No widgets displaying on dashboard page

I've seen similar titles, but when i read them- they're not quite the same..

Ive selected Default Widgets..

Then i set my users dashboard as the default layout (i am logged in as admin)..

Then i went to http://www.{site}.com/dashboard

I get the three main tabs (Dashboard, More Widgets, Add Tab)

i can see there is some kind of javascript going on, but nothing is really happening..

and the 3 columns that i can see in the source of the page are blank..

thoughts?

thanks