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the people's republic of china has outlawed time travel...

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ppint. at pplay

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Nov 15, 2012, 7:43:28 PM11/15/12
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- hi; it sounded like it must be a hoax, but it doesn't
appear to be one: the people's republic of china has for-
bidden the practice of time travel and, by implication,
also research into the theory of it, too.

- iirc, china accounts for ~20% of the human race; should
the tea party and the merkin republican political party it
controls follow suit, as seems to me not too unlikely, and
the holy, orthodox and catholic church[es] do likewise, as
would strike me as completely consistent with past practice,
would it take both of the two main branches of islam ruling
against time travel for a majority of humanity to formally
be opposed to both investigation into, & the practice of it?

- is there any major world religion other than judaism (and
perhaps arguably buddhism), that would not also forbid it?

- love, a ppint. wondering whether the republican party will
copy the chinese communists, commencing a campaign to rid the
past, present and future of the threat from dr who's tardis

[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--
"Earth occupies about one-half a degree in two dimensions."
- trde on rec.arts.sf.fandom, 10/5/2005 (5/10/2005 for merkins)

Brian Howlett

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Nov 15, 2012, 8:20:27 PM11/15/12
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On 16 Nov, ppint. at pplay wrote:

> would it take both of the two main branches of islam ruling against
> time travel for a majority of humanity to formally be opposed to both
> investigation into, & the practice of it?

> is there any major world religion other than judaism (and perhaps
> arguably buddhism), that would not also forbid it?

I don't know for sure. I'll just pop ahead a few years in my TARDIS
and report back before you make this post...
--
Brian Howlett - Email to From: address deleted unseen
------------------------------------------------------------
Owner/Operator, Village Magic Lantern Show.
"I know you're used to 16 or more - sorry we only have 8..."
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ppint. at pplay

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Jan 8, 2013, 10:16:02 PM1/8/13
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- hi; in article,
<20121116104515....@firedrake.org>,
firedrake r <roger+ab...@nospam.firedrake.org> elucidated:
> "ppint. at pplay" wrote:
>> - hi; it sounded like it must be a hoax, but it doesn't
>> appear to be one: the people's republic of china has for-
>> bidden the practice of time travel and, by implication,
>> also research into the theory of it, too.
>
>It's a bit more complicated than that.

- yes, it was a crystallisation of two implications of the
new policy, rather than its initial focus and overt targets.

>In the last few years, historical time travel stories on television
>have become very popular, and the authorities have become annoyed by
>the "misrepresentation" of historical figures (i.e. they do and say
>things that aren't in the Official Biographies).

- i'm sure the chinese _used_to_ have a lord chancellor - in
fact, i think he may've been the lord high chancellor... [a]

>Also, as with any fantastic story, these things are used to comment
>on current affairs...

- fantasy and science fiction certainly can be, and have been,
but is this a first - a school of political and social comment
cast as time-travel stories?

>But it doesn't help that changing history for the better implies that
>history is not already as good as it could have been (since it contains
>inevitable progress towards the perfect Marxist state, i.e. the present
>day).
- quite. and therefore any attempt to travel back in time,
that would inevitably run the risk of damaging - or even
destroying - this present day perfection, and any research
that might lead towards making such journeying possible,
must also be placed forever out of bounds, mustn't they?

>As many modern Chinese will point out, many people now revere the memory
>of Chairman Mao in a properly Marxist way, by collecting as many portraits
>of him as possible

- i get confused by multiple alternations in party line; are
personality cults currently unacceptable, or de rigueur?

>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Renminbi_banknotes.JPG]

- and does it depend at all upon the identity of the person in
question - or the quality of the reproduction of their portraits?
>
>> - love, a ppint. wondering whether the republican party will
>> copy the chinese communists, commencing a campaign to rid the
>> past, present and future of the threat from dr who's tardis
>
>They're more inclined to attack _all_ fiction that's even vaguely
>fantastic, rather than just the most popular sort.

...and whether the tea party has yet proved able to distill
itself a coherent policy on use of the popular social drug,
caffeine, consistent with those it espouses towards others.

- i'm familiar with some people's inability to entertain,
or even accept the existence of, works of fiction based upon
ideas they believe impossible or find intolerable; but this
is more often on a book-by-book or author-by-author basis,
for specific political, moral or scientific reasons, rather
than a fundamental inability to differentiate between works
of fiction, and "lies", whether for reasons of intolerant,
closed-minded religious (or other) upbringing, similarly
deep-rooted moral objection to enjoyment of life, entertain-
ment or fun, or a total lack of sense of humour. i don't
believe i've ever previously come across a blanket ban upon
any subset of science fiction because of the susceptibility -
even fragility - of the foundations of the current regime to
the results of logical enquiry and constructive thought.

- love, ppint.
[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--
"Incipient Doldrums."
- roger thomas, 19/3/97 (3/19/97 for merkins)
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ppint. at pplay

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Mar 8, 2013, 7:37:23 PM3/8/13
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- hi; in article,
<20130109134859....@firedrake.org>,
firedrake r <roger+ab...@nospam.firedrake.org> counselled:
> ppint. at pplay" wrote:
>> firedrake r <roger+ab...@nospam.firedrake.org> elucidated:
>>>In the last few years, historical time travel stories on television
>>>have become very popular, and the authorities have become annoyed by
>>>the "misrepresentation" of historical figures (i.e. they do and say
>>>things that aren't in the Official Biographies).
>> - i'm sure the chinese _used_to_ have a lord chancellor - in
>> fact, i think he may've been the lord high chancellor... [a]
>
>Missing footnote...

[a] - or was it, the lord high everything else ?
>
>>>Also, as with any fantastic story, these things are used to comment
>>>on current affairs...
>> - fantasy and science fiction certainly can be, and have been,
>> but is this a first - a school of political and social comment
>> cast as time-travel stories?
>
>I'm not sure that it's that formal, but it does seem to be a trend at
>the very least. (And if three people do it, they may think it's an
>organisation.)

- or, that they constitute a policy?
>
>>>But it doesn't help that changing history for the better implies that
>>>history is not already as good as it could have been (since it contains
>>>inevitable progress towards the perfect Marxist state, i.e. the present
>>>day).
>> - quite. and therefore any attempt to travel back in time,
>> that would inevitably run the risk of damaging - or even
>> destroying - this present day perfection, and any research
>> that might lead towards making such journeying possible,
>> must also be placed forever out of bounds, mustn't they?
>
>The way it tends to involve rapidly-rotating black holes may also be a
>reason to want it strictly supervised...

- especially if they are clad in 75+% fine dark chocolate...
[]
>> i don't believe i've ever previously come across a blanket ban
>> upon any subset of science fiction because of the susceptibility
>> - even fragility - of the foundations of the current regime to
>> the results of logical enquiry and constructive thought.
>
>I've certainly met sects that ban any books that mention magic (other
>than to say that (a) it's evil and (b) it doesn't exist). But mostly
>the downer on escapism in general doesn't seem to manifest as bans on
>specific books; rather, it's a downer on _any_ fiction (apart, some-
>times, from Approved Fiction where the boys are all tough and manly,

- "all hairy and manly and strong" - ? - shades of "son, son",
a really good single that *ought* to've been a hit, by a bunch
of long-haired yobbos waxing poetical as "the liverpool scene".

>the girls are all beautiful and meek,

- well, if they want or choose to act meekly or, if that happens
to be their nature - but the same should be true of the boys, too;
and the vast majority of fit, young adults are naturally beautiful
to one another, within their cultural and social expectations (and
possibly within their genotypes): it's a combined survival trait
and self-reinforcing feedback loop system.
i suspect we're mostly capable of expanding the limits to our
appreciation of what we find beautiful, but less certain we can
change deliberately what we find ugly to what we find attractive.

>and nobody even kisses until they're married foreverandever).

- that sounds excessively un-fun for everyone, including for
babies'n'kids and their parents; dunno whether snakes and their
charmers would miss it, though.
i s'pose true romance is possible without kissing, but i'm
pretty sure it's less fun, and a lot less exciting.

- love, a ppint. also worrying about the failing future of frogs

[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--
"never trust a man with shaved buttocks"
- jim darby, 2/9/96 (9/2/96 for merkins)
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ppint. at pplay

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Mar 11, 2013, 10:17:27 PM3/11/13
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- hi; in article, <20130310131057....@firedrake.org>,
firedrake r <roger+ab...@nospam.firedrake.org> erctated:
> ppint. at pplay" wrote:
>> firedrake r <roger+ab...@nospam.firedrake.org> counselled:
>>>The way it tends to involve rapidly-rotating black holes may also be a
>>>reason to want it strictly supervised...
>>
>> - especially if they are clad in 75+% fine dark chocolate...
>
>[erp]

- eek!

- is the village ready for a firedrake as encompasses a rapidly-
rotating black hole - even one clad in 75+% fine dark chocolate?

- are the villagers all prepared, have they all precautions taken?

- love, a ppint. as is wondering how successful bing crosby's first
new single for over four decades could yet prove -
"(i'm dreaming of a) white easter"...

[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--
"The Dinner was loose again."
- _Chanur's Homecoming_, C. J. Cherryh, 1987
Phantasia, Daw & Methuen Books
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ppint. at pplay

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Mar 15, 2013, 2:18:14 AM3/15/13
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- hi; in article, <20130312095301....@firedrake.org>,
firedrake r <roger+ab...@nospam.firedrake.org> worrited:
> "ppint. at pplay" wrote:
>> - is the village ready for a firedrake as encompasses a rapidly-
>> rotating black hole - even one clad in 75+% fine dark chocolate?
>
>The question in my mind is whether I become a rapidly-rotating firedrake.

- i have great faith in the preservation - leastways, at macro
levels - of both causality _and_ of rapidly-rotating firedrakes.

>> - love, a ppint. as is wondering how successful bing crosby's first
>> new single for over four decades could yet prove -
>> "(i'm dreaming of a) white easter"...
>
>As long as one isn't daft enough to go North for Easter... oh, wait...

- three light snow showers to report yesterday, with the snow
clearing from the roads, fields and pavements during the day
by a mixture of melting and sublimation; about one-third of
the day was ten-tenths overcast, two-thirds bright sunshine
and quite beautiful.

- the nights are pretty cool out, with temperatures tending to
drop away fast, there being little or no cloud cover left over
us. no aurorae spotted though - the highest probability nights
to be advised recently on "the sky at night" have been cloudy;
and i've no telescope to contemplate the welkin generally, nor
joining in with the meteor watch.

- love, a ppint. as forgot i'd only drafted this...

[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--
"in a well-governed country, poverty is something to be ashamed of;
in a poorly-governed country, wealth is something to be ashamed of."
- attrib. confucius [ref. needed for quote]
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ppint. at pplay

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Mar 18, 2013, 5:46:27 PM3/18/13
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- hi; in article, <20130315204757....@firedrake.org>,
firedrake r <roger+ab...@nospam.firedrake.org> observed:
> ppint. at pplay" wrote:
[]
>
>On Wednesday night there was a little snow on the ground, but not
>enough to do more than lightly wet the roads, and it melted as soon
>as I looked at it never mind breathing.

- there's been a couple more snowfalls, lasting up to a couple
of hours at most, but the most interesting effect i noticed was
when we^W i had about half an hour of what would have been an
ultra-light drizzle - not soft, because it was finer than that
and far sparser, and definitely falling - if it hadn't been too
cold: so what fell appeared to be sub-millimetric particles of
expanded polystyrene or perhaps meringue, but which started to
melt in the time it took to reach out, pick up a sphere and look
at it - without involving even a single firedrake in the process.
>
>> no aurorae spotted though - the highest probability nights to be
>> advised recently on "the sky at night" have been cloudy; and i've
>> no telescope to contemplate the welkin generally, nor joining in
>> with the meteor watch.
>
>Tried for the comet? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2011_L4

- pan-starrs's proved elusive, so far - and is meant to be
fading now; there's a better prospect due in the autumn, i
believe - no?

- love, ppint.
[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--
"With blue cheese, there's no guilt."
- tamar on afp, 16/10/98 (10/16/98 for merkins)
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ppint. at pplay

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Mar 19, 2013, 4:09:10 PM3/19/13
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- hi; in article, <20130319160852...@firedrake.org>,
firedrake r <roger+ab...@nospam.firedrake.org> commented:
> "ppint. at pplay" wrote:
>> firedrake r <roger+ab...@nospam.firedrake.org> observed:
>>>Tried for the comet? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2011_L4
>> - pan-starrs's proved elusive, so far - and is meant to be
>> fading now; there's a better prospect due in the autumn, i
>> believe - no?
>
>Different comet, I believe.

- well yes; i'd be a little worried, if any comet were recurring
every eight months, or thereabouts...

- love, a ppint. as hadn't thought i'd been that e[c,l]liptic
[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
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