Resolves a relative url against a base_url using browser internals not exposed to you in API form.

resolveURL.js

function resolveURL(url, base_url) {
  var doc      = document
    , old_base = doc.getElementsByTagName('base')[0]
    , old_href = old_base && old_base.href
    , doc_head = doc.head || doc.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]
    , our_base = old_base || doc_head.appendChild(doc.createElement('base'))
    , resolver = doc.createElement('a')
    , resolved_url
    ;
  our_base.href = base_url;
  resolver.href = url;
  resolved_url  = resolver.href; // browser magic at work here

  if (old_base) old_base.href = old_href;
  else doc_head.removeChild(our_base);

  return resolved_url;
}

doesn't work for me in IE8...