Even though the DIV never gets attached to the DOM, some browsers will still load images and fire events. See [this comment](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1147359/how-to-decode-html-entities-using-jquery/2419664#comment6018122_2419664) on Stackoverflow Using a textarea instead of e a DIV is safer, [see here](http://stackoverflow.com/a/7394787/46433).