The Smithsonian’s 39th Annual Folklife Festival kicks off today on the Mall and is typically one of the best reasons to venture down to the Mall during the height of the summer tourist season. “Oman: Desert, Oasis, and Sea” seems to be the most buzzworthy of the featured programs this year. What do you know about Oman (besides that its capital is Muscat)? Way back in the day, this DCist chose Oman for a middle…

The warm weather will continue today with highs around 60, and a 40 percent chance of showers towards the afternoon. The photograph above of the Smithsonian Castle was taken Saturday. Thomas Circle Construction Begins: Traveling through or around Thomas Circle? Traffic patterns have been re-arranged to accommodate the start of a $5 million project to re-establish the park at the center of that circle. The W. Times also has a short write-up. Tsunami Recovery…

The tragedy in southern Asia continues to build as the death toll, as expected, passed 100,000 people and has now surpassed 120,000. While many countries bordering the Indian Ocean have suffered, Indonesia perhaps bore the worst with more than 45,000 dead, particularly in Aceh province near the epicenter of the quake. This DCist photo was taken this morning outside the Indonesian Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue at 21st Street NW. A news crew was preparing…

Large earthquakes along the Eastern Seaboard are very uncommon (but they do happen from time to time … Charleston S.C. in 1886 and Boston in 1755), making the threat of an earthquake-spawned ocean wave minimal. But that doesn’t mean the danger should be discounted. Tsunamis have hit the East Coast in the past. Philadelphia and the Delaware River (1817, 1884), Long Island (1895, 1871) and other places have seen tsunamis, though destruction was minimal compared…