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In conjunction with the new site design Jin has proposed, we may get to choose images to put on the 404 error and captcha pages. (I'm not sure if there are any other pages there are that we can customize, but if so, I hope someone else will edit them in.) The main theme is pretty clean and not very physics-specific, but these error pages are a good chance to work some inside jokes and physics references into the site design.

A few possibilities for the 404 page were proposed on the original design thread (though one of them may not be 404 material much longer :-P). We can reconsider those, and also collect new ones if anyone has them. So, what ideas do we have?

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3 Answers 3

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Idea for 404 page:

We couldn't find that page. Maybe it's hiding in these extra dimensions.

Or, try searching for... [here goes the standard 404 page stuff]

Calabi-Yau manifold

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    $\begingroup$ Ha ha good one, LOL :-) Maybe the title of the error page (together with this picture) could say alternatively ERROR 404: ACCESS TO HYPERSPACE DENIED, try to increase Your research effort (= energy). Then comes the standard error stuff ... $\endgroup$
    – Dilaton
    Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 8:23
  • $\begingroup$ Well, I wanted to stick to things that are actually capturing attention in the physics world. (Hyperspace is a sci-fi term.) Plus the 404 messages on other SE sites have a certain kind of laid-back tone that I'm trying to match. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 8:58
  • $\begingroup$ Ok , although I`ve heard or read sometimes that the extra dimensions of ST can be called "hyperspace" too ... Just thought it could boost the joke and the fun of the error message :-) $\endgroup$
    – Dilaton
    Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 9:44
  • $\begingroup$ Oh, well perhaps some people do use "hyperspace" that way. I haven't encountered that usage though, at least not enough to remember it. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 21:03
  • $\begingroup$ But 404 is not access denied (that's 403). $\endgroup$
    – celtschk
    Commented Jan 15, 2012 at 18:51
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enter image description here

An idea for error page, a bit inspired by OPERA result.

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  • $\begingroup$ Neat idea :-) though "error" is not what first springs to my mind when I see a binomial distribution. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Jan 18, 2012 at 0:57
  • $\begingroup$ @David It is all about x axis label. $\endgroup$
    – user68
    Commented Jan 18, 2012 at 10:40
  • $\begingroup$ Ahhh, I see. Maybe it would help to emphasize that a bit. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Jan 18, 2012 at 23:15
  • $\begingroup$ How does this say error? $\endgroup$
    – Lazer
    Commented Feb 1, 2012 at 18:49
  • $\begingroup$ @Lazer Superluminal speeds. $\endgroup$
    – user68
    Commented Feb 1, 2012 at 20:31
  • $\begingroup$ I like this one, but it will take some head-scratching unless the "c" is labeled as "speed of light", and "#" as number of events. Also it would hep if you titles the graph as "OPERA something" (The only reason I got the joke quickly was that I saw your caption below.) $\endgroup$
    – Manishearth
    Commented Feb 14, 2012 at 9:21
  • $\begingroup$ @Manishearth Thanks; I've improved a little according to your suggestions. $\endgroup$
    – user68
    Commented Feb 14, 2012 at 14:25
  • $\begingroup$ @Yup, much better.. The BALLET made me do a double-take though ;) $\endgroup$
    – Manishearth
    Commented Feb 14, 2012 at 14:36
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Riffing off the Higg's answer, other no-see-ems include magnetic monopoles, sterile neutrinos, squarks and sleptons, gravitons, the many kinds of quasi-particles that inhabit particle physics books (reggions, instatons, etc...).

Building an amusing graphical motif out of these critters is a little tricky, however...

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  • $\begingroup$ Maybe some blatant violations of the laws of nature, such as conservation laws, the second law of thermodynamics, or a sign error in gravity, etc could lead to some (more easily to picture) cute funny motifs too :-)... I`ll link them in if I stumble upon them. $\endgroup$
    – Dilaton
    Commented Jan 14, 2012 at 10:32

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