It's amazing that in 2016 people still don't fall back gracefully in the absence of JavaScript and/or CSS.
That attitude is evil. That attitude underlies much (albeit not all) that is wrong with the Web in 2016. That attitude is wrong.
Espousing that attitude evidences a profound failure to understand the value of the Web.
It is worth the time to make your pages without JavaScript if you care about googlability, and accessibility.
But this presentation is just a bunch of text with navigation. This is what the web was written for, and it should work no matter whether you have CSS or JavaScript on, and it should use progressive enhancement to add on the useful features. That means using hyperlinks for navigation and CSS that doesn't hide all the content until your JS loads (which seems to be the problem with Chrome. The page actually is readable in Lynx).
Nothing amazing about it. At this point those are given prerequisites.
It's like websites are not catering for a fallback for lack of internet access or electricity.
No, no they are not. JavaScript is a privacy-destroying technology. It is a security-impairing technology. It is also pretty neat: it can be great in self-hosted applications, and it can add nice functionality when users trust a site.
Requiring it is akin to a restaurant requiring customers to deposit their wallets at the bar; it's akin to the police requiring the ability to read one's mind (with the promise that they won't abuse the privilege). Requiring JavaScript in order to display text and images is like the guys at the carwash requiring you to give them your house key as well as your car keys.
First, whether it's "privacy-destroying" or "security-impairing" is orthogonal to it being a prerequisite for the modern web. Especially since 99% of the people don't see it that way in the first place.
Second, they (government etc) can read all your mails, tap the backbones, and store your phone-calls, even track your moves through cell towers, and know everyone you spoke with. The websites you visit is probably the least interesting information about you.
>Requiring it is akin to a restaurant requiring customers to deposit their wallets at the bar; it's akin to the police requiring the ability to read one's mind
It's akin to this argument going nowhere because of hyperbole...
It's the way ANY slideshow works, on desktop and online form. And it's a trivial thing to try, even when not told to. Not to mention by now there have been around 1000 such slideshows posted on HN.