Three.js image disappearing after a few calls to requestAnimationFrame() - google-chrome

Question

I am trying to get some basic movement/refreshing working in Three.js. I've cut the problem back to the following code.
A sphere displays fine first render, and twice (dictate by Nb), but the image vanishes for 3 renders that are called via requestAnimationFrame(simulate) (for 4 it displays then disappears); Am I missing something in how repeated rendering should happen ?
var sphere, WIDTH, HEIGHT, VIEW_ANGLE, ASPECT, NEAR, FAR, renderer, camera, scene, sphereMaterial, radius, sphere, pointLight, container;
function init() {
WIDTH = 400;
HEIGHT = 300;
VIEW_ANGLE = 45;
ASPECT = WIDTH / HEIGHT;
NEAR = 0.1;
FAR = 10000;
container = $('#container');
renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();
camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera( VIEW_ANGLE,
ASPECT,
NEAR,
FAR );
scene = new THREE.Scene();
camera.position.z = 200;
renderer.setSize( WIDTH, HEIGHT );
container.append(renderer.domElement);
sphereMaterial = new THREE.MeshLambertMaterial(
{
color: 0xCC0000
});
radius = 50; segments = 16; rings = 16;
sphere = new THREE.Mesh(
new THREE.SphereGeometry(radius, segments, rings),
sphereMaterial);
//sphere.position.z -= 100;
scene.add(sphere);
scene.add(camera);
pointLight = new THREE.PointLight( 0xFFFFFF );
pointLight.position.x = 10;
pointLight.position.y = 50;
pointLight.position.z = 130;
scene.add(pointLight);
};
var Nb = 3;
var j = 0;
function simulate() {
console.log("simulate " + sphere.position.z);
if (j == Nb) { return; }
j++;
//sphere.position.z -= 1;
render();
requestAnimationFrame(simulate);
};
function render() {
console.log("rendering" + sphere.position.z);
renderer.render(scene,camera);
};
init();
simulate();`

Answer 1

This is solved after an update of Chromium browser in this case (and possible related libs/drivers) to version 25.0.1346.160. Isolated by using jsfiddle as shown above by Tomalak.