No paradox for time travellers

Hooray! According to NewScientist.com, when we travel into the past, we can't change it, even if we wanted. If that wasn't bad news enough, we can only travel back on our own timeline! No switching timelines to tell girlfriends not to sleep with other guys and just to wait for you to come along. Since we can't alter the past, that means that we, as travellers, are safe, because the past can't alter us. Since the past would be non-interactive, in order to be non-altering, we should be as nothing as possible. Which I believe is the Army's new slogan in 2006. Jokes aside, here's a brief, one act play about my time travel experience: I accompany my Phantom Timeline Guide (or ‘PhaTiGid’ as they are commonly referred to in space-time talk) to an iron gate. Looking around there is a row of gravestones walled in by houses; overrun by grass and weeds. The Phantom (also known as ‘PTG-matron’) points down to a grave then to me and back again. NEAL Spirit (also known as ‘Phantoms’)! Hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intervention. Why show me this, if I am past all hope? The Phantom (also known as ‘Spirits’) is immovable as ever. I creep toward the grave, trembling; following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave which holds my own name and the inscription, ‘Here lies Office Helper, Library Aide, Second String Hockey Coaching Assistant and the man voted Most likely to do nothing with his life even if they find a time machine.’ NEAL (wailing) Oh, Phantom Spirit (eg. Spirit Phantom)! I will honor high school in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone! In mental agony, I grasp the spectral hand, to witness an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. It shrinks, collapses, and dwindles down into a bedpost. INT. NEAL'S BED-ROOM NEAL I don't know what to do! I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel; I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. I want to shout to the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo! Spotting a BOY IN SUNDAY CLOTHES, loitering on the sidewalk below. NEAL What's to-day? BOY IN SUNDAY CLOTHES Eh? NEAL What's to-day, my fine fellow? BOY IN SUNDAY CLOTHES To-day? Why, Homecoming Day. NEAL (to myself) It's Homecoming Day! I haven't missed it. Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. (to the boy) What in the fuck are you looking at dipshit? Get me a tuxedo or I’ll break you in half, Freshman!