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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...