On Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Insistence that“‘Christ’ came from ‘Krishna.’”

ISKCON founder Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda was convinced that the name Christ was derived from Krishna. He frequently appealed to this as a way of dispelling Western Christian reservations about participating in kirtana. The present article explores (1) the place this etymological claim played in Prabhupāda’s thinking and missionary strategy, (2) how he came to defend it in the first place, and (3) how his defense fit into the ongoing East/West discussion of the alleged etymological interdependence of Christ and Krishna that has been going on since the 18th century. At the heart of Prabhupāda’s argument is the interchangeability of Ns and Ts in the ṭavarga such that Kristo and Kesto appear as common alternative forms of the name Krishna. Prabhupāda then goes on to argue that Christos was similarly derived from Krishna as well. The argument, however, is not tenable because the t in Christos is not actually part of the original Greek verbal stem chri-, but only enters in when the suffix -tos is added to form the adjective christos (anointed). Ultimately Krishna and Christos arose independently from two separate Proto-Indo-European roots, the former from k̑ers- (dark, dirty, grey) and the latter from ghrēi- (to rub)

Wide Binary Effects on Asymmetries in Asymptotic Giant Branch Circumstellar Envelopes

Observations of increasingly higher spatial resolution reveal the existence of asymmetries in the circumstellar envelopes of a small fraction of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. Although there is no general consensus for their origin, a binary companion star may be responsible. Within this framework, we investigate the gravitational effects associated with a sufficiently wide binary system, where Roche lobe overflow is unimportant, on the outflowing envelopes of AGB stars using three dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. The effects due to individual binary components are separately studied, enabling investigation of the stellar and circumstellar characteristics in detail. The reflex motion of the AGB star alters the wind velocity distribution, thereby, determining the overall shape of the outflowing envelope. On the other hand, the interaction of the companion with the envelope produces a gravitational wake, which exhibits a vertically thinner shape. The two patterns overlap and form clumpy structures. To illustrate the diversity of shapes, we present the numerical results as a function of inclination angle. Not only is spiral structure produced by the binary interaction, but arc patterns are also found that represent the former structure when viewed at different inclinations. The arcs reveal a systematic shift of their centers of curvature for cases when the orbital speed of the AGB star is comparable to its wind speed. They take on the shape of a peanut for inclinations nearly edge-on. In the limit of slow orbital motion of the AGB star relative to the wind speed, the arc pattern becomes nearly spherically symmetric. We find that the aspect ratio of the overall oblate shape of the pattern is an important diagnostic probe of the binary as it can be used to constrain the orbital velocity of the AGB star, and moreover the binary mass ratio.Comment: 33 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Terrestrial carbon pools: preliminary data from the Corn Belt and Great Plains regions

Includes bibliographical references (pages 190-191).Soil organic matter is recognized as an important component of soil quality (Granatstein & Bezdicek, 1992; Arshad & Coen, 1992). In mineral soils, many properties associated with soil quality, including nutrient mineralization, aggregate stability, trafficability, and favorable water relations are related to the soil organic matter content. Past considerations of soil organic matter and how it is affected by management practices have largely reflected theimportance of organic matter to soil fertility and crop production. More recently, interest in soil organic matter and its relationship to agricultural management has developed with respect to its role in the worldwide C budget and worldwide climate change, another important quality of soil