Equinox is either of two times of the year when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator and day and night are of equal length. See other definitions and uses as title at: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:equinox&ei=gmCfS8DzNpDOM_r8hMIM&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title&ved=0CAYQkAE

The March equinox (equal night) will occur on March 20 in 2010, marking the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and fall (autumn) in the southern hemisphere from an astronomical viewpoint. The March equinox will occur at 17:32 (or 5:32pm) at Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on this date. During the equinox, the length of night and day across the world is nearly, but not entirely, equal. This is because the day is slightly longer in places that are further away from the equator, and because the sun takes longer to rise and set in these locations. Furthermore, the sun takes longer to rise and set farther from the equator because it does not set straight down-- it moves in a horizontal direction. See illustration and much more at: http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/march-equinox.html

EPA: Fix a Leak Week Showcases How Americans Can Save Water and Money
News release: "Across the country, household leaks are wasting more than 1 trillion gallons of water per year—enough water to supply every home in Texas with its annual water needs. To help consumers save water and money, EPA is working with water utilities, manufacturers, retailers, communities and plumbers to promote its second annual Fix a Leak Week, March 15 to 21. If a family of four’s wintertime water use exceeds 12,000 gallons per month, they probably have a leak. In many cases, fixture replacement parts pay for themselves quickly and can be installed by do-it-yourselfers, a trusted professional plumber, or a WaterSense irrigation partner."

New York Times offers key points of Health Care Reform bill by topics below comparing key provisions of the Senate bill and the reconciliation bill passed March 18:
• Individual mandate
• Insurance exchange
• Public plan
• Subsidies for individuals
• Employer contribution
• Subsidies for employers
• Expand Medicaid
• Medicare drug benefits
• Defining benefits
• Insurance regulations
• Dependent coverage
• Long-term care
• Abortion
• Illegal immigrants
• Children of the poor
• Total cost and coverage
• Paying for the proposals
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/19/us/politics/20100319-health-care-reconciliation.html#tab=0

Michigan reader contributes a link to verbmall, a blog about the English language:
http://www.verbmall.blogspot.com/

In Turkey, it's a crime to defame the country's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk or to ridicule "Turkishness." So Google restricts access to videos that the government of Turkey deems illegal on google.com.tr. In Germany, France and Poland, it is illegal to publish pro-Nazi material or content that denies the Holocaust. To comply with those countries' laws, Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) does not display links to those sites on its search results pages on the company's German site google.de, French site google.fr or Polish site google.pl. And in Thailand, denigrating the Thai monarch is against the law, so Google blocks YouTube videos in Thailand that ridicule King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Google controls nearly two-thirds of the world's search results, making it the Internet gateway for most people. As a result of that clout, Google's censorship policies are closely watched. http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/18/technology/google_china_censorship/

YouTube has accused media conglomerate Viacom of secretly uploading content to the video-sharing site whilst publicly complaining about its presence. YouTube said it deliberately "roughed up" any uploaded the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. The accusation was made as a court prepares to rule in a $1bn suit brought by Viacom against Youtube for "massive intentional copyright infringement". Viacom said it had identified 150,000 such infringements on the site.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8575666.stm

salmagundi (sal-muh-GUHN-dee) noun
1. A heterogeneous mixture.
2. A mixed salad of various ingredients, such as meat, eggs, anchovies, onions, oil, vinegar, etc.
From French salmagondis (originally "seasoned salted meats"), probably from salemine (salted food) + condir (to season).
prandial (PRAN-dee-uhl) adjective
Of or relating to a meal.
From Latin prandium (late breakfast, luncheon, or meal). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ed- (to eat, to bite) that is also the source of edible, comestible, obese, etch, fret, edacious, and postprandial. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg