The consumer price index, used to gauge inflation, has jumped 5% since June 2007. Figuring it out means the Bureau of Labor Statistics staff must collect prices for items such as pizza, laptops and ca
Kim Gomory treks more than 850 miles each month, stopping by more than 120 grocers, gas stations, restaurants, stores, health clubs and other businesses.
But Gomory, a Honda Civic hybrid owner in her 40s, isn’t a soccer mom drawing a bead on bargains. Trace a line from her calculating consumerism in Claremont, Walnut and other communities and you’ll see how national economic policy gets made.
Shielding a tablet computer with skill worthy of a CIA operative, Gomory is among 400 Bureau of Labor Statistics staffers, including about 13 in the Los Angeles area, who compile data used to calculate the consumer price index, the best-known gauge of U.S. inflation.
The latest survey, released Wednesday, calculated that the consumer price indexrose 1.1% in June — the second-largest increase since 1982 — and jumped 5% compared with June 2007. Prices in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties rose 1.1% in June and 5.4% compared with a year earlier.
To the consternation of critics who say the index fails to reflect Americans’ struggles to make ends meet, the CPI is holy writ for bankers, economists, policymakers and politicians as they set mortgage and credit card interest rates, wages and government benefits programs such as food stamps and Social Security.
It costs what?! Calculating the CPI requires a lot of shopping around – Los Angeles Times
I’ve always wondered how they calculate the CPI. I didn’t realize that they actually send out individuals to shop around for these things. It’s absurdly time consuming and very subjective.
10 magazine covers that shook the world
July 14, 2008
Gay marriage may be a gift to California’s economy
June 2, 2008
Gay marriage may be a gift to California’s economy – Los Angeles Times
Forget economic stimulus checks. Same-sex marriages may give California just the financial boost it needs.
Wedding planners, bakers and hotels began booking more business almost immediately after the state Supreme Court’s May 15 decision overturning a ban on gay marriage. Citing pent-up demand, one UCLA study projects that same-sex unions could provide a $370-million shot in the arm to the state economy over the next three years.
Woman in iron lung dies during power outage – Los Angeles Times
ATLANTA — For the first time in more than half a century, the Odell residence is quiet.
There are no squeaks and pops from the electric motor that powered an “iron lung” pumping air in and out of Dianne Odell’s body.
A thunderstorm knocked out the power to her home Wednesday, shutting off the massive metal machine that had helped her breathe for nearly 60 years.
It was about 3 a.m. when the electricity went out at Odell’s home in Jackson, a small Tennessee town about 90 miles northeast of Memphis. An emergency generator did not start, and Odell died as her father and brother-in-law took turns pumping the iron lung manually.
This is the first time I’ve heard of an “iron lung”. It looks almost like a coffin. How eerie to live your entire life within the confines of that machine.
Do I smell sexy? Here’s a new reason to swap spit
May 17, 2008
Do I smell sexy? Here’s a new reason to swap spit – Los Angeles Times
Swapping spit: The term takes on a more refined meaning at the new dating site ScientificMatch.com. A prerequisite for signing up — in addition to having a bit of cash to spare — involves swishing a cotton swab inside your cheek and mailing a juicy sample of skin cells and saliva.
What do you get in return for your DNA-laden drool? A chance at genetic and olfactory harmony. ScientificMatch.com — perhaps the first company to combine the commercial potential of genetic testing, dating and the Internet in one package — offers to find you a lover who smells good.
Though the scientific picture is complicated, the ScientificMatch.com algorithm is not. Members are first genetically matched on the basis of their two copies (one inherited from Mom, one from Dad) of three major genes (sometimes known as HLA, for human leukocyte antigen). Members can choose to use results from a personal-values survey to refine the pool even further.
“We still don’t understand how MHC genes relate to actual mate preferences,” says Craig Roberts, a biological sciences professor at the University of Liverpool and mate-choice expert. “This is not to say I don’t like the idea. . . . But I think we are a long way from really understanding what’s going on.”
At 107, Livermore centennial lightbulb is still a real live wire – Los Angeles Times
LIVERMORE, CALIF. — Five years after his retirement, ex-firefighter Tom Bramell still likes to visit Station No. 6 for old times’ sake, whistling in amazement at all the changes — the strange faces and slick high-tech engines.
But one thing remains exactly the same, and it’s what Bramell misses the most about his firefighting days. The sturdy little object hangs from the ceiling in the firehouse’s engine bay, emitting its familiar faint orange glow.
He calls it the long-lived lightbulb of Livermore.
That’s actually something of an understatement.
At 107 years and counting, the low-watt wonder with the curlicue carbon filament has been named the planet’s longest continuously burning bulb by both Guinness World Records and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.
Adopted youths more likely to have mental disorders – Los Angeles Times
Adolescents who were adopted as infants are significantly more likely to have a psychiatric disorder than those who were not adopted, a study released Monday has found.
The researchers — emphasizing that most of the adoptees in the study were psychologically healthy and faring well — the said that as a group those adolescents faced a greater risk for two psychiatric conditions: attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder.
About 7 in 100 adolescents who were not adopted met the criteria for attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, about half the rate for adopted adolescents, said lead author Margaret Keyes of the University of Minnesota.
