Strickland vs. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) Research Paper

Strickland vs. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) - Research Paper Example He said that his lack of ability to support his family caused the stress. While the attorney was preparing for the hearing, although he spoke with the defendant about his background, he failed to ask for a psychiatric evaluation of the defendant, to seek a presentence report or to look for character witnesses. His decision of not presenting evidence concerning the emotional state and character of the defendant reflected his judgment that as to such matters, relying on the plea colloquy for evidence was advisable in order to avert the State from carrying out a cross-examination on the defendant as well as presenting its own psychiatric evidence. The article further states that the reason behind the defense attorney not requesting a presentence report was that it would have included the criminal history of the defendant, which would in turn undermine the claim that he did not have any considerable prior criminal record (1). Finding no extenuating circumstances that would make it rule otherwise, the trial court pronounced a death sentence on the defendant. The defendant, following the exhaustion of his state court remedies, filed a habeas corpus petition in a federal district court in Florida. He challenged the death sentence arguing that there had been a violation of his Sixth Amendment right for the reason that during the sentencing proceeding, his defense counsel had not represented him effectively/adequately. Subsequent to an evidentiary hearing of the defendant’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, the District Court denied relief. Although the Florida’s federal district court rebuffed the petition, the defendant appealed in the United States’ Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which reversed it holding that according to the Sixth Amendment, criminal defendants had a right to receive plausibly effective help from the counsel given the totality of the

Global warming Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Global warming - Essay Example Researchers have warned that if the global warming effect is not contained, then life will be virtually impossible in the next three decades to come. As a result, urgent action to mitigate the global warming effect is in the offing. This discourse explores the global warming as an environmental issue in light of the situation, consequences, and solution. The paper will conclude by providing recommendations for the world leaders. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Situation 4 Effects of Global Warming 6 Solution 7 Conclusion and Recommendation 7 References 8 Global Warming Introduction Stoyles, Pentland, and Demant (2003) argue that climate change is one of the most disturbing environmental problems facing the world today. Environmentalists have shown that no planet or country is spared of the devastating effects of climate change. The climate change has mainly been blamed on the global warming effects. Maslin (2007) noted that the change in climate being witnessed i n the world today is attributed to the excessive emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Scientists have shown that greenhouse gases produced from fossil fuels once released to the atmosphere blocks the ozone layer thereby resulting in global warming (Maslin 2007). The impacts of global warming are a big problem to the world today. ... Situation The world is suffering from the devastating effects of climate change. The problem is attributed to global warming that has seen the planet’s average temperatures warm up at an alarming rate. Several studies indicate that the last two decades have been the hottest in four millennia. The global warming problem has resulted in extreme weather patterns, including strong tropical storms, wildfires, prolonged drought, rising sea levels and heat waves just to name but a few (Natural Resources Defense Council, 2012). In fact, the global warming menace has made prediction of weather patterns extremely difficult for weathermen today. According to Ploutz (2011), the level of greenhouse, emissions have increased by at least 70% between 1970 and 2004 due to human activities. This huge increase in pollutants has caused a very big problem to the planet’s natural temperatures. The level of carbon dioxide emissions, for example, has increased by over 80% during the same perio d. Union of Concerned Scientists (2013) noted that the society is emitting more carbon into the atmosphere more than oceans and plants can absorb. According to Shah, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is currently about 385 parts per million (PPM) and keeps increasing by about 2 PPM annually due to the excessive burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas and burning of forests (Ploutz, 2011). The point of no return, according to experts is 450-500 PPM. This implies that we are left by only about three decades before it becomes extremely difficult to breathe natural air. Despite the fact that this may sound a long time, so many people will still be alive by that time. Another report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 projected

Home Is Where the Heart Is Essay Example for Free

Home Is Where the Heart Is Essay Some say â€Å"home is where the heart is. † Home can be everything to some. Home is their safe comfort place they have in life. Home determines a sense of one’s identity. One poem called â€Å"The Youngest Daughter† by Cathy Song involves characters experiencing conflicting situations between the demands of their home and identity. One might think that this poem is simply about mothers versus daughters; however, this poem evokes a broader sense meaning that daughters are torn between either pulling away or pulling closer to home. In one sense, the daughter in this poem is frustrated with her current situation and aspires to do more with her life, rather than devote her time doing what her mother thinks she should be doing. Despite this feeling, she knows she should be caring for her sick mother. The role she has in her home has conflicting messages. Using the elements of tone, narrative poem, and word choice, the poem can be explicated to show how it creates and resolves the meaning of conflict between mothers and daughters. â€Å"The Youngest Daughter† utilizes the narrative type poem, which helps create and resolve the conflict in the poem. The main conflict in this poem is that the daughter has to choose between obligations and desires, while finding her own role in her home. A narrative poem tells a story, and this poem tells a story about a daughter taking care of her elderly mother. The poem is about what the daughter’s daily life is like. This shows the â€Å"obligations† part of her life. The first sentence of the poem is â€Å"the sky has been dark for many years. † This implies that everything that has been going on with her taking care of her mother has been going on for many years. Since her mother became ill, it has been the daughter’s obligation to take care of her. This obligation is based on cultural expectations. In many cultures, children are expected to take care of their parents once they age. The poem is organized into stanzas that are associated with a certain part of the story. One stanza describes what has been going on lately. Another is about â€Å"this morning. † The last stanza is about what goes on â€Å"in the afternoons. † Through the narrative type poem, the daughter is able to express the feeling that her identity is basically taking care of her mother. This identity is also her role in the family. This role limits her own self-identity. Because she is busy caring for her mother, she is unable to develop a sense of self. She is torn between two things: growing away from her mother, and pulling closer to her mother. She knows she has to take care of her, so that aspect makes her seem to pull closer to her mother. Contrary to that, this daughter is a grown woman, and she has a very limited and conflicted life. Her life is devoted to the mother. This is seen by the story of the poem. She wants to grow apart from her mother and do things in her life that interest her. The reader can see that the daughter wants to escape this whole situation because towards the end of the poem it says â€Å"She knows I am not to be trusted / even now planning my escape. † The readers learn here that the mother doesn’t trust the daughter, for reasons unknown. The second line of the above quote shows the readers that this is what the daughter is currently doing to make her mother not trust her. The daughter also desires that her mother’s health improve, because in the poem is says â€Å"As I toast to her health. Love and pity toward her aging mother clash with the feelings of resentment and entrapment of herself. â€Å"The Youngest Daughter† uses word choice to show the conflict of mothers versus daughters, and the daughter’s internal conflict of obligations and desires. The daughter uses middle diction to show her emotions. Like noted in a previous paragraph, the first sentence of the poem is â€Å"the sky has been dark for many years. † This shows that the daughter has been dealing with her mother’s illness for quite some time, and she hasn’t been able to see the sun. She hasn’t been able to do what she wants to do because she has been so overwhelmed with taking care of the mother and fulfilling her obligations. When describing the mother, the daughter says â€Å"her breathing was graveled / her voice gruff with affection. † The word choice of graveled and gruff is interesting. This demonstrates the effort required to breathe and be affectionate. It’s almost as if the writer of the poem wanted the readers to hear what her breathing and voice sounded like by including those two words in there. This implies in a way that the mother has an opinion with the situation too. These two words make these two lines more effective. The daughter says â€Å"I was almost tender / when I came to the blue bruises. † This shows that the daughter feels sorry for what the mother has to go through. Tender is another interesting word choice. The poem also says â€Å"I soaped her slowly,† meaning that the daughter takes her time when washing her mother, because her life has been accustomed to nothing. Another aspect of obligations is that the daughter says â€Å"I scrubbed them with a sour taste in my mouth. The daughter obviously doesn’t want to scrub the mother, but it is obligation, her duty, so she must. Using the sentence â€Å"We eat in the familiar silence† shows that there is tension between them, because if there was no tension, they would be talking when they are eating. Despite this tension, this still occurs each day, and they continue to follow the same routine. If this line just had said â€Å"We eat in silence,† it would have a much lesser effect on the poem as a whole. By adding the word â€Å"familiar,† it allows the reader to understand that eating that way is a commonality and part of a consistent routine. The words â€Å"familiar silence† contrast each other. Familiar is something that has occurred so often that it becomes accustomed. And what is familiar in this poem? Silence. Silence, though it means quiet, is essentially nothing. Quietness, or nothing, has occurred so much that it is accustomed. The word choice is contrasting obligations with desires. The daughter is obligated to care for her mother. This is evident throughout the entire poem when the daughter describes everything she does for her mother. Despite this, she desires to do something different than just solely care for her mother. This desire is evident when the poem says â€Å"She know I am not to be trusted / even now planning my escape. † The daughter wants to escape, and the mother is aware of it. This contrast between obligations and desires makes the reader of the poem feel that this is an either/or situation. The daughter can either take care of the mother, or she can go off on her own. The last two lines of the poem are very meaningful: â€Å"A thousand cranes curtain the window / fly up in a sudden breeze. These word choices are effective because the words allow the readers to see an ending image. It seems like the cranes flying away is associated with the daughter being set free and escaping her life. It’s ironic how the first line of the poem uses words that talk about the sky, and in the last few lines of the poem the cranes fly into the sky. This line is used as a way for the author of the poem to show that the resolution has occurred. By the end of the poem, the conflict of obligations versus desires is resolved. One of the last lines of the poem says â€Å"As I toast to her health. This shows that the daughter finally realizes that caring for her mother is what’s best for her at this moment. By toasting for her health, she reveals that even though she is sick of caring for her mother, she would rather care for her mother than have her mother be dead. The daughter realizes that there will eventually be a time when the mother dies, and at that time the daughter will be able to do whatever she desires, but right now, her focus needs to be on her mother. The cranes flying into the sky reiterates this fact. When this time comes, even though the daughter will be able to do what she wants, she will be without a mother. She will have no obligations, which in a sense is good for her, because she will be able to do what she wants, yet a part of her life will be missing. Death is always hard to deal with, and even though in the poem she talks about how she wants to escape, in reality she really would miss her mother. The tone is this poem is bittersweet and affectionate; children should care for their aging parents, yet children need to live their own lives. In a way, the tone is also both happy and sad. The way the tone changes correlated with both of the conflicting sides of the poem. It’s happy in the way that the poet shows that there is affection and love between mothers and daughters, yet it is sad in the way that it shows that sometimes conflicts arise between mothers and daughters. This also explains how it is bittersweet. The tone shows that there are moral ties between children and their parents. These moral ties tie in with the obligational part of the conflict. Morally, the daughter feels obliged to care for her mother. The speaker is the youngest daughter of a family, and her duty is to take care of her aging parent. As one can see, looking at a poem through elements can help a reader understand the meaning of it. In â€Å"The Youngest Daughter,† the poem creates the meaning of conflict between mothers and daughters related to the daughter either pulling closer or pulling away from family and having to choose between obligations and desires. The elements of tone, word choice, and narrative poem together effectively create this meaning. In this poem, the home determines one’s identity. The daughter is conflicted between either pulling closer to her home life and her mother, or pulling away from it all and going after her own aspirations. Readers can relate to this poem because many people go through the same predicament in life: taking care of an aging parent. People do it because they love their family. Even though this daughter is having conflicting feelings about taking care of her mother, she does it anyways because family always comes first.

Creating Tension With Sound

Creating Tension With Sound In my own work I am exploring the psychological impact caused by a break-down in a relationship. The use of sound to create tension is of great importance to support what is happening on screen in order to reflect upon the viewer the emotions felt by the characters. As someone who is creating a film which relies on sound to enhance atmosphere, the work of David Lynch is an unavoidable resource because sound is just as important as imagery. He uses sound in order to create moods and atmosphere which propel the stories of his films forwards. The works of Lynch have covered many genres such as murder mystery and science fiction, with each film being very different from another. However each film is distinctly recognisable as a David Lynch film in that his films are unique auditory and visual spectacles full of symbolism. Lynch employs an almost perfectionist approach to every aspect of his films. It seems the unique captivating power of his films stems from this attention to detail in both the visuals and sound. This essay is an investigation into an important characteristic of Lynchs films; the use of sound and its relationship with the imagery. I will use examples from Lynchs major film projects focusing on three films in particular in order to investigate this relationship: Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Inland Empire. Firstly I will explore how sound is used as a narrative force in conjunction with on-screen imagery. MAIN BODY Sound as narrative David Lynchs first foray into mainstream cinema was with his first feature film Eraserhead. It established him as director but also demonstrated his understanding of sound as a means of narrative within film. Sound is 50 per cent of a film, at least. In some scenes its almost 100 per cent.. This statement by Lynch himself underlines the importance of sound in his films, to me, suggesting that the sound is what carries the narrative forward in a continuum. For example, in Eraserhead the viewer is subjected to an almost nonsensical visual narrative, leaving one feeling bemused as to what is actually happening in the film. However, as Michel Chion states Sound has a precise function, propelling us through the film, giving us the sense of being inside it, wrapped within its timespan. He goes on to argue that although there is a lack of visual narrative the sound makes up for it. If we take this into hand it is as if the sounds that we are hearing in the film creates a sort of audio narrative, that can be heard throughout, but never seen, creating a dense atmosphere of tension and loneliness. An example of this can be found in the introduction of Eraserhead (00:00:00 00:05:50), where the viewer is subjected to sounds of machinery working, seemingly industrial rumblings. However we dont actually see any visual representation of any kind of machinery. What we see is something which appears to be out of a sci-fi film with a close up shot of Henry Spencers head (the films protagonist). Behind him is what appears to be a mass of rock hanging in empty space devoid of any stars. As the camera zooms into this rock we are presented by a grotesque figure of a man sitting by a broken window and some levers. This is followed by a shot of Henry again, as what appears to be a deformed sperm exits his mouth and floats in space. The scene then moves back to the man by the levers, and as he pulls one of the levers, seemingly sets the sperm into motion which eventually plummets into a fluid of some kind. It is as if what you are seeing and hearing is the journey of the sperm on its way to fertilise an egg. The visuals accompanied with the sounds convey the feeling that you are inside Henrys mind experiencing his thoughts, Eraserhead has often been thought as a portrayal of a nightmare. The scene eventually ends with the camera coming out of the darkness through a hole in the ground into the world of Henry. The continuous sound acts as a seamless link between the introduction and the next scene (which is essentially the beginning of the film). With the choice of sound one cannot help but feel a sense of distress and isolation, feelings that are synonymous with Henry throughout the film. This introduction seems to be a precursor as to what happens later on in the film, though the viewer is not aware of it. David Lynch also uses silence as a narrative tool by creating an instance for the viewer to think and ponder. He refers to this silence as room tone saying Its the sound that you hear when theres silence, in between words or sentences.. In Eraserhead these instances of silence do not contain natural sounds of any kind, just the constant ambient sound of the industrial droning, creating tension and a sense of isolation. This ambient sound of machinery is heard throughout the film, acting as a constant, bringing the imagery together. Another example of room tone is in Lynchs latest film Inland Empire where one of Laura Derns characters is sitting opposite an unknown man in a small dark room (01:18:00 01:20:45). Derns character begins talking, and pauses every now and then as she speaks to the man. The man in turn does not respond and merely sits listening. The character is talking about a gruesome incident that has occurred, which appears to be completely irrelevant to what has taken place so far in the film. Yet the silence in between the dialogue carries an almost electric buzzing sound which creates tension and discomfort, drawing the viewer further into the scene. Use of music and song Music is the primary instrument of emotional direction in film it tells us what to feel about a character, a place, a situation. Although sound is the primary element in Lynchs audio-scape, he also uses music and song as a means to create mood and to reflect emotional states of his characters. It was the teaming up with the composer Angelo Badalamenti during the filming of Blue Velvet, which caused Lynch to be liberated musically. Badalamentis ghostly musical scores often complimented and enhanced the dream like visual imagery of Lynchs films. Badalamentis score in Blue Velvet is gloomy and daring and often compliments and contrasts the harsh sound effects created by sound designer Alan Splet (a long time collaborator of Lynch) and the on-screen imagery. An example where the musical score heightens the atmosphere of a scene in Blue Velvet is when Isabella Rossellinis character Dorothy Vallens walks over to her closet, in which Jeffrey Beaumont (played by Kyle MacLachlan) is hiding. Dorothy is holding a knife and the music rises in tempo and volume creating an almost stifling tension as she opens the closet and discovers Jeffrey (00:38:00 00:38:19). In a number of Lynchs films elements of the musical film create startling contrasts as characters suddenly burst into singing, or a song is playing over imagery that it does not quite belong to. There is almost a feeling of abstract fantasy about these instances just as there is in musicals, however these songs serve a purpose to transform visual imagery, uphold narrative and to give an added dimension to the characters themselves. The writer Chris Rodley comments on this use of music as something that alters how the on-screen imagery of the the films is viewed, but as a result takes on a new meaning itself causing both to become intertwined0. In the opening scene of Blue Velvet we hear Bobby Vintons song Blue Velvet (from which the film apparently gained its name),a 1960s hit song reminiscing about love which is now lost. Accompanying this song is on-screen imagery of idyllic picket fenced middle America, focussing on a man watering his lawn. At this point nothing seems to be out of the ordinary, however after having trouble with his hosepipe the man suddenly collapses squirming clutching his neck. The scene ends with a close up of the lawn as the camera seemingly goes into the dirt, with the song fading, revealing a scurrying mass of beetles(00:01:40 00:03:45). This stark contrast between what the viewer is seeing and hearing, creates a sense that not all is as it seems in Lumberton, the imaginary town in which the action of the film takes place. Later in Blue Velvet we have an example where the song In Dreams by Roy Orbison is given double meaning when mimed by the antagonist Frank Booth, played by Dennis Hopper. Frank is an extremely foul mouthed and violent character who deals drugs and can be viewed as the essence of evil in the film. What the song does is to give an insight into the subconscious workings of Franks mind, as it shows him in a very different light to how he usually is throughout the film. In Dreams also serves as a narrative to the hopeless situation which Jeffrey has got himself into, being held captive by Frank and his men,as well as getting punched.

Solar Cell :: essays research papers fc

Solar cells Solar cells today are mostly made of silicon, one of the most common elements on Earth. The crystalline silicon solar cell was one of the first types to be developed and it is still the most common type in use today. They do not pollute the atmosphere and they leave behind no harmful waste products. Photovoltaic cells work effectively even in cloudy weather and unlike solar heaters, are more efficient at low temperatures. They do their job silently and there are no moving parts to wear out. It is no wonder that one marvels on how such a device would function. To understand how a solar cell works, it is necessary to go back to some basic atomic concepts. In the simplest model of the atom, electrons orbit a central nucleus, composed of protons and neutrons. each electron carries one negative charge and each proton one positive charge. Neutrons carry no charge. Every atom has the same number of electrons as there are protons, so, on the whole, it is electrically neutral. The electrons have discrete kinetic energy levels, which increase with the orbital radius. When atoms bond together to form a solid, the electron energy levels merge into bands. In electrical conductors, these bands are continuous but in insulators and semiconductors there is an "energy gap", in which no electron orbits can exist, between the inner valence band and outer conduction band [Book 1]. Valence electrons help to bind together the atoms in a solid by orbiting 2 adjacent nucleii, while conduction electrons, being less closely bound to the nucleii, are free to move in response to an applied voltage or electric field. The fewer conduction electrons there are, the higher the electrical resistivity of the material. In semiconductors, the materials from which solar sells are made, the energy gap Eg is fairly small. Because of this, electrons in the valence band can easily be made to jump to the conduction band by the injection of energy, either in the form of heat or light [Book 4]. This explains why the high resistivity of semiconductors decreases as the temperature is raised or the material illuminated. The excitation of valence electrons to the conduction band is best accomplished when the semiconductor is in the crystalline state, i.e. when the atoms are arranged in a precise geometrical formation or "lattice". At room temperature and low illumination, pure or so-called "intrinsic" semiconductors have a high resistivity. But the resistivity can be greatly reduced by "doping", i.e. introducing a very small amount of impurity, of the order of one in a million atoms. There are 2 kinds of

Abortion :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Abortion and Govn't   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Freedom Of Choice   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Since 1973 abortion has been an important controversial issue to the United States. The problem begins should it be a woman's choice whether or not to terminate her pregnancy or should it be the governments choice. This is where a woman looses her rights as a person. If abortion is not remained legal woman will start performing them illegally. One third to one half of all pregnancies in the United States end in abortion,2,500 of these abortions will be performed illegally. Although some oppose abortion for being used as a form of birth control,Abortion should remain legal because it is a woman's choice and protects the privacy of an individual.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some teenagers and woman abuse abortion as a form of birth control. Many woman have used legal abortions as a drastic form of contraception, due to carelessness or ignorance of better methods. Abortion should remain legalized for the fact that if it's not kept legal many women perform illegal abortions. This is such as self abortion methods which are even more dangerous; these included are lye, Lysol, iodine douches, as well as self inserted catheters, knitting needles an goose quills. When women lose their right to choose abortion they may start performing them illegally. This may do serious harm to the mother and her body.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Abortion is a woman's choice. Woman accepted the definition that a woman's prime role was as wife and mother and control of ones own body. Once they had choices about life roles, they came to feel they had the right to choose abortion to run their own life's. Any woman should have the ability to choose when to have a child in their marital and sexual freedom. Many woman

Legal Rules of Consideration Essay

Legal rules as to consideration: 1) Consideration must move at the desire of the promisor:the act done or losssuffered by the promise must have been done or suffered at the desire or requestof the promisor. The act done at the desire of a third party or without the desire ofthe promisor cannot be a good consideration. It is not necessary that the promisorhimself should be benefited by the acts of the promise. The benefit may beintended for a third party. But the desire or request of the promisor is essential. Example: A sees B’s house on fire and helps in extinguishing it. B did not ask forA’s help. A cannot demand payment for his service. 2) Consideration may more from the promisee or any other person:consideration can be given or supplied by the promise or any other person who isnot a party to the contract. As long as there is a consideration it is not importantwho has given it. Therefore, a stranger to consideration can sue on a contractprovided he is not a stranger to contract. This is known as the â€Å"doctrine ofconstructive consideration†. 3) Consideration may be past, present or future: consideration may be past,present or future. But according to English law, consideration may be present orfuture but never past. 4) Consideration need not be adequate: consideration need not be adequate to thepromise, but it must be of some value in the eye of law. So long as considerationexists, the courts are not concerned as to its adequacy. Provided it is of somevalue. The adequacy of the consideration is of the parties to consider at the timeof making the agreement. However, the inadequacy of the consideration may betaken into account by the court in determining the question whether the consent ofthe promisor was freely given. This is because inadequacy may suggest fraud,mistake or coercion etc. Example: Ali agrees to sell a car worth $2,000 for $200. Ali’s consent to theagreement was freely given. The agreement is a contract not withstanding theinadequacy of consideration. 5) Consideration must be real and not illusory: Although consideration need notbe adequate, it must be real, competent and of some value in the eyes of the law. Real consideration is one which is not physically or legally impossible. If theconsideration is physically impossible, vague or legally impossible, the contractcannot be enforced. ) Consideration must be lawful. The consideration for an agreement must belawful. An agreement is valid if it is based on unlawful consideration. Consideration is unlawful: a) if it s forbidden by law or b) if of such a natural that if permitted it would defeat the provisions of nay law,or c) is fraudulent, or d) involves injury to the person or property of another, e) court regards it as immora l or opposed to public policy Example: I ) A promises to maintain B’s child and B promises to A $ 2000 yearly for thepurpose. Here, the promise of each party is the consideration for the promise ofthe other party. These are lawful considerations. II ) A promises to obtain for B, an employment in the public services, and Bpromises to pay $ 800 to A. the agreement is void as the consideration for it isunlawful. 7) Consideration may be an act or abstinence or promise: Consideration may bea promise to do something or not to do something. So it may be either positive orSubject: BUSINESS LAW LECTURER: YUSUF O. GARASADMAS UNIVERSITY COLLEGEHARGEISA-MAIN CAMPUS negative. Consideration need not always be doing some act. It can be not doing anact also. ) Consideration must be something which the promisor is not already bound todo: a promise to do what one is already bound to do, either by general law orunder an existing contract, is not a good consideration for a new promise. Therewill be no detriment to the promise or benefit to the promisor over and above theirexisting rights or obligations. Similarly, a promise to perform a public duty by apublic servant is not a good consideration. Example: A promis es to pay $ 200 to police officer for investigation into a crime. This promise is without consideration because the police officer is already boundto do so by law. Exceptions: There are, however, certain exceptions to the rule that past consideration is noconsideration. Under the exceptions, past consideration is as good as present or futureconsideration. The exceptions are as follows: 1) Services rendered at the request of the promisor. When the considerationconsists of services rendered at the request of the promisor, it is a goodconsideration. The request may be either express or implied. 2) Promise to pay a time-barred debt: where a debt is bound by limitation, thedebtor can waive the benefit of that plea and promise to discharge the debt. Such apromise is enforceable. A time-barred debt can be taken as valid consideration fora subsequent promise. 3) Negotiable instrument: where a negotiable instruments is given in considerationof some past act, that past act will form as a good consideration for the issue ofthe negotiable instrument and the party who gets the instrument can validlyenforce it. Unreal Considerations: in the following cases, the consideration is not legal because ofphysical or legal impossibility or uncertainty. The following are not real considerations. ) Physical impossibility: if a person agrees to perform an impossible act for aconsideration, the promise is not enforceable. The promise is unreal. Discoveringtreasure by magic or making two parallel straight lines meet or putting life backinto a dead body cannot be enforced as promises because of impossibility. 2) Legal impossibility: whenever the performance of a promise is legallyimpossible, consideration is not real. 3) Uncertain consideration: cons ideration is not real and is not enforceable if it isuncertain or ambiguous. Examples: A engages B for doing a certain work and promises to pay aâ€Å"reasonable sum†. There is no recognized method of ascertaining theâ€Å"reasonable† remuneration. The promise is not enforceable as it is uncertain. 4) Illusory consideration: an illusory consideration is not real and is unenforceable. Example: A promises to give B one ton of gold brought from the sun. theconsideration is sham and illusory. 5) Pre-existing legal obligations: A promise to do what one is already bound to do,either by general law or under an existing contract, is not a good consideration fora new promise. Similarly, a promise to perform a public duty by a public servantis not a consideration. Real or Good Consideration: The following are good real or considerations: 1) Forbearance to sue: forbearance to sue is a kin of abstinence. It means a personwho has a right of action against another person refrains from bringing the action. Forbearance to sue may be forever or for a short or limited time. Forbearance tosue at the desire of the debtor is a good consideration. Example: A has a right to sue his debtor B for $5000. But he postpones suing as Bagreed to pay $ 2000 more. Such forbearance is a valuable consideration for thepromise of B. 2) Compromise of a disputed claim: Compromise is a kind of forbearance. Thecompromise of a disputed claim is a good consideration for the fresh agreement ofcompromise. Example: A sues to recover a debt of $2000 from B. B denies the whole debt andpromises to pay $500 to A as a sort of compromise. This compromise of B issupported by consideration and is valid. 3) Composition with Creditors: A person who is not in a position to pay his debtsfully may call a meeting of his creditors and request them to accept a lesseramount. If the creditors and request them to accept a lesser amount. If thecreditors agree to it, the agreement is binding upon the debtor and creditors.