Stanford Squirms, Stays on Hook

My favourite financier, Ex "Sir" Allen Stanford, approaches public denouement as inexorably as entropy. Ducking, foaming at the mouth, diving in psychotic style, he is driven back into the naughty corner by American Justice, pressing every available button marked "DELAY" "PREVARICATE" that he can find.
The Beeb clinically traces his ducks and weaves.


27th Jan: Allen Stanford ruled unfit to stand trial for fraud

A US federal judge has ruled that Texan billionaire Allen Stanford is unfit to stand trial at present over accusations he led a $7bn (£4.5bn) fraud scheme.
Mr Stanford is facing trial over allegations that he ran a pyramid scheme based in Antigua which defrauded investors.

"The court finds Stanford is incompetent to stand trial at this time based on his apparent impaired ability to rationally assist his attorneys in preparing his defence," District Judge Hittner wrote in his ruling in Houston, Texas.

16th Feb: Stanford moved from Houston to a different detention facility

U.S. District Judge David Hittner ruled after a hearing in January that Stanford is incompetent to stand trial and must undergo detoxification from addictions to medications prescribed for anxiety and depression.
A brain injury Stanford suffered in a 2009 altercation with another inmate also may have diminished his capacity to assist in his defense, the judge wrote, citing expert testimony in the hearing.

18th Feb: Allen Stanford files $7.2bn countersuit

Texan billionaire Allen Stanford has filed a countersuit against US prosecutors, accusing them of depriving him of his constitutional rights. The lawsuit claims prosecutors "undertook illegal tactics" in their investigation of Mr Stanford's alleged pyramid scheme that they claim defrauded investors of $7bn (£4.3bn).
Mr Stanford is seeking $7.2bn in damages from the SEC and FBI.

23rd Dec: Allen Stanford ruled fit for trial

A US federal judge has ruled Texan financier Allen Stanford is mentally fit to stand trial for allegedly operating a $7bn (£4.5bn) Ponzi scheme.
"I see no brain injury that stands in the way of his standing trial," said Dr Robert Cochrane, a psychological evaluator at the prison.
US District Judge David Hittner agreed after a three-day hearing in Houston, Texas, that Mr Stanford was able to help his lawyers prepare for the trial.

Mr Stanford has spent more than eight months at a North Carolina prison hospital undergoing psychological tests and being weaned off anti-anxiety medication. Charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2009, Mr Stanford denies running a Ponzi scheme involving the sale of fraudulent certificates of deposit issued by his offshore bank in Antigua.

21st Century Tatts

Disclaimer: I have no tattoos and three sealed up piercings.


They've got these hi tec guns and stuff now, so the ink bottle and one of Mum's needles is restricted to an underclass, but tattooing is still pretty basic.
You want a tatt, absolutely 100% fine by me (as if you give a fuck), but the end result seems to be defined by the limitations of the process. Sticking an inked bit of metal in your skin.
And you get a piece of graphic art, a picture, or writing, script, and that's your lot.
A good artist can get a 3D effect with colour and composition but it's still a static image, a snapshot, paradoxically often expressing more abstract values.

So 20th century, static stuff. In this new century, on the move is the way, whole countries with no copper wire telephones but smart phones, multi dimensional tasking made essential in order to cope with the privations being forced upon us by out banking Lords, to pay their gambling debts. To make us able to buy 24/7, fulfill our capitalist obligations as the Consuming Serf.
Everything is moving, marketing fish waiting for your credit card to snap them up swim all around you in virtual shoals, infinitely breeding with depthless digital fecundity. We will never be able to eat enough, and their greed will never be satiated.

Anyway, what about nanotechnology? I first came across this as a sceptical green, reading with grim horror about nanosilver socks that stop your feet smelling by killing bacteria. Everything above the size of nothing, apparently. Which is cool if you're a lazy cunt who can't be bothered to wash his feet, but not so good for Good Old Mother Earth and her groovy ecosystem.
Because not all somethings above the size of nothing are bad for you, that's why, but nanosilver doesn't give a monkey's about that. You're a toasted microbe.
To cut to the chase, I was wondering if you could graft an 'active' skin onto your body, made with computerised elements at the nanolevel, and have

MOVING TATTOOS!

To be continued...

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