Have you ever been to Niagara Falls in upstate New York? It seems it must be impossible for anyone not to end up feeling terribly small in contrast to the majesty of Mother Nature displayed there. Last week’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan gave us that same feeling of awe. Somehow, it was symbolic that the tsunami's waves reached our shores as well.
  
It reminded us that we are all one world.
  
Meanwhile, Lucas Laursen, who has written for this newspaper, is traveling across the oceans from Cape Town in South Africa to Perth in Australia aboard a small Spanish ship attempting to complete an around-the-world scientific voyage by an explorer named Malaspina, who never was able to do that leg of the voyage back in the 1700s. Scientists from all over the world are participating and learning more about our oceans, pollution and rainfall.
  
Still, according to the writer and Nature, a scientific publication, “Spanish rules limit nonresidents’ access to Ph.D. funding from Spain’s Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Innovation,” and “Similar residency rules apply to many state-subsidized courses of study in the United Kingdom and United States.” He quoted a fellow voyager, microbiologist Marta Varela of the Spanish Oceanographic Institute in A Coruna, as being against such rules:
“We need to be able to bring in the best person for the position.”
 
Natural disasters galvanize the whole world to help with the best technology possible. And people who empathize with the victims send as much  as they can. We trust our readers will also once again contribute through the American Red Cross or other such organizations.

By Linda Toscano

Linda Toscano, publisher of L&M Publications, is also an award winning writer recognized on both the national and local levels.