Higher oil and food prices. Unemployment near 9 percent. Crises in the middle east and Japan. The U.S. Economy faces threats at home and abroad that have the potential to dull growth or stoke inflation. Or both.

When they meet the chairman and his federal colleagues will debate those risks. At the top of their agenda is whether to make any changes to the Fed's $600 billion treasury bond purchase program, expiring at the end of June.

The bond purchases are entended to help the economy by keeping long-term interest rates down., encouraging spending and driving up stock prices. Economist expect the Feds to agree to maintain the pace and size of the bond purchases.

But the risk for the economy will probably complicate efforts as the Fed chief and a majority of his colleagues argue that the economy still needs support from the bond purchases. A vocal minority on the Fed has raised concerns that the bond purchases, combining with higher prices for food, fuel and other commodities, will spread inflation through the economy.

They also worry that the purchase could feed speculative buying that could inflate new bubbles in stocks or other assets. The recent spike in oil prices makes the Fed's job that much more difficult. The Fed's hope is that rising prices and inflation will accompany sustained and robust economic growth. However, rising energy prices may lead to a situation of stagflation: higher inflation and lower growth.

Head shaping is one of the most distinctive and deeply rooted practices of the ancient Maya, one they inherited from their olmec forebears. Of the 1600 skulls that have been studied by 122 Maya sites in presant day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Handuras, an astounding 90 percent had artificially shaped cranium, with males and females equally represented.

The practice of head shaping was a regular part of pre-Hispanic life and was required for a child's integration into society which took the form of name celebrating. Artistic representation of deforming apparatuses have been found on whistles and other musical instruments used to accompany these rites and caromonies. During the preclassic period (2000 B.C-A.D. 250) Maya had tall round heads, emulating a head of the Olmec Gods depicted in Olmec art work.

The Inca Indians were an indigenous group in what is now Peru. They created a highly advanced civilization for it's day and had a complex and rich culture. Many important discoveries in medicane and science were made by the Inca, and their agricultural and techniques made the cultivation of food much easier than it had been for other civilizations in the past. The agriculture and the art of the Inca indians were equally spectacular and continue to fasinate people to this day.

Apocalypse soon

In 2012, THE GRAND odometer of Maya timekeeping known as the Long Count, an accumulation of various small time cycles, will revert to zero and a new cycle of 1,872,000 days (5,125.37 years) will begin. as the long-awaited "Y12" nears, tales of what will happen have proliferated on the internet, in point, and in movies. As a result, on December 21, 2012 thousands of pilgrems, many origanized "sacred tour" groups will flee to Chichen Itza, Tikal, and a multitude of other celebrated sites of ancient America. There they will wait for a sign from the ancient Maya marking the end of the world as we know it. Will it be a blow-up or a bliss-out? Doom or delight? That depends on wich of the New Age prophets-an eclectic collection of self-appointed seers and mystics one chooses to believe.
Many of the predictions begin in outer space. it is known that there is a black hole at the center of the milky way, and that in 2012 the sun will aline with the planeof the galaxy for the first time in 26,000 years, Then, accourding to the doomsayers, the black hole will throw our solar system out of kilter. Some say supergiant flares will erupt from the suns surface. propelling an extraordinary plume of solar particles earthward at the next peak of solar activity. Earth's magnetic field will reverse, producing dire consequences such as violent hurricanes and the loss of all electronic communication systems. And natural disasters from Hurricane Katrina to the Indian ocean tsunami? They are all related to this alignment, and the ancient Maya knew all about it. That's the bad news.
But there's also good news coming from Y12 visionaries. Some say that rather than cataclysm we're due for a sudden, cosmically timed awakening: we will all join an enlightened collective conciousness that will resolve the worlds problems. The winter sulstice sun is slowly moving towards the heat of the galaxy. On December 21 (or 23 depending on how you align calenders), when the sun passes the "Great Rift," a dark streak in the Milky Way that represents the Maya "Womb of Creation" the world will be transformed. Then we will reconnect with our cosmic heart.

Why Charlie Sheen was fired from two and a half men

Page after page of bad language, the producers of two and a half men justify by firing Charlie Sheen by painting the actor as self-distuctive, sick addict who's deeriorating mentally and physically while scorning those that tried to help him.

In an unusual personal appeal, an attorney for Warner brothers tells the actors Lawers to focus on what people haven't been able to do yet, get the client sustained; rigorous and effective treatment he so urgently needs. He doesn't believe he has a problem.

He says he's tired of pretending like his life is perfect.