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.
NASA announces plans to send a drone to explore Titan for signs of life
27 June 2019
Get ready for Dragonfly’s autonomous flight on Saturn’s largest moon.
Is there now, or has there ever been, life on Titan? Dragonfly will carry a suite of scientific instruments meant to address this question.
[MIT Technology Review]
What Neil Armstrong got wrong
26 June 2019
Space technology has changed the world—but not in the way the dreamers of the 1960s imagined it would
Even though humanity hasn’t returned to the moon since 1972, there has been slow and steady progress in human spaceflight, remarkable robotic exploration of the solar system, and—perhaps most important—a profound reordering of life on Earth by satellites orbiting it.
[MIT Technology Review]
A European mission will intercept an unknown comet for the first time
20 June 2019
The “Comet Interceptor” will launch in 2028 and loiter a million miles away until an interesting and accessible comet is found.
Examining comets from the outer reaches of the solar system could help figure out how much of the water on Earth originated from comets.
[MIT Technology Review]
clips, Science, Technology
tags: Comet, ESA, MIT Technology Review, space
Robots at the Front
26 June 2018
“Army of None” Review
Autonomous weapons are becoming a common feature of modern war, raising practical and philosophical issues that remain to be solved. This book doesn’t do much to help solve them.
[Wall Street Journal]
The Saudi prince who took a joyride on the space shuttle
and other space misadventures 30 March 2017
and other space misadventures 30 March 2017
International Collaborations in Space Always
Reflect Politics on Earth
A brief history of the countries that send people to space, and why.
[Slate]
clips, Physics, Astronomy and Space, Science, Science and Technology, Science Policy and Technological Culture, Technology
tags: Gagarin, Interkosmos, International Space Station, ISS, NASA, Rodrigo Neri-Vela, Slate, Soyuz, Space Shuttle, Spacelab, SpaceX, Sputnik, Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, USSR, Virgin Galactic
Bad Math Props Up Border Wall
18 October 2016
Estimating the cost (in dollars) of Donald Trump’s proposed border wall
It would be many times more expensive than he claims.
[MIT Technology Review]
clips, Mexico, Technology
tags: Border Wall, Donald Trump, mexico, Tech Review
New Directions
24 June 2016
On the way to Desert Storm, U.S. troops stopped in California in order to buy consumer GPS units at local stores.
A review of “Pinpoint” by Greg Milner and “Finding North” by George Michelsen Foy.
[Wall Street Journal]
The All-American iPhone
9 June 2016
What would it take to make iPhones in the US?
A thought experiment; doing so profitably is possible.
[MIT Technology Review]
PR Stunts
2 December 2013
Amazon Prime Drone Delivery? It’s Hot Air
Why Amazon won’t be delivering packages with drones by 2015.
[Slate]
How many nuclear weapons does China have?
11 November 2013
Consensus: China Offers Limited Deterrent
Probably fewer than 300.
[Aviation Week and Space Technology–Subscription Required]
Bard of Folly
21 October 2013
Book Review: ‘Command and Control’ by Eric Schlosser
A fantastic new book about nuclear weapons, and what it says about technology more generally.
[The American Prospect]
Eyes in the sky
3 May 2013
What the rise of the helicopter tells us about the future of domestic drones.
How to think carefully about the spread of drones.
[Slate]
The end of the “La-Z-Boy era” of sequential programming
20 March 2013
What comes after Moore’s law?
The challenge of parallelism.
[Zocalo Public Square]
Why Didn’t We Know the Russian Meteor Was Coming?
15 February 2013
We’re getting better at spotting potentially dangerous objects, but this one was too small.
A pocket history
[Slate]
Learning Math From Software Is Like Learning Parenting
Skills From Second Life 29 June 2012
Skills From Second Life 29 June 2012
Math education technology does not promote real understanding.
A follow-up.
[Slate]
clips, Computer Science and Mathematics, Science, Science and Technology, Science Policy and Technological Culture, Technology
tags: Calculators, Conrad Wolfram, constructivism, Education, Evan Weinberg, Graphing Calculators, Math Education, Mathematica, Paul Karafiol, pedagogy, Promethean, Robert Talbert, Science Education, Stephen Wolfram, TIMSS
Why Johnny Can’t Add Without a Calculator
25 June 2012
Technology is doing to math education what industrial agriculture did to food: making it efficient, monotonous, and low-quality.
How and why graphing calculators, educational software, interactive whiteboards and the like undermine actual learning in elementary, middle and high schools.
[Slate]
clips, Computer Science and Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy and Space, Science, Science and Technology, Science Policy and Technological Culture, Technology
tags: Calculators, constructivism, Education, Graphing Calculators, HH Wu, Longfellow Middle School, Math Education, NCTM, pedagogy, Promethean, Science Education, Slate, Smart Board
What Economists Get Wrong About Science and Technology
17 May 2012
The failures of trying to quantify research’s effects on the economy
And why they matter.
[Slate]
The Nucleus of the Digital Age
3 March 2012
A review of George Dyson’s “Turing’s Cathedral”
In pursuit of hydrogen bombs, a math genius and a brilliant tinkerer in Princeton developed the modern computer.
[Wall Street Journal]