readability improvements to text

Edited some of the writing, fixed some minor grammar errors and rephrased a few things for clearer emphasis.
improved readability

Removed some colloquialisms, deleted some historical inaccuracies, which helped remove some logical inconsistencies. Tightened up some language and added commas where appropriate.
Clarified language, list 

Reorganized the list at the bottom, and deleted some redundant writing from the top.
minor edits

added paragraph breaks and removed some excess verbiage.
minor edits

But I might try this myself and see if there's more to say that might be helpful.
Merge pull request #63 from szeitlin/gh-pages

suggestions for readability.