Load jquery.js async - possible?

Load jquery.js async - possible?

I'm using http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5/jquery.min.js on my site. Is it possible to load it asynchronously?

Like Google Analytics:

  1. (function() {
  2. var ga = document.createElement('script');
  3. ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ?
  4.     'https://ssl' : 'http://www') +
  5.     '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
  6. ga.setAttribute('async', 'true');
  7. document.documentElement.firstChild.appendChild(ga);
  8. })();
I think the big difference between ga.js and jquery.js is that
  1. Google Analytics doesn't modify the DOM
  2. No other scripts are depending on ga.js
Of course, since I'm using jquery, I want to modify the DOM. And I also have other scripts that depends on jquery. Does it matter?

Is there a way for me to load jquery.js asynchronously. And maby also other scripts on the same page, that depends on jquery to be loaded?

Are there any downsides?