Men Not At Work

This week at the Time Bandits we looked at men not at work.

Overall this did not surprise us; although we were surprised that it has not happened sooner. One male Time Bandit commented that “men are lazy and staying at home and looking after some children would be ideal, there are not certain working hours so you cannot get fired. Also you can eat anything you want.” We thought it was a good idea because there will be a reduced number of macho men around. Also sexism will have to reduce because it is hard to be sexist when you have lots of stay-at-home-dads. But this could all backfire as the boys at the Time Bandits said if that were an option they would stay home and watch TV and play video games.

The article also went into talking about young people working and how after education young people want to take a break. I asked the Time Bandits if they wanted to go to university and straight in to work and only one or two wanted to. Most wanted to travel. I asked the female Time Bandits if they would mind, when they have a family, to be the person earning the salary and for the man to stay at home. We had to discuss this for quite a while and the end results were that it depends. It depended on what qualifications they had, how close they were to their children and what kind of work they would be doing.

The Time Bandits thought that overall this is going to become a more common thing and that it should become a more common thing.

Dates For Year 10 Time Bandits

12th September- The Futuring Quiz by Peter Bishop
19th September- UK to build zero carbon homes by 2016
26th September- Two-Parent Families: Adoptive vs. Natural
3rd October- Designing for the “Other 90 Percent”
10th October- Sub prime Lenders Target Women Unfairly
17th October- Men Not at Work

HALF TERM

7th November- Promoting Parenthood in Japan
14th November- Survival of the cutest
21st November-My Super Sweet Sixteen
28th November- Defeating Terrorism: Is it possible? Is it probable?
5th December- Dislocation and the Global Economy

Drawing Boundaries On Conservation

This week at the Time Bandits we looked at Drawing Boundaries on Conservation. Overall the article is a good idea. The Time Bandits think that some animals that we should be watching out for are cod, red squirrels, hedgehogs, stag beetles, eels and jelly fish. Mainly because there are so many of them being killed each year but not many people do much to help save them. The Time Bandits thought that the main ways to help cod is by not eating them and most of the other animals by leaving food out for them so they don't starve.

The article has a number of problems that the animals would face and the Time Bandits thought that the problem of paper parks is the worst because if parks are not marked down then people will keep going on and chopping down the trees, littering the areas and generally ruining the areas.

The Time Bandits were really mixed when I asked them if we should have more zoos because some thought that zoos preserve the animals, educates the people and gives people jobs. But on the other have some Time Bandits thought that the animals are in bad conditions, not given enough roaming space for it to be natural for the animals and the zoos are exploiting animals for money. The Time Bandits came to a decision that zoos are only OK when the animals have less than 100 in the wild but other than that the animals are being exploited.

I asked the Time Bandits, what animal if it became extinct would have the largest impact on the ecosystem? A Time Bandit made a really good answer by saying humans would have the largest impact as the world would change so dramatically. What do you think?

The Wellbeing Of Nations

After every Time Bandit had finished reading the article I asked them are you surprised that Britain is so low down on the worlds happiness scale, 41 out of 178?

All of the Time Bandits replied by saying no. I asked them why and they answered by saying that there are so many depressed people in Britain and very few of them are getting help. When it comes to children and being at school many Time Bandits thought it was no surprise that people are depressed. To do well in life you need to be poplar, do well in school and be prepared to ruin your life i.e smoking, drugs and sex. If a child doesn’t fit into any of those categories then the chances are that person will be unhappy.

Unfortunately one would hope that you could forget about it in class but it seems not as teachers turn a blind eye on bullying, pile you with homework and scare you about “important” exams.

The Time Bandits came up with some ways of trying to make Britain happier. Some of which were taking away crime, poverty and the majority of depression. Stop doing pointless things like wars and mainly stop having rulers who are just in it for themselves.

Timeline Technology

This week at the Time Bandits we looked at Timeline Technology.

Overall there were very mixed views as some thought that it was a great idea but unlikely to happen whereas others thought it was wrong in many ways. The most changed subject, the Time Bandits thought, were Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Computing and Communicating. On the other side the Time Bandits thought that the least changed were Security, Biotechnology and Environment and Resources. The overall view I was getting from the Time Bandits was that we don’t need any of this and will simply end up more screwed up.

The Time Bandits thought that the hardest thing to make would have to be the robots outnumbering all the armies, also that could be quite dangerous. But the easiest thing to make is new forms of animals simply because if you breed different animals you will get new forms of animals anyway.

Going into more detail on certain subjects, the Time Bandits kept coming back to the idea of a full direct link which can seem good but will probably end up very bad. It could easily end up helping child perverts as they could lead a child into an alleyway without their parents knowing. On a better note, electronic pets would be quite good as they can be a lot easier to look after than normal pets.

Something that should never happen, the Time Bandits thought, was thought recognition as if you think of anything and it happens then teenage pregnancies could go up, death rates could go up and many other bad things could start happening. If all this does happen, a Time Bandits pointed out, would we not end up living in a virtual world. And people may give anything to make and have these things but why would you want to give up your humanity to become just another animated person?

The little guy strikes back- Futurist Club

After reading The little guy strikes back I just I just had to show it to my futurist friends at last weeks meeting of the Time Bandits. Here were are overall views on it.

The whole thing with us idolising famous people is never really going to change as people are not selfless, so some feel the need to be the centre of attention and some just want money. When I say things are not going to change I mean in future generations as none of the Time Bandits thought Paris Hilton getting special treatment was not that bad. Also as many Time Bandits pointed out things won't change as long as the media keeps going on about how wonderful famous people are.

The Time Bandits thought that the next people to revolt will be high school teachers as many of them get a lot of abuse and have very little power to stop it. Also caretakers may revolt soon as many are being paid badly.

When it comes to prisons I asked the Time Bandits "Should mothers with babies in prison have their own prison, when famous people have one? The Time Bandits thought mothers should have longer with their babies but not a special prison. What most Time Bandits thought was that mothers in jail are not fit to look after a baby full time. Also what if a mother threatened to kill the baby? But when I asked about famous people having their own prisons the Time Bandits couldn't understand it because it is obvious that they will get special treatment, so why can't the famous people go in a main prison. As long as there is no bullying from other prisoners then why should they get special prisons.

When I asked the Time Bandits who they thought is the most overpaid famous types of people, the majority thought that footballers as getting paid over a million pound for kicking a ball around for ninety minutes is ridiculous. If footballers really love football they should do it for enjoyment instead of money.

Wind Energy: Power from the Prairie

This week at the Northgate High School Futurist Club we looked at Wind Energy: Power from the Prairie. The overall view was that it is a very good idea; but no one really has done enough acting, just a lot of talking on the subject. Wind turbines are a very good way of collecting energy because as long as we have wind we have an infinite supply of energy. The Time Bandits thought that we should also raise taxes on certain doodads like boats to help fund buying new turbines. But the Time Bandits didn’t think that prioritising on this was very smart as there are so many other things that we should be concered about.

On the other hand there have been some very bad stories about the effects of wind turbines like pigeons get stuck in it, whales signals get messed up and they start doing very abnormal things, they are loud and are ugly. But compared to oil stations some Time Bandits thought wind turbines were very pretty.

When the Time Bandits got on to thinking about where the turbines could actually be placed some Time Bandits were a little stuck so I asked them to think of a place where there is lots of space, at first many thought of Australia and Ireland but when I asked them about Great Britain the Time Bandits thought Wales is a good option.

Once the problems have been sorted out with wind turbines then I think that wind turbines will be a very smart way to go forward. So maybe in the future when you go on holiday to Wales you will see lots of wind turbines out and about.

Youth Irrational Exuberance

This week at the Time Bandits we looked at Youth Irrational Exuberance. It talked about how children all over the world are aiming for goals that are too hard for most of them to achieve. So I asked the Time Bandits what their goals are, a few answers were: move away from England, be a blacksmith, have children that love you, get a good job. But there were some that were quite impossible like take over the world.

The Time Bandits really thought that what the article was saying is all true as none of the Time Bandits had much idea of how to accomplish that goal. But when the Time Bandits started talking about blaming people most of their faces were blank, so who is really to blame?

One subject that we have in school is a lesson called “careers”, which talks to you about your future and your job. The Time Bandits didn’t think this was a good lesson to have as it gives you information about jobs like being a fruit picker on a farm which not many people want to become, also when you ask about a job that you are interested in like being a futurist they can’t come up with an answer. Overall it was unanimous that “careers” were not helping us very much. A Time Bandit told me, also, that when she was in class and was constantly good she is very rarely praised but when someone who is usually bad is good for a lesson they get a ridiculous amount of praise. This could help to pollute young people’s minds to aim for goals that are out of their reach. I think the main way to stop this is for young people to be realistic in what they think about.

23rd May 07