Cartersville, GA (Strutts News Services) – Even in an economic downturn, many businesses flourish. Tetris Constructions is one of them. Regardless, Johann “Joe” Tetris died yesterday afternoon of natural causes, succumbing to HSB. HSB is known to laymen as “He Stopped Breathing.”
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What a sad day that was indeed, but we needn’t mourn because “Stackin’ Joe” wouldn’t have wanted it that way. So let’s have a block party instead, on
The Overnight Open Thread.
The media was praising the 2.%% 3rd Quarter GDP as proof the economy was booming. The market rallied as well and the Obama Regime was saying good times are here. As usual, reality intrudes on the Obama Boom theme. Manufacturing and Construction declined last month. More evidence, there is no Obama Boom.
The pace of growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector unexpectedly slowed in October while growth in U.S. construction spending also slowed in September, according to a reports released Tuesday.
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity dipped to 50.8 from 51.6 the month before and missed expectations of 52.0, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
[….]
Growth in U.S. construction spending also slowed in September as governments cut back on building and maintaining schools and public transportation, a government report showed on Tuesday.
Total construction spending rose 0.2 percent to an annual rate of $787.21 billion, the Commerce Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.3 percent increase after August construction spending rose by an upwardly revised 1.6 percent.
Even these numbers won’t put a dent in the Obama Boom. Lies are hard to kill off.
First of all, that caption is incorrect, and it doesn’t show the start of work. Excavation of the site began on 21 January 1930, and construction of the building itself started symbolically on 17 March – St. Patrick’s Day. The ribbon was cut on 1 May 1931. Regardless, that’s an astounding feat, timewise.
Wikipedia claims that the building design was completed in two weeks. That’s an impossibility, unless they’re referring to the schematic design alone. The foundation may have been designed within that span, based upon the calculations of previous high-rise structures, with the rest of the superstructure designed and documented during construction. (That method is called “fast-track design” today.) From Wiki:
The Empire State Building was designed by William F. Lamb from the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in just two weeks, using its earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio (designed by the architectural firm W.W. Ahlschlager & Associates) as a basis.
[h/t 1389AD for photos.]
The construction of the Empire State Building was ego-driven, part of a race to see who could build the tallest building in New York City. Countless truck loads of elgiloy hastelloy metal beams were transported through the city, folk gawking with splendor. Although it was the first skyscraper to boast 100 floors, it was blocks away from public transportation, and the owners had a difficult time finding renters. Building it during the Great Depression didn’t help matters, and locals referred to it mockingly as “The Empty State Building.”
The building is a monument to technical ingenuity for sure, but financially it was a boondoggle. It didn’t become profitable until 1950 – almost 20 years after it opened.
By the way, a B-25 bomber crashed into it in 1945.
Fourteen people were killed in the incident, and elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver was injured. After rescuers decided to transport her on an elevator which they did not know had weakened cables, it plunged 75 stories. She survived the plunge, which still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall recorded.
Unfortunately, the photos above don’t include foundation work. Click on each image for the awesome size (and, um, those aren’t my inane captions). The images aren’t in any particular order either, because who needs order on
The Overnight Open Thread.
The Obama Boom is undergoiing some tough times. Unemployment is still at 9% and the jobs being created are low wage ones. Now industrial production and construction have fallen for the month of April.
U.S. housing starts and permits for future home construction fell in April as an overhang of homes on the market discourages builders from taking on new projects, pointing to prolonged weakness in the housing sector.
The Commerce Department said on Tuesday housing starts dropped 10.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 523,000 units. March’s starts were revised up to a 585,000-unit pace from the previously reported rate of 549,000 units.
U.S. industrial output was flat in April as the earthquake in Japan in March interrupted the supply of parts to auto makers, a Federal Reserve report said on Tuesday.Factory production fell 0.4 percent in April, its first decline in 10 months, the Fed said. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, factory production rose 0.2 percent in April.
Manufacturing makes up almost 75 percent of U.S. industrial production. Analysts had expected a 0.4 percent rise in overall output, which was buoyed by increases of 0.8 percent in mining and 1.7 percent in utilities.blockquote>
The Obama Boom roars on!
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