falstaff's follies

Dusk

pierces87 — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:06:31 +0000

[piercestanley] Re: In Flight Inspiration: SFO –> BOS

pierces87 — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 03:19:55 +0000

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Silicon Valley 10K Turkey Trot

pierces87 — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 23:30:43 +0000

Rahm for Mayor

pierces87 — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 21:41:45 +0000

Ex-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel officially launched his bid for mayor of Chicago yesterday with his first campaign video on youtube. I am excited to see how this campaign turns out, and to see if turns ugly if Emanuel lives up to his hype and is truly as ruthless as his reputation suggests he is. Either way, the election is in February and there is much campaigning to be done, and anything can happen. But in the meantime, check this out. It looks like Chicago’s favorite cantankerous son is off to a good start!

http://www.youtube.com/v/EnEiBKJIvWI&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3

2000-2009: A Retrospective

pierces87 — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:55:10 +0000

The old Butcher of Broadway hit it on the nose in today’s Sunday New York Times. Frank Rich argued in his most recent column that in more ways than one the recent debacles that have come to characterize the end of 2009 (Tiger Woods’s sex scandal and the financial crisis among others), epitomized the last decade as one of serious deception. For ten years we were deceived by our leaders, our bankers, our celebrities, and some of the people in the public eye that we trust most have simply failed to come completely clean with their lives. It has led us to a breaking point. We’ve had two wars started in the Middle East, lost focus in tracking down Bin Laden, and had a serious decline in the privacy that once was a hallmark of American life all in the last decade. In exchange we’ve dwindled the health of the economy with carelessness and crass, and we have individuals in positions of accountability talking about being responsible citizens in one breath and regretting their philandering at shiny press conferences in another. This kind of thinking needs to stop if we are to make it through to the next decade in one piece.

Rich argues presciently that in the coming decade we need to refocus the way that we view leaders in American life. In many senses we need to wonder why we place these icons and relatively arbitrary people in positions of power and ask ourselves why we let them get away with shenanigans. (Obama you are not immune either, coming off a hoax in Copenhagen and a less than ideal health-care bill that looks like it is going to pass). For a culture that prizes individualism, why are we so trusting of others, to the point where we continuously ignore the wool that is being pulled over our eyes by those in the public sphere. Once again, American ignorance and a true lack of skepticism for one’s surroundings seems to have gotten the best of us. When will we learn our lesson about the responsibility that comes with one’s freedom to explore a life of devoted almost entirely to the self?

Anyways, just found this to be a clever article that caught my attention during finals studying, while I remain holed up in Butler just trying to avoid the snow and hanging on for dear life at the end of the semester.

A New Look

pierces87 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:17:05 +0000

Well, it has been a long while since I have posted on Falstaff’s Follies, and I am looking forward to getting in the blogging mood a bit again, as there has been a lot going on in the world about which I find worth writing. With that said, Falstaff’s Follies is launching with a fresh new redesign. Hopefully the page looks a little bit cleaner, sleeker, and more attractive than it did before.

Please do feel free to let me know what you think of the new look to the site, and stay posted for forthcoming updates.

- Hans

When the Wine Country Calls

pierces87 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:20:27 +0000

A lovely spots(wood) in the napa valley on a beautiful day

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from pierce’s posturing

DeSigns of the Times

pierces87 — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:07:46 +0000

A couple of musings on art and design this week, as I’ve been scouring the Times occasionally amidst paper writing and studying for final exams.

First is this intriguing article about the behind the scenes changes that have taken place on Santiago Calatrava’s design for the Transportation Hub at the World Trade Center site. While I had not forgotten about this design, I had remained incredibly curious in recent months about the fate of this project, as it has been far too long with no real news on the progress of the development at the World Trade Center site. It is a shame that a wonderful design by a truly captivating and innovative architect has to be trimmed down so much to meet the needs of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. While New York has a chance here to create something truly great that will be not only serve as a testament to the people that lost their lives on September 11th but could perhaps be one day one of the modern architectural marvels of the 21st century, an American contribution to the future of architecture, it is a shame that this project has to be slowed and cut to the degree that it has already been done.

While my opinion might be in the minority, I believe this is a project where we shouldn’t let our recessionary worries get in the way of vision, what is truly an artistic and industrial masterpiece. With a severely reduced transportation hub blueprint, how will New York compete with its sister cities that are currently undertaking massive transportation hub projects as well? It will be a major shame if Calatrava’s design is edited further and its production stalled in the coming years. It is time for the city to begin to get its act together with regard not only to the WTC transportation hub, but NYC must also begin to figure out what is going to happen with the 9/11 memorial, all on the heels of news today that three WTC towers may be scrapped from the blueprint.

Second is the Dutch Bike. Cool or not? I am yet to see any of these around town just yet, but I think they may be out just in time for the summer. I was thinking about a topic similar to this a couple of days ago when a scooter with a sartorially-minded gent whizzed by me quickly down Amesterdam Ave. While Rome, Paris, and some of the European capitals have a very real and expansive bike and scooter culture for transportation by people of all walks of life, I am curious when the same will be said about New York. Perhaps the Dutch Bike that will allow older and professional commuters to make their way to work in green fashion will be the start of rejuvenating a similar bike and scooter culture in this city. I look forward to the day when I can ride my bike day in and day out to work. Hopefully, it too will be as nice as the new Dutch Bikes that are making their way in recent days across the pond.

Sleep Deprived

pierces87 — Sun, 10 May 2009 04:59:27 +0000

While I study for finals, I can’t help but think about the effects of sleep deprivation, something nary a college student doesn’t worry about at least once during this stressful time of the year. As such, I came across a recent AFP article on sleep deprivation with a unique twist. Finding an article which suggested that the CIA may have subjected a number of prisoners to sleep deprivation over the course of its interrogations made me realize today that Falstaff is yet to comment on the ongoing revelations about the Bush administration’s program of torture. While I am as yet undecided about whether I find the techniques used (and later justified) by the Bush administration to be reprehensible as I acknowledge that the information and potentially evidence of lives saved from said behavior may be great but can never be revealed, I nevertheless find the idea that sleep deprivation was used as a technique to be particularly fascinating, as I know that a lack of sleep recently has played with my own emotions, desires, and sense of well-being.

According to this new information, it seems that the CIA may have been complicit in using sleep deprivation as a special technique to extract information from prisoners. According to the LA Times, new revelations about the Bush Administration’s torture program suggests that sleep deprivation has been one of the most important elements in the CIA’s interrogation program to break dozens of suspected terrorists. I am proud that President Obama is reviewing its use along with other interrogation methods, but I am left wondering more generally what sleep deprivation’s effects are psychologically. I look forward to further research on this question being conducted, though I anticipate that like many things that the government undertakes to explore it will be swept under the rug or forgotten in the minds of the public consciousness.

The information that is available currently suggests that detainees were clad in diapers, chained to a wall, forced to stand, and were not allowed to feed themselves. When a prisoner started to drift off to sleep, they would likely fall and be caught upright by their chains, being kept awake. According to a May 10th memo, the position in question is “sufficiently uncomfortable to detainees to deprive them of unbroken sleep, while allowing their lower limbs to recover from the effects of standing.” Sleep deprivation is perhaps the most agregious forms of torture, as it destroys the will. While physical torture may be physically draining and emotionally scarring, it is a brief act. The technique of sleep deprivaiton is arguably the most bleak for prisoner, as it leaves one with no sense of well-being, comfort, or even humanity for as the memo suggests, “upwards of 11 days.” Therefore, sleep deprivation-style tortue perpetuates life in the most banal yet brutal and inhumane fashions. Sleep depivation humbles, humilates, and prolongs what is perhaps the most absurd part of torture, being kept alive, and for that the psychological effects on the prisoners subjected to this type of interrogation tactic needs to be explored in depth.

Only time will tell the psychological effects of this tactic on prisoners that the United States may have recently held. Likewise, only time will offer the necesary answers to a just and perhaps even humane way to secure vital information from persons of interest. I just hope that we hold our government to the highest standards we expect from it and do not let this revelation (or others) slip under the radar as we have all too often recently.

Ahead of the Game

pierces87 — Tue, 05 May 2009 22:29:55 +0000

Looks like I have a heads up on the Commander in Chief, courtesy of Paper Cuts.

While I read Netherland in mid-July of last summer, it seems that Mr. President is just getting around to it now. Well, his plate is a lot fuller than mine these days, so I bear no grudges, Mr. President.

Regardless, Netherland is an engaging, well-written, fantastic work of prose that did not receive its due welcome when it was released last year. While I’ve only read a handful of the Booker choices, I think that it was truly snubbed for the prize. Although, White Tiger was pretty exceptional, and Aravind Adiga is a Columbia fellow as well, my allegiances lie with O’Neill’s masterpiece. After all, it is about someone named Hans and chronicles the way of life of aloof, mediocre, and aged cricketers. Mr. President, if you’re reading this, check out White Tiger next, and perhaps you’ll learn a little bit more about those “slumdog” kids and their way of life in India. And no, not through a cliched Orientalist Danny Boyle eye, but through a captivating and real lens offered by Adiga.

All in all, my props to a president that reads regularly, and gets things done in a smart, pragmatic way without wasting time taking naps or riding the exercise bike during the day prior to returning to his “history buff” books. More love to you Barack, as you know all too well that you have to throw in the fiction a bit some times too.