This commit contains a lot of changes relevant to the most recent goal for a dscourse release. Those changes are documented at: https://docs.google.com/a/virginia.edu/folder/d/0B4hpIvAfNpSFWDlRVXVvbHFiRUk/edit?docId=1BksCXF-E9KRKn0i8GNRo6BjUcKR7O6Zli4JlMUh61sc. Also I uncovered some dates bugs that have been fixed.