186 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
186 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
---
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import Layout from '@/layouts/Layout.astro';
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import FilterableBookGrid from '@/components/FilterableBookGrid';
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import { getCollection } from 'astro:content';
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import { serializeBook } from '@/lib/types';
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const allBooks = await getCollection('books');
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const mimsBooks = allBooks
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.filter(book => book.data.collection === 'mims')
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.sort((a, b) => a.data.sortOrder - b.data.sortOrder);
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// Get unique topics for filtering
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const allTopics = [...new Set(mimsBooks.flatMap(book => book.data.topics))].sort();
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const serializedBooks = mimsBooks.map(serializeBook);
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---
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<Layout
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title="Mims Mini-Notebooks"
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description="The complete collection of Forrest M. Mims III's Radio Shack Engineer's Mini-Notebooks"
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>
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<div class="space-y-8">
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<!-- Header -->
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<div class="space-y-4">
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<div class="flex items-center gap-2 text-sm text-muted-foreground">
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<a href="/" class="hover:text-foreground transition-colors">Home</a>
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<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="14" height="14" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round">
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<polyline points="9 18 15 12 9 6"/>
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</svg>
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<span>Mims Collection</span>
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</div>
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<div class="flex flex-col md:flex-row md:items-end justify-between gap-4">
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<div>
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<h1 class="text-3xl md:text-4xl font-bold title-accent">
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Forrest Mims Mini-Notebooks
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</h1>
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<p class="text-muted-foreground mt-2 max-w-2xl">
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The complete Radio Shack Engineer's Mini-Notebook series. Hand-illustrated electronics
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education that taught a generation of engineers and hobbyists.
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</p>
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</div>
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<div class="flex items-center gap-2 text-sm text-muted-foreground">
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<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round">
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<path d="M2 3h6a4 4 0 0 1 4 4v14a3 3 0 0 0-3-3H2z"/>
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<path d="M22 3h-6a4 4 0 0 0-4 4v14a3 3 0 0 1 3-3h7z"/>
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</svg>
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<span>{mimsBooks.length} notebooks</span>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<!-- Filterable grid with topic tags -->
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<FilterableBookGrid books={serializedBooks} allTopics={allTopics} collectionSlug="mims" client:load />
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<!-- About the Author -->
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<section class="mt-12 p-6 md:p-8 rounded-lg bg-card border border-border space-y-8">
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<div class="grid md:grid-cols-[280px_1fr] gap-6 md:gap-8 items-start">
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<div class="space-y-3">
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<figure class="overflow-hidden rounded-lg border border-border">
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<img
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src="/images/author/mims-portrait-2016.jpg"
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alt="Forrest M. Mims III with his atmospheric measurement instruments at Geronimo Creek Observatory, Texas, 2016"
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class="w-full object-cover"
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loading="lazy"
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/>
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<figcaption class="px-3 py-2 text-[11px] text-muted-foreground bg-muted/50">
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Mims at Geronimo Creek Observatory, 2016. Photo by Minnie C. Mims, public domain via
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<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Forrest_Mims" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="underline hover:text-foreground">Wikimedia Commons</a>.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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</div>
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<div class="space-y-4">
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<h3 class="text-xl font-semibold title-accent text-foreground">About Forrest M. Mims III</h3>
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<p class="text-sm text-muted-foreground leading-relaxed">
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Forrest M. Mims III is a Texas A&M University graduate, amateur scientist, inventor, and
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one of the most widely read electronics authors in American history. His Radio Shack
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Engineer's Mini-Notebook series — featuring hand-lettered text and meticulously drawn
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circuit diagrams — sold over 7.5 million copies and introduced an entire generation to
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practical electronics.
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</p>
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<p class="text-sm text-muted-foreground leading-relaxed">
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Beyond the notebooks, Mims designed atmospheric science instruments used by NASA and
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has published in <em>Nature</em>, <em>Science</em>, and numerous other journals. He has
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conducted daily atmospheric measurements at his Geronimo Creek Observatory in Texas
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since 1990 — a continuous record spanning over three decades. <em>Discover</em> magazine
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named him one of the "50 Best Brains in Science" in 2008.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<!-- Photo gallery -->
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<div class="grid grid-cols-2 gap-4">
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<figure class="overflow-hidden rounded-lg border border-border">
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<img
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src="/images/author/mims-vietnam-rocket-1967.jpg"
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alt="Forrest Mims preparing a model rocket for launch near Saigon, Vietnam, 1967"
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class="w-full aspect-square object-cover object-top"
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loading="lazy"
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/>
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<figcaption class="px-3 py-2 text-[11px] text-muted-foreground bg-muted/50">
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Preparing a model rocket near Saigon, 1967. US Air Force photo, public domain via
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<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forrest_Mims_Rocket_Vietnam_1967_Cropped.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="underline hover:text-foreground">Wikimedia Commons</a>.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<figure class="overflow-hidden rounded-lg border border-border">
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<img
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src="/images/author/mims-tx1-rocket-1970.jpg"
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alt="Forrest Mims with a 1970 model rocket equipped with the first MITS TX-1 telemetry transmitter"
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class="w-full aspect-square object-cover object-top"
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loading="lazy"
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/>
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<figcaption class="px-3 py-2 text-[11px] text-muted-foreground bg-muted/50">
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With the first MITS TX-1 telemetry transmitter, 1970. Photo by Mark Langford,
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<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="underline hover:text-foreground">CC BY-SA 4.0</a> via
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<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forrest_Mims_with_his_1970_rocket_equipped_with_a_TX-1,_MITS%27_first_telemetry_transmitter.JPG" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="underline hover:text-foreground">Wikimedia Commons</a>.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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</div>
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<!-- Run Forrest Run -->
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<div class="border-t border-border pt-6 space-y-4">
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<h3 class="text-lg font-semibold title-accent text-foreground">"Run, Forrest, Run!"</h3>
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<figure class="overflow-hidden rounded-lg border border-border bg-stone-950">
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<video
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class="w-full"
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controls
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preload="metadata"
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poster="/videos/run-forrest-run-poster.jpg"
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>
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<source src="/videos/run-forrest-run.webm" type="video/webm" />
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<source src="/videos/run-forrest-run.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
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Your browser does not support the video element.
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</video>
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<figcaption class="px-3 py-2 text-[11px] text-muted-foreground bg-muted/50">
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"Run, Forrest, Run!" — <em>Forrest Gump</em> (1994), Paramount Pictures. Clip via
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSMxl1V8FSg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="underline hover:text-foreground">Movieclips/YouTube</a>.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<div class="text-sm text-muted-foreground leading-relaxed space-y-3 max-w-prose">
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<p>
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There's a reason that scene hits so hard. As an infant, I wore old-school foot braces — a
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pair of rigid shoes bolted to a metal bar that kept my legs aligned. I still get phantom
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sensations of not being able to move my legs independently, decades later. Dreams where
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I'm trying to run but something invisible holds my feet together.
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</p>
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<p>
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Forrest Mims' notebooks were my version of Jenny yelling "Run!" His hand-drawn circuits
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didn't care about your background or your limitations. They just said: here's how a
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transistor works, here's how to build something real. That directness — no gatekeeping,
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no prerequisites, just knowledge laid bare on the page — made electronics feel like
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something I could actually <em>do</em>. Not just read about. Do.
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</p>
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<p>
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Learning from Mims felt like the moment the braces broke off. Suddenly the thing that
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seemed impossibly complicated was just... circuits. Components. Connections you could
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trace with your finger. And once you built your first blinking LED or heard your first
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555 timer squeal, there was no going back. You were running.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="border-t border-border pt-6">
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<div class="flex items-start gap-4">
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<div class="w-10 h-10 rounded-lg bg-accent/20 flex items-center justify-center shrink-0">
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<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="text-accent-foreground">
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<circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"/>
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<line x1="12" x2="12" y1="16" y2="12"/>
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<line x1="12" x2="12.01" y1="8" y2="8"/>
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</svg>
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</div>
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<div>
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<h3 class="font-semibold text-foreground">About This Collection</h3>
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<p class="text-sm text-muted-foreground mt-1">
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These notebooks were originally published by Radio Shack between 1985 and 1993.
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All materials have been preserved and made available through Archive.org's
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Folkscanomy project. Click any notebook to view it with our embedded PDF reader,
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or download it in various formats.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</section>
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</div>
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</Layout>
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