Kane Farabaugh's Kanestergram

In an earlier post I talked about the movie "The Namesake" with Kal Penn, and how I related to the movie because of my own unique name. I've read this headline many times throughout the years. "What's in a name?" Names become an important part of the parenting process, and in our case with our son, was an evolving process right down to the very day he was born. I guess I've always wanted to name my son after me, since it's always been such a unique name I figured it couldn't hurt to pass it along. And since my wife is English, I figured having a Roman numeral at the end of a name wouldn't be so unusual, since they seem to do a fair amount of that in the United Kingdom. But our son is not a member of the Royal family or a noble. Nope, he's just one-half English, one-half American/German/Irish (if it's possible to combine those three into one-half) and all parts darn cute. We started early on with the name Lucas, and for those of yo...

He's here! Lucas Anthony Farabaugh arrived at 11:08 AM on Tuesday, December 18, 2007. Weighed in at 8 pounds, 5 ounces. 20 and 3/4 inches long. Mother and baby are doing great! So is Dad and Grandma! I'll update more later with more pics. Stay tuned!

I gotta say. I love Netflix. We watched a great movie the other night. It's called "The Namesake," and stars Kal Penn, of Harold and Kumar - and most recently "House" - fame. He plays a character named "Gogol." Gogol is South Asian, and is born in America. Gogol is a name that has special meaning to his father, and I won't divulge too much more of the plot - you should rent it and see it. It's one of the more heartwarming and better movies we've seen this year. But suffice it to say that growing up with the name "Gogol" wasn't an easy prospect for a young boy, and despite standing up for himself early on, he grows to hate the name and starts going by the name "Nick." I can relate to "Gogol" and sort of identified with the movie. After all, my name isn't Henry or Jack or Michael. It's Kane. But where Gogol and I differ is that I have never been ashamed of my unusual name. I've embraced i...

I was browsing the wesbite for WTAE-TV, the ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh (www.thepittsburghchannel.com) and on a web feature they produce, this YouTube clip was highlighted. I watched it, and found that the singer and guitarist is extremely talented. While the subject of the song leaves something to be desired, the tune is catchy, even epic, and I find myself humming it often. The whole band in the second half of the song is great, and I think that if this was recorded in a studio, this would be a hit. There is also a certain "Muppet" quality to the group, with the drummer even resembling Animal. Take a look... it's a great song:

Here's the latest edition of the American Veteran. I'm one of three freelance hosts on the program. For some reason they fonted me as an Army Veteran on this episode, though I'm an Air Force Veteran. I did tell them about the error. It was changed on the broadcast, but not on the website for some reason.

There have been many online conversations about the merits of Katie Couric's experience and background. She's been criticized and panned by most of the critics in TV news, and ratings for the CBS Evening News are the lowest they have ever been since Neilson began keeping track. I have to admit... I don't mind her performance on the Evening News. But that's what it looks like, a performance, not a delivery, of the news. I long for Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. But the following video, posted to Harry Shearer's website mydamnchannel.com, catches Katie, prior to performing a liveshot, making fun of Dan Rather. And you can kind of see why she hasn't really appealed to a wider viewing audience. Now, on the other hand, it is kind of funny to watch Dan Rather spend a silly amount of time trying to figure out whether or not to wear the coat prior to a live shot in Seattle several years back in his pre-scandal anchoring days. This is the video that Katie references...

The documentary film about Jimmy Carter by Johnathan Demme, titled "Man From Plains" hits theaters throughout the country this week. My interview with the former President last year was filmed by the production crew (interesting note: the cameraman was actor Aidan Quinn's brother), but sadly, we didn't make the final cut of theatrical release. Hopefully some of the interview will wind up on the DVD. Here's the trailer for the film, which I found engaging and interesting, and certainly provides insight into President Carter's efforts in his post-presidential years.

PRESS RELEASE - New York, October 12, 2007 – In an exclusive interview with Voice of America (VOA), former President Jimmy Carter spoke with New York correspondent Kane Farabaugh about the continuing crisis in Burma, his recent trip to Darfur, and other issues including six-party talks with North Korea. In the twenty-minute television interview, President Carter also spoke about his new book, Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope, which profiles the work of the Carter Center over the last 25 years. The former president's recent trip to the Darfur region of Sudan made headlines when Sudanese security officials prevented him from speaking to local villagers. The resulting publicity, he said, brings attention to suffering in the war-torn country. "It's very important for the world not to forget about Darfur, not to forget about the persecution of a displaced person." On the issue of Burma, President Carter said he believes that more press...

Government corruption and control of the diamond industry fueled the civil war that erupted in Sierra Leone in 1991. By the end of the decade, fighting had spread throughout the African country and included battles in the capital, Freetown. Thousands fled to Guinea and other neighboring nations. But as VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports, the end of the civil war marked the beginning of success for "Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars." There is a saying among the refugees of Sierra Leone. "Today you settle, tomorrow you pack," something Reuben Koroma knows all too well. After fleeing rebel forces in Freetown in 1999, he lived in five different refugee camps in Guinea -- a place where adversity became the mother of musical invention. "Instead of thinking all the time of what has happened to us, I think we need to do something else, and we found music as a treatment for ourselves, passionately." Other musicians found their way to Koroma in the camps. Some...

It is some of the most controversial real estate on the planet. The 16 acres of land in New York that is known as "Ground Zero" draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, and interest in what will eventually be built there reaches a peak on the anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports there appears to be little progress at the site six years after the attacks, but developers continue to be optimistic that the Ground Zero redevelopment plan will be finished by 2012. At street level, it is hard to see the construction effort at Ground Zero. But look down at the site from above, and the scale of the work becomes clearer. Each day, hundreds of construction workers are literally laying the foundation of lower Manhattan's future. Six years after the terrorist attacks that changed New York City forever, delays, debate and disaster have all contributed to a perceived lack of progress at the site. The chairman of the Lower M...

The loss of manufacturing jobs in the northeastern U.S. state of New York led to an economic decline in the 1970s. But war in Vietnam, and two decades later in the Balkans, as well as continued strife in Burma and Africa have helped change the face of one central New York community. VOA's Kane Farabaugh visited the town of Utica, which has welcomed an influx of refugees from around the world. Utica's prosperity disappeared two to three decades ago Prosperity left Utica, New York several decades ago. Once-mighty factories are now in ruin, reminders of a faded glory. The hum of industry and people reached its peak in 1960, when the population grew to more than 100,000 people. Peter Vogelaar from the Mowhawk Valley Refugee Resource Center did not live here then. He arrived more than three decades later, when the population stood at little more than 60,000. "It's the rust belt. You know, a lot of light manufacturing. There was a closing of a military base just north of...

The Balkan conflict, the strife in Sudan, and ongoing oppression in Burma are just some of the factors that have forced people to flee their homes and resettle in the northeastern state of New York. But language and cultural barriers make finding work a difficult prospect for some. As VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports, one local furniture plant embraces the refugee community, and now employs a workforce dubbed a "mini-United Nations." When Mehudin Krdzic was a young boy in Bosnia, he says Serbian forces moved his family from their farm into the town center of Srebrenica. He recalls what he saw with horror. "Thousands of people killed. Bodies all over the road on top of each other. Massacre. Bottom line, I saw the massacre." What Marka Bosso knew about hardship before it came to his village in southern Sudan, he says he learned from watching movies. As conflict erupted around them, Bosso and his family fled to Egypt. "The real life is different from the movies....

"Korea is a peninsula divided. Two nations, yet one people separated by history, ideology, and the demilitarized zone. It is within this zone that a fragile armistice endures the test of time and change in a standoff that is neither piece nor war. It is a place where servicemembers and civilians alike have sacrificed their lives to maintain a peace so thousands may live." I wrote that piece as part of a script for a spot promotion on a documentary I helped produce with the American Forces Korea Network (AFKN) in Seoul. It was my first year on the peninsula and my first introduction into the complex division between the Korean people. I was part of a team of reporters stationed in Seoul for AFKN, and each day, out of naivite, we would search the Associated Press wires for news that North Korea had advanced or provoked checkpoints at the worlds most heavily guarded border. None of us really knew the enemy or the enemies motives. We just knew that they existed, and that they wer...

During the Cold War, Greenland was a strategic location for the United States military to track and detect Soviet aircraft and ballistic missiles. The military established radar and tracking sites throughout Greenland's ice sheet. The only way in and out of the remote facilities was by specially equipped aircraft. Since 1975, that mission has belonged to an Air Force unit based in New York state -- the 109th Airlift Wing. As VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports, a unit that began a now obsolete military mission has found new life in Greenland in the pursuit of science. The C-130 airplanes offer the only possible way to deliver heavy equipment and supplies to the remote arctic research stations It is early morning in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Airmen from the 109th Airlift Wing from New York state are far from home on this cold morning. It is about an hour from take off for a group of students and scientists heading into the Arctic chill of Greenland's vast ice sheet. For many of th...

This is the video story based on the print story posted on July 25th. This version of the story was re-edited to take out the music. I liked this version better.

Periods of global warming and cooling have caused the terrain of Greenland to change over time -- part of the natural process of the Earth's evolution. But as VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports, scientists who work in Greenland are concerned that evidence they are finding today in the ice indicates that mankind could be causing a change in Greenland's natural evolution -- for the worse. Eighty-five percent of Greenland, the world's largest island, is covered in ice. It is also home to ten percent of the world's ice mass. Jacobshaven GlacierThe Jacobshaven Glacier , at nine kilometers a year, it is currently the world's fastest-moving glacier. Historians and scientists believe this mass of draining ice produced the iceberg that sunk the Titanic ocean liner in 1912. It is also a glacier that could contribute to sinking coastlines of major countries if it were to melt completely. Greenland is the fastest-warming location on the planet. The average temperature here is...

This edition of the American Veteran features an interview by Jim Benson with Dr. Michael J. Kussman. I always welcome feedback, and so does the VA, so let us know what you think.

Editors Note: This is sarcastic. Tongue in cheek. You know the drill. From a friend I worked with in the military broadcasting world, now an anchor and reporter in the Northwest. I always liked his sense of humor: A JOURNALIST'S 10 STEPS TO PROPER BROADCASTING Taken from Volume II of Greg Craber's School of Broadcasting 1. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU'RE DOING, YOU'RE THE BEST THERE IS AT IT. 2. NEVER DO ANYTHING FOR ANYONE, UNLESS YOU DIRECTLY BENEFIT MONITARILY OR OTHERWISE. 3. YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS AROUND YOU. 4. MAKE SURE EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU'VE DONE THAT IS REALLY GOOD. 5. AFTER YOU'VE DONE SOMETHING FOR SOMEONE, THEY OWE YOU! 6. WHEN LOOKING FOR A PARKING SPOT, YOU ARE BOTH A "DV" AND A "VIP". 7. EVERYONE (excluding relatives) OF THE OPPOSITE SEX WOULD "LIKE TO KNOW YOU BETTER". 8. MAKE SURE YOUR PRESENCE IS ANNOUNCED ANY TIME YOU ENTER A ROOM WITH MORE THAN 7 PEOPLE PRESENT...

May Edition of the American Veteran. I really enjoy being a part of this program, and I'm proud to make a contribution in the veteran community. I always welcome feedback... let me know what you think.

Richard Branson Interview Add to My Profile | More Videos Richard Branson sits on the top-ten list of the United Kingdom's richest citizens, with an estimated wealth of roughly eight billion dollars. As the company he founded -- Virgin Group -- tries to expand its airline operations into the United States, Branson is committing billions of dollars of the company's future profits to developing renewable energy. VOA's Kane Farabaugh recently spoke to the British entrepreneur at the United Nations in New York about his commitments to helping the environment, and about his plans for the final frontier in tourism -- space. He set a record for crossing both the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel. An attempt to travel non-stop around the world in a hot air balloon fell short of his dreams in 1999, but his Virgin Global Flyer aircraft, piloted by Steve Fossett, succeeded in 2005. Richard Branson said before the success, “It is perhaps the last great aviation record left here o...