diff --git a/planet/sift.rb b/planet/sift.rb
index 1012d0a..81b54f2 100644
--- a/planet/sift.rb
+++ b/planet/sift.rb
@@ -112,15 +112,9 @@ def Planet.make_absolute node, attr_name
   include HTML5::HTMLSanitizeModule
   @sanitizer = HTML5::HTMLSanitizer.new ''
   def Planet.sanitize node, fido
-    # cull empty formatting elements.  They can cause FF & Konq to nest badly.
-    # For instance, <i/> causes everything after it to italicized, including other entries.
+    # ensure that non-void elements don't use XML's empty element syntax
     if node.elements.size == 0 && node.text == nil
-      if %w{abbr acronym b big cite code del dfn em i ins kbd s
-            samp small strike strong sub sup tt u var}.include? node.name
-        # If the node has no children and no text, it can only cause trouble.
-        node.remove
-        return
-      end
+      node.text = '' unless HTML5::VOID_ELEMENTS.include? node.name
     end
 
     node.elements.each {|child| sanitize child, fido}
diff --git a/test/sift.rb b/test/sift.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4960dc6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/sift.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+require 'test/unit'
+require 'planet/sift'
+
+class SiftTestCase < Test::Unit::TestCase
+  ATOMNS = 'xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"'
+
+  def test_empty_formatting_elements
+    # http://github.com/bronson/mars/commit/775bc2a397c7812ae67b9979f288c3c835aab059
+    title = "<title type='html' #{ATOMNS}>&lt;i/&gt;</title>"
+    doc = Planet::XmlParser.parse(title)
+    Planet.sift doc, nil
+    assert_equal '<i></i>', doc.elements['title/div'].to_a.join
+  end
+end
diff --git a/test/xmlparser.rb b/test/xmlparser.rb
index df1d26d..6ac79c9 100644
--- a/test/xmlparser.rb
+++ b/test/xmlparser.rb
@@ -15,4 +15,10 @@ def test_122
     doc = Planet::XmlParser.parse('<e a="&amp;"/>')
     assert_nil doc.to_s.index('&amp;amp;')
   end
+
+  def test_bozo
+    # http://github.com/bronson/mars/commit/567e2f3f459d446f0530bbd4c8acb00dde378420
+    doc = Planet::XmlParser.parse('<e a="&amp;">')
+    assert doc.bozo
+  end
 end