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The U.S. Economy: Getting Back on Track
Remarks by Jack Guynn
President and Chief Executive Officer
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Columbus Rotary Club
Columbus, Georgia
October 2, 2002
Thank you Meredith [Jarrell]. You've been a good friend for a long time, and you make me feel welcome.
I was glad to get Mike Garrigan's invitation to speak to you today. It's been too long since I was last in Columbus, and since I've always thought your city was one of the state's best-kept secrets, I was already inclined to accept the invitation. But then Mike threw in the clincher. "P.S. Mary Reed says you have to come!"
Every civic club has to have some kind of whip-cracker to keep things on track. But you need a firecracker to grow as big and successful as the Columbus Rotary. At the Downtown Atlanta Rotary, where I'm a member, we've heard good things about your club, so I'm really glad to have met the woman behind your success. Mary, if these folks don't treat you right, we can put you to work in Atlanta.
Let me also add that judging from what I saw around town this morning, Columbus isn't going to be a secret much longer. The River Arts Center, the Springer Opera House, the Total Systems campus, this place? If that's what you see on a quick drive through town, I can only imagine what's going on behind the scenes. It looks to me like Columbus has a very bright future.
Depending on which calendar you keep, we've either just opened the books on a brand new fiscal year? or we've got about 90 days to go 'til we can close them on the current one. Either way, it's a good time to consider what's happening with the economy, and that's what I'd like to do in the next few minutes.
I'd characterize the U.S. economy as plodding along but moving in the right directionforward. The economy has basically emerged from recession and shifted to recovery. The scorekeepers at the National Bureau of Economic Research haven't officially declared the recovery's arrival, but the data seem to be telling us that's the case.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of growth in the economy, grew a strong 5 percent in the first quarter of the year, but only a little over 1 percent in the second quarter and probably somewhere around 3 percent last quarter (those numbers will be out shortly). Just about everyone in this business, including me, anticipates continuing uneven growth over the next several quarters, and I certainly don't expect a return any time soon to the long run of 4, 5 and even 6 percent growth we experienced in many quarters in the late 1990s.
Net job creation has been weak this year, averaging only around 40,000 jobs a month since May compared to about 200,000 per month during the periods of extended growth in the late 1990s. The unemployment rate may continue to bounce around over the next few quarters, but at around 6 percent, it remains much lower than it was when we emerged from the last two recessions. Still, we have a long way to go to recover all the jobs lost over the last couple of years. And while the employment situation seems to have stabilized after 12 months of job losses, it wouldn't surprise me to see some more months of slow job growth, just as we saw in the 1991 recovery.
In some parts of the country, the economy has deteriorated significantly over the last two years. Back home in Atlanta, for example, which accounts for some 55 percent of all jobs in the state, an estimated 63,000 jobs were eliminated between August 2001 and August 2002a decline of nearly 3 percent. Those loses have been concentrated in many of the sectors that Atlanta specializes in. Construction employment is down by around 15 percent over the year, the product of a weak commercial real estate sector and less ambitious business expansion plans. (The trend this year in commercial real estate has been consolidation of office and industrial space.) Employment is down about 7 percent in the transportation services sector, which includes the critical airline industry. It's down by the same amount, too, in business services, which includes computer and data processing. And hotel employment in Atlanta has fallen nearly 9 percent on weaker business travel and convention traffic. Here in Columbus, by contrast, total employment has fallen less than 1 percent over the last 12 months. This difference is explained in part by the fact that the manufacturing sector, which took a much bigger hit very early on during the recession, has shown some tentative signs of recovery since earlier this year, and manufacturing accounts for a relatively greater share of employment here than in Atlanta.
Because consumer spending has moderated considerably over the last year, retail and wholesale trade employment has also declined. In Atlanta, for example, retail trade employment fell by 4 percent between August 2001 and August 2002, and by about 5 percent in Columbus. Falling retail and wholesale trade employment was a function of the intense competitive pressures that accumulated when consumer spending stopped growing at the remarkable pace of the late 1990s. Even so, while consumer spending never actually declinedan unusual development in any downturnthe deceleration was significant. Real consumer spending growth averaged between 4½ and 5 percent from 1998 to 2000; it's now growing at about half that rate. The latest numbers suggest that consumers are adjusting to lower expectations of real income gains, but there have been pockets of spending growth. For example, while the period of traditional back-to-school shopping for clothes and school supplies was largely disappointing this year, sales of housing-related items such as furniture and home furnishings were strong, with low interest rates helping draw consumers to the showrooms. And with automobiles selling at a rate of about 17 million a year, it's not like car shoppers have been going without.
Finally, after falling hard for several quarters in a row, it appears that business investment spending has stopped hemorrhaging; the rate of decline in investment in equipment and software seems to have leveled off in recent months. But it has to be said that a new investment boom like the one we witnessed in the late 1990s is far from imminent. Spending on traditional capital goodseverything from aircraft to office spaceremains under intense pressure. Across the region, I'm hearing that the investment spending taking place these days is motivated more by a desire to cut unit costs than to grow revenues. And even this more cautious, conservative investment approach remains under the highest level of scrutiny.
The question for all of us is why things aren't improving more quickly. The answer, I think, has to do with certain characteristics of the hole we're trying to climb out of, and how we got there in the first place.
Usually, the down phase of a business cycle takes place broadly and across almost all economic sectors: Consumer spending declines, and companies stop hiring, cut jobs, and/or pare back investment plans in response. But as I said a moment ago, that is not what has happened over the last 18 months. In fact, consumer spending has beenand looks to remainreasonably solid. (Thank goodness.)
The main factor in the latest business cycle was over-investment. As you've probably heard, investment spending grew nine years straight, from 1992 to 2000an unprecedented run in the post-World War II period. In the '60s, '70s, and '80s, investment growth was tremendously volatileup 20 percent one quarter, down 20 percent the next. But in the mid- to late 1990s, investment spending simply grewno spikes, no troughs, just a strong, steady ascent. For example, between 1992 and 2000, real investment in equipment and software averaged more than 10 percent growth on an annualized basis. Last year, by contrast, spending on equipment and software fell by over 6 percent.
Because the current prospects for business investment are so heavily influenced by previous investment decisions, it's worth considering the developments that contributed to them. Why was investment spending so strong in the 1990s?
The short answer is that profit opportunities drove business investmentthat the cash flow generated by new projects and products was expected to increase by more than the cost of the investment. The Internet, fiber optics, wireless and all the rest: The memory of these industries may induce an awful lot of heartburn today, but just a few short years ago, the so-called smart money was pouring into them. And, of course, there was plenty of money to go around, with very low interest rates, as capital flowed into the United States as a kind of global safe haven after the Asian and Russian financial crises.
For a while, the investment boom in the United States was self-reinforcing. As businesses cranked up production lines to satisfy expected investment demand, they hired more workers, who went out and bought more goods and services. And so on. But it all came to an end when cash flows failed to meet expectations. Demand simply never caught up with the increase in capacity produced by all that investment.
Now, it's true that cash flow projections are often the most unpredictable element in investment planning. Still, it's worth asking how so many smart people got it so spectacularly wrong. The main reason, I think, is that too many businesses made the same big bets. There were enormous profit opportunities in the Internet, fiber optics and wireless, and it actually did make sense to make huge investments in themas long as not every company did it. The problem, of course, was that too many did; they didn't think they could afford not to invest.
It's been a while, but we've seen this before. In the 1870s, to mention one of the more famous examples, the great railroad tycoons tried to extend their empires by investing big in new mileage out west. (You may have read about this in the Wall Street Journal last week.) Those investments made sense on their own terms and they later played an essential role in the country's geographic and economic expansion. But in the endand it took some time for the end to play outthere was only a handful of winners. We saw the same thing in commercial real estate in the 1970s and 1980s. In retrospect, a little more restraint would have been advisable in the late 1990s too. But business did what businesses do, which is to act in their own self-interest. Unfortunately, though, the assumptions that informed their self-interest were off-base. Businesses overestimated the size of the market and their share of it. All investments carry the risk of insufficient cash flow, and when revenues didn't come through as anticipated, investment plummeted.
Still, not everything about the recent boom was illusory. Productivityoutput per worker per hourimproved dramatically in the late 1990s and is still growing. In fact, a kind of productivity growth is reflected in the lackluster job numbers we've been witnessing, since output is growing faster than job growth. The critical development, though, is that productivity growth reinforces business profitability and wages and will continue to have a healthy impact on the economy.
So where are we now? For the last 18 months or so, we've been working our way through the imbalances of the previous business investment cycle. A lot of capacity built up in the boom years won't be used at allor at least not for a very long timeand so is being written off. Redundant plants are closing, and companies are merging or going out of business. Put another way, capital assets are being reallocated among the owners of the capital. These adjustments are an essential function of our financial system. And while it's an awful, uncomfortable, painful adjustment process in the short run, it's also the only way to shore up the foundation for healthy long-term economic growth.
We're working our way through some other excesses too. Specifically, I mean the ethical lapses that took root in too many corporate boardrooms. As we now know all too well, in some cases when there was no way businesses could meet outsized investor expectations, executives either fabricated their results or otherwise devised new ways to mislead stakeholders. Some of these cases will end in jail terms, but the net effect, I hope, will be a return of confidence. In the interim, however, ethical uncertainty remains another deterrent to investment.
So firms have been working to restore conditions that will be more conducive to business investmenton the balance sheet and in the boardroom. When businesses do start to invest again, as they eventually will have to, the economy will move forward at a faster pace.
At this point, you may be wondering why the expansion hinges in large measure on the return of business investment. After all, business investment accounts for only around 12 percent of GDP. Why does future growth depend on business investment? The answer is that business investment in productive capacity and new technology generates productivity, which improves cash flow and profitability, which supports wage growth, which, in turn, supports consumer spending growth.
Since January 2001 the Fed has been trying to help facilitate the transition from recession to recovery by aggressively cutting the fed funds target rate to the current level of 1¾ percent. This has lowered the short-term cost of capital and, I think, helped stanch the hemorrhaging in the investment sector. Remember, though, that monetary policy affects only the price and the aggregate amount of credit in the economy: Allocation of that creditfor better or for worseis carried out by financial markets. And it's my strong belief that marketsimperfect though they may bemake better decisions about resource allocation than individuals or policymakers.
I mention this by way of pointing out the risks to the U.S. economy. And yes, one of thema small one, in my viewis that financial resources are being misallocated and that the business sector isn't getting what it needs. Having gone all the way in during the late '90s, investors are now nearly all the way out, and just as some bad ideas got funding then, some good ideas are almost surely going without now. (This presents some great opportunities for ambitious entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, but it also underscores how difficult things are in some industries.)
Another risk is the employment situation. As I mentioned briefly a minute ago, my own view is that unemployment has probably settled out and is not likely to rise much more. But, again, any significant job creation will depend on the prospects for firms returning to stable profitability. If the profit outlook doesn't improve, though, and if firms have to make significant job cuts because of some additional shock, then consumer spending would take a hit and so would business investment.
One final risk is the uncertainty associated with developments in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. Any one of these hot spots has the potential to deliver a large negative shock to the U.S. economy; the uncertainty and anxiety caused by geopolitical developments in these regions is having an effect on financial markets and the economy even now.
Even with the current accommodative stance of monetary policy, the other thing we need right now is patiencethe patience to allow the U.S. economy to work, to get itself back on track. Obviously, though, we've also got to keep an eye on the risks in the economy.
I realize that if you're unemployed, or trying to meet a payroll, or putting together a budget for next year, it's frustrating to hear the word "patience." But the investment imbalances took a long time to develop, and it's taking us a long time to work through them. By next year, I think it's pretty likely that the balance sheet adjustments we're witnessing will have put many firms in a better position to finance capital investment. But profitability remains the determining factor. Also, the fact that businesses made some bad investments doesn't mean they're going to quit investing; investment may never be risk-free, but it's usually not without a return, either. Moreover, technology changes so rapidly that as a practical matter businesses need to keep investingand the longer they've put it off, the more substantial their investments will have to be. In addition, businesses will need to invest in inventories just to meet demand that occurs over the regular course of the recovery. These are all developments we'll be watching.
Once we get past the month-to-month volatility accompanying the current transition and there's more clarity about the risks we're facing, I think the most likely path over the next year or so will be one of moderate growth. I realize this may not sound so great compared to the outsized gains we witnessed in the late 1990s, but it ought to be a good bit more sustainable.


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Bollywood is best known for its group dance sequences -- however, its fondness for borrowing from popular American and British films means it has all kinds of wacko interpretations of dramatic cinema. Here is a moment from the ambitious 1978 horror film Darwaza.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Gothic Smoky Eye Makeup Tutorial
When the basic "Smokey eye" isn't enough for you, you can take things a step or 12 farther with this look.
Posted by Talia Felix at 11:32 PM 0 comments
Sunday, January 22, 2012
British Humor, In a Nifty Form You Can Carry With You
Okay, okay, I know... it's hardly goth to smile. Why, cracking a smile may also lead to cracking through the 14 pounds of white facepaint we're wearing!
Now, of course anyone over the age of about 12 knows I'm kidding here. Just 'cause your a goth doesn't mean you can't have a good time. And that is why I want to talk to you today about British humor.
Now, of course anyone over the age of about 12 knows I'm kidding here. Just 'cause your a goth doesn't mean you can't have a good time. And that is why I want to talk to you today about British humor.
The amusement to be found in British works is lost on many a person. The trouble is (usually) not even that it's too intellectual for the typical Adam Sandler fan; no, the trouble is actually that it's a bit too zany for American tastes. The British have been historically known for being a dignified, upright race of people, and as such the humor often relies on breaking of the taboos. The jokes are about people being rude to each other, or being explicit about sex, or going crazy, or silly walks, or being rich but falling in love with the butler -- all sorts of follies that to a casual American don't seem to make much sense, given that here no one cares.
You might hone up on your British humor by checking out this collection of 20 different comedy plays from English authors. I can fully recommend it because I was the editor -- and I carefully chose each of these plays for their timeless hilarity. Maybe even Americans would like it, God only knows!
Stories include Pygmalion, wherein the crazy cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle is drafted into an aristocratic lifestyle by two linguists who figure they can change her persona by changing her accent; Our American Cousin (famous for being the play Abraham Lincoln was watching when his brains were blown out) about a hillbilly American cousin coming to visit his British relatives after inheriting the estate of their common ancestor; Mother Bombie, wherein two rich old men try to marry off their kids who are "fools" (i.e. mentally disabled or impaired) without revealing the truth about their progenies' conditions; Wurzel-Flummery, in which a man is set to inherit a fortune on condition he change his surname to Wurzel-Flummery; The Recruiting Officer, a play so bawdy and obscene it didn't even take the Victorians to start changing and altering the text; plus many, many more. As the would say in the old days, give it a trial.
Posted by Talia Felix at 6:51 PM 0 comments
Friday, January 20, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Gothic Love: Goth Pickup Lines
- "Excuse me, sir/madame. Could I ask you, were we tortured and then burned at the stake as Agnostic Cathar Heretics by the Spanish Inquisition during intimately linked previous lives in the early 12th century?"
- "Hey, is that a really long black liner in your pocket or do you carry your own brand of black current all of the time?"
- "Go out with me or I'll kill us both."
- "You've stolen my heart away. Luckily, I've got another three or four in the freezer."
- "You should come home with me. We match."
- "Wow. That outfit must make a lot of noise in the dryer, huh."
- "Nice boots, wanna meaningful relationship?"
- "Tell me, is your heart as cold and black as your eyes?"
- "What do you think of the principles of Sacred Geometry with respect to Gothic Architecture?"
- "You're cute. Mind if I use you so I can impress my friends?"
- "Pardon me, but would you mind if I looked down your pants for a sec?"
- "Are you neurotic, too?"
- "Excuse me, but your veil is caught in my handcuffs..."
- "I'd kill myself for you, I'd kill you for myself."
- "Hi, I'm a necrophiliac. How well can you play dead?"
- "What's a nice goth like you doing in a place like this?"
- "My body is a temple -- take me home and desecrate me!"
- "The colour of your eyes remind me of the window cleaner I drink to cleanse my soul...[grab person]... CLEANSE ME!!"
- "I ask for so little. Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave."
- "I have been dreaming of you, and writing erotic fantasies about you for the entire year since we met. Will you come and sit with me and let me tell you one of them?"
- "Want to be my Master for the night?"
- "Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder."
- "Got a light? No? Well, then I'll just have to hold this clove cigarette up against you because you're hotter than the Inferno itself!"
- "Your hair is the color of my soul."
- "Hi, I seemed to have misplaced my black lipstick, can I borrow some off your mouth?"
- "Your pants are so shiny, I can see myself in them."
Posted by Talia Felix at 5:32 PM 0 comments
Labels: goth, gothic, gothic love, humor
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
How To Make a Sally Nightmare Before Christmas Costume
This is the only known image of me in my Sally costume I made when I was a teenager (I'm posed here with my friend Benji Geary, who is beside me dressed as Mothra.) I'm going to try to recount how this costume was made, since I know good-quality Sally costumes are a bit difficult for some people to find and figure out.
Step 1: Consider the color scheme. I was absolutely obsessed with The Nightmare Before Christmas when it first came out (God, that makes me feel old!) so I know Sally's "true colors" a bit better than most. Your typical Nightmare Before Christmas trinkets portray Sally with baby-blue skin and fire-engine red hair, and her dress in bright pastel hues. If you actually look at the puppet from the movie in the two scenes where she's not under night-time lighting, though, her skin is actually more white than blue, and her hair is rather a brown or burnt sienna tone. Her dress too is in dull, muted tones, like fabric that's very old and starting to rot. This is your color scheme if you want authenticity.
Step 2: I'll call the hair step 2. So, you need to get the hair down in some way. If you happen to have waist length red or brown hair you can probably use your own and bypass this, but for the rest of us, here's a way to make a proper Sally wig. You will take a stocking cap/snow hat, and try to get one in a similar color to how you want the hair. Then you will buy a bunch of yarn in the closest color you can to Sally's own hair color. Buy more than you think you need because it'll be a pain if you run out and can't match the color exactly later on, when you have your wig only partway finished. Why are we using yarn? Because Sally is a RAG DOLL, and ragdolls usually have yarn for hair. I think this was intended in the film as well -- early drafts of the script had Sally using her hair to sew herself back together after her jump from the window during the Jack and Sally montage.
Use a yarn needle, and thread pieces of your yarn through the stocking cap. Tie the knots off on the inside where they won't be seen. measure out your yard and cut off the ends to the desired length. Do this over most of the cap, till you have it covered well enough. You can use some of the thread to loop through the cap and discreetly tie down other pieces of the yarn to keep it flat and so it won't become too poofy. Test out the cap from time to time, and just keep adding yarn strands till you get the amount of coverage you need.
Step 3: Buy up your fabric for the dress. How much of each piece you'll need depends a bit on how large you are, but if memory serves me right, I bought some cheap cotton in: orange, teal, pink, gray, tan, light leaf green, black, magenta and another brown/yellow color. Cloths colored with natural dye might be a better match to the genuine color scheme described above; you might also consider soaking the fabric in some strong tea or coffee if you can only find very brightly colored material.
Step 4: Once I had the needed colors, I used black fabric paint and a red Sharpie marker to then apply the needed patterns onto the cloth. The pink cloth that goes over the left side of her torso has a swirly pattern; the left sleeve is orange with thin red and black stripes, so and and so forth. Most of the patterned fabric are on the front of her dress but I believe there was one patterned piece on her back as well. Shots during Jack's Lament show the back of her outfit most clearly of any point in the film. The book Nightmare Before Christmas: The Film, The Art, The Vision provided me most of my reference pictures at the time.
Step 5: Once you have the cloth painted and dried, you need to actually make the dress. I think I really just did this, with no pattern, by laying pieces of cloth on my body and cutting them into about the shape I needed (probably a little larger so i'd have room to spare) and then using loose basting stitches to temporarily hold the fabric together in the proper layout; after I had most of it in place I went back and used more basting stitches to hone the design, and just kept doing this till I had a reasonable dress in mockup. At this point I sewed it properly, by hand, using embroidery thread in large, wacko stitches as are the hallmark of Sally's look. I think the green cloth on the left hip had to be cut in an odd way with a wedge in order to make it lay right, but everything else I was able to get dead-on. I'll add, I did not hem the skirt or finish any of the edges, this being again a trait seen on the original. Don't forget the pocket on the front of the skirt!
Step 6: We're assuming you have the dress finished at this point. If not, do whatever else you need that I didn't go over to make your dress be finished.
Step 7: To get the stitching on the legs, I used a pair of opaque white tights and put little drops of clear nail polish down on every spot where I intended to go in with a needle. I used blue embroidery thread and just sewed down lines of stitching in the correct places on the legs. If I had the costume to do again, I would also make some arm-stockings in the same way (the costume originally had been planned that I would glue down some false stitches on my arms, but it didn't quite work when I tried it.)
Step 8: I assume you have your leg and maybe arm stockings done and stitched. Makeup time! Start by painting your fingernails a burgundy color.
Step 9: Any exposed skin that's left after your tights and arm-pieces are on, needs to be painted white with clown makeup, and then have blue 'stitches' painted on. (Again, I found out too late and the hard way that I couldn't really glue down thread onto myself as had been my original plan. There was no skin-safe glue I could find that both allowed full mobility and still held the threads in place on my skin.) I had to use plain old cornstarch as my setting powder over this, but if you can get good stage makeup a truly transparent shade of setting powder may be available. (Do NOT use regular "translucent" powder, as it has pigments added that will ruin the white makeup you've already used.)
Step 10: Using the blue makeup, smear some large circles around your eyes.
Step 11: Add some burgundy lipstick and some false black eyelashes, and you're done. Pull yourself together and you're now ready to party as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas!
Sunday, January 8, 2012
You Might Be a Goth If...
■You pay 6 bucks for cigarettes that match your outfit
■You like to play dead in public
■You wake up still drunk at 3 in the afternoon with anonymous black
lipstick on your face
■The shade of powder you wear is called "Sheet Of Paper"
■The Count was your favorite Sesame Street character as a child
■You wear long, velvet coats in the middle of summer
■You go to Denny's at 5 in the morning and think, "These are my people"
■You think dead flowers are prettier than live ones
■You refer to your age in mortal years
■You buy $15 fishnets and rip them on purpose
■Your combat boots cost more than it takes to feed a third world child
for two years
■You've willingly undergone cosmetic dental surgery
■You own 16 or more Cleopatra c.d.'s
■You own even 1 Projekt c.d.
■You can't decide whether Morticia Addams or Lily Munster is prettier,
then decide Wednesday blows them both away
■You were disappointed to find out that "American Gothic" is a portrait
of two farmers
■You think of the hearse as a "family car"
■You own a glow-in-the-dark rosary that alternates between your neck and
the rearview mirror in your car
■You fashion your eyeliner after a culture that's been dead over 2000
■You have seen "Nightmare before Christmas" more than seven times
■Your purse is large, square and metal
■You argue on whether Poppy Z. Brite or Anne Rice has the more realistic
view on vampires
■You and your friends take lengthy drives to visit non-local graveyards
■You spell Vampire either Vampyre or Vamphyre
■Your boyfriend complains that his ribs just don't stick out the way
they used to
■Your girlfriend complains that you look better in her black, velvet
skirt than she does
■You refer to others as "The Normals"
■You are happy when no one has ever heard of your favorite band
■Christians accost you with pamphlets on the street frequently
■You accost Christians with pamphlets on the street
■You and your boyfriend fight over who gets to wear the fangs
■This list made you depressed
Posted by Talia Felix at 11:51 AM 0 comments
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Some people just need a hug...
Around the neck...
With a rope.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Sad News Folks! St. Trinian's Creator Is Dead
Robert Searle, the creator of the St. Trinian's cartoon which we've discussed before, died yesterday. Fortunately he was really old.
Monday, January 2, 2012
The Glasgow Grin
Who needs a smile more than a goth? But smiling isn't goth! How on earth can one come to terms with this?
Well, there is always the old Glasgow Grin...
A Glasgow grin (also known as a Glasgow smile, Anna grin, Chelsea grin or Chelsea smile) refers to the wound that results from slashing a person's face from the edges of the mouth to the ears. The cut, which is usually made with a utility knife or a piece of broken glass, leaves a scar that makes the victim appear to be smiling broadly. Sometimes the attacker will stab or kick the victim after cutting them to make them scream, so that the wound is opened further. The practice is said to have originated in Glasgow, Scotland, but also became popular with English street gangs as an intimidation tactic (especially in Chelsea, London, where it is known as a "Chelsea grin").
In the original story of The Man Who Laughs, the lead character was supposed to have undergone this treatment. The film version adapted this look to just a general maniacal grin:
Interestingly, things came full circle when Bob Kane was inspired by the film to create his famous Batman villain, The Joker. Of course, in the 2008 film The Dark Knight, the Joker was portrayed with a classical Glasgow grin back in place.
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Ceramic tile over slab
OK so my basement is a poured slab that currently has some sort of awful looking "vinyl" tile on it. I use that in quotes since I have no idea what it really is. the house was built in 1970 and i suspect that it is original. It is not coming up off of the floor on its own account, but it comes up pretty easily with a scraper. the problem is that the glue remains. It is black, and somewhat tar like, although it is not all that sticky. It doesn't really stick to the tiles, but it is adhered to the floor pretty well
I'm afraid I'll need to rent some sort of floor sander to get all of the remaining glue off of the floor before I start with the ceramic tile. If thats what I have to do then so be it, I'll do it right once. I'm hoping that I don't have to do that though.
Whats the right way to got this done?
we use a flamethrower propane burner & floor scrapers while wearing organic mask protection,,, after that, we remove the residue w/9" grinders fitted w/turbo diamond cup wheels fitted w/dust shrouds & hook'd up to wet/dry vacs.
even then, we expect the original tile pattern to ' reveal ' itself unless we overlay the floor prior to any other decorative conc work,,, if you're placing ceramic tile or carpeting, that won't be an issue.
Oh. :(
Thats worse than I expected. I was hoping to do it in sections so that I had a somewhat functional laundry room the whole time. Sounds like thats a bad plan.
Tile floor
Go to lowe's by flexitile homestyle interlocking tile. it will go over what you have, no need to clean up, ideal for basements especially if you have moisture. i found it also reduces the noise under washers and dryer.
i like andy's suggestion,,, thanks, bud ! ! !
How about a quality real ceramic porcelain tile that doesn't care too much about all your issues? This product is proving to be a great DIY ceramic tile product with no issues to date. Take a look at it if you are interested in a real problem-solver.
Those flexitile aren't really what I want. Even though it's technically a basement, it's only a couple feet below grade, and open to the upstairs. I also wouldn't want that in the adjoining bathroom I'm planning on doing with the same ceramic tile. It looks pretty nice for a garage or workout room, but its not what I want.
Plus I already bought the tile, couldn't pass up a closeout deal. I don't have moisture issues so thats not a concern either.
I'll spend a few minutes burning some of it off with a torch tonight and see what happens. Well, other than irritating the wife.
yesitsconcrete - so do you use something like this? I assume thats something I could rent for a day?
all we do is soften, NOT burn, as fumes're probably carcinogenic (sp),,, the scraper we use is in the 30# range w/weight we've added,,, we use hand grinders 'cause we own 'em,,, we also own scarifiers but that's another method.
glad to hear you saved a few dollars on the tile 'cause you're giving it all back & more now :laughing: then again, i do stuff 'round the house - figure i work for $7/hr time i run for tools, head to apron store for supplies, work, back to apron for what i figured out i needed but didn't get the 1st time, work, head to doc-in-the-box for stitches, rest, work, back to doc for stitch removal, rest w/leg in air for 3 days, finish job :thumbup: back to apron store :furious: cause bride noticed something i didn't/hoped she wouldn't/moved-the-box-i-was-hiding-it-behind :censored:
i absolutely HATE working for this woman then having to sleep beside her :whistling2:
I've determined life is carcinogenic, so I take all of that with a grain of salt. I won't get cancer in 5 minutes of a test burn, but thanks for the lookout:thumbsup: I'll probably see what muratic(sp?) acid does to the stuff as well.
All I have is a 4.5 inch angle grinder, so I'm either going to have to buy a big one, or rent something. Renting looks pretty good in this case. The UR near my house has something that should work for about $65/day. It's about 200 square ft, so it's not massive, just big enough to be a pain. I think I can get it done in one day though, 2 at most.
I figure that if I wasn't working on the house, I'd be drinking beer and spending money on car parts. By that logic, my time is practically free. It keeps me off the streets at night.:thumbup:
and yes, i have to sleep with my employer as well:laughing: The boss wants ceramic tile, so thats what she gets. She knows shes not allowed to moan about the mess.
Don't waste your time with the acid.:)
bud's right, don't waste your time with the acid :thumbsup:
Ok I was going to have to go pick some up anyway, so I won't bother. Is there any solvent that is worth my time?
we use xylene but i don't suggest anyone else because of its relatively low flash point,,, explosion proof motors, pilot lights, thermostats, etc.
I've used that before, I may even have a small can in my garage. I can ventilate the area well. I'll have to see if it makes sense to use that.
Edit: Anyone ever use this product?
looks better'n beaneedoo to me
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31-08-2010, 07:05
Hi guys, looks like my astra ownership is becomming a nightmare.. First central locking issue and now my heater blower only works on 4 setting, 123 are completly dead.. Can anyone help me out on this please :( :(
: Heater blower not working on 123 only on 4..?
31-08-2010, 07:05
Hi guys, looks like my astra ownership is becomming a nightmare.. First central locking issue and now my heater blower only works on 4 setting, 123 are completly dead.. Can anyone help me out on this please :( :(
31-08-2010, 07:39
Most likely the heater motor resistor/speed controller has gone.
This in turn is caused by a defective motor, the bearings on which are starting to sieze, taking too much current and overloading the speed controller. Water getting into the heater box through a badly fitted scuttle trim panel is the normal cause of this.
Both motor and speed controller are found behind the glovebox. I am pretty sure that people have posted pictures of these parts and how to change them in the past...
31-08-2010, 14:16
As above mate.
I had mine done recently. Its the resistor pack. It not to expensive to buy and fairly easy to fit.
31-08-2010, 17:45
Ok where do i get one from and how do i fit it..? If i just replaced the blower would that work? Or is it the actual resistor pack that i need?
31-08-2010, 17:55
The resistor/speed controller is the part that has failed and is preventing the blower from working on speeds 1,2 and 3. The blower itself is the usual CAUSE of the resistor failing. You could replace just the resistor, but if the blower is defective, the resistor will fail again in a short time.
If you remove the glovebox (4x T20 Torx screws), and look on the right hand side, you will see a tall access flap held by two hex head screws which covers the pollen filter. If you look to the top left of this flap, you will see a number of thick wires going into the top of the heater ducting - they connect to the speed controller. Disconnect the plug going into the top of the controller, then unclip it from the ducting.
The blower motor is accessed through the glove box as well, has a thick red and brown wires going into the base of it, and is secured with a number of hex head (5.5mm) screws.
As to where to get them - Vx dealer, eBay, online supplier (Autovaux etc), breakers yard (Vauxbits etc).
23-02-2012, 15:50
Hi Guys, I have the same problem on my astra, I have just found a resistor on ebay
Is this a good deal?
also, is it just the resistor that has failed? could I just get a new one and solder it on??
27-02-2012, 18:29
Has anyone here ever repaired a heater resistor unit by just replacing the burnt out resistor??


text:
Country Club
Yep Roc Records
Punk rock and country music have been odd cousins for a couple decades. Alt-country songwriter Ryan Adams cut his teeth screaming punk music, while high octane rockers Supersuckers and Social Distortion's Mike Ness have released country records. John Doe, veteran of Los Angeles punk legends X, first dabbled with country in The Knitters. Subsequent solo albums have continued the flirtation. This year's collaboration with The Sadies, a band recognizable to most as Neko Case's former backing band—but who have also released a handful of outstanding roots rock albums under their own logo—sees Doe jumping into the country pool fully clothed.
Country Club is an analog cruise through '60s-era country, visiting Nashville and Bakersfield sounds alike. The set includes 11 covers and four originals that flow together seamlessly. Traditionalists may grouse over the interpretations of some of these songs, but the band more than pays homage to songwriters with names like Miller, Haggard, Kristofferson and Cash—they own them. A favorite is Bill Anderson's "The Cold Hard Facts of Life," a tune originally made famous by Porter Wagoner. Doe's road-weary voice works over the material, and the playing of The Sadies is, as always, flawless. Fans of stripped-down, old-school country will love this record.


text:
Gorgeous DD+ Bright pink floral microfibre thong
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text: The Vario 200 Series of modular appliances from Gaggenau allows adventurous chefs with limited workspaces to mix it up at will. The line of 12-inch cooktops includes a deep fryer, an in-counter steamer, an electric grill, and a gas wok, as well as more traditional pieces, among them a two-burner gas cooktop and a two-zone glass-ceramic cooktop. Each unit is crafted of stain-resistant, glass-shot-blasted aluminum panels for hardiness and enduring good looks. Gaggenau USA/Canada, 800.828.9165; www.gaggenau-usa.com.


text:
Table Talk: Save the planet during lunch at Otarian
By Nina Chestney
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - "Be a legend in your own lunchtime," says an advertisement in the London underground for Otarian, a new vegetarian fast-food chain which hopes to play a small part in the fight against climate change.
Australia-based owner and founder Radhika Oswal opened two Otarian outlets in New York earlier this year and two more in London last month. The chain offers over 20 vegetarian meals to eat in or take away, including a field mushroom burger, sweet potato fries and a tandoori mushroom and paneer wrap.
The menu claims diners can save an average 2.3 kg (5 lb) of carbon dioxide equivalent by swapping their usual meat-based lunch for an Otarian "combo" meal.
Meat production is estimated to account for 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, and some scientists have cited lower meat consumption as a way to tackle climate change.
Otarian is part of Oswal's family business Oswal Group Global, which has $5 billion of investment capital and a wide range of assets including an ammonia plant in Australia.
Diners will have their own motives for visiting Otarian -- increased air miles, an aircon unit, neglecting recycling.
"People want to do the right thing and most people today are environmentally conscious but are time poor, money conscious and don't understand the personal impact they can make in their daily lives," Oswal told Reuters.
PAYING A PREMIUM Continued...


text:
Hannity, Morris, Scarborough, Matthews hyped indictment of Clinton fund-raiser Rosen, then ignored his acquittal
Research ››› ››› NICOLE CASTA
Though government prosecutors stated affirmatively that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) was not aware of the alleged campaign finance violations that led to the indictment of David Rosen, former finance director for Clinton's 2000 senatorial campaign, conservative pundits aggressively hyped the indictment as a potential scandal that could threaten Clinton's political career. But many of these same pundits have yet to report that a jury cleared Rosen of all charges on May 27:
Fox News host Sean Hannity acknowledged that Clinton was never charged in the case, but on the May 10 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, he asked, "So will this case bring Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions to a halt?" He further stated: "We'll be watching this one closely." On May 13, Hannity referred to the Rosen trial as "a case that could damage Hillary's political ambitions."
Though he dedicated an entire segment of the May 31 edition of Hannity & Colmes to discussing Clinton, Hannity has yet to note Rosen's acquittal.
Fox News political analyst Dick Morris stated on the March 3 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor that Rosen's trial "could be very dangerous for her [Clinton] because she may well have known about it." On the April 22 edition of Hannity & Colmes, he said, "this one looks pretty serious" and "this could be it for Hillary." Though Clinton was never charged, Morris remarked, "[I]f she's convicted of a felony, she can't even vote, much less run for office." And in a May 18 New York Post column, Morris wrote: "The Justice Department case against David Rosen, national finance chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate race, is getting stronger, increasing the odds the aide will start cooperating with the government -- which could be disastrous for the senator's ambitions."
Morris has yet to note Rosen's acquittal, though he appeared on the May 31 edition of Hannity & Colmes specifically to discuss Clinton's political future.
MSNBC host and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough said on the February 24 edition of Scarborough Country that the allegations "could put a speed bump right in the path of a future presidential bid for Hillary Clinton." On May 9, Scarborough called Rosen's trial an "important, important case" because "Hillary Clinton has become such an important figure in the Democratic Party, since she's taken control of the Senate seat in 2000."
Scarborough has yet to report on Rosen's acquittal in this "important case."
MSNBC host Chris Matthews remarked on the May 10 edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews: "It's a long way from here to 2008, and Hillary running for president, having a major investigation of a fund-raiser where it looks like somebody gave her [Clinton] an extra $800,000 secretly. And sure, her claim is that she didn't know about it. And this guy [Rosen] is on trial for knowing about it. Where does it put her?"
Matthews has not mentioned Rosen's acquittal.
- Posted In
- Elections, Campaign Finance
- Stories/Interests
- Hillary Clinton, 2008 Elections
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text:
Is bike parking a problem in your neighbourhood or at work? Members of the Spokes Lothian cycle campaign have been producing and promoting details on how people can improve bike storage in flats.
Along the way they've looked at practical issues including planning, management, legal hurdles and hardware options.
With schemes like A better way to work - promoted by Edinburgh's The Bike Station charity - Spokes decided to have a serious look at the safety of bikes at either end of the journey.
They began the tenements and flats bike storage project in spring last year, aiming to address inadequate cycle storage in Edinburgh's properties.
Now their persistence appears to have paid off.
The City of Edinburgh Council is set to place an order for bike parking equipment later this month and, it is hoped, most of it will be delivered by February.
Spokes members are encouraging locals to check with their neighbours and establish whether a new bike rack or shelter would be a good idea in their area.
By ordering in parking equipment for residents at the same time as the wider order, for the likes of schools and streets, Spokes say the single delivery cost should make the whole process cheaper.
This recent blogpost has useful links to the kinds of products available, as well as their associated prices. For example, a stand-alone 'toastrack' for 10 bikes would be around £300.
Alastair Tibbitt at Greener Leith has blogged about it too. He suggests people living in tenements could think about installing a safe place to store bikes in their back green.
He also makes the point that there's nothing to stop people asking their employers to use the opportunity to get hold of more bike parking.
To find out more, or to make a request, contact firstname.lastname@example.com by 6pm on Monday 17 January.
I'm keen to hear from anybody who takes up the offer. You could take before and after photos of the bike storage in your flat and document the difference here on the blog.


text:
does a chevy gm block 509 have inherent lubrication problems ? I have heard spinned bearings are a common problem with this motor .
Where have you heard this? A 509 is a 30 over 502. I am building a marine block 509 for my van project and I have heard none of these rumors. Neither has my engine builder. If the build is done right, and details are paid attention too, there should be no low end oiling issues. If there are issues I would like to know if it was "inherent" or "builder" induced. Could even be "driver" induced if he gets a little to heavy footed and spins the motor past it's safe RPM range.
"Just because I did it... Doesn't mean it's possible."
Hey, are those blocks just the old raised deck 427's used for trucks in the 70's (with four ring pistons) and the modern tricks added to the rat in the 1980's? If its a copy of the old block, then its not a design problem, but a builder left something undone or out...there used to be a rumor you could tell a raised deck b/c you could put a finger in between the water pump and cylinder head...but I can't see it.
Just because you can't do it...doesn't mean its impossible
I have never had an oiling problem with any of those blocks. Anytime there's a spun bearing right away its the block's fault,and a spun bearing is a result of it. There couldn't be anything further from the truth.We have found the old school way of thinking that 10PSI of oil pressure for each 1,000RPM to be an acceptable way to calculate oil pressure. There is NO need to use a HP/HV oil pump, if you have the proper oil clearances, and NO INTERNAL OIL LEAKS....


text:
Michael Jackson's fedora, Ella Fitzgerald's yellow dress and Louis
Armstrong's trumpet are together in a Smithsonian exhibit celebrating
the famed Apollo Theater that helped these stars to shine.
The acrobatic troupe Cirque du Soleil announced Tuesday that it will
put on a live touring show featuring the songs of the King of Pop
starting late next year.
The fire hoses and police dogs. The Montgomery bus boycott. The march
on Washington. You've probably seen scattered footage of these images,
but no project ever connected pictures to context with the tenacity of
"Eyes on the Prize."
Jennifer Hudson didn't gain a huge amount of weight when she was
pregnant with her son, but it was enough to make her do a double-take
when she saw a picture of herself.
A U.S. delegation that includes members of the Black press, elected
officials, performing artists and representatives of such organizations
as the NAACP and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition will be in Senegal from
April 2 to April 4 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that country's
independence from France and the dedication of the 150-foot-high
African Renaissance Monument.
Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin are being inducted into the Apollo Theater's hall of fame in New York City.
In the early seventies when Jewel Allison was a student at P.S. 253,
her poetic gifts popped up like crocuses in spring. "Love, soft,
peaceful/kind and understanding/holding hands," she wrote.
First lady Michelle Obama is getting attention from the Nickelodeon
kids' television network — and it has nothing to do with green slime.
Activist shareholder Carl Icahn raised the stakes in his yearlong
dispute with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. on Friday, launching an
all-out bid to take over the movie studio following disagreements over
its spending.
Even in death, Michael Jackson is breaking new records.
King of Pop's estate has signed the biggest recording deal in history:
a $200 million guaranteed contract with Sony Music Entertainment for 10
projects over seven years, according to a person familiar with the deal.


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text:
vacume trouble
hey gang.I just changed the starter on my 01 330xi.now I can't figure out where the vacume lines go from the canister or the intake manifold.can someone please help?:(
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Chesterman Company
While proudly serving Coca-Cola since 1904, Chesterman Company is an independently owned and operated Coca-Cola Bottling Company based out of Sioux City, Iowa.
Our primary objective is to be a premier beverage and food service company in the markets we serve! With our production facility in Sioux City, Iowa we have been making quality beverages for the Midwest since 1872 and supplying them from eight distribution centers across Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois and South Dakota.


text:
Hey Folks,
Just sayin' hello.
I've been an opportunistic duck hunter, jump-shooting from the crik, and only occasionally floating the near-by river over the years.
Mostly hunted pheasants as an interest, deer as a form of filling the freezer, and turkeys--just to see if I could.
I've had two GWPs over the years, and now have a Field Springer (from a rescue org) who is learning what he was
bred for. Nothing like the GWPs, but he's loving life these days. He's about 5. Congenial critter, Mick is.
Legs are going, but I can still manage.
I mostly tell stories, rather than report, but they're TRUE stories (with slight color added for flavor.:) )
Been messing around fixing up derelict boats this summer. Got a tired old canoe, fixed it up, found it to be a barge, sold it,
and...came across the most-tired Cranberry Creek 12.9 Y-stern the world has ever seen. The fiberglass work is mostly done, the keel reattached (where it could be) or repaired by a non-handyman. Some liner inside and rattle can repair outside and who knows? I may be floating rivers again this Fall.
Nice to be here.


text:
I couldn't readily find a thread specifically about Western RPGs or BioWare, so I made one, and expanded the title to inclue EA and Origin in case the topic changed to such.
That must be a bugger to clean off a lab coat! XDAlcoremortis;779366 said:I just like a glass of wine every now and again.
Bu...but how do you toast to your success!?Alcoremortis;779368 said:Not in lab... though most of my wine is purchased either on campus or by the school...
No eating or drinking in a lab.RetroVortex;779378 said:Bu...but how do you toast to your success!?
That's what they say to keep out the spectators! ;Dder_ketzer;779476 said:No eating or drinking in a lab.
Oh please! Talking 30 minutes about ball handling is way more important.Secret Fawful;801127 said:Battlefront 3 announced and then not talked about at all.