Lives in the Balance

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) really is a piece of work.

He's an M.D., but he seems to have forgotten one item of his oath: "First, do no harm."

Bastard.

Footnotes

I'm currently reading Mikhail Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time, in a translation by Natasha Randall. I don't want to talk about the book just yet, but about the translation.

Randall has chosen to leave certain words, mostly of non-Russian origin, untranslated in the text, but with explanatory footnotes. Some idiomatic phrases she translates literally, again with a clarifying footnote. I can see and appreciate her reasons for doing this; but some of the results are... mystifying. For example, footnote 7 to section 1 ("Bela") defines the idiomatic expression "peaceable prince". So does footnote 8 - and the two definitions are significantly different!

Later, note 14 to the same section reads as follows:

chamois: a goatlike animal native to the Caucasus mountains

Granted, the action at that point takes place in the Caucasus, but the chamois is native to most of the mountain chains of southern Europe! (Burton's Mammals of the World specifically says "the Alps, the Apennines, the Carpathians, and Anatolia" - no mention of the Caucasus, unless it is considered part of Anatolia....)

Ah, well. I'm enjoying the reading, in any case.

B5

I'm just about done with my Babylon 5 rewatch - two episodes to go. I'll have some overall comments to offer when I finish, but there's one thing which is bugging me, and it's unfortunately a very important plot point.

We learn, early on, that Londo has had a prophetic dream of his own death, strangling and being strangled by G'Kar. In "War Without End", we see this prophecy come true, twenty years down the line, although its meaning is rather different from Londo's original picture.

Two points. First is the improbability of two people (well, two humanoids) successfully strangling each other. The moment one of them passed out, his grip on the other's throat would relax, enabling the other to breathe again - unless each had crushed, rather than simply closed, the other's air passage. Okay, maybe it could happen, but it seems very unlikely to me.

Second: I can see G'Kar, even twenty years in the future, strangling Londo. We know that, around 2260, when the main story takes place, G'Kar is immensely strong. This is shown in an understated fashion in a couple of episodes, and becomes critically important during the conspiracy to assassinate Cartagia. Yes, he could throttle Londo; he could probably snap his neck barehanded, for that matter. Even twenty years later, it still seems possible to me. But Londo strangling G'Kar? I can't envision even the Londo of 2260 being capable of that, much less the decrepit 2280-ish version. Short flabby arms.... Does. Not. Work.