Money Magazine has released its best small towns list, and two triangle towns are in the Top 40. Chapel Hill comes in at 40, and Cary ranks #23.

The results are interesting. Living in Chapel Hill is a distinct experience. All residents definitely feel the center of the town, the Franklin Street/Carr Mill axis. However Cary feels more like a series of subdivisions and strip shopping centers. Cary certainly feels different than Chapel Hill and North Raleigh, but does Cary really have a distinct vibe, or is it just a coincidental collection of new developments in Triangle, USA?

Portfolio.com recently published their rankings for Quality of Life and Raleigh ranks #1 in the survey. The survey used a 20-part formula to assess 67 cities. Raleigh ranked high in areas like Adults 25-44 (#3), Growth (#1), Jobless Rate (#8), Jobs (#4), News Houses (#2), Houses with 9+ Rooms (#9), Adults with High School Diplomas (#13), Adults with College Diplomas (#6), and Adults with Advanced Degrees (#11).

Other cities of interest are Austin (#9), Atlanta (#11), Charlotte (#16), Richmond (#20), and Nashville (#22).

CNNMoney.com has named Raleigh as one of the early winners in population grown over the last decade. With a 41% growth in population, “Raleigh has benefited from Florida’s real estate bubble bust” and is “a sound alternative”. Only Provo, UT was a bigger grower (47%) .

Forbes magazine has named Raleigh as 3rd in the nation for Business and Careers. The list considered factors such as cost of doing business, economic growth projection, education, income growth, anticipated job growth, and net migration.

Des Moines ranked 1st while Provo was 2nd. Charlotte ranked 17th, Asheville ranked 21st, Durham ranked #23, Wilmington ranked #32, Winston-Salem ranked #51, Greensboro ranked 90th, and Fayetteville ranked 159th in the survey.

Just for the sake of completeness, as reported earlier, the NHL did announce that Raleigh will host the 2011 All-Star Game. Read more about the story at the Hurricanes’ site. In the meantime, here is the link to add the event you your calendar.

At 12:30pm tomorrow the NHL is set to announce their selection for the 2011 All-Star Game, and all reports show that Raleigh will be the big winner. Stay tuned!

On Sunday night the Duke Blue Devils Earned another trip to the Final Four. The win gives the school its 11th Final Four Trip. The Final Four is a national event, however it is so frequent that a team from the Triangle makes it, the event has become one of the Triangle’s most beloved cultural events. In the "Modern Era", the Triangle has had a team in 22 of the last 30 Final Fours. Going back further, the Triangle has placed a team in 32 of the last 48 Final Fours.

The Triangle area is not short on national championships, either. In the last 28 years, 8 have come from the Triangle. Remarkable runs have occurred during that time, too. From 1986 to 1992, Duke only missed the Final Four 1 time (including 5 straight appearances). UNC went 6 times in a 10 year period from 1991 to 2000. No other state, much less metropolitan, can boast such experience at such a high level in any sport.

Bold indicates National Champion

Symantec, the geniuses behind the Norton suite of computer security applications, name Raleigh as one of the Top 10 Riskiest Online Cities. Those name riskier for cybercrime are Seattle, Boston, Washington, and San Francisco. They cite the number of Wi-Fi hotspots and hi-tech offerings as key factors in these cities’ vulnerabilities.

In other news…sluts are more likely to get an STD.

TBJ is reporting that Raleigh has been named the 8th best value destination for visitors. Raleigh beat out Chicago and Miami. Atlanta, Orlando, and Phoenix were the top 3 on the list.