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.
Barack Obama
Drones can photograph almost anything. But should they?
21 April 2016
Media lawyers are pushing for an interpretation of the First Amendment that would undermine privacy
The how and the why of it.
[Columbia Journalism Review]
The big dangers of ‘big data’
2 February 2015
Don’t fall in love with every bit you meet
An essay about how the obsession with data is undermining social structures in government, business and life.
[CNN]
The Assurance of Chemists
5 November 2012
Are Gut Instincts Obsolete in Political Campaigns?
A skeptical response to the idea that social science techniques are useful and beneficent influences on politics.
[Zocalo Public Square]
Drunk on Gadgets
5 October 2012
Politicians don’t understand science and technology, so they expect it to do too much
Ignorance of science drives politicians to treat it like magic.
[Slate]
The competition mirage
9 January 2012
No One Can Win the Future
It’s wrong to pit U.S. and Chinese scientists against each other in a research arms race.
[Slate]