Plot-driven musicals derive their songs and dances from a single, cohesive plot, often aiming to closely emulate the original work that inspires them. These musicals typically devote no more than half their runtime to musical numbers, relying instead on spoken dialogue and non-sung scenes to move the story forward. Examples of plot-driven musicals are Mean Girls, Heathers, The Lion King, and Annie. 

Melodic-driven musicals, by contrast, tell their stories almost entirely through song. In these productions, scenes unfold within musical numbers rather than between them. They prioritize musical spectacle and emotional atmosphere over direct narrative progression. Examples include Hamilton, Rent, Hair, and Cats.

In philosophy, the theory of love aims to determine when romantic love is deserved and what good reasons for love might be. There are two primary schools in the theory of love.

According to the “property view,” people should romantically love others if and only if they sincerely appreciate someone’s intrinsic qualities, such as their kindness, intelligence, or appearance. Crucially, this appreciation must be of someone’s qualities currently, rather than any historic qualities they might have had. In the property view, love does not require anything else, like a commitment or a relationship.

In contrast, according to the “relationship view,” romantic love derives from shared experiences, history, and commitment. Thus, people should only romantically love others when they have some kind of relationship with them. This also means it is possible to love someone even if you do not appreciate their current qualities, as long as the love is caused by your connection with them.

Existential risk from artificial intelligence refers to the idea that the development of artificial general intelligence (a theoretical AI that can do any cognitive task better than a human can) could lead to human extinction or the drastic, irreversible destruction of humanity’s long-term potential (e.g., the end of civilization). 

Sunni Islam operates on the principle that because no single infallible authority exists to dictate God's law, any ruling derived through a recognized legal school is considered religiously valid. This doctrine of Ikhtilaf (permissible disagreement) institutionalizes pluralism by accepting four major schools as concurrently authoritative. Each reaches distinct conclusions by prioritizing different methods: the Hanafi prioritize Istihsan (discretion to deviate from strict law for the sake of public interest or equity), the Maliki follow the historical customs of Medina, the Shafi‘i rely on Qiyas (linking new issues to scripture through strict analogy), and the Hanbali emphasize a literalist adherence to Prophetic traditions over human reasoning. These schools dominate specific regions—such as the Hanafis in South Asia and Turkey or Malikis in North Africa—though significant enclaves of each exist globally. In contrast to traditions like Shi‘a Islam, which seek a single "correct" divine answer, the Sunni system treats these conflicting interpretations as equally legitimate paths to the truth.

In the last few decades, U.S. households have generally saved a much smaller share of their disposable income than households in many other advanced economies: around 4% in the U.S. recently, compared with about 15% in Europe. Correspondingly, household consumption is an unusually large share of the U.S. economy at about 68% of GDP, versus about 51% across the EU.

For this debate, long-standing relationships are monogamous romantic relationships between people that last for 15 years or more.

Short selling is the practice of borrowing shares you don’t own, selling them immediately, and buying them back later at a lower price to profit from a stock’s decline, essentially a bet against a company’s value.

Since early 2024, many regulations in China have rendered short selling at a meaningful scale virtually impossible for most investors. These regulations include suspending “relending” (where shares are borrowed in order to lend again to an investor), restricting brokers’ share-lending activity, and requiring hedge funds trying to sell a stock to hold 100% of the transaction value in their account.

According to philosopher Edmund Burke, the “sublime” is an aesthetic experience in which vast forces beyond human control, such as the finality of death, the violence of a storm, or the unimaginable scale of galaxies, inspire both profound terror and immense awe.