If you've read the Discworld novels by popular fantasy writer Terry Pratchett, you've surely encountered Death. He's an actual character — a skeleton in a black hood who's portrayed as not such a bad guy after all.

So maybe it's not so surprising that at 63, Pratchett — who has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's — speaks openly about causing his own death.

Cultural diplomacy usually comes in the form of a traveling art exhibit or a celebrity visit to a war-torn country. But there's a deeper kind of diplomacy taking place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. For the past four summers, arts managers from around the world have been coming to D.C. for training on how to improve their organizations back home.

Days of rioting in England are capturing international attention. In the United States, cities are also dealing with mob attacks, though on a smaller and less destructive scale. Earlier this week, Philadelphia officials announced their plan to fight mob violence, which has escalated in recent months.

Outside Philadelphia City Hall earlier this week, a small group of teens sat on the ground.

On Monday morning, U.S. markets opened for the first time since Standard & Poor's downgraded America's credit rating. Stocks went over the edge like an Olympic diver.

A few hours later, President Obama stepped in front of a microphone at the White House to proclaim his confidence in the U.S.

"No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a AAA country," he said.

He left the podium, and the financial plunge continued.

So, does having the biggest megaphone in the country do the president any good?

While Wall Street experiences the biggest stock sell-off in years, some very successful investors don't appear to be concerned. They're out buying stocks while everybody else panics.

Top executives are also downplaying the perceived crisis.

"We don't run the business based on what happens in the market in a day," Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, said Wednesday on CNBC. Bank stocks like his have been getting hammered in recent days.

It seems like Netflix is on top and it's everywhere. Users can watch it on their computers, game consoles, smartphones, or Internet-connected TV. Netflix boasts some 25 million subscribers, which is more than big cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner.

Although the company started as a mail order DVD service, these days it does the lion's share of promoting for its online streaming service. The company says it's the place to "watch instantly."

So who are the British rioters and why are they doing it? It seems like an easy question, but it's been fairly hard to ascertain. In some ways, two distinct portraits of rioters have emerged. In some ways, they're typified by two videos that have made the rounds online.

One is of a disaffected youth that's underemployed and has nothing to lose. It is typified by a video of Pauline Pearce, a 45-year-old grandmother, who was walking through the streets of Hackney and confronted rioters with some blunt speech. Here's the video, but be warned there is some strong language in it:

A common form of irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation can cause blood clots, putting people at increased risk of stroke. The anticoagulant drug warfarin is used to reduce that risk, but since people respond to it very differently, it requires careful monitoring to avoid the risk of heavy bleeding. Now, researchers say a new drug called rivaroxaban looks to be as good as warfarin in preventing strokes.

It’s ‘back to school’ time in Fayette County Thursday and the students numbers continue to rise.

New school construction and renovation are a part of the fabric of the Fayette County School System.  Acting school superintendent, Mary Wright says projections show an additional 800 students coming into the Lexington district this year.  She says the district has been growing by about 600 students in each of the last few years.  Wright says some renovation work continues