After decades of decline, the bus is the U.S.'s fastest-growing way to travel, led by curbside service from Megabus, BoltBus, and others. Megabus and Coach USA are owned by the British company Stagecoach Group, and they have fundamentally changed the way Americans—especially the young—travel, so much so that they may help kill plans for new railroads. In 2010, Megabus launched its third and fourth hubs, in Philadelphia and Washington. It currently does $100 million in business annually, operating 135 buses each day to 50 U.S. cities. While other companies downsized over the past two years, Megabus hired 270 additional workers and invested $36 million in the business. Each month this year it will add five to six new double-deckers to its fleet. In Britain, the publicly traded Stagecoach Group is a transportation monolith, moving 2.5 million people each day on its buses and a full quarter of all U.K. rail passengers on its commuter lines and trams. he company first tried the Megabus idea there in 2003, and the service now links 50 cities in England, Scotland, and Wales—and hooks up with Megatrain—with fares starting at, yes, £1. The company's American division, Coach USA, operates charter, sightseeing, and even school buses throughout the U.S. and Canada. There's a battle going on to control the in-between routes, the 200- to 300-milers. Air travel, despite its enormous carbon footprint (and meager profitability), is unlikely to be displaced anytime soon as the transportation of choice for long-haul travel. For short distances, the car is still king. But of the most traveled American routes, many fall into this middle category: New York to D.C. (or Boston), Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Chicago to Detroit (or St. Louis), Dallas to Houston (or Austin or San Antonio), Miami to Orlando, Nashville to Atlanta (or Memphis). These routes are too far for a leisurely drive and too near for most Americans to justify the expense, or increasing hassle, of a plane. On most city-to-city trips under 300 miles, the curbside bus offers tickets that cost a tenth of those of Amtrak and far less even than the price of the gas to get there by car. The bus is also at least four times more fuel-efficient than a car. Researchers at DePaul University's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development estimate that curbside carriers, at their current capacity, already reduce fuel consumption by 11 million gallons annually, the equivalent of taking 24,000 cars off the road. The curbside bus can also easily add and subtract departures. During Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2010, Megabus continued to sell as many tickets as were requested on its website, adding buses as needed.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_16/b4224062391848.htm?campaign_id=rss_topEmailedStories

Megabus review http://offmanhattan.com/2010/05/12/megabus-review/
Megabus Web site http://www.megabus.com/landing.php

BoltBus review http://businesstravel.about.com/od/cityguides/gr/BoltBus.htm
Boltbus Web site https://www.boltbus.com/default.aspx

Timeline of clocks by Elizabeth Rump
c. 3500 BC “Shadow” clocks or Sundials first appear.
c. 325 BC Waterclocks are invented.
100 - 1300 Clocks evolve in Far East & Europe
1088 Complex mechanism using water driven power source first used.
1500 - 1510 Spring powered mechanism designed
1505 Peter Henlein designs first portable timepiece.
1577 Minute hand mechanism designed.
1582 Design for long pendulum invented.
1656 Development of long pendulum clock .
1657 Christian Huygens invents balance wheel & spring assembly (as used in wristwatches today).
1660 Longcase or tallcase clocks become popular.
1660 - 1730 “Golden age” of clock making.
1671 Anchor or “recoil” escapement invented.
c. 1685 Tall case clocks imported to American Colonies.
c. 1695 First tall case clocks constructed in American Colonies.
1721 New design to improve accuracy developed.
1880 Term “grandfather’s clock” becomes popular based on a song Grandfather’s Clock that was popular in England and America. http://www.chaddsfordhistory.org/history/clocks.htm

The word mnemonic means a device such as a rhyme or acronym used to aid recall. Examples:
Seven Dwarfs: Keeping track of all seven dwarfs is actually quite simple once you have mastered this simple mnemonic device: two S’s, two D’s, and three emotions. Two S’s: Sleepy and Sneezy; two D’s: Dopey and Doc; and three emotions: Happy, Bashful, and Grumpy.
http://www.essortment.com/all/sevendwarfsnam_rygj.htm
HOMES to remind you of the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior Search hundreds of mnemonics or add your own at: http://www.mnemonic-device.eu/mnemonics/

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day
From: Janice Ritter Subject: Trivial Pursuit I love AWAD and not just because it helped my team win a game of Trivial Pursuit! It was the classic battle between the sexes -- the girls against the guys. It was our turn (the girls). We needed one pie wedge to win the game. The question was: "What does 'AWAD' stand for?" I almost jumped through the roof. My brother, the more cerebral of the members of the boys' team, was disgusted. I loved it.
From: Claudine Voelcker Subject: elbow grease That's just like in French: huile de coude, or Italian: olio di gomito, or German: Armschmalz (they use the whole arm).
From: Bruce Brashear Subject: elbow grease This always makes me think of the old commercial for Ajax cleanser: You'll stop paying the elbow tax when you start using Ajax
From: Mark Mc Swain Subject: gluteus For those less-versed in anatomy, it can be a surprise to discover that there are three Gluteae, and the naming is based on dimension of the muscles. They are the G. Minimus; G. G. Medialis, and, of course, G. Maximus. While most people know that hindquarters are G. maximus, it is the other two Gluteae which define the shape of the human behind.

On Tuesdays during the fall semester of 2010, two first year law students at the University of Iowa participated in the Oakdale Prison Community Choir. The choir brings together local community members with inmates at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center to sing together once a week and the rehearsals culminate in a performance for the public at the prison at the end of the semester. The choir is led by Professor Mary Cohen, from the University of Iowa Music Education Department. In the past, Professor Cohen directed a prison choir in Kansas City and the choir here in Iowa is modeled after other prison choir projects in Kansas and at the University of Michigan. They would open and close each practice and concert with uplifting songs that were almost spiritual. The choir members were also able to talk to each other during the rehearsals. http://blogs.law.uiowa.edu/clp/?p=3810

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a plan by New York City to turn over two Civil War-era structures in Brooklyn Bridge Park to private developers. In granting a preliminary injunction, Judge Eric Vitaliano ruled that the National Park Service violated federal law by removing the Tobacco House and the Empire Stores from federally protected parkland. The decision was announced in federal court in Brooklyn on April 8. The ruling responded to a lawsuit filed by the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Preservation League of New York State and other groups that claimed the park service capitulated to pressure from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration. "This ruling reaches far beyond Brooklyn," Peg Breen, President of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, said in a statement Sunday. "If the National Park Service could choose when to enforce the law, historic buildings and parks across the country would suffer," she said. http://online.wsj.com/article/AP3573f0819be646b891476ac19e953f3d.html