No real reason to this post other than I recently had to use a circuit board in a design and couldn’t find a high res example anywhere on the interwebs. I ended up scanning one I had to hand so thought I’d share. Download the large JPEG here (3114×3763 pixels @ 1.84mb). Hope it helps.

Spotted this t-shirt design while on holiday last year and thought I’d share. Not sure if I’m reading too much into it but if I have it right, it was very clever statement on China’s hosting of the Olympic games and the country’s dubious human rights stance, specifically referring to the now infamous Tiananmen Square incident.

Searched high and low for one but can’t seem to find one anywhere. Any help tracking one down would be most welcome.

On a recent visit to LA, our ‘man on the west coast’ Shann Biglione showed me the Griffith Observatory overlooking the city. The view was stunning, even if my crappy iPhone camera wasn’t up to the job of going it justice.

We had a short chat with a chap who can only described as an ‘Astro Nerd’. He was very unselfishly allowing passers-by to look at a bunch of stars through a telescope. Deep down I know we had some astronomy connections in our family and I mentioned my surname. Astro Nerd squinted, mumbled something about recognising the name but ultimately, wasn’t that impressed.

Googling “Burbidge” (and ignoring all the woodwork results) the main Wikipedia entry is indeed for my great aunt Margaret Burbidge, with a slightly smaller entry for my great uncle Geoffery Burbidge. To my knowledge, I have never met them but a quick scan of the Wikipedia entry, they sound really quite impressive.

In recent years, Geoffery is known mostly for his alternative cosmology theory, which contradicts the Big Bang theory. I actually get where he’s coming from here too. Have a look at his web site and you get the idea.

He also has an asteroid named after him called “11753 FKLG FG RTG Geoffburbidge“. Now pause… take a few moments to think how amazing that is!

Now, if that wasn’t cool enough, Margaret not only has the usual bunch of awards and what-not to her name but is also mentioned on the NASA website for her asteroid, the slightly snappier “5490 Burbidge“. The NASA page has a few sub links, all a bit dry for me but I did manage to glean that said asteroid is in orbit between Mars and Jupiter.

Here’s where it is right now… literally, right now…

Makes me think a little more when I look up at the night sky. I can say hello to old 11753 FKLG FG RTG Geoffburbidge and 5490 Burbidge… if I can remember their names. I may just call them the Burbidgaroids for short but I have a sneaky suspicion that’s a medical affliction. Can’t wait to tell the kids about the Burbidgaroids though.

Keep seeing this fantastic thing on my way into work. Managed to track the importer down to Algys Autos Ltd and turns out it’s a Subaru Samba van. They go for about £4000 and come with a 600cc or 1200cc engine apparently. I want one!

Here’s a variant I found in full-on works Subaru paint scheme! Daft.

So why the van fetish you may ask? I used to be big into V-Dubs at college and had a few beetles for my sins. I always secretly hankered after a Type 2 Split Kombi van, the one the mini-vw van above is trying so hard to emulate. Like so…

You may recognise the ‘Split Kombi’ from our friend Fillmore in the Disney/Pixar movie Cars.

However, closest I got was owning one of these puppies (Bedford Rascal) to truck my mountain bikes around in, bless…

But I always wanted to do this to it… and only got as far as a mild Photoshop suspension lowering and tinted glass…

Not quite as cool as the cute Subaru Samba that inspired this post but you can see why it struck chord. When I’m rich… this is the first thing I will do. Probably.

In a world where ‘lol’ is used every other sentence, this was a genuine, real, proper lol moment. Didn’t think they actually existed these days. Possibly could have turned into a lmao with a few beers on the go. The proximity of chair prevented a rofl.

Now go and do it yourself.

Been a while since I started the track bike project and finally managed to ride it a few days ago. Thought I’d share a few thoughts.

1) I love it! Managed to build the entire thing for about £475 all in. Very pleased with the quirky looks.

2) Yes I did go for the orange Velocity wheels! :)

3) Wow, it’s interesting to get your head round not ‘coasting’. My first ride was a slightly rushed ‘hack’ into central London for a meeting. Not the best time to learn but I survived. I did have a proper panic on Highgate West Hill though when I realised that if my newly fitted and untested brakes didn’t work, I was only going to speed up until I hit something. On a mountain bike, I can hit 40+mph down that hill, so the outcome of a runaway fixie makes you shudder. Dislocated kneed and a fat lip at the very least.

4) I went on a taster course at the outdoor velodrome at Welwyn Garden City courtesy of Welwyn Wheelers. Turned up, paid a fiver to hire a bike and had an hour’s tuition and introduction into track cycling. It was brilliant. Ok, it’s out of season now so the hardcore stuff isn’t so hard, but come the new season, I’ll be back… and I have the bike for it too! Check it out if you can, really friendly, slightly scary and a great story for the pub.

5) It’s been interesting to see the difference in attitudes that exist in the cycling world, and nothing splits them like a ‘fixie’ bike it seems. I’m from hairy-legged, beer drinking, mountain bike stock and was amazed at relatively icy approach of the London fixie scene. I visited a special fixed wheel bike forum called londonfgss (London Fixed Gear and Single Speed) and, well, I may as well have turned up naked to a WI cake sale. Everyone seems to mildly hate each other and dismiss you if you have gears or like any colour other than silver or black. Very curious bunch and not somewhere I’d recommend a newbie fixie rider starts off. Maybe progress there when you have thick enough skin. It reminds me of the tension between skiers and snowboarders back in the day. It’ll pass, hopefully.

As a contrast, there’s a great forum for retro bikes called (unsurprisingly) RetroBike. Completely different scene. Same kind of narrow focus but packed with people you wouldn’t mind having a pint with.

Anyhoo, will report back if anything mad happens but for now, that’s the latest bike chapter closed. Now I just have to ride the damn thing.