Monday, October 26, 2009

California Profile from Time Magazine

Interesting cover story on California from the latest Time Magazine.



I've heard before the notion of California as an indicator of the rest of the country (sort of an "if it succeeds in California, it can succeed everywhere), and this piece perpetuates that idea. Written by Michael Grunwald, "Despite Its Woes, California's Dream Still Lives" focuses not on the state's budget problems, but rather on the positives going for it.

Innovative companies, diverse demographics and environmental efforts... with Grunwald citing some statistics around the first and third area:

- Clean-tech: California now attracts $3 out of every $5 invested in the area.
- Utilities (which don't have a generally positive environmental reputation): PG&E has 40% of the nation's solar roofs in its territory.
- Energy usage: While per capital usage has increased 50% nationwide, the California amount has remained constant.

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A couple of other interesting things from Time to mention here...

- Jennifer Beals (yep, the one from Flashdance) mentioning the university lecture replaying site Academic Earth.

- A review of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's new book "Superfreakonomics"... a follow up to their (very interesting) hit "Freakonomics".

- Joel Stein's last page column "Rogue Journalist: Writing My Memoir Palin-Style"... available here as a 49 page pdf file.