All of enjoy the long weekend that comes with a bank holiday. The three-day weekend means more time to do things we love, more time to be with family and more time go out with friends etc. It is very relaxing from the stressful weekdays. Just think if instead of being once in a while, if the weekends could come every week. Apart from leisure and relaxing activities, three-day weekends are also one of the steps for reducing stress, improve our economy and save energy for future.

Lesser working hours means less energy consumption. It is estimated that by adopting European style of working hours, we could reduce up to 20 percent in carbon emissions. When the US State Utah refined their working days with an extra hour from Monday to Thursday, they saved more than 1.3 million pounds.

Less working means lesser need to use office space, less lighting, less use of air conditioning facility and less time spent working on computers and no need to keep the computers working means less electricity as well. People also save on time it takes to commute from office home and vice versa. Therefore, by cutting down all this, we can save our environment.

Other societal impacts could be that people can spend more time with their families and other social activities. Taking care if children or elders and participating in social activities will also increase. In an experiment that was conducted in Sweden during the year 2015, it was observed that fewer work hours reduced sickness and boosted the productivity.

Instead of working more hours, companies should look at working lesser hours with improved productivity and more free time will certainly create a better environment and a safe world in future.

These changes might not happen overnight. Next time you have an extra day off, think about how you are contributing to the environment as well. A day off does not only mean more time with family but less carbon footprint too.

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Pipeline companies have an important job at hand. They are responsible for classifying pipelines based on the risk factors involved. It’s not always right. Sometimes they do classify a high-risk pipeline as having no risk also. A similar issue happened with a natural gas pipeline. Instead of classifying it as high-risk, they decided not to do so. The pipeline was running under a suburban neighborhood and it was very old. This saved a lot of money for the company as they need to do their expensive inspections on these lines.

During September 2010, this pipeline exploded and the resulting flames rose up to 1,000 feet. The fire spread around the neighborhood and affected about 38 homes. The death toll was eight and 58 people were seriously injured. Although a case as filed against the inspection company and they were found guilty, nothing is ever going to bring back the lives that were lost.

These companies should keep in mind that they are putting safety at stake for the sake of reaping profits. These inspections must be carried out properly especially in areas that are occupied with houses.

Two years ago, a similar incident happened in Wilmington where are pipeline burst sending thousands of gallons of oil into their residence. Although there was no death involved, it still affected the lives of people living in that area. The person who owned the pipeline assumed that it was empty but, the oil kept seeping through the walls of the pipe.

Incidents like these serve as reminders as to how careful the inspection company must work and what kind of regulations are required to monitor their work. The regulations for pipeline monitoring were revised recently and just revising the regulations is not enough. The work that is done by the pipeline companies must the monitored to ensure that the regulations are followed.

One must never let a company decide on the fate of public as they always put their profit first. We need to have an independent third party that can keep the public in mind and work to make sure that the regulations are met satisfactorily. This is the only way to make sure that no one gets affected due to similar situations in future.

Science and fashion have come together to create a dress that is taking the world by storm. It has left many people guessing what the true color of the dress could be.

Everything started when a Tumblr blogger Caitlin posted a photograph a dress. Called as #TheDress now, it is a layered dress with laces and a jacket that goes with it. What color the dress is was left to the person looking at the dress. Singer Taylor Swift who tried guessing the color tweeted that she thought it was some kind of a trick and that she was confused and scared at the same time.

Many are debating the color of the dress. Some say its white and gold, its blue and black for some of them. And both the groups think what the others think is totally wrong.

However, Director of the Centre for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex, Ron Chrisley, states that is an illusion and many are forgetting this aspect when debating about the color of the dress. According to him, the first step in solving the debate between two groups is demonstrated to the white and gold group how it can look blue and black and vice versa. The color depends on the conditions.

The reason #TheDress is confusing us is because of the Color illusions. These are images where the colors that are surrounding the object trick the eye and makes it interpret the color incorrectly. When you look at the dress, your eye discounts the blue due to which you see white and gold.

The reason this happens is because light gets reflected. When human beings look at something, light enters the eye in different wavelengths which get interpreted as different colors. When the light hits retina, the brain processes the signals into an image.

Brain understands what color is bouncing off the object you are looking at by subtracting that color from the real color of the object.