Considering A 4 Day Workweek

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Could your workweek be getting a little bit shorter? One business expert with the University of Tennessee thinks it might be a good idea.

An associate professor of management at UT’s Haslam College of Business started by explaining the five-day workweek comes from Henry Ford and the manufacturing industry more than 100 years ago. Timothy Munyon said it then spilled into office life; however, he said it’s obvious times have changed.

“The history of work, if you look at how we’ve structured work really over the last 120-plus years, it’s an artifact of some realities that were relevant in history but maybe not relevant today,” said Munyon. “When you look at the nature of the way that we actually do work it’s not always the best way for employees.”

That’s why Munyon said he’s passionate about improving the work-life balance for Americans across the nation. It’s also why he feels it may be wise for employers to consider changes like a four-day workweek, saying it can improve productivity, reduce burnout and increase respite.

“It’s about sustainability, actually helping people be well at work and thrive while also helping manage for the long run,” he said.

Munyon also adds this has become vital over the last couple of years as the world dealt with political unrest, the pandemic, and financial insecurity.

“One thing that employers can do is kind of build in a little bit more rest for their employees to recharge, it’s not business as normal,” he began. “If you look at things like base rates of things like burnout and depression in the population, we see spikes, and often they are non-work-related spikes, but employers can help employees better manage those stressors by giving them flexibility and a little more latitude at work.”

Munyon also said there must be a shift in the way employers think soon if they hope to slow down what’s been dubbed “The Great Resignation.” Throughout the pandemic, Munyon said more Americans than ever reevaluated what mattered to them, forcing some of them out of the workforce altogether.  READ MORE...

Dark Zone Art

The cave winds two miles beneath northern Alabama, with mysterious so-called dark zones, deposits, waterfalls, and passageways that turn into deep pools. Ancient footprints are embedded in its farthest passages. Union soldier names from the Civil War remain scribbled on the wall.

Crouching because the ceiling was so low, Alan Kresler took off the light from his helmet on July 30, 1998 and raked a beam across the surface above him.

I can see the artwork of fellow humans who lived centuries ago. Probably a round-headed bird.

“When I see it, I think it’s OK,” Cresler, who currently works at the US Geological Survey, said in an interview this week. “Talking about it gives me chills today. I recognized the imminent importance of it.”

Mr. Cressler, along with archaeologists, 3D photography experts, etc. In addition, he explored for many years the cave known as the 19th Anonymous Cave and its art. This week they published their findings in the journal Antiquity. This study reveals art that was initially invisible when Mr. Cressler was too close to the ceiling over 20 years ago to see a complete array radiating in all directions above. He emphasized the role of 3D technology above. he.

Jan Simek, an archaeologist at the University of Tennessee and co-author of the dissertation, said cave art is one of the largest found in North America, deep in complex dark zones out of natural light. ..

Using radiocarbon dating and analysis of pottery debris, researchers have found that art has replaced mid- and late Woodland eras, or agriculture, hunting, and gathering have replaced the region’s food production and sedentary lifestyles. It is estimated to date back between 500 and 1000 AD.

There is a human-characteristic figure, a coiled snake with a rattling tail and a bifurcated tongue, and a 10-foot-long snake that winds across the expanse. Some designs incorporate ceiling features, such as snakes that appear to emerge from natural crevices.  READ MORE...

Largest Cave Art in Alabama

American photojournalist and founder of the Ancient Art Archive Stephen Alvarez in the 19th newly identified but unnamed cave in Alabama. (Image credit: A Cressler; Antiquity Publications Ltd)

Archaeologists in Alabama have discovered the longest known painting created by early Indigenous Americans, a new study finds.

Indigenous Americans crafted this 1,000-year-old record-breaking image — of a 10-foot-long (3 meters) rattlesnake — as well as other paintings, out of mud on the walls and ceiling of a cave, likely to depict spirits of the underworld, the researchers said.


The cave has hundreds of cave paintings and is considered the richest place for Native American cave art in the American Southeast, the researchers said. 

To investigate its historic art, the team turned to photogrammetry, a technique that involves taking hundreds of digital images in order to build a virtual 3D model. Using this method, the researchers spotted five previously unknown giant cave paintings, known as glyphs.


"This methodology allows us to create a virtual model of the space that we can manipulate," study first author Jan Simek, a distinguished professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, told Live Science. 

"In this particular case, the ceiling of the cave is very close to the floor. So your field of vision is limited by your proximity to the ceiling. We never saw these very large images because we couldn't get back far enough to see them."