The Sphinx's Lair

12:16 AM

@Sconibulus Is water pressure downwards into a drain pipe limited to the weight of the water column (directly) above the pipe, or is the full weight of the water volume above the drain? Your comment on my fish bowls sounds like you know. I think it's the former, but wanted to be sure it's not the latter.

Jim

Isn't a carbonless diamond just nothing

Deusovi

Yep.

Gareth McCaughan

it could e.g. be ICE minus C making IE

Deusovi

"Ice" is a diamond?

Gareth McCaughan

it's a slang term for diamonds

among criminals of some sort

Deusovi

12:18 AM

Huh, interesting. And how would you know this? :P

Jim

Indeed

Gareth McCaughan

I'm not certain it can be used to mean "diamond" as opposed to "diamonds", though.

("ice" is a mass noun, "diamond" a count noun. Or whatever the approved terminology for those things is.)

Jim

Also I'm Star Wars illiterate

Deusovi

Same.

Gareth McCaughan

If "Skywalker's first" just means "S" then no one needs to know anything much about Star Wars.

Sconibulus

12:19 AM

@Rubio The water above exerts pressure on the water beneath it, but water's basically incompressible, so that exerts pressure in all directions. Pretty sure that's how hydraulics work

Jim

When I start referencing obscure baseball players in my CCCCs you'll rue the day

Gareth McCaughan

(Disclaimer: I have thought about this clue for, ooh, maybe 15 seconds. None of the above is meant to be hinting towards a solution I've secretly found, or anything like that.)

Sconibulus

I haven't been in a class for this stuff in the better part of a decade, so I'm not 100% on it, but it fits with other things I know best if it works that way

Jim

S master carbonless diamond goat ?

Solved!

Deusovi

Ooh.

Rubio

12:23 AM

That was a promising sounding Ooh.

Deusovi

It was a response to @Jim.

Rubio

Oh. Drat. :)

Sconibulus

I think specifically it's the weight of the column of water, if that column extended to the maximum height of the total water, the additional width doesn't add anything

Rubio

I think the argument for it being (just) the column immediately above has to do with the downward force of the weight being balanced by the normal force of the water container everywhere else that isn't the drain pipe

Or, anyway, that's what I remember learning; whether that actually matches the real fluid dynamics going on is another matter entirely hehe

Sconibulus

But the water above the pipe pressures right down the pipe, and lateral displacement doesn't matter because of hydraulics

I know that's the wrong word, but it is the thing that exploits that property

Maybe just cross post to physics.se :)

Rubio

12:47 AM

meh. effort.

Jim

ok this CCCC has officially ruined me

it's made me google SW stuff

-6

and I still can't get it

does capitalization mean something?

googling tells me it can mean to remove the first letter of the synonym for that word

Volatility

That might be if "decapitalise" was literally in the clue

Jim

ah, yes, i see the clue I was looking at also said "leader cut"

"has at his heart" = middle?

Volatility

possibly

Jim

more recently = "anew"?

Volatility

1:02 AM

maybe, although it sounds more like NEWER than ANEW to me

...or maybe not, I don't thing the parts of speech match

think*

Jim

Snewer goat. Done.

Rubio

Nailed it. :)

Jim

Piece of cake

I was all like, this, then I was all like that, then it was done

Volatility

haha

Rubio

In an interesting bit of symmetry, that's exactly how i set this clue.

Volatility

1:14 AM

Maybe "carbonless diamond; maybe" is supposed to be (-c)ARD or something?

Jim

i do like has at his heart to mean middle, rather than just be a ton of extra words

this is how I work my way through these

Volatility

I have a feeling that "Master more recently" clues a single thing, but can't figure out what

Jim

Who do we like for Skywalker's first Master? Ben? Obi?

but why capitalize Master if we're not using a name?

Sconibulus

The newer one is Qui Gon Jin

I think

LeppyR64

@Sconibulus: You mean older

Jim

1:18 AM

technically, he doesn't live long enough

Volatility

Don't tell me this is something from Rogue One or something

Jim

he's apprenticed to Obi Wan

no matter the Skywalker, it's Obi Wan Kenobi for both

Rubio

in a good cryptic clue, required capitalizations will for sure be there, but there may be extraneous extra capitalizations there to confuse the reading. (not saying anything about which is the case in THIS puzzle)

Jim

gotcha

Rubio

@Jim that was a really late response to this question :)

Jim

1:21 AM

how to you use that arrow to refer back to a specific post

Deusovi

roll over it, then use the arrow thing on the right

Jim

ah, because i'm on mobile I never see that

Rubio

mobile is kinda broken

Sconibulus

@LeppyR64 I meant in the prequels, I think Qui Gon trains Anakin for like a week before dying, so "first" master.

Jim

technically he's not apprenticed yet to anyone at that point. i hate myself for arguing this.

just make me not care

plllllleeeeeease

Rubio

1:24 AM

I'm enjoying this, by the way :)

I specifically chose this clueing hoping for this

Volatility

I have tried looking into the possibility that "Master" is supposed to mean "child" (from the title Master for children), but I do not have the sufficient SW knowledge to verify/discount this

Jim

i also hate that I can't even come up with a goat meme that's 6 letters in the first word

Volatility

nor can I figure out what "Master more recently" could possibly clue (if indeed that is one unit)

Jim

and now i've been foreced to search know you meme

I quit (again) (for now) (I never quit forever; except right now)

okay i have a feeling its

SELFIE GOAT

with carbonless diamond being IE

and Skywalker's first being S

S_ _ _ IE GOAT

someone bring me an ELF

and the head of Alfredo Garcia

Rubio

1:42 AM

why does carbonless diamond give IE?

Gareth McCaughan

ICE minus C ("ice" being some sort of criminal slang for diamonds)

but perhaps your asking the question is sufficient evidence that that isn't what it means in this clue

Rubio

nah, I just hadn't seen where y'all came up with that. not commenting on its correctness or not.

Jim

or just hip-hop or pop music for diamond = ice

and a carbonless dimaond is essentially air or nothing so it's probably not that

but since @Rubio is the one questioning it, I abandon all hope

HOPE IS DEAD

Sconibulus

What was that gross two headed goat from the viral video Futurama episode?

Jim

oh man

ummm

mr. chunks

the vomit one

Jim

2:04 AM

I really hope this 6-letter goat is a thing

Also I plan to use Iodineless diamond later

Sphinx

0

Q: Crossword Clue for ERECS

I'm designing a crossword right now and am looking for a clue for the word "ERECS." It has appeared in a crossword before, but I'm not exactly sure about "ERECS" as "Sets up." Is there any chance "Erecs" is an archaic or alternative spelling for "Erects?" I suppose I can cheat and say Common mis...

Sconibulus

2:44 AM

It's almost Ceres

TrojanByAccident

@Jim I shall deliver

Jim

@TrojanByAccident oh please do

TrojanByAccident

3:01 AM

@Jim lol

Sconibulus

3:35 AM

what starts with an n and rhymes with a cracker

TrojanByAccident

3:45 AM

@Sconibulus NACK, er....

Jim

I just lost it

TrojanByAccident

nice

lol

did you even have one?

I can't think of any

Jim

Nervewracker

TrojanByAccident

You, yes YOU just lost. >:P

Jim

Take that

TrojanByAccident

3:53 AM

lol

Jim

What did I win?

TrojanByAccident

No, you LOST

Jim

Someone needs to come out of retirement and close out this CCCC before I LOSE more

Volatility

Is this latest crossword clue question bordering on too broad?

TrojanByAccident

@Jim As in you lost The Game

@Volatility Not really, we just can't figure it out

Volatility

4:05 AM

No, I mean on the main site

about DRAWI and TAKEF

Sphinx

0

Q: Crossword Clues for DRAWI and TAKEF

I'm designing a crossword right now and am looking for clues for the words DRAWI and TAKEF. I've been thinking each word over for awhile and feel like I have a phrase or quote from someone containing those words (say "draw I") but I can't quite fix on it. It also occurs to me that as these are th...

crosswords crossword-clues

^ that one

Those are words?

oh

no, they aren't

but American-style crossword grids are hard to fill ;-)

Jim

4:09 AM

agreed

i tried once and decided that was a waste of my time

TrojanByAccident

lol

Jim

i respect the hell out of people who do it

i think it's one of those things where you need a deep repitoire of tricks and i realized quickly i wasn't going to do it more than once

Volatility

or software

Jim

indeed

some of the famous ones are really cool to see what they did

TrojanByAccident

I've got a cryptic for DRAWI

just need to polish up my TAKEF

Jim

4:12 AM

FAKE T

TrojanByAccident

hmm

I can clue 'f', just need to figure out how to connect 'take' with 'stealing'

Jim

Just mind vomiting if you're helping

TrojanByAccident

lol

@Jim Got any words cluing synonym?

Jim

a synonym for synonym?

TrojanByAccident

yes

Jim

4:20 AM

alternate meaning

alternate definition

similarity

TrojanByAccident

-1

A: Crossword Clues for DRAWI and TAKEF

DRAWI: TAKEF:

.-. wth

I literally just posted it

-1 already?!

Within 30 seconds, it was downvoted.

Jim

Hmmm, I'm new enough that I haven't ever downvoted something, but this doesn't seem worthy

carbonless diamonds are more my thing right now :O

Volatility

@TrojanByAccident they have no def, and your first clue now has a number discrepancy (plural "tools" vs singular "eye")

TrojanByAccident

4:35 AM

@Volatility yeah...

tool now

Jim

i bet someone could easily add a def though, without a downvote (just sayin)

TrojanByAccident

^^

GentlePurpleRain

How would you define a nonexistent word?

TrojanByAccident

@GentlePurpleRain Those were my thoughts exactly

Jim

oh, right, sorry forgot the context

busy googling star wars

;)

Deusovi

4:39 AM

Hey! Yeah, I downvoted since they wouldn't be acceptable clues in any crossword.

TrojanByAccident

I don't see how it's my fault that the words can't be defined

Deusovi

It's not your fault. But that just means you can't write clues for them.

Jim

since I'm too tired to actually work on a real puzzle, I'll comment one more thing on the CCCC. Diamond -> Rock -> Ro k (carbonless)

TrojanByAccident

aha

Deusovi

^

Volatility

4:42 AM

whoops

TrojanByAccident

?

Volatility

(thought -2 was from downvoting, forgot that you were downvoted yourself -.-)

TrojanByAccident

Where was I mentioned?

Oh

downvoting someone else gives you -1 lol

Volatility

yeah, forgot that too

forgive me for jumping to conclusions

TrojanByAccident

:P

Volatility

4:45 AM

Although I don't see a -1 on Deusovi's page either

I imagine that's to hide someone's voting pattern

Deusovi

It's in my rep counter.

Volatility

so, just in case, @TrojanByAccident please don't revenge downvote

Deusovi

(The one only visible to me, in the top bar.)

So yeah, I'd assume so.

TrojanByAccident

@Volatility Of course :)

Volatility

Also, not to be pushy or anything, but any news on the TSPI front @Deusovi?

I can just resubmit

Deusovi

4:55 AM

The link still isn't working? Hm. I'll send another email out.

TrojanByAccident

@Deusovi Btw, when will I be told whether or not I was accepted?

Deusovi

I think they accept pretty much everyone. And you should get an email inviting you to the Google group sometime soon. No idea why it's taken so long.

TrojanByAccident

Hmm

Jim

when does the MIT thing happen again each year?

Deusovi

Martin Luther King weekend.

Jim

5:04 AM

Got it

we have something here in MN called St. Paul Winter Carnival around the same time (later in January) that involves 12 clues to finding a medallion buried somewhere in the snow/ice

Deusovi

Huh, cool!

Jim

Agreed, it is

coolercrew.com

in case you ever need a rabbit hole to go down for a few hours

TrojanByAccident

lol

Rubio

Well, I see that my CCCC may not get anywhere further without some help. i've seen referenced one way or another everything needed to get to the final answer, except awareness of the final answer itself actually being A Thing™. For those who would like the hint, I offer this: Gl88!a0d<!+ED GlzeG*~dr=d04 [ROT47].

Deusovi

I've never seen that.

Jim

5:11 AM

i figured it was the final answer stopping the solution

Rubio

The second item in the hint, btw, is rather badly NSFW w/o headphones.

Deusovi

Alright, so it's B(RO(-c)K)EN GOAT*.

Jim

gosh

I'm sitting here staring at OBROKI

Rubio

And props to you @Jim for finding ROK :)

Jim

andn googling OBROKI

I should sleep more

just in case, I checked OROKBI as well :O

Rubio

5:13 AM

Hehe

Jim

in case you were wondering, there was no such thing as OBROKI GOAT :)

Rubio

(Skywalker's first Master more recently)(has at his heart a carbonless (diamond; maybe)) (add a disarrayed toga) for (an Internet meme)

is the text grouping, in case it wasn't obvious

so @Deusovi, is that kosher then?

Deusovi

Yeah, just unrecognizable.

Rubio

I thought "Broken Goat" was more common, since that's what we've always known it as. I didn't know it had somehow morphed to "Yelling Goat" along the way, and then "Goats that sound Human", and then all the "<xxx>, Goat Edition" stuff after that

Jim

screaming goat is all i've ever known

but to be fair i consume almost no media or information :)

so the things I don't know about you could probably fill most of the water covered portion of the earth with

Deusovi

5:19 AM

CCCC: Grave is cooler with a coin (6)

(Hopefully fairly easy.)

Rubio

I originally wanted to clue BEN as: England's famous clock, unembiggened. Is that legit?

Volatility

lol

Deusovi

Sure, why not. It doesn't fit into the surface reading though.

Rubio

Yeah that was way early on

lol

ACCENT

(AC)+CENT

Deusovi

Yep, that's it. Told you it was easy.

Volatility

5:21 AM

ah

TrojanByAccident

lol

Volatility

nice

Jim

what's the definition mean

Volatility

although isn't that a definition by example?

TrojanByAccident

I would hope it means grave

Rubio

5:22 AM

grave and accent are names for the same marking

Deusovi

A grave is `, or an accent.

Jim

oh graVE

TrojanByAccident

lol

Deusovi

@Volatility Hm, I guess. I might've needed to say "Grave, maybe, ...".

Techidiot

@Jim- Your New(ton) is still untouched business :)

Jim

5:24 AM

@Techidiot Yeah? I'm okay with that unless you think it should be touched

Volatility

It's not something like we have to NOT all the bits in the checksum or something is it?

Techidiot

According to one of the diagram for newtons spectrum, every color represents a letter

But I am thinking that may be off the rails

Jim

Here's what I'd say about it

I added the checksum solely to be sure you could retrieve the data

I added the cryptic solely to be sure you had the correct data

And I haven't seen anyone extract the rest. Do I have a stego tag on there?

Techidiot

Nop

And hence I didnt care to find anything in the PS thing

Jim

Okay, I added that tag :)

TrojanByAccident

5:27 AM

@Rubio Got one ready, or need more time?

Techidiot

Oh is that used?

Rubio

need a little more time

Techidiot

Hmm. . Well!

Volatility

Well, it is worded quite strangely

Techidiot

Yeah. It is.

But now that stegano is a tag, we should look at the story part, which I guess is relevant

Got it

VIBGYOR

Volatility

5:28 AM

ah

Techidiot

Every first letter of each line

Volatility

well, it's actually just ROYGBIV

Techidiot

VIGYORB from bottom to top

Rubio

this is bad. I apologize in advance.

Techidiot

BROYGIV

Volatility

5:29 AM

oh no

Rubio

oh good god

nevermind

i screwed that up

Jim

@Rubio I love that you preface all these with "this is gonna be bad"

TrojanByAccident

lol

Rubio

That was just broken.

Techidiot

@Rubio- I screwed big time.. forgot to clue a letter in my answer and shorten the enumeration by one :p

Volatility

5:31 AM

oh

in the PS, first letters going backwards spell ORANGE INDIGO

Techidiot

@Jim- So this checksum is a cipher text and BROYGIV is a key? (lonnnnngggg shot) :p

Great

Volatility

@Techidiot where are you getting BROYGIV?

Jim

@Techidiot You've got the basics

Techidiot

@Jim- How did you miss the stegano tag ? :p

Jim

@Techidiot honestly, I felt like it was worded so oddly that it would be discovered quickly if someone looked.

Rubio

5:34 AM

CCCC: Crimson cane liquor brought about homicide. (6)

Techidiot

@Volatility- Nowhere near anything. I am still on my phone. So, a few hours more and I can "actually" start working in it..

MURDER

^

RED RUM

good job

too easy, I know. :)

TrojanByAccident

5:34 AM

@Jim It's murder

Volatility

lol, solved before I had a chance to look at it -.-

TrojanByAccident

I think

@Volatility Same

Deusovi

@TrojanByAccident That's what he just said...

Volatility

Just noticed that ORANGE and INDIGO are contained in one sentence each

TrojanByAccident

@Deusovi I was saying I think it was the first one

Deusovi

5:37 AM

Yeah, the second was the explanation.

TrojanByAccident

oh, I misunderstood the second post

lol

don't mind me

Rubio

The failed attempt SHOULD have been: In other words, minus, i.e. stroll, i.e. converse, i.e. handset. (6-6)

if you're bored feel free to give that a whirl while you wait for Jim's.

Deusovi

WALKIE-TALKIE. Not sure about the cryptic part.

Ah, got it.

(ie-ie) WALK IE TALK IE

Volatility

oh gee

Rubio

yar.

Short of deleting all letters, is there an indicator for ignoring a word altogether?

TrojanByAccident

5:39 AM

missing

Deusovi

Not one that I'm aware of because that's not a thing typically done.

Rubio

Yeah I wouldn't think so

Jim

CCCC: Carelessly is a young lady interrupting confident dependence (8)

@Volatility @Techidiot I'll add another clue tomorrow if necessary. Really hoping the leaps are clued well. First puzzle, so I'll let the experiment run it's course.

Volatility

No worries

Techidiot

@Jim- I think someone might get it by the end of the day with the stegano tag added :) Not sure though

Unless it's some out of world encryption technique :)

TrojanByAccident

5:49 AM

@Jim Is the correct word there 'Carelessly' or 'Careless'?

Jim

Carelessly

I was careful :)

TrojanByAccident

@Jim Herm, that makes it difficult, then. Can't spout out the answer, go to sleep, and solve it later

Jim

6:01 AM

@Techidiot it has the cipher tag and I don't stray far from classical interpretations

Techidiot

Yeah

Volatility

I notice that the checksum contains "04" quite a few times, and in such a way that suggests to me a substitution cipher where "04" is a space

Techidiot

Well with CCCC I feel young lady may be some character which is placed in between the final answer

Like "Adorably" where dora is placed in there(this is not the answer obviously)

@Volatility- The (ton) seems to have some relevance as well

Volatility

Yeah, I was interpreting as a wordplay-like thing where "New(ton)" clues NOT or something like that

Techidiot

Yeah

Volatility

6:05 AM

(but there is no wordplay tag, so I may be wrong)

Jim

@Volatility my first title is simply that, a title

Techidiot

Also I hope there are no anagrams :)

Volatility

ok, there you go

Jim

@Techidiot anagrams are not encryption :)

Anagrams make me shudder

Techidiot

Well, I can save some time by not finding one then :)

Jim

6:07 AM

They have their place, just not in cipher solutions

Rubio

6:22 AM

@Jim REMISSLY: Carelessly (def.) young lady (MISS); confident dependence (RELY); interrupting: RE(MISS)LY.

Volatility

how is "confident dependence" RELY?

Rubio

Handwavium?

I'll be surprised if that's not the answer

but yeah, it's a little flawed if it is

Sphinx

6:40 AM

0

Q: Measuring Water with a Holey Cube

You have been given a transparent glass cube, which has a small hole at the center of one of the faces. How can you fill the cube with water occupying exactly one third of its volume? 1. This puzzle is taken from this webpage, where it is attributed to Abhishek Tiwari. 2. I do not know the so...

mathematics geometry three-dimensional decanting-problems

Rubio

6:50 AM

@Ankoganit I think your holey cube poser is not solvable given what little we're provided

Ankoganit

Hmm, maybe. Then I'd like a proof of that.

Rubio

Actually I take that back. I'm on to something.

Ankoganit

@Rubio ooh I'm excited!

Actually this has been bugging me for a while

TrojanByAccident

7:08 AM

I have witnessed the return of the capricious marsupial (8, 8)

Techidiot

@TrojanByAccident-It's @Rubio's turn though as he got the last CCCC. But wouldn't mind attempting that

TrojanByAccident

It wasn't a real CCCC

Was just jokingly stating what I noticed

<-- This amount is inaccurate for the next 7 days

:/

Techidiot

Yeah Arbitrary Kangaroo it is :)

Rubio

I'll wait for Jim to confirm that answer, as I'm not 100% sure

(on the CCCC)

Techidiot

I am sure that should be the intended one. But the confident dependency was misleading

user61230

7:14 AM

I like that the holiday topic challenge starts on the same day as Christmas and Chanukah.

user61230

[pops in, injecting a random side-note]

Rubio

It's possible Ankoganit

writing it up now

Sphinx

0

Q: A Heroic Narrative of two

We two were the ones destined to do great things We started as did Jon aware of Nothing A world we didn't know turned out to be our home Waited where we were with glorious foretellings While everyone believed we thought ourselves a regular Joe Otherwise the future revealed A destiny for us eac...