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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.
Cosmic Certainties
19 September 2016
More trouble with string theory, an attempt to do away with inflation, and a novel theory of dark matter, critiqued.
A review of “Fashion, Faith and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe” by Roger Penrose.
[Wall Street Journal]
There and back again and there again
5 July 2016
Why I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy
A summer reading enthusiasm.
[Slate]
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]
What Justin Trudeau got wrong about Quantum Computing
18 April 2016
A video of the Canadian Prime Minister giving an apparently impromptu riff on quantum computing had a few mistakes in it.
This is a critique not so much of his minor errors, but of the media storm which treated his lecture as a sign of genius.
[Washington Post]
Why Bernie Sanders has Donald Trump to thank
11 February 2016
Political scientists struggle to define “momentum.” But Bernie Sanders couldn’t have gotten any without Donald Trump.
Some thoughts on Bernie Sanders’ victory in New Hampshire.
[Vox]
Drone-based film-making
16 November 2015
Why good drone art is necessary
A review of the New York Drone Film Festival.
[The Economist]
Drone strikes and international law
22 April 2015
Fallout reaches the ivory tower
NYU law school students react to Harold Koh’s support for targeted killings.
[The Economist]
Civil disobedience in the air
15 April 2015
A man landed a gyrocopter on the Capitol lawn
Some thoughts on why this sort of thing shouldn’t be prevented by computer software.
[Washington Post]
Regulating Persistence
19 March 2015
Why persistent surveillance must be regulated
A brief response to Obama’s call for comment on drones and privacy.
[The Economist]
Beware the ‘Big Data’ Gospel
27 February 2015
More debunking of the idea that ‘data’ can always be a tool for rigorous & disinterested analysis
A follow-up to my earlier CNN article, responding to a couple of poorly reasoned critiques
[Weekly Wonk]
Reflections on the 90th Anniversary of the New Yorker
19 February 2015
On first looking into Trow’s essay
A reminiscence of the first time I read “Within the Context of No Context” and why you should read it too
[Weekly Wonk]
The FAA’s new rules on Small Drones
16 February 2015
A quick reaction to the FAA’s notice of proposed rulemaking
The new rules are tardy and incomplete but could have been much worse.
[Quartz]
Alibaba’s Teabag Stunt Doesn’t Prove That Drone Delivery Works
4 February 2015
Another drone PR stunt
A Chinese companies scheme to deliver tea doesn’t mean the logistics or economics of delivery via drone will be real anytime soon.
[Slate]
Why Are Drone-Makers Helping Governments Crack Down on Drones?
28 January 2015
DJI’s brute force regulation through software
The dangers of users lacking control over the devices they use, as illustrated by one drone-maker’s reaction when one of its aircraft crashed on the White House grounds.
[Slate]
A small step backward for mankind
5 November 2014
Why America needs to embrace a culture of risk in order to build the next-generation space program.
How and why to be resilient in the face of failed spacecraft, and the loss of life.
[Foreign Policy]
Sayur Manis: Delicious, But Also Deadly, Greens From Borneo
14 August 2014
Eat too much of it raw, and it can cause lung failure
Also known as sabah veggie, and a multitude of other names, sayur manis tastes like spinach crossed with asparagus
[NPR]