docs: function shimRequest() {
      var load, _jsonpCounter = 1
  
      // request is declared earlier
      request = function(options, cb) {
        var jsonpCallbackName = '_jsonpCallback' + _jsonpCounter++
          , url = 'https://' + options.host + options.path + '?callback=GITR.' + jsonpCallbackName
        GITR[jsonpCallbackName] = function(response) {
          if (response.meta.status >= 200 && response.meta.status < 300) {
            cb(null, response.data)
          }
          else {
            var err = new Error('http error')
            err.statusCode = response.meta.status
            err.response = response
            cb(err)
          }
          setTimeout(function() { delete GITR[jsonpCallbackName] }, 0)
        }
        load(url)
      }
  
      // bootstrap loader from LABjs (load is declared earlier)
      load = function(url) {
        var oDOC = document
        , handler
        , head = oDOC.head || oDOC.getElementsByTagName("head")
  
        // loading code borrowed directly from LABjs itself
        // (now removes script elem when done and nullifies its reference --sjs)
        setTimeout(function () {
          if ("item" in head) { // check if ref is still a live node list
            if (!head[0]) { // append_to node not yet ready
              setTimeout(arguments.callee, 25)
              return
            }
            head = head[0]; // reassign from live node list ref to pure node ref -- avoids nasty IE bug where changes to DOM invalidate live node lists
          }
          var scriptElem = oDOC.createElement("script")
            , scriptdone = false
  
          scriptElem.onload = scriptElem.onreadystatechange = function () {
            if ((scriptElem.readyState && scriptElem.readyState !== "complete" && scriptElem.readyState !== "loaded") || scriptdone) {
              return false
            }
            scriptElem.onload = scriptElem.onreadystatechange = null
            scriptElem.parentNode.removeChild(scriptElem)
            scriptElem = null
            scriptdone = true
          }
          scriptElem.src = url
          head.insertBefore(scriptElem, head.firstChild)
        }, 0) // setTimeout
  
        // required: shim for FF <= 3.5 not having document.readyState
        if (oDOC.readyState == null && oDOC.addEventListener) {
          oDOC.readyState = "loading"
          oDOC.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function handler() {
            oDOC.removeEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", handler, false)
            oDOC.readyState = "complete"
          }, false)
        }
  
      } // function load(url)
  
    }