That new computer animated Star Wars: Clone Wars show on Cartoon Network

About that.

Why does Lucas have alien beings speak with very obvious accents? The last episode had a bunch of marmot people speaking with Highland Scottish accents! And the bad guy had George Takei's voice! Every time one of those two spoke (either in a Scottish brogue or Takei's voice) it threw me totally out of the story.

Overall I've been enjoying Clone Wars. What annoyed me in the movie isn't so annoying now, with one exception: it bugs me that I KNOW that Anakin is going to go Dark Force, and that he or the clones supporting the Jedi now are going to waste just about every Jedi we meet in this show. What happens to his annoying Padawan Ashoka, whom we have not met before this, and is never mentioned again in any of the live action films? Does she survive getting hacked to pieces by Anakin's light saber?  Does she go into hiding? I guess that's the only real question going on with How This Ends.   Sometimes, though, I kinda wish Anakin would do the audience a favor and eliminate her character a little early on in the storyline.

Terminator: SCC

And of course, since I'm such an on-line TV duh, I only JUST found out that you can watch full length episodes on Fox of the earlier part of season 2 of Terminator: SCC. It's weirdly lacking episodes one and two, but...okay. Whatever.

Oh, dudes! They got rid of John Connor's ridiculous bangy emo-hair! And now the actor really DOES look 15 or 16.

Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2

This is cool, no?

New Australian research finds that breastfeeding reduces neglect

Here's the link, and here's what I'm puzzling out.

The doctor who ran the study admitted that their was an inherent bias in the study, since you can't have a control group of mothers who don't bf and a control group of those who do (ethics, you see). Apparently the neglect isn't kept from happening if someone else feeds the baby with breastmilk. See, it *has* it *must* come from the mother and directly from her breast for neglect to be short-circuited.

I think there are assumptions being made here in the background.

A) that babies fed any other way aren't cared for as much as children who are breastfed
B) that mothers who give their babies formula, or who must use other methods of feeding their infants, even with expressed breast milk, are more likely to neglect their infants and children; this includes women who must work in order to support their families
C) and that other source-feeders of infants (fathers, grandparents, other caregivers) aren't going to make that connection with the infant that a breastfeeing mommy would

Have I covered everything here?

My bias? I tried bfing my first born, but had difficulties (thanks to bad advice given to me by male doctors and clueless nurses and a spasming back I needed medication for). For my second child, I managed to bf him for almost two years. And I homebirthed the second one in order to circumvent the clueless advice and indifferent treatment I got in the hospital. So, yes, I'm one of those women who agree with the doctor who ran that study that yes, it IS important and is *wonderful* for the baby and the mom to have that bfing connection. However. It's not necessary, and it's not all mom.

I think women who breastfeed in Western cultures (including Australia, where this study was conducted) are predisposed to want to go that extra mile for their babies and more likely to be, I don't know, crunchy granola types. Or not. Or they are simply smarter and of a higher economic class that is less likely to get child protective services and police called on them. Poorer women don't have the same choices as the middle class ones, and are more likely to have neighbors notice neglectful behavior and are more likely to have the authorities called on them. I don't think this factor was taken into account.

I'm not so sure that one (neglect) has to do with the other (not breastfeeding).