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Topic: Joe Flannigan (Read 1352 times) |
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Azgard
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Joe Flannigan
« on: Jan 22nd, 2009, 2:39pm » |
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Joe Flannigan came home Monday after work around 5:30pm. He unlocked the front door, walked into the hall, and put down his briefcase. Joe went up the stairs to his bedroom, but did not go in because he was shocked to realize that someone had been in his room since he had left for work that morning!
The only pieces of furnature in the room were his bed (made), a night stand to the left of his bed with a light and an alarm clock on it, his dresser with an assortment of coins, a comb, and a model helicopter on top, and his desk with a textbook and a model stealth fighter in progress spread out over the surface.
If nothing was missing and everything was where he left it, how did Joe Flannigan know that someone had been in his bedroom?
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teekyman
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #1 on: Jan 22nd, 2009, 3:01pm » |
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did he leave his bed unmade?
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Azgard
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #2 on: Jan 22nd, 2009, 3:02pm » |
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Nope, Joe is a good soldier and makes his own bed every morning.
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towr
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #3 on: Jan 22nd, 2009, 3:11pm » |
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If he's a good little paranoid, he'd have left something like a strip of paper jammed between the door, which would fall out if anyone entered his room. Any intruder not wary enough to notice such a trick would betray his snooping.
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cheesepuff
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #4 on: Jan 22nd, 2009, 4:24pm » |
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Paper traps, pencil led traps, door handle traps....
Maybe his textbook was moved around (same thing happened to me except that I later found out it was a family member who decided to visit me without telling me and left before I woke up.)
Or maybe the intruder forgot to flush 
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errrrrrrrrrrr........ 24
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Noke Lieu
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #5 on: Jan 22nd, 2009, 4:27pm » |
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perfume.
or the fact that they were still there sort of gave it away.
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teekyman
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #6 on: Jan 22nd, 2009, 4:46pm » |
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The comb had someone's hair in it? The light was on but he left it off, or vice versa?
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Azgard
Senior Riddler
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #7 on: Jan 22nd, 2009, 6:25pm » |
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So far, cheesepuff is closest...
The lights are as Joe left them, no strange odours, and no purposely left paranoid traps.
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denis
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #8 on: Jan 22nd, 2009, 7:09pm » |
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the intruder was still there
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Azgard
Senior Riddler
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #9 on: Jan 22nd, 2009, 7:13pm » |
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There were no extra bodies in the room, sorry denis.
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gotit
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #10 on: Jan 22nd, 2009, 10:42pm » |
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The alarm clock buzzed even though he had not set any alarm.
OR
He had gone to office with his textbook open and when he came back it was a different page that was open.
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Grimbal
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #11 on: Jan 23rd, 2009, 12:52am » |
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He did not go in. So maybe the door was ajar?
Or a polaroid of the bedroom was lying on the floor?
Dirty footsteps going in ... and not out?
John was away for 3 months (after work ... on a drilling platform). The alarm clock was beeping. If the alarm clock had been armed for 3 months, it would have run out of batteries.
Maybe the furniture is not where it used to be? Maybe when he tried to open the door, the bed was blocking it.
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Azgard
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #12 on: Jan 23rd, 2009, 10:25am » |
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on Jan 22nd, 2009, 10:42pm, gotit wrote:
He had gone to office with his textbook open and when he came back it was a different page that was open. |
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You got it, gotit!
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Eigenray
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #13 on: Jan 23rd, 2009, 11:06am » |
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Everything was exactly as he left it, and he doesn't have a programmable thermostat, so someone must have had the heat / AC on recently. Or his computer hadn't gone into standby, or the lights hadn't turned themselves off yet, or his dishwasher / washing machine / clothes drier were still running, or maybe the toaster was still making toast.
Or the coffee was still hot, or the milk he left out hadn't spoiled, or the ice in his glass hadn't melted, or the bed was still warm, or the shower was still wet, or there was still no ice in his freezer.
Or maybe there was a power outage that day, yet his clock was not flashing, or he forgot to turn off the alarm before going out, leaving it on snooze, so it should have been going off when he got back.
Or maybe he knew some mail was delivered that day but it wasn't there now.
Or, maybe he had rigged his house to explode while he was out (for the insurance money).
Or "that morning" refers to the last time the sun came up. He lives at the north pole, and that was a long time ago. Yet his plants were still alive, his food hadn't spoiled, there was no dust, ...
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| « Last Edit: Jan 23rd, 2009, 11:10am by Eigenray » |
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Grimbal
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #14 on: Jan 24th, 2009, 9:35am » |
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@Eigenray: I second you in that the problem statement is misleading. In line with your ideas, and since there is a reference to an alarm clock: the alarm clock was still showing the same time as it did when he left. Maybe you thought of that and discarded it because it could have restarted after a power outage. But I like the idea.
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Azgard
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #15 on: Jan 24th, 2009, 3:43pm » |
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on Jan 22nd, 2009, 2:39pm, Azgard wrote:
If nothing was missing and everything was where he left it, how did Joe Flannigan know that someone had been in his bedroom? |
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Never did I say that everything was exactly as he left it... 
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Lots of opportunities are missed because they come dressed in overalls and look like work.
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Eigenray
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #16 on: Jan 25th, 2009, 8:49am » |
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on Jan 24th, 2009, 3:43pm, Azgard wrote:| Never did I say that everything was exactly as he left it... |
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Yes but it's still fun to come up with more solutions.
Maybe he took a nap at work, and while sleeping, went home for lunch. Thus, everything was as he left it, but he was quite shocked to find that it was not as he remembered leaving it that morning.
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| « Last Edit: Jan 25th, 2009, 8:51am by Eigenray » |
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gotit
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #17 on: Jan 25th, 2009, 11:27am » |
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Another solution which comes to my mind is Room Temperature. When he came back, the room temperature was lower than it was when he had left, thus indicating that someone had opened the window.
Infact this was the solution to one of Iceman's riddle.
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towr
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #18 on: Jan 25th, 2009, 12:55pm » |
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on Jan 25th, 2009, 11:27am, gotit wrote:Another solution which comes to my mind is Room Temperature. When he came back, the room temperature was lower than it was when he had left, thus indicating that someone had opened the window.
Infact this was the solution to one of Iceman's riddle. |
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Or maybe his room is so well-isolated, and he's so sensitive to temperature change, that he can sense someone was there because the temperature was raised ever so slightly from the other persons presence. 
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Grimbal
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #19 on: Jan 26th, 2009, 7:40am » |
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Or the person farted and he's so sensitive to smell change, that he can sense someone was there because the level of stench was raised, and not slightly, from the other persons presence.
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Azgard
Senior Riddler
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #20 on: Jan 26th, 2009, 3:49pm » |
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The Myth Busters of Riddles....
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Lots of opportunities are missed because they come dressed in overalls and look like work.
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Death
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #21 on: Feb 12th, 2009, 3:57pm » |
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Although if we keep heading down the pernickety technical road, turning a page over would move part of that page by... say... 10cm maybe, thus moving the page - it just depends on whether you look at the book or the page as the object
Also, nowhere do you say he even opens the door to look inside - so surely he wouldn't be able to spot anything that had changed within the room. Of course if he saw footprints going to the door and leaving the door from a different spot it might work...
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Azgard
Senior Riddler
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #22 on: Feb 16th, 2009, 7:59am » |
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on Feb 12th, 2009, 3:57pm, Death wrote:Although if we keep heading down the pernickety technical road, turning a page over would move part of that page by... say... 10cm maybe, thus moving the page - it just depends on whether you look at the book or the page as the object
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I was considering the entire book to be one object.
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iono
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #23 on: Feb 18th, 2009, 9:23pm » |
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couldn't the page have changed because the wind blew in?
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Azgard
Senior Riddler
Just gonna drive around the planet, check it out.
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Re: Joe Flannigan
« Reply #24 on: Feb 19th, 2009, 1:11pm » |
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Only if the window also happened to have been opened... Which it wasn't.
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Lots of opportunities are missed because they come dressed in overalls and look like work.
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