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The difficulty of drawing the line

When does a fuzzy boundary turn into a rigid one (or vice-versa)? Consider these cases -

1) Speed limit: 40 km/h. Had you been driving at 39 kmph and meet with an accident, the damage would be the same. Alternatively, if a policeman stops you for speeding at 41 kmph, you might apply the same line of reasoning, citing that it's only 1 kmph above the limit; another person might cite 42 kmph as being 1 kmph above the last permitted (your) limit, and so on.

2) Passing mark: 40%. If you get a 39, you are retained in the same grade, and study the same thing over again. Someone else who gets a 41 gets promoted and studies at the next higher grade level (along with those that scores 90s). How is this bifurcation justified (clubbing 41 and 90 together but separating 39 and 41?).

3) When a convict pleads innocent, an inquiry is conducted rather than believing his/her statement; but when s/he pleads guilty, it's (mostly) taken to be true. Where did the "Innocent until proven guilty" principle go? Isn't this "Guilty until proven innocent" ?

4) Dress codes in colleges: some are rules for uniform-like dresses, some are guidelines. Who gets to decide what you wear today is permissible under a certain dress code? More importantly, who gets to decide to what extent the dress code will control what you wear?

5) Western music genres: What is pop and what is rock? Bouncer? :-P It is getting increasingly difficult to categorize music these days, what with sub-genres and sub-sub genres getting into vogue (look up subgenres for Trance or Techno).

Reminds me of lyrics from The X-cutioners' song "It's going down" (feat. Joe Hahn and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park) :
A logical progression on the timeline,
The seperation narrowed down to a fine line,
To blur the edges so they blend together properly,
Take you on an audible odyssey now,
It's going down.
On a different note, if you're interested in collaborative music or fusion of different styles, I recommend the above song (a must-listen). Lyrics are here (a must-read).

Thank you for reading through this totally useless post. You've just been had. :-P

claps for figuring out the subtle message

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