The Sphinx's Lair

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Sphinx

00:06

There is a square grid of people and two political parties: Red and Yellow. The grid is split into districts, with the following rules: All districts must be rectangles Each voter must be in exactly 1 district No ditrict can contain twice or more votes as another district. For example, if there ...

mathematics

Jafe

[seasonal]

1 hour later…

oAlt

01:37

Oh wow, I didn't think "eater" would be it

Jafe

01:49

i considered eater but was trying to put it in the end

juicifer

same

1 hour later…

Jafe

03:10

someone type out a real answer to the xkcd crossword or imma have to do it

"i just assumed" with no explanation... fizzle that nonsizzle

msh210

03:49

@Ankoganit nice

Ankoganit

04:06

2 hours later…

Jafe

06:21

just posted a max-length comment explaining why i don't like that answer, possibly starting a lifelong beef with another 10k+ user 😁👍

Sphinx

06:39

Q: Semi-Semordnilaps

I’m wondering if there is a name for words that when spelled backwards contain another word. (Example: taco->cat) From my understanding, semordnilaps are when the entire word spelled backwards is another word, but this is slightly different.

word wordplay word-property palindrome

2 hours later…

Sphinx

08:58

Q: What is the name of this puzzle type? How to create one?

I want to create a specific puzzle, but I'm wondering if it already has a name, and if I can find some pointers on how to make it hard. It's simple, I have a NxN grid filled with numbers going from 1 to N. I want to find the only set of N cells, that: Range from 1 to N Have one cell per row/colu...

calculation-puzzle logic-grid

Stiv

09:23

CCCC: Look on the bright side - it's cold, noisy, and hard, while unruly villains reign after all (5,5,3,1,6,6)

Jafe

09:37

to be fair things are prolly pretty grim if that is the bright side

it's C + LOUD + H + AS + ASILVERLINING* (anagram of "villains reign") coming after EVERY (all) = every cloud has a silver lining (=look on the bright side)

1 hour later…

Stiv

11:10

@Jafe That it is

Jafe

11:20

kinda self-confirming enumeration hehe

speaking of which

CCCC: After you fashion perms, I shall get on three-wheelers to provide reinforcements for work in which villains reign after all (3,6,7,4)

oAlt

🥴

Ah, I think I said that too soon. I just found it...

M Oehm

@Jafe THEE (you) + I in PERMS* ("fashion") + TRIKES + BACK (to provide reinforcements) = THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

oAlt

Ah dangit hahah

Jafe

correct! that was fast

M Oehm

The trikes gave it away ...

oAlt

11:27

"three-wheelers" also did it for me but I couldn't think of how to make the 3,6

Jafe

hehe

the intention was to anagram "perms i" together though

guess the result's the same either way

M Oehm

Three trikes and you've found out.

Jafe

the empire flies spaceships into battle... and trikes back

M Oehm

Oh, I parsed this as I shall get on (what was clued before).

What do you want? - The empire's trikes back.

CCCC: Judge cloud with silver lining by speed? (10)

(But "on" isn't a good insertion indicator, so just adding I to the fodder works better.)

oAlt

@MOehm mist (cloud) with Ag (silver lining = silver, probably) by rate (speed) magistrate (judge)

Or probably lining does something else, like being lined up against something

M Oehm

11:34

@oAlt Every Sphinx' Lair has a brilliant solver. :)

(In other words: yes.)

oAlt

Thanks, but more thanks to Merriam-Webster :)

Jafe

modernised version could be that every cloud has a bitcoin miner

i was on to A(...)g but was trying to put E (speed the drug) in the end

M Oehm

The lining was intended as insertion indicator, the way drawers are lined with paper, for example.

oAlt

Ahh makes sense

M Oehm

@Jafe That only works if the cloud's name is Vera.

oAlt

11:40

CCCC: Judge a computer backend by data processing speed (9)

Just in case the surface doesn't make sense

Jafe

a + _r + bit rate

oAlt

@Jafe yep!

Jafe

CCCC: Resistance driven out of oblast? Far from it! (3,2)

Stiv

@Jafe GOD NO (Far from it!) = G(-r)ODNO

Jafe

that's right

Stiv

11:51

I was looking for NOT SO wordplay for a while there before finding this one in a list...

Jafe

really wanted to use "voblast" to limit the search to just belarus but didn't like cluing the russian name with a belarusian term in the end...

Stiv

CCCC: Golfer is ordered to start frequenting support group? Fine by me... (4,4)

oAlt

@Stiv is A(o_)A ok I where the support group, AA, is Alcoholics Anonymous

Jafe

12:13

that's an xkcd 2896 name if i've ever seen one

Stiv

12:26

@oAlt Yes! Honestly thought that might last longer...

oAlt

CCCC: Board game move (2)

M Oehm

@oAlt Surely that's GO, ddef.

oAlt

@MOehm Yes it is

M Oehm

CCCC: Stiv nearly done in after approaching unavoidable outcome (3, 6, 4)

2 hours later…

oAlt

14:11

I just realized I could have done a 3def like "Board game: move a space in board game (2)"

5 hours later…

Sphinx

19:07

Q: Rectangular representation (ignore the nonsense)

As the title says, ignore the nonsense, there's quite a lot of it too. Try look beyond the nonsense and give me the answer which is an image.

knowledge enigmatic-puzzle visual

2 hours later…

Sphinx

21:33

Q: In a Rubik's cube contest, are all the cubes set in the same color state for all the competitors?

Based in that question, I decided to make a simple code in Microsoft Excel so you get the required instructions to solve the Rubik's cube from any possible state to any other state. Maybe it sounds interesting to some of you. I wrote an ebook explaining it. Details in the video link, below: https...

solvability

Sphinx

21:53

Q: Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Holt’s Season 2 Puzzle

I’ve seen several answers to the Weighing Islanders puzzle Captain Holt poses to the squad in Season 2, but I had a different train of thought when solving it. Did anyone use the process of elimination method? To solve it, you’d simply have 1 man stay on the seesaw and have the other 11 alternate...