Sadly, Mariana Bridi da Costa has passed away

20 year old Mariana Bridi da Costa was a model with a promising future, until she got an infection. Mariana was misdiagnosed with kidney stones, and she fell very ill on December 30, 2008. An attempt was made to save her life by amputating her hands and feet after she developed septicaemia. Sadly, Mariana had further complications, and her health continued to deteriorate.

The strange thing about this story is that late last year a friend of mine was holidaying in Greece when she was struck with a sudden illness, and she died from speicaemia. My friend was over 60, and Mariana was just 20.

This story has a little bit of "duh" information - or I told you so

According to this report the number of abortions performed on teenage girls who have had at least one termination of pregnancy has risen by something like 70% "fuelling fears that terminations are being carried out for lifestyle reasons"

In 2007 5,897 teenage girls had their 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th termination, which is an increase from the 2,934 girls who had repeat terminations in 1991.

As far as I am concerned, it is 5,887 abortions too many, and this itself is due to the belief that terminations themselves are harmless.

What would be a better statistic right now is how many of these same young women who have been so foolish as to find themselves pregnant in the first place (discounting rape victims) have in fact being able to have a live birth or have children years after they had an abortion.

There are other issues at stake here. Issues such as the increased consumption of alcohol by teenage girls. I think that this is a separate and a side issue with regard to unexpected pregnancy because the girls have behave in an uninhibitative manner. In other words there is more than one issue that needs to be tackled.

There is a good example within the article of a young woman by the name of Lucy Lanelly. She has had 4 abortions under the age of 19. What is really bad about this report though, is that her mother and grandmother arranged for the terminations to take place. Another really bad thing is the age when she first became pregnant. A girl of 12 is too young to be engaged in intimate relations. Lucy blames the lack of sex education. I would say that sex education has in fact been playing a role - but not the reason given (in other words, the type of education given seems to be leading to widespread experimentation). Other possible reasons for this result could be the lack of moral direction in Lucy's life.

The increase in 2nd and third time abortions is most likely due to several factors and among them are:

• "the inevitable fruit of a society that makes an idol of sexual pleasure" (Norman Wells)
• "abortion has become more acceptable, easer to access for all age groups, better funded by the NHS" (Ann Fruedi)

Obviously the funding of abortion clinics has an impact on society, since people allow the breakdown of moral practices. One thing leads to another, and abortion clinics only serve to condone sexual immorality at higher and higher rates such that young girls are no longer innocent.

The test increases miscarriage risks but it helps cheating women

Abortion fears over cheating women who use paternity tests to identify their baby's father | Mail Online

In some ways I think that the development of this test is totally scandalous. It has been introduced as yet another reason for abortion. Since abortion has been liberalized it seems that women are no longer capable of thinking about the consequences of their actions prior to going ahead and cheating on their spouses or lovers.

In my view abortion on demand has always been a slippery slope, and from this same angle I see the pill in the same light. These are things that see women degrade themselves by indulging in illicit activity. They seem unable to bear the consequences of their own bad behaviour so they make the decision to abort the innocent life that has been created.

What is really wrong about the whole situation is the introduction of these paternity tests because they also increase the risk of miscarriage - especially when taking amniotic fluid.

Black Box confirms bird strike

The flight data recorder has been examined and has confirmed the story of the pilots that a bird-strike caused the double engine failure which led to the crash landing on the Hudson River.

photo courtesy BBC NEWS

You can read the story here.

photo courtesy BBC News

New York hails pilot who landed jetliner in Hudson River

The Hudson River New York has been the scene of a dramatic landing for a stricken aircraft. The pilot, Chesley B. Sullenberg III, an ex-USAF fighter pilot and a professional pilot for 40 years, made what has been described as a text-book landing, thus saving the life of all 155 on board the A320 Airbus.

The plane had just taken off from La Guardia airport, when it crossed the path of a flock of geese. There was a thud and both engines lost power. The geese also hit the windshield of the aircraft. The captain of the plane took the controls from the co-pilot so that the co-pilot could concentrate on trying to restart the engines. Sullenberg notified the control tower that there had been an incident and that both engines had lost power. They briefly discussed action to be taken for a landing. Sullenberger ruled out returning to La Guardia and then ruled out Teterborough airfield in New Jersey. There was a high risk of a greater tragedy by attempting either landing. The only avenue left was to attempt the landing on the water.

Sullenberg knew that he had to get this landing right, and he narrowly missed a bridge as he approached a point an area of the river that would mean the best chance of a rescue. He managed to do everything necessary to execute the perfect landing on water such that the airplane did not break up on landing. The passengers were ordered to brace for a hard landing, and they did. The cabin-crew gave quick instructions before sitting and bracing for the landing on the water. Unfortunately one member of the crew has been injured. As soon as the plane landed the cabin crew and passengers went into action. Women and children were the first to exit, followed by the other passengers, and finally the captain of the aircraft. He paced the length of the aircraft twice before leaving, making sure that no one was left on board the sinking plane.

The crash is now the subject of an investigation. The investigation will include what went wrong – why did the engines lose power? In other words verifying that there was a double bird-strike. It will also investigate what went right during the flight and subsequent landing and rescue of the passengers.

There are lessons to be learned from every aircraft accident. This one is different because a tragedy was prevented. No doubt pilots will now practise in their flight simulators the steps taken by Sullenberg to safely land his bird on the water. In the past few days comparisons have been made between this landing and that of the plane that crashed off Ethiopia. The footage of the Ethiopian crash shows that the plane had banked before it hit the water – in other words it was not absolutely straight. However, in that incident the cabin crew were most likely fighting with the hijackers who were on board, and therefore the pilot did not have the ability to be able to straighten the plane prior to the crash into the sea. It is in fact not a very good comparison because of the extraordinary circumstances.

It is a miracle that no one died as a result of this incident and calling it a miracle does not in any way discount the actions of the aircrew as well as that of the passengers, and the rescue workers. What we saw was a well coordinated effort that saved 155 lives. The man who made that happen is Chesley B. Sullenberg.

Dramatic video of crash landing in the Hudson River NY

BBC NEWS | Special Reports | A pilot's eye view of NY crash flight

It is worth checking out this dramatic footage of the landing of the Airbus A320 in the Hudson river. The passengers are seen scrambling out of the emergency exits within seconds of the landing on the river.