150 years ago today Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on the Gettysburg battlefield to consecrate the ground where Americans died. Milestone Documents in American History , a book from the Gale Virtual Reference Library, puts this incredible speech in context.  I’ve blogged about the Gettysburg Address before, but I’m doing it again. I’m an Abraham Lincoln superfan and agree with Ken Burns that all Americans should take two minutes out of their day to read this speech (Actually, Ken Burns believes everyone should learn it and recite it. I’m only asking you to read it today). Its principles are still as important today as they were 150 years ago. (And it never fails to choke me up).

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Have I got an offer for you! You can download Browzine, an app that gives you tables of contents, as well as actual articles, to some of your favorite academic journals. Need to keep up in your profession? Love to browse journals?  We’ve written about Browzine before but I thought I’d mention it again.  You can watch this 7 minute presentation about what it is and how it works. And in less than 8 minutes, you’ll be browsing some of UST’s academic journals* on your tablet.

*Browzine does not include all journals UST libraries subscribe to, but a lot. You can find the entire journal collection here.

It’s no secret that YouTube is LOADED with cat videos.  Seems like the interwebs can’t get enough of the furry critters.  There’s LOLcats.com, the Internet Cat Video Film Festival (held last year at our very own Walker Art Center), “I can has” is a thing, and Grumpy Cat.  In fact, Grumpy Cat has even signed a movie deal (I’m sure it’ll be as good as everything Garfield).  But do we really know the origins of cat filming?  I think I might have traced it back to the very root.  One of Thomas Edison’s early films was called Boxing Cats, which is exactly what it sounds like. Apparently the boxing was part of a larger cat circus, but Tom decided only to film the cats boxing, which is a bummer cuz I’d like to see cats riding bicycles.  I found this on VAST,  a streaming video site.  It includes early films from all the great pioneering filmmakers; Cecil B. DeMille, D. W. Griffiths, Ernst Lubitsch and many others.  You can watch The Great Train Robbery, Films of the San Francisco Earthquake, and The Fugitive, and for those of you who prefer your horror cat-free, check out Nosferatu.  Maaaaaan, that is a scary movie.

Now before everyone pounces on me for not loving cats, I’ll just say this… I’m allergic to cats.