The Sphinx's Lair

12:16 AM

sleep can be refreshing... only if you sleep more than 10000000000000000000 hours.

Q: What number comes next in this evenly doubled sequence?

12:32 AM

I've been playing around with sequences lately and found a pretty evenly doubled sequence of single digit numbers: 1, 12, 30, 64, 65, 156, 175, 368, 369, 371, 752, 753, 1524, 1525, 3060, 3073, 6168, 6219, 6221, 12444, 12453, ... Can you tell me what number comes next, and why?

2 hours later…

2:28 AM

@Stevo solved the grid puzzle :)

@Tacoタコス i just did a week ago, but forgot how to do it.

@Stevo Is my updated answer what you did?

now i think of it, yes.

Do we have a 2021 Q3 best of puzzles yet? I'm not seeing it on meta under its typical name.

we don't

2:30 AM

I'd like to nominate this puzzle. It was super fun to solve!

Though, it's technically Q4 now right?

ah, lol

@Tacoタコス uh, technically.

I'm new to keeping track of which quarter it is lol

@Tacoタコス in fact. no.

i dont remember what i did, but i remember putting the h where the o is supposed to go, then account for the t and h together to putting o back to where it goes.

for the 1000rep bounty, i now know technically why a 3 by 3 square doesn't exist.

2:43 AM

took me so long to draw those vaders

lmao

lol

whos c4 is it?

not sure

jafe is up next to make one

casually waiting

knowledge visual rebus history

drops solved puzzle

Q: I was popular in the 1970s

I was popular in the 1970s. I can be represented by the following image: What am I?

gareth is too good

ive got to say, it was a popular rebus at school, if only I woke up earlier...

2:47 AM

o.o

great minds think alike

IN-TREE-GUE?

intrigue-ing

nah

G E

A L

could be a "swirling gale" or "break a leg"

casually cartwheels around the house while we are waiting

3:05 AM

oops, I pressed the mobile version thingy and now I cant go back :(

there we go

2 hours later…

4:39 AM

Can anybody think of a word that means "Neighbors" that starts with the letter "I"?

I was thinking "immediates" but that doesn't quite have the same flavor

Q: Pipelink: A Cat for jkittykitkat

Rules of Pipelink: Draw a loop through the centers of all cells. Two perpendicular line segments may intersect (cross) each other, but not turn at their intersection or otherwise overlap. Clues show how the loop crosses through the cell it’s in. This is the first time I set a Pipelink. I tried...

logical-deduction grid-deduction

@Avi im not sure...

incidentals?

hmmm

K-Nearest Incidentals Forking by Entropy?

how does pipelink editor's answer mode work.

2 hours later…

6:37 AM

@Jafe Yes, that's it.

@MOehm so, hes doing the next cryptic.

Racegoer is not a very common word. I picked it, because I wanted to re-use the "card game" from msh210's previous clue, but this time as separate items. (I couldn't fit in a record.)

How does one define racegoer? Lexico says: A person attending a race meeting, especially one who does so frequently. "Race " appears in the answer, so it must be rewritten. And then using the crypticese "One seen in" and "regularly" just fell in place.

7:25 AM

@MOehm it's excellent

Jafe

7:48 AM

CCCC: Free card game he plays (with hearts coming after clubs) touring European capital (10)

also i think the word cruciverbalism is solid gold

8:06 AM

I didn't make it up, if that's what you think.

@AncientSwordRage Gee, thanks. I like it, but in the end the "card game" feels a bit tacked on to the racecource surface.

By the way, I like your "Absinthe missing in the hospital" clue you posted yesterday, both for the device and the surface.

8:22 AM

@Jafe are we back to cities?

@MOehm thanks, I really wanted to use "lacking in the <something> department" somewhere without cluing 'ent' but I never managed, but I'm happy with that one.

@MOehm I think it worked and the swap of ID for ACE+GO is too satisfying to quibble over a very small part of the surface

1 hour later…

9:31 AM

I want the C4 to be Copenhagen. Free=OPEN, and other letters appear in the clue, but I don't see how it can work. (Btw other ten-letter European capitals are Luxembourg and Bratislava. I think that's it, for national capitals.)

I need a spare B, but otherwise: B (-g(card as in cut, game as in 'g')ratis l(AV- aortic valve)a (LA Rams club??>

Other thoughts: 'he plays with hearts' = Casanova?

@msh210 I also saw Bratislava, it almost has gratis (free) in there but I can seem to sensibly figure out the rest

Going to let my brain process all this

My cryptics abbreviation lookup says "b: a follower" 🤷🏻‍♂️ maybe that's one who follows tours?

Also Casanova ends in va, but also might clue lover//lava (but I'm not seeing a soundalike)

9:48 AM

You should read puzzling.stackexchange.com/q/45984

I don't think the European necessarily goes together with the capital. It could be something "touring" DANE or POLE or E. Or European "capital" like, you know, EUROS or POUNDS or KRONER.

@msh210 I've definitely skimmed it

@MOehm good point

In poker free cards might be the flop, turn or river...

10:17 AM

@MOehm or the capital letter of the word "European"

Jafe

10:37 AM

i like all the speculation... usually my c4s are solved super quickly

B (-g)RATI(-s) SLAV(a European) +a is tempting me, as well as UNEN SLAV ED 🤷🏻‍♂️

Q: IQ test question - squares, triangles, dots

11:42 AM

I have this question from a friend. I suppose it is from a book. We have no idea where to start. Can someone help me with the correct answer, and what is the correct reasoning? Thank you!

pattern visual

4 hours later…

Mithical

3:50 PM

→ 15 messages moved to Trashcan

@RajorshiKoyal you've been told previously that this isn't the place for it. The same guidance still applies.

Rajorshi Koyal

ok leaving the room

this isn't the place for what, btw

we can still talk about things that fall within the scope of puzzling :)

and hi, Mithical

how has your day been

Mithical

*waves* the day has been a day

nice

mine has just begun

1 hour later…

4:56 PM

Time to try out sniper elite 4 lol

Hope everyone’s having a great day!

I got a sprouts puzzle coming soon, but I’m trying to simplify the focus of it 🙃

Turns out, it’s fun to create games for retrograde analysis lol

Harder to create them in a way where each move is unambiguous 😂

2 hours later…

Q: How can I find the shortest path solution or even begin to finding the most optimal solution to a weld robot sequencing problem?

7:07 PM

Not sure this belongs here, but I thought I'd ask: How should I come to an understanding of an optimal weld sequence for a weld robot that welds a physical item on a revolving carousel (the gray T depicted)? Ok, so the green points need to be welded in the horizontal position (eight on each side...

optimization

Stiv

@Jafe Love this one... UNOCCUPIED (free) = UNO (card game) + C (clubs) + CUPID (he plays with hearts!) around (touring) E_

Aargh. Stiv'ed again.

I'd just found the answer and wanted to post, but ... ;)

7:56 PM

@Jafe nice

8:32 PM

@Jafe the "cruci" from crucifix (cross), the "verbal" from "verbal" (word-related), the "ism" from "antidisestablishmentarianism" (how every new CC setter sets out, breaking away from Ximenes)

truly Au

Stiv

9:05 PM

@MOehm Haha! It is a great tribute indeed when one's name becomes a verb... :) (And my apologies for doing this again in the space of a few days...)