I have modified my bootstrap skeleton top nav to this: http://jsfiddle.net/55dTU/
<div class="navbar navbar-static-top">
<div class="navbar-inner">
<div class="container">
<a class="btn btn-navbar" data-target=".nav-collapse" data-toggle="collapse">
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
</a>
<a class="brand" href="/">SketchFemme</a>
<div class="brand slogan">
<span>pencial mileage</span><br>
<span>one curve at a time</span>
</div>
<div class="container nav-collapse">
<ul class="nav">
<li><a href="/artists">Artists</a></li>
<li><a href="/path2">Onion Skin</a></li>
<li><a href="/path3">News</a></li>
<li><a href="/path3">About</a></li>
</ul>
<ul class="nav" id="account_corner">
<a href="/artists/homonolocus">homonolocus</a>
<span class="divider">|</span>
<a href="/edit">Settings</a>
<span class="divider">|</span>
<a href="/logout" data-method="delete" rel="nofollow">Sign out</a>
</ul>
</div><!--/.nav-collapse -->
</div>
</div>
</div>
Bootstrap .container sets the width to 1170px. Can someone please tell me why the .container.nav-collapse div can be nested inside .navbar-inner .container and somehow overlap the .brand and slogan? I would think since every instance of .container is the width of 1170px, that the .nav links would be forced into the next line instead of being on the same line as the brand and slogan.
My question isn't so much that I need something to be fixed. Rather I'm asking for an explanation of why this works. Why can one .container contain another .container, of the same width right on top of it. I was looking for a position:absolute which would allow that, but I don't find any. How does the ul.nav know where to indent?... there is no left padding and no left margin, and the containing element spans the entire width of the navbar. I want to know how this is being achieved.