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.
Chronicle of a War Foretold
5 January 2012
Violence Begets Violence in Mexico
How nobody understands what spurred 45,000 drug-related murders in Mexico, though Ioan Grillo’s new book El Narco does a good job of trying to.
[Zocalo Public Square]
Mexico’s war with the cartels
30 October 2008
Spot the drug trafficker
The arrest of senior officials shows the government’s resolve in fighting drug traffickers-and that the rot in law enforcement reaches the top
Mexico and the United States
19 June 2008
A wary friendship
Amid bad temper and wounded pride, Mexico and the United States inch towards compromise on a plan to boost the fight against drug crime
Drug violence in Mexico
15 May 2008
Can the army out-gun the drug lords?
Four top police officers, and more than a hundred people, are killed over the course of a single week in drug-related shootings
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’s War on Drugs
14 June 2007
State of siege
A government’s uphill struggle against drug trafficking and the violence it spawns
Crime in Mexico
25 January 2007
The tough get going
The new president has sent the army after the drug mobs. More importantly, he has started to reform the police
Drugs and violence in Mexico
30 June 2005
The war on the border streets
Americans’ demand for illegal drugs has created powerful crime syndicates in Mexico. The country’s police, only partly reformed, struggle to keep up
Mexico, the US, and Drugs
16 June 2005
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Drug violence on the Mexican border