Yeah I found that loading indicator bizarre. What am I waiting for? Is it circumventing the browser's rendering engine and doing it all in canvas or something? (I mean, I know it's not, that would be silly. It's more likely having to make multiple network requests to fetch the rest of the content.)

I can understand the other javascript-ey bits as forgoing some amount of UX/usability in exchange for flashier visuals. But the loading indicator on initial page load just doesn't make sense to me.