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Hello everyone, my name is Jay
I work for you 24 hours a day,
but don't get me wrong I know not Silent Bob
and got nothing to do with weed on the job.

My kind can be you or you can be me
if you know a body by its chemistry.
We're not only human, but mostly a thing!
We have many shapes, on the air we are king.
Our children you could surf but not in the sea
(for some they are a monstruosity!).
They fly, they bounce, they bend,
but always to us they end!
We get and we give even not alive,
but to do our best we need a good drive,
for we can make work a lot you possess,
even destroy it if working in excess.

This riddle was difficult but I'm not a sphinx,
in fact I'm well sure, who I am you can glimpse

EDIT: I'm deleting the "easy" and "difficult" part because I think it got most of you thinking in the wrong direction.

HINTS:

  • Jay is just a name, don't focus on it
  • Most of "Jay"s are objects
  • The chemistry I'm talking about is... well think VERY-little!
  • "Jay"s have nothing to do with sphinxes!
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6 Answers 6

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Jay is

your heart

Hello everyone, my name is Jay
I work for you 24 hours a day,

the heart does not stop even when sleeping

but don't get me wrong I know not Silent Bob
and got nothing to do with weed on the job.
My kind can be you or you can be me
if you know a body by its chemistry.
We're not only human, but mostly a thing!

because people sometimes take decisions with their hearts ??

We have many shapes, on the air we are king.
Our children you could surf but not in the sea
(for some they are a monstruosity!).
They fly, they bounce, they bend,
but always to us they end!

the children are the leukocytes and red blood cells, they "surf" in the fluid, but always return back to the heart.

We get and we give even not alive,
but to do our best we need a good drive,
for we can make work a lot you possess,
even destroy it if working in excess.

the heart is keeping us alive and supplies the brain with oxygen

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    $\begingroup$ that's a really nice answer, but you didn't get some of the sentences. Anyway upvoting for the nice thinking! $\endgroup$
    – Noldor130884
    Commented Dec 19, 2014 at 10:59
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I'll take a crack at it:

Jay is

A Joule, the SI unit of energy.

Hello everyone, my name is Jay
I work for you 24 hours a day,

J is the standard abbreviation for Joule, which is also considered to be a measure of work performed.

but don't get me wrong I know not Silent Bob
and got nothing to do with weed on the job.
My kind can be you or you can be me
if you know a body by its chemistry.

Energy = Mass times the speed of light squared, so any amount of energy could be converted to mass or vice versa. Also, the human body is powered by chemical processes to extract energy from food.

We're not only human, but mostly a thing!
We have many shapes, on the air we are king.

not really sure about this bit... Energy is commonly stored in batteries, which are a thing, and which come in a disgusting variety of shapes and sizes, but the air thing I dunno.

Our children you could surf but not in the sea
(for some they are a monstruosity!).
They fly, they bounce, they bend,
but always to us they end!

Energy is commonly transmitted as a wave form. Energy waves can travel through the air, be bounced and bent, but they are still used as energy eventually.

We get and we give even not alive,
but to do our best we need a good drive,
for we can make work a lot you possess,
even destroy it if working in excess.

Energy is received and transmitted all the time, and is required for all sorts of devices these days; but if you overcharge something or run it with the wrong voltage input you can easily burn it out.

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    $\begingroup$ I LOVE your answer, even though if you got only one verse (the 4th) $\endgroup$
    – Noldor130884
    Commented Dec 22, 2014 at 19:44
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Hello everyone, my name is Jay
I work for you 24 hours a day,
but don't get me wrong I know not Silent Bob
and got nothing to do with weed on the job.

As I already said this did only give the hint that those "Jays" are working 24 hours a day

My kind can be you or you can be me
if you know a body by its chemistry.

Chemistry is not Biology: the chemistry I'm talking about is the interaction between charged particles (for example molecules work with protonic/electronic pumps

We're not only human, but mostly a thing!

Self explanatory, once you read the solution

We have many shapes, on the air we are king.

Many shapes... Again, self explanatory. On the air = On-The-Air -> Radio

Our children you could surf but not in the sea

Waves are surfable... and there are some kind of them which are not necessarily made of water

(for some they are a monstruosity!).

It's no mystery that some people despise electromagnetic pollution

They fly, they bounce, they bend,
but always to us they end!

E.m. waves can fly, can bounce (on metals) can "bend" (refraction) and get captured only by... Antennas! In fact antennas trasmit (waves are their child) and receive such waves

We get and we give even not alive,

Antennas are passive pieces of metal

but to do our best we need a good drive,

They need to have a power source in order to be able to send a signal

for we can make work a lot you possess,

Well, again self-explanatory

even destroy it if working in excess.

if overloaded - for example with a lightning - the power spike can destroy electronics in you TV or any other thing connected to it

This riddle was difficult but I'm not a sphinx,
in fact I'm well sure, who I am you can glimpse

Well this last verse was only a challange to you ;)

So, the solution is:

ANTENNA! P.s. = There are some kind of antennas that are called "J" antennas ;)

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    $\begingroup$ Well, you may want to start your answer by including what it is, before you go explaining it :) (in spoiler tags) $\endgroup$
    – Tim Couwelier
    Commented Jan 8, 2015 at 8:17
  • $\begingroup$ Well added a clear solution at the end... $\endgroup$
    – Noldor130884
    Commented Jan 9, 2015 at 6:50
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I think the answer is

computers.

Hello everyone, my name is Jay

This might be a specific computer; I'm not really sure.

I work for you 24 hours a day,

Lots of computers do this.

but don't get me wrong I know not Silent Bob
and got nothing to do with weed on the job.

References to something on the telly? Excuse my cultural ignorance :-)

My kind can be you or you can be me
if you know a body by its chemistry.

People can be seen as very complicated machines/computers, the chemical reactions inside their body taking the place of electronic signals.

We're not only human, but mostly a thing!

Computers are things and not humans.

We have many shapes, on the air we are king.

???

Our children you could surf but not in the sea

Reference to surfing the web (this is what enabled me to get the answer).

(for some they are a monstruosity!).

Some people don't like the internet?

They fly, they bounce, they bend,
but always to us they end!

Webpages can do all sorts of things, but to access them you need a computer.

We get and we give even not alive,

Computers can do all sorts of things even though they're inanimate.

but to do our best we need a good drive,

They need hard drives to function properly.

for we can make work a lot you possess,
even destroy it if working in excess.

???

This riddle was difficult but I'm not a sphinx,
in fact I'm well sure, who I am you can glimpse

Indeed, as I solve this riddle I am looking at the answer to the riddle! :-)

Nice one, Noldor!

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you ^^ But you didn't manage to understand who Jay is :P $\endgroup$
    – Noldor130884
    Commented Dec 22, 2014 at 19:45
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    $\begingroup$ @Noldor130884 Joel Spolsky? Jeff Atwood? Jon Skeet? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Dec 22, 2014 at 20:40
  • $\begingroup$ @Noldor130884 Or Hal from '2001, a Space Odyssey'? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Dec 22, 2014 at 20:55
  • $\begingroup$ @Noldor130884 So am I right in what the 'kind' is? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Dec 23, 2014 at 11:13
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    $\begingroup$ Was @randal'thor right? I stopped looking at this riddle because of the lack of confirmation. Certainly this interpretation is reasonable. $\endgroup$
    – McMagister
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 8:09
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I'll give it a try, this is what i've got so far:

Jay is

an atom 

Hello everyone, my name is Jay
I work for you 24 hours a day,

atoms get together and break appart all the time to produce every kind of physical nature. 

but don't get me wrong I know not Silent Bob
and got nothing to do with weed on the job.

...well jay is obviously not from clerks. 

My kind can be you or you can be me
if you know a body by its chemistry.

atoms make up all of the visible and touchable matter around us. pretty obvious connection to chemistry. 

We're not only human, but mostly a thing!
We have many shapes, on the air we are king.

human, things, atoms can take any kind of shape. Air is also composed of different molecules. 

Our children you could surf but not in the sea
(for some they are a monstruosity!).

i can't quite figure out this one yet but i'm sure its related to electrons and protons. i think electrons can surf on waves like sound or light waves. 

They fly, they bounce, they bend,
but always to us they end!

atoms exchange protons and electrons to undergo chemical processes. 

We get and we give even not alive,
but to do our best we need a good drive,

another reference to subatomic exchange. i think drive is refering to the force needed to exchange these particles. 

for we can make work a lot you possess,
even destroy it if working in excess.

the exchange of electrons produce electrical flow and can make work any electric device. if the electric flow is powerful enough, it could destroy.

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  • $\begingroup$ Sorry but not nearly close ;) $\endgroup$
    – Noldor130884
    Commented Dec 22, 2014 at 19:44
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*Hello everyone, my name is Jay

Jay is Carbon ?

I work for you 24 hours a day,
but don't get me wrong I know not Silent Bob
and got nothing to do with weed on the job.

we are carbon-based

My kind can be you or you can be me
if you know a body by its chemistry.
We're not only human, but mostly a thing!

carbon form many compounds, and is present in air

We have many shapes, on the air we are king.
Our children you could surf but not in the sea
(for some they are a monstruosity!).
They fly, they bounce, they bend,
but always to us they end!

also fuel

We get and we give even not alive,
but to do our best we need a good drive,
for we can make work a lot you possess,
even destroy it if working in excess.*

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    $\begingroup$ Nice answer, but... Nope. Would you say "On the air we are king" about something that is present only in a small % in the air? Plus, why should be carbon a monstruosity? And who are its children that "you could surf but not in the sea"? $\endgroup$
    – Noldor130884
    Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 10:16
  • $\begingroup$ @Noldor130884, hmmm, Jay is an element right? - and it's derivative can be found on the surface of the water, but not inside it? ... so that rules out Hydrogen (although they will fit the 'king in the air" thing). $\endgroup$
    – Angel Koh
    Commented Dec 30, 2014 at 2:25
  • $\begingroup$ Nope :) You're thinking too much Chemistry and less Physics $\endgroup$
    – Noldor130884
    Commented Jan 9, 2015 at 6:51

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