Is it possible to disable auto-refresh on the homepage?

It is causing the following observed issues:

• The dropdown menu flickers when in it’s open state, even if there are no updates. I assume the DOM is being updated even when there are no updates?
• The refresh causes images which have been expanded to be hidden again.

Personally, I would just like the option to disable auto-refresh. I can do that myself once I have read everything on the page.