Business

California is naturally a great state for anyone with a green thumb and an eye toward alternative energy; not only is the state sunny enough year-round to support a solar energy system, but state lawmakers have dedicated plenty of legislation toward protecting homeowners who use wind and solar energy. Previously, alternative energy usage was restricted to the wealthier homeowners in California simply because, despite a 20% increase in solar energy usage over the past 15 years, it’s still expensive to have a complete system installed. The average rooftop solar installation in California costs about $15,000, the SF Gate reports, and an overwhelming majority (67%) of solar arrays installed in Californian homes in 2013 went to households where the total income was between $40,000 and $90,000...

Millennials are now dominating the American workplace, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and they're also working more hours per week than employed Americans of any other generation. More importantly, it's becoming clear that these Millennial workers are actually changing the way businesses operate -- for the better. According to a recent survey by Ernst and Young's Global Generation Research, 47% of Millennials are working more hours per week than they worked just five years ago; only 38% of Gen X workers are working more, and only 28% of Baby Boomers are doing so. As TIME and Medical Daily both report, Millennials are struggling more to manage the responsibilities of work, family, and personal life; for this reason, they're placing a higher value on flexibility in the work...

Six years ago, Google began working on self-driving cars. Last May, the monolithic tech company unveiled its autonomous prototype, and many were leery. It had no steering wheel, accelerator, or brake pedal -- only a start button, a display telling riders how fast the car is going, and a big red emergency stop button. Capable of ferrying two people, riders summon the vehicle with a smartphone app, and off they go. Now, one year later, Google revealed that its self-driving cars have been in 11 minor traffic accidents since the project first began. Chris Urmson, the project's director, wrote in a web post that every accident was minor -- "light damage, no injuries" -- and had all happened over 1.7 million miles of testing, including nearly one million miles in self-driving mode. "Not once w...

As American tastes change, fast food chains are suffering. More than half of all diners nowadays prefer a burger at a specialty restaurant or a burger restaurant than any other burger. Burger King has struggled with a harsh decline since 2008, and recently lost its number two spot at the top to Wendy's. McDonald's, which still sits on the fast food throne, isn't doing so well either, reporting a more severe sales decline than expected in the first three months of 2015. Now, Carl's Jr. and Hardee's have devised a new burger to draw summer crazed consumers away from the gourmet and foodie spots: The Most American Thickburger. For just $5.79, hungry patrons can get a burger made with a one-third pound patty of Black Angus beef, a grilled hot dog split in two, American cheese, lettuce, red oni...

Google is well aware of how dangerous hackers have become. Web-based security attacks have increased about 23% since 2013, after all, and the cost of cybercrime skyrocketed 78% that same year. According to cyber security company McAfee, the global economy from cybercrime is about $400 billion. Now, Google is taking steps to beef up its own security measures for Gmail users. Webizens are greeted with a space to enter their usernames, and are then redirected to a new page to enter their passwords. Though it may seem simple, the new design prepares for "future authentification systems that complement passwords." There are a few advantages of splitting the username and password fields up. It reduces confusion for users who have multiple Gmail accounts, such as one for work and one for person...

Sales is a notoriously tough industry to work in, and those who do are constantly trying new tips and tricks to increase their sales. Though sales is also often based on quotas which can create competition and isolation within a sales team, a new app seeks to create a climate of collaboration to help all members become more successful. According to online publication Digital Journal, sales platform ToutApp has added a feature called Sales Beat, which essentially functions like a newsfeed, updating an entire team on what their colleagues are doing -- and what works. The ToutApp platform was designed to help salespeople close more deals through analytics, email tracking, and templates. The new feature will also allow a sales team to work collaboratively by sharing best practices, and it de...

Google acknowledged May 11 that its self-driving cars have been involved in 11 accidents since the company began working on the technology approximately six years ago. The company claims, however, that in none of the accidents have the cars been at fault. “During … 1.7 million miles of autonomous and manual driving with our safety drivers behind the wheel … not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident,” Chris Urmson, head of the Google self-driving car project, wrote in a blog post published on the website Medium. Google addressed the issue after the Associated Press reported that Google had filed paperwork for three collisions in California, where reporting accidents is part of the agreement permitting the company to test the cars on public roads. It now appears that of t...

From Tampa, FL to Sacramento, CA and everywhere in between, Americans are once again starting to pay a little bit more at the gas pump. Since hitting a record low of $2.03 per gallon in January, fuel prices have been steadily on the rise, with the national average for gas prices now hovering around $2.58 per gallon. This 55 cent increase marks both the highest gas prices seen in 2015 so far and the largest seasonal increase in fuel prices since 2012, according to ClarksvilleOnline.com. AAA – The Auto Club Group explains the rise in prices stems primarily from rising crude oil prices spurred upward by uncertainty and conflict throughout the oil and gas hubs of the Middle East, especially Iraq and Yemen. Because American oil companies have been reaching all-time highs of oil production, m...

3D printing is gradually spreading to a number of different industries and sectors. These days, 3D printing is used to "print" medical and dental equipment, smartphone cases, fashion accessories and much more. And soon, you might even be able to perform a home improvement project with parts entirely produced by a 3D printer. Home improvement retailer Lowe's recently announced that it will begin offering 3D printing and scanning services in its stores. The service will allow homeowners to easily design and produce parts for their various projects, along with truly one-of-a-kind decorations for patio designs and the like. According to an April 29 Wall Street Journal article, homeowners will be able to fully customize virtually any object that they install in their home, from cabinet knobs...

Much recent discussion has questioned whether high-priced college educations are showing a good return on investment. But as a report released April 20 by the Hamilton Project shows, one thing is clear: Americans without much education are doing substantially worse than their college-educated peers. “[N]on-college educated workers are substantially more likely to work in lower-paying service occupations than in the recent past,” the report’s authors write. “In contrast, individuals with a bachelor’s degree or more are just as likely to be employed today as they were in 1990, in similar occupations, and with steadily rising earnings.” For the study, the researchers examined government data to compare how American workers have fared between 1990 and 2013. Workers were split into eight cate...