The core inflation rate doesn’t include gas and food prices. But if you add those products to the report for last month, consumer prices shot up 0.6% — the biggest increase since November. That’s why some economists say it’s time to stop ignoring them. Nancy Marshall Genzer reports.

I am worried that the worse is yet to come.  Is the U.S. sliding?  Has our debt caught up to us?

Reverend Zelda Kennedy talks about getting past the discomfort of planning for the end and the importance of making your wishes clear.

In this edition of Getting Personal, Chris and Tess talk about purchasing a business, buying foreign real estate, self-employment and financing study abroad.

Do married women do more housework than their husbands? It can be a touchy subject, but a study by an economist at the University of Michigan has some statistics. Lisa Napoli talks with Frank Stafford about the study’s results.

I try.  But, my wife does do more housework, particularly on the weekends.  I typically do the during the week stuff (dishes etc), but she will get up early Saturday morning and do some stuff more in-depth.

I have my son help as much as possible.

Both parents working 40 hours a week, how do we change this in our culture?

Check this out 

While these are small steps toward a respectable goal, Accelerated Composites (AC), a private company of only 15 employees based in San Diego, Calif., may be taking a big leap with the Aptera, a three-wheel, two-passenger prototype that aims for an astounding 330 miles per gallon. AC was founded in 2006 by Steve Fambro and Chris Anthony, two independent entrepreneurs with experience in everything from composites and biotechnology to aerodynamics and finance.

This combination of expertise led to the Aptera, a truly unique vehicle that looks like a cross between a dolphin and a helicopter. Technically classified as a motorcycle, the vehicle will only be available to residents of California when it’s initially produced. If the Aptera sells well, AC hopes to offer its vehicle to national and international markets.

The initial prototype of the Aptera achieved 230 mpg, a number that is 195 mpg over the projected standard outlined in President Bush’s recent energy bill. As of now, the developers still have more time to work out the kinks and improve its efficiency — AC expects the Aptera to be ready for Californians in late 2008.

I have only played Xbox 360 a few times, so I don’t know enough about the system to comment.  I have an Xbox and I have enjoyed that for years.  My son now has it and plays it.

My wife and I have been slow to buy any new game systems because of the cost factor of games.  Nevertheless, we purchased my son a Nintendo DS last year.  This seemed like a good deal at the time, because of the number of games we can put on a SuperCard.

Over 18 million Xbox 360s have sold through since the console’s launch in November 2005, but just how many of those are still working? Squaretrade, a company that specializes in providing warranty support to purchasers of electronic goods from various manufacturers, claims 16% of Xbox 360s experience a hardware failure within six to ten months after a warranty purchase. Three out of every five failures were for the infamous “Red Ring of Death” general hardware failure error, a problem often linked to overheating.

The Xbox’s figures compare poorly to competing consoles, which have a failure rate of around 3% — and if anything, the Squaretrade figure underestimates the scale of the Xbox 360′s reliability issues. It’s a good bet that some buyers of Squaretrade warranties went straight to Microsoft after experiencing hardware issues and don’t factor into the 16% number. On its company blog, Squaretrade pointed out that failure rates are “certain to go up” as the machines in their study group grow older.

Microsoft is cagey about coughing up official failure rate figures, which has lead some commentators to speculate about the actual severity of the problem. Luke Plunkett, a blogger on respected games news site Kotaku, said in a recent post that if the real failure rate wasn’t in the 30-40% range, he’d “wolf down humble pie until his sides split.”

Plunkett’s sides are likely safe. Stories of 360 owners making their way through eight or nine consoles aren’t hard to find, but to its credit, Microsoft has been working with the affected individual in at least one of those cases to lessen the impact of the constant failures.