I use paradigm all the time as an engineer -- it is really useful when comparing different models,

For example it would be useful to distinguish the "ideal" and "real" paradigms of a topic -- similar words to describe these are "regimes", or "cases".

On some level, it often feels like the word that fits best in an academic paper. It is the only word out of these examples that ONLY means "category of thought" - this is free from any possible ambiguity.

Well, let's throw a scenario at the wall.

I personally do not believe in rehabilitating school shooters -- if a child decides to murder their peers, regardless of age, that person should not be allowed back out into society.

Either way, it won't matter to most of us if they get put into adult jail or juvie, as long as the outcome is the same -- barring them from society for the rest of their lives.

When rehabilitation is not the goal, it matters a lot less HOW we deal with it -- keep them away from society in any way possible.

For lesser crimes, if rehabilitation is the goal, then I can see separating child vs. adult jails.

I cut Styrofoam for an hour once... for the next few hours I came down with an intense flu that eventually went away.

Hopefully I didn't fry anything terribly important.