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To binge or not to binge?
By: Agastya Rao
To binge or not to binge, that is the question. Whenever a new show releases, I jump at the opportunity to watch all the episodes of the show that have been released, all at once. However, the second I finish watching it, I realise that I had watched it too quickly! So, should we binge watch a TV Show all at once, or watch it slowly?
So, what is binge watching?
Binge watching is quite simply watching episodes of TV shows or many movies back to back in one go. This can give you a rush of adrenaline and help you cover more ground of whatever TV show you are watching.
How good is it?
Binge Watching is loads of fun. You can sit at the edge of your seat for hours on end as you wait and watch for what is going to happen next. The thrill of it all and the rush of adrenaline you get when you are Binge Watching is truly amazing. If you are lagging behind a few episodes of a show, Binge Watching offers the perfect solution to help you catch up on whatever you missed. Afterall, some shows are so good that you (especially me) hate being left on cliffhangers. With Binge Watching, you can easily move on to the next episode and get to know more about the show.
The Side Effects-
Binge Watching has a lot of pros, but it also has a few cons. For starters, Binge Watching can leave you with a splitting headache when you wake up the next day. Depending on how long you Binge Watched for, you can feel pretty exhausted and extremely sleepy. It also causes a severe strain on the eyes and many more health issues. More on this in my next topic- Staggered releasing.
Staggered Releasing- What, when and why?
Why do most TV Shows nowadays release only 1 episode a week, and what does this do to us? The answer starts with one word- suspense. Most use the element of suspense to keep their show running. Most shows hinge on just cliffhangers, which go from episode to episode.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe did the same thing with its 2021 TV Shows WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, so did the Star Wars franchise with its shows- the Mandalorian, and the Bad Batch. They release their episodes once a week because in the week that they release, the cliffhangers and shows spawn fan theories, discussions and articles which boost viewership, hold your attention and keep the show running for longer.
Staggered Releasing Vs Binge Watching
With a staggered release of a show, you get to enjoy each episode of the show properly. It also, as I said before, gives you time to come up with your own theories about what will happen next. Sure, it will be hard to wait for the next episode of the show you are watching to come , but it shall be worth the wait!
Because of the adverse effects of Binge Watching, the staggered release system provides the perfect method of watching TV Shows for both viewers and studios. The lasting impact of the show stays when the episodes release weekly, and not when they are binged all in a few days.
Streaming Giant Disney Plus has announced that most of its shows’ episodes shall be released weekly, and not all together. Many streaming services like Hulu, and even Apple Tv Plus are said to be trying the same staggered release format. Netflix, which defined bingeing, is now also slowly deciding to change its ways. Most of their shows like Stranger Things were all released at once, but some people said that the show finished too fast for them.
Because of Binge Watching, the second you finish your show you will feel bored and wish that the show would have stayed for longer and you could have savoured it. For a show like Marvel’s Agents of Shield which ended its last season, for some viewers (like Abhimanyu) they Binge Watched it quickly, and once they finished it they were sad to see it finish so quickly.
Disney Plus has revolutionised the Staggered Weekly release system. Their extremely popular shows like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier were the talk of the town whenever a new episode was released. This one week gap between each episode sent most of the world into a frenzy. Whether it was discussions over Social Media, thousands of YouTube videos that cluttered people’s YouTube feeds or even just talking to all of your friends. It was this system that made a sort of an ecosystem for the TV Show.
Step 1- Episode Releases
Step 2- Viewer is shocked by developments in the episode
Step 3- Viewer talks to his friend who is also shocked
Step 4- Viewer reacts on Social Media
Step 5- More viewers react on Social Media
Step 6- Hype has been built for the upcoming episode
Step 7- The latest episode breaks viewing records!
Some Examples of Staggered Vs Binge Watching are-
(Photo Credit: Vulture Magazine)
Shows which use Staggered Releasing-
-Wanda Vision (Disney Plus)
-Young Sheldon (Amazon Prime Video)
Shows which release all episodes at once-
- Suits (Netflix)
- Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (Disney Plus)
So is the era of Binge Watching over?
So, to Binge or Not to Binge? This question stands answered. You should do the occasional Binge Watching so that the novelty of Binge Watching and your eyesight don’t disappear. Wait for your favourite TV Show to release the latest episode every week, and build your own fan theories while you’re waiting!
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Cover Story-
How Did We Get Here? Space History 101!
By: Mihir Rao
As we all know, our universe is old. Of course, our Earth is extremely old, so our universe must be older right? Yes, but just HOW much older? Well, instead of ending with a bang, the universe started with one.
When the universe started with a bang, there was nothing… LITERALLY, nothing at all! The universe expanded to an extremely small size, and nothing was going on there for a bit. After that, there were quarks. Quarks were so energetic that they kept
bumping into each other and new pairs. After this, the fight between matter and antimatter was won, by none other than good old matter, and now, new and bigger particles were being formed, such as neutrons. Also now, instead of there being only one force guiding the particles, there were four: Gravity, Electromagnetism, and Strong and Weak Nuclear force.
Let me remind you, that this is not happening over years. Only one second has passed.
And now since the universe was cold enough for the neutrons to decay to protons (Well, it wasn’t actually that cold, it was about 10,000,000,000 degrees celsius) the first atom was formed, Hydrogen. And when the hydrogen gas didn’t allow light to pass through it, we entered the opaque era, or the Dark Ages. After a bit of time, gravity started to compress the hydrogen gas together and they started to group, stars and galaxies formed.. And by the way, all of this happened in just a few minutes!
Let’s move on to the next part: Our Solar System.
At first, there was only a giant cloud of hydrogen, helium and dust, where our solar system was going to form. However, a supernova of a neighbouring star jump started the formation of our solar system, forming protoplanets and a protostar. And when the protostar had undergone fusion, it ignited, and became the sun that we all know and love. And once Jupiter forms, other planets slowly start to form, through many asteroid collisions.
And, let’s go to the next part that is arguably one of the most important parts of our history, the formation of earth.
And after that, our planet (which was just an asteroid then) got bombarded with more and more asteroids, which made it bigger and bigger. Along with this, the force of gravity kept shaping the earth into a ball, almost like making laddus. At that moment, the Earth was too hot for any life to evolve, because it was constantly being hit by asteroids and being showered with radiation from the supernova that gave rise to the Solar System. However, this did not last for long, since after some time, the Earth would evolve life.
Back to our fiery. Molten, rock; Slowly, the planet cooled down, and formed its special magnetic field that shields us from any uv rays that come our way. After that, the atmosphere formed, with oxygen evolving in the atmosphere and air too. Then, the water vapour in the air condensed and formed rivers and oceans, and the first forms of life came to be: Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes.
And of course, the Earth’s history came to be, and here we are now, on this small rock floating in space, the place that we call home.
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Persevering to uncover the mysteries of the Red Planet
By: Abhimanyu Rao
Walking in the “science fiction” aisle of a library, every second book you pick up will have at least one reference to Mars, or Martians, or an Alien Invasion. Well, till now, we have never had any confirmation of any extra-terrestrial life existing. Since the ‘60s, the so-called “Space Race” has been going on, and the most successful contestant so far has been the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States of America. Recently, NASA sent a rover to Mars. Named “Perseverance”, NASA has said that Perseverance’s mission is to “Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth.” This essentially means they want to know if there is, or ever was any life on Mars.
What is Perseverance?
In the past couple of decades, NASA has sent several missions to Mars, and most of those studies have revealed one particularly important find. These missions have led us to the conclusion that Mars was not always the desolate wasteland that we know and love today! Contrary to that, there is a high possibility that Mars could have supported life in the past! From the trails of what look like riverbeds on the surface, to the polar ice caps that display a presence of water on the planet. Since water is essential to life (at least as far as we know), it seems logical to assume that there was life on Mars at one point, and who knows, there might still be!
Main missions-
· Perseverance’s landing site was picked specifically because it had a very varied geological area. That way Perseverance would be able to look at a variety of geological areas in a small area, conserving a lot of fuel in the process.
· It is also supposed to assess whether or not the Red Planet was habitable in the past, for which it will use a variety of methods. One thing it will do to accomplish its task is that it will look at some special rocks that are known to preserve signs of life for a long time.
· Another remarkably interesting activity that Perseverance will engage in is the collection of samples that will be collected on a later mission by NASA. This means that NASA will definitely need to plan another mission to Mars to collect those samples!
· The last main objective of the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is to demonstrate the usage of some technology on Mars, which brings us closer to using that technology in a manned mission to Mars!
How cool would it be to have The Red Planet be the ending of your postal address? Well, every second, we inch closer to that notion becoming a reality!
Why is Perseverance important?
Now that I have talked about the importance of space travel in general, and made you marvel at its cool features, we must answer the question - why is Perseverance important?
Ø Well, technology is always improving, and the better the technology, the higher chance we have of actually finding out the truth about life on Mars! While this doesn’t sound nearly as important as other things in life, trust me, it is. One of the most important things that we are trying to do right now, is send humans to Mars, and every unmanned mission we send to Mars gives us a better idea of whether or not we can.
Ø As I said before, Perseverance has done several things to try and see if humans could survive on Mars, and this could have many implications for the future. For example, Mars is a tad more than half of Earth’s size, but its lack of huge oceans give it an almost equal land area! Land on earth is very limited, so maybe we could start another human civilization on Mars, to decrease population density? You never know, the universe is expanding, and so is our technological capacity, so we may soon have houses on Mars!
Persevering with - the Conclusion
We have accomplished so much over the years, and this is no different. We are breaking boundaries we didn’t even know existed, and every step we take in step is a giant leap for mankind. The future is uncertain, but one thing is set in stone, and it is the same thing we are displaying during the coronavirus pandemic. We have always adapted, so no matter what curveballs we have thrown at us, humanity will adapt!
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Guest Submission
Poem- The Petrichor
By Suryanshi Sinha
I head to the balcony, open the door,
and I let in the smell of the soothing petrichor.
The rain made the town glisten,
The drops fell and I listened.
I had a wonderful time,
Hope this petrichor comes and again, I get to rhyme.
By: Abhimanyu Rao
12 former circus elephants who also happen to be endangered in the wild, have found a new home at the White Oak Conservation Center in Jacksonville, Florida. The Center is a refuge for rare species. We remain hopeful that there will soon come a day when animals are not taken away from their habitats due to human greed.
A man who is paralyzed from the neck down has used a software to turn imagined handwriting into words. This "mind writing" software may be a boon for people like him who have suffered injuries.
In very welcome news, the world's green cover has increased. The earth has gained an additional area of forest which equals the size of France, since the year 2000.. Forests in Canada, Mongolia and Brazil showed a positive growth rate. While this is not enough to offset the terrible deforestation so far, it is a small start to a cleaner, greener world.
In a fresh set of reforms in UK laws, live animal exports and trophy hunting exports will be banned by the UK. The UK is set to recognize animals as sentient beings. This is a very important step in animal rights movements, as they will help protect animal lives, and prevent hunting.
The world is struggling for oxygen, and everyone knows that. Due to this, Mr. Mohammad Ismail Mir has made a low cost oxygen concentrator at home. He says that it works like a normal concentrator, and the number of people it can support depends on various variables. This is a great invention, and we are sure that it will save many lives
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By: Agastya Rao
The Paperless Press has been bringing to you news about Mars for a while now. In the latest development regarding the very popular planet, China's probe named Zhurong touched down on the Red Planet this Saturday. This development makes China the first country to carry out an orbiting, landing and roving operation on its first mission to Mars.
The common antibiotic amoxicillin may be what the doctor ordered for corals infected with corals tissue loss disease. This was found by scientists after the treatment worked on reefs near Miami, Florida. Certainly a ray of hope for diseased, endangered corals.
The first genetically modified mosquitoes will soon be allowed to fly free in the USA. These have been "genetically designed" with a specific target in mind - to attack mosquitoes species that spread Zika and dengue. There was considerable debate over this move - what do you think? Good idea? Do share your thoughts
Now that bees are returning to The Netherlands, they are being used to test for Covid-19! They are being trained by scientists by using positive and negative tissue samples. When the bee smells a positive sample, it’s given a little sugar water, for which it extends its proboscis, but it isn’t given any for a negative sample. This trained the bees to extend their proboscis when they smelled a positive sample, which is a cheap and easy way to test for covid!
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Entertainment quotient for the week:
Disney+
Rogue Trip
Netflix
The Blind Side
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