| Picture this: Teachers are using comics, now called 'graphic novels,' to captivate reluctant readers
Not long ago, about the only way a kid could get away with reading a comic book in school was to hide it inside the covers of a textbook. Now Roberta Kaiser, the media specialist at Nautilus Middle School on Miami Beach, not only stocks her shelves with them, but demand outstrips supply by a wide margin. ''I have to limit them to one at a time, but there are students who come in two to three times a day to return one and get another,'' Kaiser said. Before anybody explodes about kids reading comic books when they're supposed to be doing quadratic equations or studying Shakespeare, know that comic books have changed, and so has reading. Under the spiffier label of ''graphic novels,'' these bound books feature every stripe of hero and story. ''The themes and genres can range from science to biography, and from memoirs to yes, superheroes,'' said John Shableski of Diamond Book Distributors, which specializes in comics.
UPDATE: Asia Stocks Down, Currencies Mostly Up; Oil In Focus
SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Asian stocks remain lower Friday in the wake of a retreat on Wall Street, and as a new record for crude oil and stronger regional currencies add to broad economic concerns. "There's very little positive news to hang your hat on today," said Patrick Crabb, senior institutional trader at Goldman Sachs JB Were in Sydney. Despite the risk-averse mood, regional currencies are mostly higher. The Japanese yen has caught its usual safe haven bid, a factor that is weighing on shares of Japanese exporters. Staying near multi-year highs are the Malaysian ringgit, Singapore dollar and Taiwan dollar, reflecting the widespread U.S. dollar bearishness now pervading markets. Central banks in the region continue to tolerate the moves, in a bid to counter the inflationary pressures many economies are facing due to lofty energy and commodity prices, with their absence from the market on Friday being noted by traders who expect local currencies to keep rising.
The subscribers-only home page of Casey Research
You don�t need me to tell you, but the $1,000 mark is the latest to fall beneath gold�s mighty rise.
Even so, as a benchmark, the number $1,000 is meaningless. It represents no new high in the inflation-adjusted prices that count. And it is not attached to a magic switch that assures, once flipped, the price must subsequently march to the $1,200 forecasted for this year by our own Bud Conrad. (Who is now poking with his fork at the suspicious-looking meat resting on his dinner plate in China where he is visiting.)
Of course, decisively taking out the $1,000 level will, undoubtedly, result in yet more features in the mainstream media and cause yet more regret in the minds of those who have dumbly stood by while watching gold break through the whole numbers divisible by 100.
|
