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The 3,750 cherry blossom trees that line the Tidal Basin and surrounding national parks in Washington, D.C., survived winter blizzards and will again bloom during the peak tourist season, according to the National Park Service. Agency horticulturalist Rob Defeo says only four or five trees were destroyed and that crews are working seven days a week to prepare for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, which runs from March 27 to April 11. The damage is nothing we haven't seen in 90-plus years," he said. "I guarantee you, by the time the festival comes around, you won't even know there was...

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - Scientists studying intersex fish in the Potomac River basin have found the abnormality for the first time in redbreast sunfish, the third species affected by the mysterious phenomenon, a federal fish pathologist said Tuesday. Intersex fish possess both male and female characteristics. For example, some male fish have been found with immature eggs in their testes. The phenomenon was previously documented in smallmouth and largemouth bass in the Potomac River and some of its tributaries in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Vicki Blazer of the U.S. Geological Survey said she verified the abnormality in sunfish last...

A man has admitted assaulting a woman by pouring a basin of vomit over her head in Aberdeen. Father-of-three James Russell, 40, carried out the attack following an alcohol-fuelled argument at a house. The victim was holding the basin when Russell took it from her and tipped its contents over her head, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told. Sheriff Kenneth Stewart deferred sentence on Russell for six months to allow him to be of good behaviour. Senior fiscal depute Jim Craigen said: "Before this incident took place a fair amount of alcohol had been taken." Russell claimed it was in the...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A federal judge Friday gave federal agencies one year to come up with a new plan to keep threatened and endangered salmon from getting killed by the government's hydroelectric dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers. Federal officials had asked for two years. But U.S. District Judge James Redden went along with the one-year timetable sought by environmentalists, Indian tribes and fishermen. "We're running out of time," the judge said. "This time we're going to do it." Salmon are dwindling in the Columbia Basin because of the combined effects of dams, overfishing, logging, grazing, irrigation and...

The rapidly disappearing cohort of Americans that endured the Great Depression and then fought World War II is receiving quite a send-off from the leading lights of the so-called 60s generation. Tom Brokaw has published two oral histories of “The Greatest Generation” that feature ordinary people doing their duty and suggest that such conduct was historically unique. Chris Matthews of “Hardball” is fond of writing columns praising the Navy service of his father while castigating his own baby boomer generation for its alleged softness and lack of struggle. William Bennett gave a startling condescending speech at the Naval Academy a...

Contact: José Iriarte iriartej@si.edu 202-786-2094 x8350 Smithsonian Institution A complex agricultural society in Uruguay's La Plata basin, 4,800-4,200 years ago A complex farming society developed in Uruguay around 4,800 to 4,200 years ago, much earlier that previously thought, Iriarte and his colleagues report in this week's Nature (December 2). Researchers had assumed that the large rivers system called the La Plata Basin was inhabited by simple groups of hunters and gatherers for much of the pre-Hispanic era. Iriarte and coauthors excavated an extensive mound complex, called Los Ajos, in the wetlands of southeastern Uruguay. They found evidence of a circular...

Evidence Of Tunguska-type Impacts Over The Pacific Basin Around The Year 1178 A.D. Emilio Spedicato University of Bergamo, Piazza Rosate 2, 24129 Bergamo, Italy, email: emilio@ibguniv.unibg.it In year 1178 A.D., as related by Clube and Napier in their book The Cosmic Serpent, a strange event was observed to affect the Moon, which may be explained by a large impact on the hidden face, originating the Giordano Bruno crater. A number of observations suggest that catastrophic cometary or meteoritic impacts around the same time also affected the Pacific basin: Maori legends of great fires destroying forests and the moa bird, to...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 23 Credit: NASA, Lunar Orbiter 4 Explanation: Like a target ring bull's-eye, the Mare Orientale is one of the most striking large scale lunar features. Located on the Moon's extreme western edge, this impact basin is unfortunately difficult to see from an earthbound perspective. It is over 3 billion years old, about 600 miles across and was formed by the impact of an asteroid sized object....