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Seek out a sunny picture -
Remember you're on SE -
And on that sunny picture,
Figure out what you can;
You are a less capital idea
Than those who follow you.

What kind of birds appear?

Hint 1:

When you're on SE, where would you find a picture?

Hint 2:

Your answer can take the form of an actual picture (which has birds in). The challenge is to find the correct picture, not to identify the birds.

Hint 3 (like Hint 1, but bigger):

When you upload a picture while making a post on SE, where will the URL of that picture be?

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  • $\begingroup$ @mmking Nope, I'm afraid not. Thinking of adding a hint soon, but if you're having a serious go at it, I'll hold off for a while longer. $\endgroup$ May 25, 2015 at 16:29
  • $\begingroup$ Bird of Prey...? $\endgroup$ May 25, 2015 at 20:47
  • $\begingroup$ Hmm, someone's profile picture? But then how could you be sure they didn't change it and so ruin the puzzle? $\endgroup$
    – Pete
    May 27, 2015 at 20:15
  • $\begingroup$ @Pete It's not someone's profile picture (although it is personally related to another SE user, but you don't need to know that to solve the puzzle). $\endgroup$ May 27, 2015 at 21:03
  • $\begingroup$ I say eagles, because I was roaming around SE and ended up on a lotr question arguing about eagles. $\endgroup$ May 29, 2015 at 17:02

5 Answers 5

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skelemingos

Seek out a sunny picture -
Remember you're on SE -

The url for pictures uploaded on SE is https://i.stack.imgur.com. You would need the ID to identify the picture.

And on that sunny picture,
Figure out what you can;

The ID has 5 letters/digits. It has something to do with "sunny".
The closest thing to turning "sunny" into figures (figure out) is turning "s" into 5.

You are a less capital idea
Than those who follow you.

u (you) is uncapitalized. The letters that follow are capital. So we get that the last few letters are "uNNY".

Put that together. The url for the picture is

https://i.stack.imgur.com/5uNNY.jpg

What kind of birds appear?

Skelemingos!

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  • $\begingroup$ Excellent job! This is the correct solution. Could you explain "Figure out what you can" a bit more fully, to show why it's 5uNNY rather than suNNY or SuNNY? $\endgroup$ Jun 8, 2015 at 21:00
  • $\begingroup$ I'm not really sure of that, to be honest. $\endgroup$
    – mmking
    Jun 8, 2015 at 21:02
  • $\begingroup$ "Figure out" means take the word "sunny" and turn as much of it as you can into figures, i.e. S -> 5. The rest of it is all letters, with lower-case and capitalisation determined by the final 2 lines. $\endgroup$ Jun 8, 2015 at 21:05
  • $\begingroup$ Okay, got it. Time to edit... $\endgroup$
    – mmking
    Jun 8, 2015 at 21:11
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ You have no idea how thrilled and flattered I am to have my flock of skelemingos be the subject of a SE puzzle! How wonderful :D $\endgroup$ Jun 8, 2015 at 21:24
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Seek out a sunny picture - Remember you're on SE -

The "page not found" page of Stack Exchange has a sunny picture.

enter image description here

And on that sunny picture, Figure out what you can;

The image's name is "no-pandas-here.jpg". Pandas are likely to become extinct.

You are a less capital idea
Than those who follow you.

We're looking for an "idea" that can restore a species to a stable population.
If we interpret "capital" as "involving punishment by death", then Jurassic Park comes to mind - people clone dinosaurs, and are killed by their own creations.
So the idea is cloning. Although it is quite capital, it is still a "less capital idea" than "cloning and genetically engineering hybrid animals to make them more cunning and vicious", as (probably) seen in Jurassic World, which "follows" the original film (i.e. is a sequel).

What kind of birds appear?

According to Wikipedia's De-extinction page, the potential candidate birds for cloning are:

  • Passenger pigeon
  • Carolina parakeet
  • Ivory-billed woodpecker
  • Moa
  • Heath hen
  • Dodo
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  • $\begingroup$ You start off quite nicely (though incorrectly), but your interpretation of lines 5-6 looks very dodgy. PS: well done on escaping the labyrinth! ;-) $\endgroup$ May 27, 2015 at 16:54
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. Yep, I felt good about the 404 page but after that it felt like pounding a square peg into a round hole :-) Doesn't hurt to try, though. $\endgroup$
    – Kevin
    May 27, 2015 at 19:04
5
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The bird is

Larry Bird

Seek out a sunny picture - Remember you're on SE -

This is the button in the answer box to add a photo.

And on that sunny picture, Figure out what you can;

Click the ? to get more help

You are a less capital idea Than those who follow you.

advanced help is in all lowercase letters, but the rest of the options are capitalized. If you go to the advanced help link, you can find this section mid page:

Need More Detail?

Visit the official Markdown syntax reference page.

The linked page contains a dummy link to search for Larry Bird images.

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ +1; you're the closest so far. But why "sunny"? Sunny is in some ways the most important clue. Also, check the second hint. $\endgroup$ May 31, 2015 at 9:54
1
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Ok I will try :

To begin I searched for a sunny picture in SE, I went looking for it in

The photography SE, and especially the Hall of Fame

then naturally here

https://photo.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4659/image-of-the-week-hall-of-fame-2014-archive

But once I was here I needed a 'sunny picture' and there were many of them.

But one picture got my attention

https://i.stack.imgur.com/0Cj0T.jpg

Because it was posted by :

Riot

And I think it is somehow related to "You are a less capital idea Than those who follow you.", and of course it is a picture of a bird.

I don't think that it is the right answer, especially because of my lack of sun in my answer, but I hope I have helped in some ways .

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2
  • $\begingroup$ I'm sorry I didn't figure out how to 'spoilerize' link. $\endgroup$
    – daolf
    May 30, 2015 at 16:09
  • $\begingroup$ Nice; I thought somebody would try Photography.SE. Unfortunately it's not right. Where would you find a picture when you're on any SE? $\endgroup$ May 30, 2015 at 16:27
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Area 51 Icon looks like sunny, and remove (less) the Capital and take the following letters to get rea.

Area 51 background is a moon with a few aliens in flight.

So couple all this with Bird to get Rhea [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhea_%28bird%29 ] which is a flightless bird (refer : flight + less )

[[ It seems ambiguous, but this is the best I got till now ]]

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1
  • $\begingroup$ Almost all of this is barking up the wrong tree, I'm afraid. Check the first hint... $\endgroup$ May 27, 2015 at 9:54

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