IE 8 Automatically Closing <header> tag
Fixed the issue by moving Modernizr, jQuery, and respond.js to the <head> of the DOM. Thanks for all the assistance!
One thing I noticed is the <nav> element, which isnt supported in IE8.. so it makes sense that you would have to move any shims and such in the header.
Thought this might be good information as to why.
The <nav> tag is supported in Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari.Note: Internet Explorer 8 and earlier versions, do not support the <nav> tag.Another article of interest, (Story of the HTML5 Shiv) by Paul Irish that states "the new elements cannot hold children and are unaffected by CSS", which could be why tags become self closing. Be interested if anyone can elaborate on if this is the culprit.