It's funny about #1, since when the NewsFeed appeared on Facebook most people were mad about the change. It was a weird thing going from assuming that only people who viewed your profile (e.g. enough to care) would see your goofy pics, and then now they were splashed in front of anyone you added as a 'friend'.
Maybe most people who were vocal about the change were mad, while the rest of us happily used it. I do remember how jarring the change felt, but it quickly become obvious what a new and useful experience it was.
Presumably it would display the same "There's no news; you should add some more friends!" message you get when you've first signed up and skipped the friend-recommendation step.
A combination of NoScript and / or RequestPolicy works best for this. No need to rely on software that sometimes doesn't truly block all advertisements.
