Someone else will have to tell you how shut these off BUT what I can suggest in the interim is to download the Aardvark plugin for FireFox and it will let you see what is in that space:
The greet:user wrapper or block is there and some others. Don't quote me on the technical name, i.e., wrapper, cuz I don't know the technical terms but Aardvark shows you the names of the different stuff in there. I think this is what you need to remove. I'm too new to tell you HOW to do that but if you see what is there, you may figure it out yourself.
Use the Developers Tool in the Admin area to find what file that section is in.
Good luck,
Cheryl



