Economist goes free

One of my favorite publications no longer requires a subscription to access all of its online content. The Economist is now free, banking on increased readership to boost its advertising revenues. One can only hope the NY Times and others will follow suit.

What websites do you read on a daily basis?

Looking for good food? Try Chow.com

Chowhound started as a small message board where people discussed food. It was purchased by CNet about a year ago and relaunched as Chow.com. The website has been glossed up a bit, but thankfully the best feature (the message boards) has remained intact.

There is lively discussion about everything from chain restaurants in Arizona to street food in Southwestern China. The message board participants are an educated bunch and I found the site to be useful during my recent Round the World Trip. In fact, a couple of my more memorable dining experiences were a result of the Chowhound.

Enjoy, and please let me know if you find anything good on there.

Getting around New York City with Hopstop

If for some reason you live in New York and haven't heard about Hopstop, it is one of the more useful websites for living in the city.

Simply enter your starting and ending address a la Google maps and Hopstop will pull up the best route on the Subway to get from Point A to Point B. You can specify whether you would like more transfers or more walking, and you can even calculate how much a taxi ride would cost for the same trip. Additionally, you can use Hopstop with your PDA or with SMS.

It isn't just New York that has Hopstop. Boston, Chicago, San Fran and DC also in the mix. There a couple other versions (Long Island and Jersey) in beta at the moment.

Hopstop is great, although it can't help you much if there is a monsoon in the city like there was this morning.

Free Yoga!

Interested in doing Yoga? You can't beat the price at Yoga Today. Though I've fallen a bit out of practice, these routines are great for the beginner and each last about an hour. There are always four different episodes to choose from with three different instructors. They are even in High Def.

I personally like the ashtanga routines as they are the most physically demanding, but let me know what you like in the comments.