the home page or in the feeds. It wouldn't trigger any notification. This...

feature-request status-declined edits notifications recent-activity

I'm looking up the main-meta discussions about this, here's the first one I found

Sciborg

That was the one i was thinking of

The main argument against it was that it would enable "secret" edits which could be abused.

bobble

94

Q: Allow non-bumping minor edits, but review them on /review

Every edit, no matter how minor, bumps a question to the frontpage of an SE site. This behaviour is important to allow the community to review edits, but it also creates significant problems when a lot of edits are performed at once. What I propose is to allow minor edits that are not bumped to t...

feature-request edits review moderator-tools bump

ention everyone

22:30

Just got sorry bustered by the review queue... can't believe I got offended!

bobble

22:45

oAlt

@jafe your turn

bobble

me, to tutee: "So, if you draw your graph correctly it should look a bit like the Star Trek logo thingy? No? You're not nerdy enough to know that? Drat."

Bubbler

23:06

What kind of graph looks like that

bobble

Trying to explain how solids of rotation work, so they were supposed to draw some lines reflected across a horizontal and then shade in the resulting shape.

Bubbler

Ooh, solid of rotation is fun... until you need calculus to evaluate the volume and surface area

bobble

This is calculus, they were having trouble figuring out how to use the "washer "and "disk" formulas from the textbook.

Turns out it's difficult to do one-size-fits-all calculus lectures & textbook assignments for distance learning. Who could've guessed?

oAlt

@msh210 first sense in merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/reason is what I found

bobble

23:24

Thoughts on this answer? It has such nested math that my browser can't display it; I get a red "[Math Processing Error]"

Bubbler

Huh. That should be written as just a few layers with a \cdots in the middle

bobble

I'm not sure what they're doing there, could you edit it? Or is it VLQ/NAA?

Gareth McCaughan

Fixed it.

Bubbler

That was fast

When I started to edit it, the entire browser started lagging

Gareth McCaughan

I didn't have that problem. Dunno why :-).

Transcript for