Start of the jQuery switch

I keep saying 'oh i should do this one more thing before i send this' but that could go on forever, and this is definitely better than what there is now, soooo i'm sending this. I'm totally cool with not merging it if it breaks something or wouldn't be useful unless X was working, etc.

I tried to keep notes in app/assets/javascripts/notes.md about what's not done yet and what I think we might want to never do and what I have no idea how it ever worked, etc :)