Is the Cat House Will a Hoax?

I've been reading a book of interesting lists and the list for strange wills mentions Jonathan Jackson. He died around 1880 and supposedly left money to establish a house for cats. They could even listen to accordion music! Found another mention of him on the web here. It's nearly verbatim with the book's entry. Was the "cat house" ever established? What are the sources of the story? I suspect that this story may be a hoax given the scant evidence and repetitions of the story. If you have pertinent info to share about him please comment.

North Pole May be Ice Free for the First Time in History

Ok, I've read a little further in my Rule the Web and found that I broke a suggested rule in that I had more than one link in my post. Another rule is to try to have a post a day, excluding weekends. So here's today's.

National Geographic is reporting that the North Pole may be ice free for the first time in history this summer. If I'm reading the article correctly, it seems like areas around the north pole may retain ice. And...there'll probably still be ice in refrigerators there.

Link

Hello World!

This is the first entry in my first blog. Thanks to Mark Frauenfelder and his book Rule the Web. It's a very useful how-to book about the internet written by the founder of the most popular blog, boingboing. I don't know why the companion site isn't yet live.

It may be a while before I'm on a daily schedule with the postings. Please be patient.