In 1907, Rudyard Kipling received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was the first English-language writer to receive the prize. Kipling was a innovator in the art of short stories. His children’s books, like Jungle Book, are classics of children's literature. Kipling also wrote poetry. One of his famous poems... Read more
Karl Marx and the Communist World
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ReadOasis Step 4 Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German philosopher, economist, and historian. He wrote mainly about economics and politics, and he is credited as the founder of communism. For Marx, the history of society has been the history of class struggles. Marx attacked capitalism, the economic system where... Read more
ReadOasis Step 3(Part 1) It's early in the morning. A funny looking man is getting ready for work. He casually looks up at the clock on the wall. Then his eyes pop wide open. He's running late! In a rush, he hurries to the kitchen. He opens the coffee... Read more
Victor Frankenstein: A Mad Scientist
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ReadOasis Step 4 Man, how ignorant you are in your pride of wisdom! - Victor Frankenstein As a young man, Victor Frankenstein was obsessed with the mixture of science and magic, and he desired to discover and make medicine that would give eternal life to the drinker. And he became... Read more
ReadOasis Step 4 Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin studied computer science at Stanford University. Their research concentrated on the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web. Specifically, they wanted to understand the patterns of its link structure. Page and Brin reasoned that not only could they count... Read more
The Drama of Darwin (Step 3)
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ReadOasis Step 3 Annie Darwin was her father's joy, and she treated him with tender kindness. But in 1849 Annie became sick with severe fever. Charles struggled to cure her, but in 1851, Annie died and was buried in a small church in Worcestershire. The words on her grave... Read more
ReadOasis Step 5 "Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster." This is the... Read more
Michael Jackson: King of Pop
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ReadOasis Step 3 In March 1983, Motown Records celebrated its 25th anniversary with a major television event. Many Motown artists gave impressive performances, but Michael Jackson upstaged them all when he sang Billie Jean and revealed his signature dance move, the moonwalk. His performance caused many to perceive him... Read more
The Most Famous Not a Protest Song (Step 5)
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ReadOasis Step 5 Protest songs speak out against problems in society. We can hear protest songs at pivotal moments of activism in western history, during the civil rights, anti-war, feminist, labor, and environmental movements. Protest singers have also sung about slave emancipation and women's suffrage. Of the many protest... Read more
Sex, Drugs, Death, and Rock and Roll
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ReadOasis Step 2 Wikipedia lists over 100 famous musicians who have died drug related deaths. Maybe fame and fortune forced them to excess. Perhaps the music industry sold them a senseless and crazy image. "Be like me! I'm rich, reckless, and pleasure-seeking. And now I will crash my Ferrari... Read more
ReadOasis Step 2 The big bang theory is currently the accepted explanation for the origin and development of the universe. The theory proposes that the universe was once extremely compact and hot. The big bang event first occurred long ago in the distant past. And the universe has been... Read more
ReadOasis Step 3 If you are cheerful, you feel good; if you are sad, you hurt all over. Ancient Jewish Saying. Doctors have thought about the connection between our mental and physical health for centuries. Until the 1800s, most believed that emotions were linked to disease. And doctors advised... Read more
ReadOasis Step 4 It was a hot August night in New York City, 1965. Two thousand policemen supervising security watched anxiously as 55,000 fans filled Shea Stadium. But this was not for a baseball game; it was for the first ever stadium concert in the history of rock and... Read more
Call of Duty Game Breaks Records Again
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ReadOasis Step 2 The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported this gaming news on November 12, 2010, summarized here at ReadOasis Step 2. The video game Call of Duty: Black Ops reached first-day sales of $360 million in the U.S. and U.K. The game is made by the company Activision.... Read more
Book Trailer by Dambisa Moyo ReadOasis Step 5 In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, commodity prices increased 150 percent. Over the last twenty years, rising resource demand and constrained commodity supply have increased global tensions and triggered over 20 wars and conflicts worldwide, with more inevitably to... Read more
ReadOasis Step 4(Part 1) I am an alcoholic and an addict and I didn't want to see my children do the same thing. Ozzy Osbourne, heavy metal singer Heavy metal is a style of rock music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It has roots in the... Read more
ReadOasis Step 5 Blues Legend Robert Johnson The blues is a great treasure of American musical culture. It stands as the foundation for practically every form of American music in the 20th century, including gospel, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and hip hop. Blues music has its... Read more
The Motown Sound (Step 3)
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ReadOasis Step 3 The Motown Museum (Wikipedia) Soul music combines rhythm and blues and gospel. Like the blues, soul arose out of the black experience in America, and soul musicians took these styles out of the black church and into the world and the streets. They confidently and proudly... Read more
By Tek Smith ReadOasis Step 4 Black liquid exploded out of the ground towards the sky. It was oil—black gold—and it had the energy to light up homes. It had the massive force to drive the engine of the American economy, and it had the power to make a... Read more
By Robert Louis StevensonReadOasis Step 5 Berit Watki Winter in Merstham (Creative Commons) Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;Blinks but an hour or two; and then,A blood-red orange, sets again.Before the stars have left the skies,At morning in the dark I rise;And shivering in my nakedness,By... Read more
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