It works OK over here on this side of the planet.

I think a few of us here have forgotten where we started out, by this I mean, remember back in the days of 56k modems when it used to take AGES to get anything loaded on a web-page, even longer if that page actually had images (as small as they were back then).
This fault has nothing to do with Java, I might add and I find it strange how the chat indicator has been disabled, when it has nothing to do with the actual fault, which is more than likely an overloaded server, that is serving more than this particular site.
Personally, if the current server cannot "cut the mustard", it is surely time we moved to something more reliable.
To those people that say they had to log in again, the simple solution is to reset the cookies in your web browser, beit IE, Firefox or whatever you use.
Bill,
Don't get me wrong, I am not at all having a go at you or any of our members here, but it seems to me that some people are falling into the traps of the Generation Y folks that get all bent out of shape when things don't happen INSTANTLY!