The Ephemeral Rifts of Transtemporal Shifts is a titanic, socially progressive nation, ruled by the Transtemporal Federal Council with a fair hand, and remarkable for its rampant corporate plagiarism, punitive income tax rates, and restrictive gun laws. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 22.085 billion Transtemporal Travelers love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The enormous government prioritizes Education, although Healthcare, Environment, and Welfare are also considered important, while Spirituality and Defense receive no funds. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Eterne. The average income tax rate is 96.4%.

The frighteningly efficient Transtemporal economy, worth a remarkable 3,335 trillion Plancks a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Information Technology and Book Publishing. Average income is an impressive 151,042 Plancks, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Young girls aren't having a ball but they are enjoying themselves, modelling agencies send their clients to work in nursing homes, old dogs don't have to learn new tricks but they have to prove they haven't forgotten old ones, and astronauts take one small step for Transtemporal Shifts and one giant step backward from confrontation. Crime is totally unknown. Transtemporal Shifts's national animal is the Space Whale, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans, and its national religion is nonexistent.

Transtemporal Shifts is ranked 3,934^th in the world and 115^th in the South Pacific for Nicest Citizens, with 51.94 average smiles per day.