This is my last day at the Melbourne Writer's Festival.  I'll be doing my last program at 4PM, and then it's off the University of Western Australia in Perth.  Thanks to the organizers and sponsors for bringing me down here, and also to Antonia Hayes at Random House for setting everything …

Modern cars have standard machine readable vehicle identification (VIN) numbers.  Old cars have numbering methods that vary from one brand to the next.  In this essay I will show you what numbers look like on Rolls-Royce and Bentley motorcars from the 1970s Shadow through the 1990s Spur er…

I just finished a controversial new book, To Siri With Loveby Judith Newman. Reading this book made me feel like memoirs from autism moms are a thing whose time has come and gone . . .At the same time, I can’t help but believe the publisher who brought this story to market, and the reviewers who pra…

(c) 2007-2011 John Elder RobisonSource: Raising Cubby

I am pleased to announce the first-ever change in the style of this blog.  I hope you find it more accessible and usable. Circus at The Big E, West Springfield, MAJohn Rando's Long Wheelbase Shadow restoration takes 1st at the RROC National MeetFlowers in the GardenOn the big stage, Big EVolcan…

Meeting of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) Please join us for an IACC Full Committee meeting that will take place on Wednesday, January 17, 2018 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET at the Bethesda Marriott Hotel, 5151 Pooks Hill Road, Bethesda, MD 20814. Onsite registr…

The excessive volume of commercials has struck everyone who’s watched television.  You’re watching a show at a comfortable volume, and there’s a commercial break, and suddenly you are blasted out of your seat.  If you had the volume on 5 it feels like it just went up to 100, all by itself.…

At this years IMFAR autism science conference I saw several presentations on seemingly obvious topics.  For example, one study (DaPaz, University of California at San Francisco) assessed the responses of 89 parents to their children’s autism.  The comments were grouped into three categorie…

In the early days of autism research non-autistic doctors and scientists observed autistic people like me, asked questions, and then formulated their best ideas about what our problems were, and what research might be beneficial and interesting.  Autistic people were patients and study subjects…

The past 40 years has seen a remarkable renaissance of Polynesian cultural awareness, with rediscovery and celebration of ancient skills and practices. Polynesians are taking pride in their heritage - particularly the seafaring skills that made settlement of the Pacific islands possible.  The n…

This winter I explored the possibility that some Polynesian navigators may be/have been autistic.  That has been a fascinating thing to study, and it raised another question that I'd like to discuss – does a western diagnostic label that we associate with disability have relevance when app…

Earlier this week the New York Times and other media outlets ran a story about something remarkable happening on the island of Hawaii.  For the past few months, lava has been flowing from the volcanic vent at Puʻu ʻŌʻō.  The flow was coming to the surface at the Kamokuna coast where it was…

Here’s how it all beganIn the fall of 2013, New York ad executive Tom Webster came to our shop with a dream on four wheels . . . a run-down but running Bentley Continental R.  I just bought it, he told me.  Can we make it run right, and make it special, he asked?Tom's Bentley as it looked …

Here’s how it all beganIn the fall of 2013, New York ad executive Tom Webster came to our shop with a dream on four wheels . . . a run-down but running Bentley Continental R.  I just bought it, he told me.  Can we make it run right, and make it special, he asked?Tom's Bentley as it looked …