[FM Discuss] funny website behavior

[Bill McConnaughey]

Due to paranoia I like to unplug the ethernet when I am not actually using
it.  I have noticed that when firefox has loaded your website and then I
unplug, CPU usage goes up. This is typical (CPU usage is from the "top"  
command; "Intro" is http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/CommandLineIntro;
please view this table in plain text mode)

action                             firefox CPU usage %
plug in, go to dell.com            stays at 0
unplug                             stays at 0
plug in, go to Intro (no login)    3 (fluctuates-- 0 to 5)
unplug at time=0                   3
          time=2 min              12
          time=2 min 33 sec       22              all these fluctuate;
          time=5 min              60              typical values shown
          time=7 min              70
          time=12 min             98
plug in at time=0                 99.7
          time=2 min              99.7
          time=3 min              75 to 80
          time=5 min              70
          time=7 min              80
log in                            immediate drop to 3 

I know next to nothing about how networks work. Can anybody shed some 
light on this?