The lauburu, literally “four heads” in Basque, is a ubiquitous and ancient Basque symbol. You see it all over the place in the Basque Country and has become a national identifying symbol. It has obvious connections to other four-armed symbols, such as the swastika, a symbol that appears in many parts of the world, including India and North America.
Some how, all of these different cultures came up with very similar symbols. It seems unlikely that they all communicated and shared a common origin for the symbol unless they obtained the symbol before the migrations out of Africa. But, that seems unlikely as well.
One theory, posited by Carl Sagan and others, is that there was a celestial event involving a comet that most of the world could see. As described in this Wikipedia article, depending on the orientation of the comet, an outgasing comet could lead to a pinwheel type structure in the heavens, something many people could have seen, leading to the lauburu and swastika.
Now, there are reports on a massive comet event, occuring about 13,000 years ago, that destroyed a lot of the larger animal life in North America and all over the world. As described in this Guardian article, there is evidence, in the form of nanoscopic diamonds found all over the world, that a comet hit the Earth about 13,000 years ago and profoundly changed the planet, wiping out a number of species, including human populations.
Such an event would surely have registered in the consciousness of humans of the time. And it would have been an event that most people might have seen. And it is a recent-enough event that, once embedded in culture, it could have lasted until modern day.
Of course, this is no proof that the two items — the lauburu and this particular comet event — are connected, but it is intriguing. It certainly makes me wonder.
Lisa and I just got a 2004 Toyota Prius. So, it is a couple of years old but in good condition and has low milage. I thought I’d keep a “diary” of sorts here on what we think and how this experience goes.
The 
Game theory is an up and coming field that tries to bring the rigor of mathematics to human endeavors such as economics, political science and business. Perhaps the most famous game in game theory is the prisoner’s dilemma, as described on the site 
Mathematics is a broad field with differing levels of applicability to other, more “mundane” disciplines. One example of a branch of mathematics that started off as mathematicians doing math just for the hell of it, but has begun having ramifications for science, is the area of knot theory. For example, knot theory is playing a role in string theory, the supposed successor to quantum field theory and the current best candidate for a Grand Unified Theory of everything.
The final site I wanted to mention today is Ben Goldacre’s