Moo River
Soothing music helps cows give more milk, researchers tell the BBC. Simon and Garfunkle, Beethoven and, yes, Danny Williams apparently calmed the cows, while up-tempo hits like Jamiroquai’s “Space Cowboy” had no effect.

Web Rings

Who’s going to control the Web sites for next year’s winter Olympics? Here’s a hint from the Industry Standard: like the games themselves, it’s a global monopoly run by an anticompetitive megalomaniac. What’s more, although now-defunct Quokka paid millions for the rights, Microsoft (good guess!) will get them for free.

Chunky Chicken
Although healthy in moderation, there are plenty of ways that chicken can make you fat (just ask Colonel Sanders). Now a study in Nature finds that you can return the favor, by way of a human virus that causes obesity in chickens.

Lake Quake
The Loch Ness monster may be neither hoax nor dinosaur, but a seismic phenomenon, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. An Italian Scientist suggests that a fault line beneath the Scottish lake may occasionally cause strange surface phenomena.

Cat-o-Nine Tails?
We hope not. But one company plans to give the world better pets through genetic engineering, reports the New York Times. Says a researcher at Transgenic Pets: “We feel confident by 2003 we’ll be able to produce an allergen-free cat.”

Last week: Play that Fungi Music