Site Design
This site and all of the sub-sites excepting Critical Mass are written in XML that is converted to HTML via a series of XSLT 2.0 stylesheets (as many as four for one page) and then displayed using a series of CSS stylesheets (as many as three for one page). The navigable version of this page is precompiled HTML, although the data files are also online as backups. As, IE still basically uses HTML as a display layer when browsing XHTML and there were a few additional coding issues with switching to XHTML, I didn't bother.
This site is white (well, 90% white: #E5E5E5) on black. Deal with it. (Besides, it's easier on your eyes.) It's also very utilitarian. This site is about content, not looking pretty.
There are a variety of display issues that stem lack of support for specific CSS codes, conflicting interpretations of the CSS standard, and quirks and outright bugs in various broswers. (IE is not the only culprit when it comes to bugs.) Where I've had to choose between browsers or OSs, I've generally gone for making things work for the largest number of people; Windows XP probably looks best, although IE and Firefox generally look equally good (or bad)..
Best viewed on my own computer.