Yet another night of Terra anything-but-Firma. I was brushing my teeth at the time, and discovered for myself why toothbrushes are the favourite materials for prisoners to turn into weapons. Everything was ok at first, but I had a wee session of sobbing into my pillow when I finally convinced myself to head upstairs to …
Eyes and clean slates – a shortlist is born
There is in each of us a stream of tendency, whether you choose to call it philosophy or not, which gives coherence and direction to thought and action. Judges cannot escape that current any more than other mortals. ... We may try to see things as objectively as we please. None the less, we can …
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Acquittal and Condemnation – week two of the deliberations
Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur. The judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted. – Syrus, Maxims. After a short break while the earth moved, it's back to judging haiku. This is where I become the anal-retentive, über-picky, petty, finicky and super-hard-to-satisfy critic that people have always warned me I was becoming. (I believe that …
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Dawn, reprieve, and mercy – the preliminary deliberations continue
Times before number, condemned criminals had waited for their last dawn. Yet until the very end they could hope for a reprieve; human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal. – Arthur C. Clarke, The Wind From the Sun: Stories of the Space Age (1972). Well it's been …
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Whittling soberly – the preliminary deliberations
Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially. – Socrates I have now read through all poems at least four times – twice or more yesterday, and twice or more today. It's both better and worse than I feared. Better in that there are …
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A Dark Feathered Art 