diff --git a/actions/favorited.php b/actions/favorited.php
index 231b978973..20a354674f 100644
--- a/actions/favorited.php
+++ b/actions/favorited.php
@@ -143,6 +143,25 @@ class FavoritedAction extends Action
         $this->elementStart('div', 'instructions');
         $this->raw($output);
         $this->elementEnd('div');
+
+        $favorite = new Fave;
+
+        if ($favorite->count()) {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        $message = _('Favorite notices appear on this page but noone has favorited one yet.') . ' ';
+
+        if (common_logged_in()) {
+            $message .= _('Be the first to add a notice to your favorites by clicking the fave button next to any notice you like.');
+        }
+        else {
+            $message .= _('Why not [register an account](%%action.register%%) and be the first to add a notice to your favorites!');
+        }
+
+        $this->elementStart('div', 'blankfiller');
+        $this->raw(common_markup_to_html($message));
+        $this->elementEnd('div');
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/actions/public.php b/actions/public.php
index fca90488fe..5a2720a9ad 100644
--- a/actions/public.php
+++ b/actions/public.php
@@ -168,14 +168,13 @@ class PublicAction extends Action
 
     function showPageNotice()
     {
-        $notice = Notice::publicStream(0, 1);
+        $notice = new Notice;
 
         if (!$notice) {
             $this->serverError(_('Could not retrieve public stream.'));
             return;
         }
 
-        // no notices in the public stream, let's get out of here
         if ($notice->count()) {
             return;
         }
diff --git a/actions/publictagcloud.php b/actions/publictagcloud.php
index 5322372b2a..5bc7e0cbff 100644
--- a/actions/publictagcloud.php
+++ b/actions/publictagcloud.php
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ class PublictagcloudAction extends Action
                        sprintf(_('These are most popular recent tags on %s '),
                                common_config('site', 'name')));
 
-        $tags = new Notice_tag();
+        $tags = new Notice_tag;
         if ($tags->count()) {
             return;
         }
diff --git a/db/notice_source.sql b/db/notice_source.sql
index d28a09383f..5d48e66b62 100644
--- a/db/notice_source.sql
+++ b/db/notice_source.sql
@@ -45,4 +45,5 @@ VALUES
     ('twitux','Twitux','http://live.gnome.org/DanielMorales/Twitux', now()),
     ('twitvim','TwitVim','http://vim.sourceforge.net/scripts/script.php?script_id=2204', now()),
     ('urfastr','urfastr','http://urfastr.net/', now()),
-    ('adium', 'Adium', 'http://www.adiumx.com/', now());
+    ('adium', 'Adium', 'http://www.adiumx.com/', now()),
+    ('yatca','Yatca','http://www.yatca.com/', now());
diff --git a/lib/util.php b/lib/util.php
index ad1044fa23..78b5a36f87 100644
--- a/lib/util.php
+++ b/lib/util.php
@@ -581,10 +581,8 @@ function common_shorten_link($url, $reverse = false)
 
 function common_xml_safe_str($str)
 {
-    $xmlStr = htmlentities(iconv('UTF-8', 'UTF-8//IGNORE', $str), ENT_NOQUOTES, 'UTF-8');
-
-    // Replace control, formatting, and surrogate characters with '*', ala Twitter
-    return preg_replace('/[\p{Cc}\p{Cf}\p{Cs}]/u', '*', $str);
+    // Neutralize control codes and surrogates
+	return preg_replace('/[\p{Cc}\p{Cs}]/u', '*', $str);
 }
 
 function common_tag_link($tag)