http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Inman_Flash_Replacemen...
So why is this better than an image version of the title with alt text? That seems to be much easier, takes almost no resources, requires neither flash nor javascript, resizes automatically in Firefox (albeit using nearest neighbor, which is still better than not resizing at all).
Finally, is the font used for the title that important?
My points remain. An image would degrade just as gracefully and be just as accessible. And graceful degradation/accessibility seem to be answering the UI question for older browsers. What about current browsers? Since I have flash installed, the title is rendered using flash and now I can't resize/select the title. In this case, the "degraded" version seems like a step up.
Finally, yes, I know that typography is important in design. I was just wondering at what cost.
As for your resizing concern, sIFR should only be used for headlines. Typically, everyone can read text in that size (body copy may require resizing, but only a fool would run blocks of text through sIFR).