diff --git a/app/views/shared/_publisher.html.haml b/app/views/shared/_publisher.html.haml
index 2c76eab50..4c8d86094 100644
--- a/app/views/shared/_publisher.html.haml
+++ b/app/views/shared/_publisher.html.haml
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
   .content_creation
     = form_for(StatusMessage.new) do |status|
       = status.error_messages
-      %p
+      %div
         %params
           #publisher_textarea_wrapper
             = link_to( image_tag('deletelabel.png'), "#", :id => "hide_publisher", :title => t('.discard_post'))
diff --git a/public/javascripts/app/helpers/date_formatter.js b/public/javascripts/app/helpers/date_formatter.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..dbcb005b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/public/javascripts/app/helpers/date_formatter.js
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+(function(){
+  var dateFormatter = function dateFormatter() {
+
+  };
+
+  dateFormatter.parse = function(date_string) {
+    var timestamp = new Date(date_string).getTime();
+
+    if (isNaN(timestamp)) {
+      timestamp = dateFormatter.parseISO8601UTC(date_string);
+    }
+
+    return timestamp;
+  },
+
+  dateFormatter.parseISO8601UTC = function(date_string) {
+    var iso8601_utc_pattern = /^(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})T(\d{2}):(\d{2}):(\d{2})(.(\d{3}))?Z$/;
+    var time_components = date_string.match(iso8601_utc_pattern);
+    var timestamp = 0;
+
+    if (time_components != null) {
+      if (time_components[8] == undefined) {
+        time_components[8] = 0;
+      }
+
+      timestamp = Date.UTC(time_components[1], time_components[2] - 1, time_components[3],
+                           time_components[4], time_components[5], time_components[6],
+                           time_components[8]);
+    }
+
+    return timestamp;
+  },
+
+  app.helpers.dateFormatter = dateFormatter;
+})();
diff --git a/public/javascripts/app/models/photo.js b/public/javascripts/app/models/photo.js
index 05b4a3c1e..cefbb0e1d 100644
--- a/public/javascripts/app/models/photo.js
+++ b/public/javascripts/app/models/photo.js
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ app.models.Photo = Backbone.Model.extend({
   },
 
   timeOf: function(field) {
-    return new Date(this.get(field)) /1000;
+    return app.helpers.dateFormatter.parse(this.get(field)) / 1000;
   },
 
-});
\ No newline at end of file
+});
diff --git a/public/javascripts/app/models/post.js b/public/javascripts/app/models/post.js
index c7ad731c6..a5beb5ecd 100644
--- a/public/javascripts/app/models/post.js
+++ b/public/javascripts/app/models/post.js
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ app.models.Post = Backbone.Model.extend({
   },
 
   timeOf: function(field) {
-    return new Date(this.get(field)) /1000;
+    return app.helpers.dateFormatter.parse(this.get(field)) / 1000;
   },
 
   createReshareUrl : "/reshares",
diff --git a/spec/javascripts/app/app_spec.js b/spec/javascripts/app/app_spec.js
index 96884b650..f85054293 100644
--- a/spec/javascripts/app/app_spec.js
+++ b/spec/javascripts/app/app_spec.js
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ describe("app", function() {
   describe("user", function() {
     it("sets the user if given one and returns the current user", function() {
       expect(app.user()).toBeFalsy()
+    });
 
     it("sets the user if given one and returns the current user", function() {
       expect(app.user().authenticated()).toBeFalsy()
diff --git a/spec/javascripts/app/helpers/date_formatter_spec.js b/spec/javascripts/app/helpers/date_formatter_spec.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9d317a108
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/javascripts/app/helpers/date_formatter_spec.js
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+describe("app.helpers.dateFormatter", function(){
+
+  beforeEach(function(){
+    this.statusMessage = factory.post();
+    this.formatter = app.helpers.dateFormatter;
+  })
+
+  describe("parse", function(){
+    context("modern web browsers", function(){
+      it ("supports ISO 8601 UTC dates", function(){
+        var timestamp = new Date(this.statusMessage.get("created_at")).getTime(); 
+        expect(this.formatter.parse(this.statusMessage.get("created_at"))).toEqual(timestamp);
+      })
+    })
+
+    context("legacy web browsers", function(){
+      it("supports ISO 8601 UTC dates", function(){
+        var timestamp = new Date(this.statusMessage.get("created_at")).getTime(); 
+
+        expect(this.formatter.parseISO8601UTC(this.statusMessage.get("created_at"))).toEqual(timestamp);
+      })
+    })
+
+    context("status messages", function(){
+      it("uses ISO 8601 UTC dates", function(){
+        var iso8601_utc_pattern = /^(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})T(\d{2}):(\d{2}):(\d{2})(.(\d{3}))?Z$/;
+
+        expect(iso8601_utc_pattern.test(this.statusMessage.get("created_at"))).toBe(true);
+      })
+    })
+  })
+
+})