BTI Books

Angels of Iran - Video 1

2012-01-17T08:21:00.000-05:00

A story of love, courage, and belief in freedom with Reza Fani Yazdi and his wife Soheila Vahdati. Reza never gave in to brutal torture, or years in prison. It's all about your identity, about your dignity, about your existence. He says, "Basically, you think, 'If I break, if I give up, I have lost my dignity. I have lost my existence. Who am I going to be after that?'" EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: David Hoffman PRODUCER / DIRECTOR: Jeff Kaufman EDITOR / FIELD AUDIO: Daniel Kaufman CINEMATOGRAPHY: Colin Trenbeath A Single Arrow Productions film http://www.educationunderfire.com/angels-of-iran/ Please follow the Education Under Fire link to sign a petition to end the persecution in Iran.

2011-11-13T08:23:00.001-05:00

Playing for Change - United

2011-11-03T09:59:00.000-04:00

By the end of 2011 the world will have reached 7 billion people. The United Nations Population Fund is leading an innovative global campaign to bring awareness to the opportunities and challenges that this milestone presents. But 7 Billion people means 7 Billion hearts. Music has always been the best way to speak to the hearts of the people. Playing For Change has partnered with the United Nations to present an original song around the world to serve as an anthem for such an important time: "United."

Aussies rally for Bahai academics

2011-10-24T09:19:00.001-04:00

Students in Wollongong have joined a campaign protesting against educational discrimination in Iran. Video courtesy of World News Australia.

EducationUnderFire.com

2011-09-26T14:32:00.000-04:00

Quo Vadis Habana Notebook Review - new 85g paper vs old 90g paper

2011-07-16T17:37:00.000-04:00

Karen Doherty, Vice President of Marketing at Exaclair, Inc. was kind enough to provide two 6x9 Quo Vadis Habana notebooks for my review. This made it exceedingly easy for me to compare the two side by side and take a few photographs with my aging camera. I used my Spirit of Life pen as many of you asked me how larger nibbed pens perform on these notebooks.

Here are the two notebooks side by side. Obviously they are the same size. I'm thrilled to find the pretty green shade available as a lined notebook in the new version. Old Habanas of this color had blank pages. The graphics have changed on the new label to add a diagram showing a fountain pen nib. These notebooks are famous in both versions for being fountain pen friendly. There is also a graphic of the sewn binding. This is a mark of the notebook's quality. They lay flat to write in and the pages will not fall out, an ever present danger with glued pages. Still proudly made in the USA, in spite of the changes to the paper weight so that Habanas will have a consistent weight world wide.

It was the change in paper weight and color that caused the most stir among fountain pen users. The old Habanas have beautiful white paper. The new have a generic ivory or cream color that some find restful to the eyes. Frankly, I prefer the original white. After all, I buy those lovely pens so I can have beautiful shades of ink. And this color paper looks tired to me. Boring and blah and generic.

Since this color of paper is already provided by the Rhodia Webnotebook, affectionately known as the "Webbie," I have to wonder why a wonderful product would copy another product that's competition. But hey, let's not get into global economic discussions and speculation about the corporate decisionmakers. These are the products we'll have from here on out unless consumers make it economically attractive for the company to reissue the beautiful white paper so many of us adore.

Here is the old format Habana with my Spirit of Life pen for size comparison. Yes, that's a BIG pen. Larger than a Montblanc 149. Note the width between the lines. In fact, let me give you a close up.

As you can see, there is plenty of room for both a BB [double broad] nib and an IB [italic broad nib]. The italic is roughly 1.3 mm in width - your standard stock Conway Stewart IB nib. The handwriting is my own. Hey, too many years of fast note taking is not conducive to good handwriting. But it gives a good example of the spacing for larger nibs. Let me add a shot of the back of the page. The old 90g paper is wondrous - even with a darker ink and extreme flow, you can see there is virtually no show through on the back of the page.

Next up are the same verses using the same ink and nibs on the 85g paper. But what a difference! Notice how narrow the ruling is compared to the old Habanas. Also notice the lines on this notebook do not extend to the edge of the page as they did in the old style. Same configuration of picture, but what a change!

Let's get a close up on that! What took nearly a page before takes only half a page now. Whoa!

As you see, someone used to large nibs can still get a BB and IB nib between the lines. BUT, and this is important to me as I use these notebooks for fast note taking and writing, the narrower lines slow me way down. Not so good when I'm trying to put as many words on the page as possible. There's a reason I use these big nibs - SPEED. Take that away and only the paper quality remains as an incentive to use the product.

Let's get another close up on the changed page.

Notice how flat the paper lies, even on the first page with the binding? Most notebooks you'd lose up to an inch of the first page with binding glue, but not these! Once past this page, there will be NO puckering at all and the notebook will lie absolutely flat.

But what about bleed through on the 85g paper as opposed to the 90g? The paper feels the same - perhaps even a hair smoother. If you've handled a Rhodia "Webbie" it feels the same.

Unfortunately there's a slight increase in show through on the back of the page. Not enough to keep you from writing on the back of the page. But enough to cause a little eyestrain if you will be transcribing what you write to your computer at a later date.

I can only put this down to the increased amount of ink being flung onto a more compressed area of the page. The page is noticeably wetter on the back side after turning. I didn't check the drying time, since the inks and nibs are identical, but I wouldn't be in a rush to use saturated inks on these papers using larger nibs.

With the 85g paper [green edging] next to the 90g [blue edging] you can see the difference in paper color, line width, margin vs none, and the amount of the page your writing will take up.

BOTTOM LINE: Will I buy the new Habana? Probably. But only after I use up my stash of the old. I'm very happy that I bought up as many of the 90g paper as I could afford. But only a size differential and prettier covers differentiate it from the Rhodia Webnotebook. If I don't need the pocket or portability added by the elastic, I might buy the Clairefontaine hard bound journals to get the lovely white paper I prefer.

Is it an improvement? Not to this big nib lover. The narrower lines cause me to slow my headlong scrawl. I have to pay more attention where those big nibs are going. And my jewel toned inks have a faint color shift on the cream paper - not so noticeable with these ink colors, but annoying to my eyes when using other shades. Frankly, these pages look...tired.

The company took the perfect product that received rave reviews in the fountain pen community and made it into a clone of the Rhodia. Those who love cream paper are thrilled. As for me...I'll keep an eye out for more of the old format as finances and availability allow. It's a good product. But once it was great. That's hard to forget.

Men, are you LISTENING?

2011-06-13T18:56:00.000-04:00

Do you follow the herd?

2011-06-10T08:38:00.000-04:00

Another mass moovement! Grass root support, I'm told.

Justice prevails!

2011-06-06T17:22:00.000-04:00

A South Florida judges seizes the assets of a Bank of America branch after they wrongfully foreclosed on a family who had paid cash for their home [no mortgage!] then refused to pay their legal fees after ordered by the court. Watch as the bank gets a lesson in customer service.

This could be my favorite service announcement

2011-06-04T16:34:00.000-04:00

Illicit education: Bahai’s struggle to educate their youth

2011-06-01T08:28:00.001-04:00

The Iranian

The following article is by a Bahai academic who cooperated with the Bahai Institute of Higher Education in Iran, commonly referred to at the Bahai Azad (Open) University. The university’s offices and more than 500 Bahai homes were raided in Tehran last September and October and 36 staff and faculty were arrested. According to Glen Fullmer, assistant director for external affairs at the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of the United States, those arrested were forced to sign a statement that they would no longer collaborate with the university but all refused. Most were eventually released but three remain in prison in Isfahan, Fullmer said. Bahai university’s faculty and students have resumed their activities for the new academic year, Fullmer added, but they are “hampered by the loss of equipment, especially computers, which they suffered during the raids.”

I was standing in line to clear customs at Mehrabad Airport, in the middle of a cold winter night, and was sweating bullets. The reason: My brown suitcase. It was full of books with titles such as “Designing Structures in Earthquake Zones”, and “Handbook of Wastewater Treatment”. I kept telling myself to calm down, repeating that “I was not doing anything wrong.” Well, maybe yes, maybe no! Was it wrong to bring textbooks to give away? Only if they were to be used by Bahais.

How did I get myself into this situation? Why was I bringing textbooks into Iran?

Miraculously in the Autumn of 1993, after so many frustrating attempts, I managed to get my Iranian passport, and more importantly an exit permit. After eighteen years of exile I went home to Iran. The joy of being home, seeing my beloved Alburz mountains, and visiting old friends and relatives was overshadowed by many things that broke my heart. I saw many crippled veterans of the war with Iraq. There was a sadness and indifference that permeated people often making them act with resignation. But nothing saddened me more than meeting Nilufar.

Nilufar was a Bahai in her late twenty’s. She had a distracted and sad look in her eyes. Although beautiful she hunched forward as if to avoid the world. What’s the matter with her, I asked my cousin, who had introduced me to Nilufar. My cousin explained that Nilufar had been the top student in the School of Dentistry at Tehran University. After the revolution, Nilufar, like all other Bahai students and professors, was kicked out of the university. They were banned from all higher education or government jobs.

Nilufar like many other Bahai students, thought this was a temporary problem. Months turned into years. The level of worry and despair intensified. Nilufar and her younger sister tried to go abroad. They were denied passports, as were almost all other Bahais who applied. In desperation, and against everyone’s advice, the two sisters attempted to cross the boarder into Pakistan. On the way there, they were caught, arrested, and imprisoned for several months in Zahedan. The imprisonment broke Nilufar’s resolve, hope, and it seemed her spirit as well.

My cousin saw the look of incredulity and disbelief on my face, after listening to her story. She pointedly said, “Nilufar is not the only one, I will introduce you to others.” In the following days I met dozens of college-age Bahais, each trying to cope with his or her sense of hopelessness.

The plight of the Bahai students affected me greatly. There were thousands of youth, raised in accordance with the principles of their faith, to believe in the importance of education. They were taught that to develop one’s intellectual and spiritual potential, and to become a productive servant of society, is a human being’s highest degree of achievement. To be stymied in their quest to fulfill what is their natural right was disheartening and discouraging. In Iran the brain-drain has become a major problem. Yet thousands who consider Iran a sacred country are kept out of the main stream of society.

I visited Iran again four years later. I immediately noticed something was different the second I entered my family’s home. The basement room, where I usually stored my bags, was clean, freshly painted and looked very much like a classroom with chairs neatly arranged around the room. Educational posters hung on the walls. My father’s workshop looked extraordinarily neat with all the tools set on the benches according to their type and size. The floors were swept and the cutting saws were shining clean. Also, there was a stranger living in my sister’s room.

“The classrooms and the workshop are for the Azad (Open) University,” my father said, ” and the girl living in your sister’s room is a first year accounting student from the north of Iran (Shomal).”

“Azad University?” I asked, thinking that my father was pulling my leg.

“Yes, it is a Bahai University.”

My father answered with such heartfelt pride and satisfaction, that I immediately knew that he was not joking. The university had about 1,000 students, ten academic departments and a correspondence arrangement with Indiana University in the U.S. I asked about the teachers. My father explained that the classes were taught by Bahai professors and experts of particular fields who had been fired from other universities and government jobs.

In the following days I met with students and professors of Azad University. The joy and pride of all the students for being a part of this incredible experience was uplifting and inspiring. I asked about Nilufar. I was told that her depression had reached such depths that she could not pull herself out to resume her studies again. The university was a labor of love by a beleaguered community. These Bahais refused to lie down and let youth, their most precious asset, wither. The classes were dispersed throughout hundreds of homes. All classes were of a very high academic standard. Minimum grades had to be achieved before moving to the next level and graduation. The first graduates, accountants, engineers, dentists, teachers and technicians had already begun working in the private sector.

So there I was, in Mehrabad, with my suitcase full of books. It was finally my turn to clear customs. The customs officer, with his three-day-old beard, looked tired and impatient. He took my customs declaration form and barked, “What’s in the brown suitcase?” With a barely audible voice, and through a dry throat, I stammered, “Books.” “BOOKS!” he seemed to shout. “What kind of books?” Other custom officers turned to stare. “Open it,” he demanded without waiting for my reply. Now the other officers leaned in my direction trying to see the inside of my suitcase. The sight of the piles of books inside the suitcase startled even me.

One of the other officers left his side and came over to our side of the table. He looked hard at me, his eyes were saying “got you!” With a choking voice I managed to say, “These are academic books.” “ACADEMIC BOOKS!” he shouted again. “Who for?” “For the university,” I said, already thinking fast about the next likely question and what my reply should be. He said nothing. After he and his colleagues examined each book, my customs officer threw the last one on the pile in the suitcase.

He started to write something angrily on my customs form while shaking his head right and left. I knew I was finished. Was it going to be the Qasr prison or maybe, God forbid, Evin? He handed back my form, and slammed shut my suitcase. “Befarma’id (please move on).” As I clumsily latched the locks with my shaking hands, he turned to me and pointed to the other passengers’ luggage. With a conspiratorial tone he leaned towards me and said, “I wish more people would bring books into the country instead of all this junk!”

—

Source: http://www.iranian.com/BTW/Feb99/Education/index.html

Trial of American Hikers in Iran

2011-05-20T16:32:00.000-04:00

This is absolutely horrifying to anyone used to the U.S. court system. Or to any legal system where one is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. Watch it for yourself. All I could think is...WHAT defense?

Where Do Writers Get Their Ideas?

2011-05-15T18:21:00.001-04:00

The internet is overflowing with conspiracy theories and plot lines. The hard part is sitting down with a few good ideas and actually writing the book.

Mozartgroup.org - classical music made fun!

2011-05-13T21:41:00.001-04:00

AT&T Customer Service?? Only if you're rich!

2011-05-03T13:31:00.000-04:00

Today I received spam from a hacker using MY email address. In the bad old days when ISPs had to provide service for their exorbitant charges, I would call the provider, they would block the sites on their end and fix the email account. Oh yeah, that's back when I first signed on with BellSouth - pre merger.

I dutifully called in today. AT&T's response is to block the email address I've used for over 15 years as spam, punishing the victim, and passing me to their "ConnectTech" service, a for profit service where I was informed for $15 a month and a minimum one year contract they would provide service. Yes, despite my running AVG and Internet Security religiously with every update and never opening emails sent from unknown users and every other brand of safe computing you can think of, they want to charge me $180 for the next year so they can log on remotely and wander around my system to fix it.

Really? REALLY???

You think I'll pay you half the cost of a new computer when you can't even keep your own billing straight? You think I've forgotten that you literally hounded my father into the grave over your double billing error? Or the hours I've wasted teaching your tech support what you couldn't bother to keep in your records? Or that I had to pay for a modem that your shipping department lost? And now you want to turn your people loose remotely on my systems when the 3 browsers came back "unsupported" on your system despite being the most up to date versions of all 3?

I DON'T THINK SO!

I'm stuck in a cell phone contract unless I want to buy out. But I'm now actively looking for something to replace my DSL line and the local-only phone service I have until September on a promotional deal. That's because I no longer have the income to pay those charges for local phone service that exceed my weekly food budget!

It won't be Comcast Cable. I haven't forgotten watching my neighbors call on a daily basis to try and get service. I haven't forgotten the constant outages, fuzzy pictures, and no-shows in spite of confirmation numbers from agents. Nor the constant hidden charges. Or the 2 hours on hold waiting for "service." No, I've happily lived without a TV set.

But I'll be shopping for an alternate internet provider. AT&T, you've EARNED your worst customer service rating. I'm tired of cheap equipment that burns out on an annual basis, if not sooner, while you charge me when your sloppy shipping department loses the returns. Returns which I faithfully package and drop off at shipping offices at my expense in time and gas.

I'd rather wipe my hard drive and reload. Yes, some of us still know how to do that. But I don't trust YOUR system. Why is it my free accounts aren't hacked? Only the expensive ones I pay YOU for while you try to discourage me from using Outlook from my Office software suite so you can have the convenience of your lousy webmail system that doesn't meet my needs?

Thanks for trying to charge me additional for service that should be a part of any internet service provider. I didn't have to call you and report the websites for the bad guys. I thought you'd want to shut down the Russian dating sites, not extort more money from their victim.

Don't try to sell me a business site again. If your home service is this bad, do you really think it's an incentive to pay more?

I remember deregulation of the Bell System. We got wonderful customer service after years of arrogance. Now you've bought up all the little guys and the monolith is back. Any competitors to AT&T in northeast Florida? I'm looking.

President Obama's Naw Ruz Message to Iran 2011

2011-03-22T08:57:00.000-04:00

The President mentions the imprisoned Baha'is among others.

So You Want To Write a Novel

2011-03-18T09:27:00.000-04:00

So You Want to Go to Law School

2011-03-17T16:29:00.000-04:00

Eric Wilson Has a New Book Out!

2011-03-09T16:40:00.000-05:00

In his own words, "Yes, I got a new contract! My next book, "One Step Away," is a suspenseful modern twist on the old story of Job. Instead of being cursed, a family receives a "blessing" of $6,000,000 to see if they'll forget about God."

I want to plug Eric for being one of the kindest, most generous, all around fantastic writers out there. Catch his work at his website or his publisher's. Or track his book on Amazon.

If you don't recognize the name, you've probably seen his novelizaton of "Fireproof" on the bookshelves or the New York Times Bestseller List.

Lesley Hazleton: On reading the Koran

2011-03-07T09:04:00.000-05:00

As the news fills with pundits misquoting that which they have never read in ever louder attempts to justify their positions, it seems appropriate to share the quiet voice of a woman who has actually read the words in question.

The Words I Love You (A Light For Eternity) دوست دارم

2011-03-04T12:45:00.000-05:00

I've got this song stuck in my head. Chris de Burgh and Arian complete with subtitles for the linguistically challenged such as myself.

The American Dream

2011-02-28T07:53:00.000-05:00

How Irish Dancing Started

2011-01-31T17:02:00.001-05:00

What can I say? Given the Celtic proclivity for drink, there may be some truth in this. Or...maybe not!
[Full disclosure - don't let the Arabic and Farsi on the website fool you. Celt rules my gene pool.]

2011-01-11T21:24:00.000-05:00

The Christmas Can-Can

2010-12-19T08:47:00.000-05:00