Seems to make sense, since Jerry was one of the Gratefully Dead.

As far as rationalists being unsuited for contact with the beyond, I expect if God, Houdini or Jerry Garcia really wanted to make a serious impression on the living, Rationalists are definitely the folk to communicate with.

Gary 7

Arkushanangarushashutu means ‘the southeast star in the Crab’ in the ancient Babylonian tongue. (Allen, 1963.

‘Shurnarkabtishashiltanu’ and ‘Shurnarkabtishashutu’ mean respectively ‘star in the bull towards the north’ or alternatively ‘the northern star towards the chariot’ and ‘star in the bull towards the south’ or ‘the southern star towards the chariot.’ (Allen, 1963.)

Incidentally, those stars (Beta & Zeta Tauri) mark the horns of the constellation Taurus & the crab nebula (M1) is located between them but close to Zeta (Shurnarkabtishashutu) which is also a slightly variable shell star.

Thinking Taurus, its nearly time for the Taurid meteor shower too which peaks on Nov. 4th according to Collins Guide to Stars & Planets’ (Ridpath & Tirion 2007.) I recjkon this could be worth a separate ‘Taurids!’ blog post here BA! *Hint*, *hint*

‘Zubeneschmali’ means the ‘Northern claw’ in Arabic – & it is a rare green star which is also located near Gliese 581 of exoplanetary system fame.

‘Zubenelgenubi’, again from Arabic, means the ‘Southern claw’ and is a binary star with A & F components. The ‘claw’ part of each name here refers to the fact that Libra was originally a part of the Scorpion & was only later split off from it.

Or maybe Shurnarkabtishashiltanu – Babylonian for Elnath (Beta Tauri) or perhaps Shurnarkabtishashutu – Babylonian for Al Hekka (Zeta Tauri) – or even just Zubeneschmali (Beta Librae) &/or Zubenelgenubi. (Alpha Librae.)

All are good real star names. I kid you not. 8)

Sources : see among other places James Kaler’s ‘Stars’ website
http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/sowlist.html

& also

Allen, Richard Hinckley, ‘Star Names; Their Lore and Meaning’, Dover, 1963.
& http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Cancri

For Arkushanangarushashutu.

Lafferty, Peter, Science Facts – Space, Bramley Books, 1992.

PS. You could also go to my ‘Einstein factor’ page :

http://www.abc.net.au/einsteinfactor/txt/s2702296.htm

too although that’s just me quoting it!

He did, the seance is a ‘tribute’ of sorts to him. Houdini utterly loathed psychics and did everything he could to debunk and prove them frauds. In fact, he was probably the biggest influence in destroying the mediums that were running horribly rampant at the time and sincerely need another beat-down now.