WELCOME
Thanks for coming to visit my website. I write about science, technology, foreign affairs, and other subjects.
Follow me on Twitter: @kkakaesDrones and Aerial Observation
I edited and wrote part of a short book published by New America in July 2015 and freely available online, about how drones are being used in new ways around the world. It's meant to be useful to people who want to fly drones.The Pioneer Detectives
I published a short book with The Millions.
It's the story of the Pioneer Anomaly, a long-standing mystery. The book is short and fun—the length of a novella—but also, in the words of Amazon's reviewer, "powerful and sad". If you've got any curiosity about how NASA works behind the scenes or why scientists believe what they do, I think you'll enjoy the book.
It is available on Amazon as a Kindle Single and also on Apple's iBooks.Drone Wars
I wrote a chapter on the long history of drone technology going back to the early 20th century in this edited Cambridge University Press volume.
A tale of two Mexicos
24 April 2008
North and south
Why can’t its stagnant southern states catch up with the rest of Mexico?
The Race to find the World’s Biggest Underwater Caves
15 April 2008
In the April 2008 issue of Discover magazine, I wrote a story about two explorers, one British and one German, who are among the world’s leading cave divers, and of how they found the connection between Sac Actun and Nohoch Nah Chich, in the Yucatan peninsula, finding what was at the time the world’s biggest underwater cave.
Mexico’s energy reform
10 April 2008
Regeneration
Felipe Calderón sends a modest plan to Congress, which girds for battle
The Return of AMLO
19 March 2008
The resurrection
The return of a former opponent adds to the president’s troubles
Mexico and human rights
14 February 2008
Big, expensive and weirdly spineless
A much-needed human-rights watchdog continues to disappoint
Mexico’s battle with drug gangs
31 January 2008
Marching as to war
Drug gangs ratchet up the violence in Mexico as judicial reform begins
Mexico and NAFTA
24 January 2008
Tariffs and tortillas
Trade is not to blame for the poverty of Mexican farmers
Pemex
19 December 2007
Running just to stand still
How to reform the flawed behemoth that is the world’s sixth-biggest oil producer
Higher education in Mexico
6 December 2007
A doctor takes charge
Big university, big scientific ambitions
Felipe Calderón passes some reforms
20 September 2007
Reforms at last
The president shows himself to be a successful dealmaker
Felipe Calderón’s presidency
13 September 2007
Mexico’s teetering president
Bombed pipelines and battles in Congress, but the reforms go on
Mexico and the United States
23 August 2007
Death in the desert
The impact of tighter border security
Education in Mexico
19 July 2007
“The teacher” holds back the pupils
Elba Esther Gordillo, an old-fashioned union boss, has a stranglehold over her country’s failing schools
Felipe Calderón attempts energy reform
21 June 2007
Having his cake and eating it
Felipe Calderón unveils a bold fiscal reform package
Mexico’s War on Drugs
14 June 2007
State of siege
A government’s uphill struggle against drug trafficking and the violence it spawns