[TeMPOraL]

<Insert the long list of arguments about Internet (especially _fast_ Internet) not being as ubiquitous as living in SV could make you think.>

That behind us, there's also a matter of reliability and control. Services live much shorter than data they process; given today's trend, I wouldn't expect an online-only paper to be available after 5-10 years. Having a self-contained bundle would let me archive it independently, and would prevent any third parties from being able to interfere with my reading/exploration.

[the_duke]

You can write self contained, single file .html documents just fine.

[pjmlp]

Not when you need images, and if you need to display 3D data you are required to actually serve textures over a server.

[elcomet]

You can embed images in the HTML as well

[pjmlp]

Sure, if you resort to tricks like Base64 encoding in strings, that won't do for WebGL textures though.