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.
The Philosopher-Fisticuffers
14 September 2011
A review of Enrique Krauze’s new book Redeemers
Which consists of 12 profiles of Latin American figures, and is a good read.
[Zocalo Public Square]
Salvaging space
1 September 2011
Cleaning up low-Earth-orbit debris might lead to new space technologies.
Why problems are sometimes useful to have.
[Slate]
Weapons in space
16 August 2011
The future (and past) of weapons in space–the vulnerabilities of satellites and the difficulty of banning weapons
An in-depth report, for purchase or subscribers.
[CQ Global Researcher]
China’s innovation policy is all wrong
21 July 2011
But can the Chinese government come up with a new one?
Why China’s current innovation policy does not promote innovation
[CNN Global Innovation Showcase]
Ranking Countries on Innovation
4 July 2011
Why it doesn’t work very well
The flaws in a recent INSEAD study
[CNN Global Innovation Showcase]
If Mexico Were a Movie
1 June 2011
Uncle Sam Would be the Villain
How the US has undermined Mexico’s development
[Zocalo Public Square]
Mexico
tags: mexico, Zocalo Public Square
Found in translation
22 February 2011
Translation by the numbers
How statistical machine translation evolved to work as well as it does
[Washington Post]
Looking for ET
25 February 2010
Signs of life
As the search for alien life turns 50, its practitioners find new methods
The Last Days of Bank Secrecy?
1 September 2009
An article I wrote for Poder, a magazine about business in Latin America, that describes the crumbling of bank secrecy and what it means for the region.
The Caribbean
tags: Banking, Poder, Switzerland, Wealth
Shelter from the Storm
15 May 2009
An article for Poder, a Latin American business magazine, about the impact of the economic crisis on the Caribbean.
Rebuilding Haiti
12 February 2009
Weighed down by disasters
A modest success for the United Nations is threatened by nature and lassitude
The Caribbean
tags: Gonaives, Haiti, hurricanes, United Nations
Haiti
12 February 2009
The island and the outside world
Being in Haiti without being in Haiti
The Caribbean
tags: Gonaives, Haiti, Labadee, United Nations
Remittances to Mexico
11 December 2008
The end of the American dream
The recession up north bites in rural Mexico