All bookings are only accepted from persons 21 years of age and over. Please note that the person who signs the check-in form must be a member of the party staying on site and will be considered the party representative and responsible for the whole parties' actions.
Accommodation must be vacated by 9:30am on the day of departure.
Telephone bookings will be held for 7 days in order for you to make your deposit payment. On receipt BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE will forward full confirmation along with final payment instructions.
All bookings must be confirmed within 7 days. To confirm your booking, a deposit of £50.00 per week/short break and per accommodation will be required, along with the cancellation scheme of £14.00 per week (if required). The balance must be paid 42 days (6 weeks) prior to arrival.
Please note bookings not confirmed within 7 days will automatically be cancelled without notification.
All bookings made less than 42 days prior to arrival will require full payment at the time of booking.
BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE reserve the right to cancel your holiday, re-let the accommodation and retain the deposit and cancellation scheme paid if we do not receive full payment 42 days prior to arrival. Please note that reminders will not be sent.
Payment is accepted by cheque, and debit/credit cards. Returned cheques or unpaid credit/debit charges will be charged a £20.00 administration fee.
Amendments or alterations made to your booking will not incur a charge on the first amendment/alteration if the cancellation scheme has been paid. Further amendments/alterations will incur a £10.00 administration fee. If the cancellation scheme has not been taken at the time of booking, BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE regret that no amendments/alterations can be made to your booking.
Reservations will not be held after midnight on the day of arrival unless prior arrangements have been made with a booking office representative. If notification of your late arrival is not received BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE will assume that the holiday is cancelled and the total cost of the holiday will be retained by BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE.
Prices are inclusive of VAT. BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE reserves the right to amend this or any other tax element in the event of a tax change.
Cancellation is due to death, serious illness, serious injury, jury service or redundancy of any member of your party, death or serious illness of husband, wife, father, mother, father in law, mother in law, brother, sister or child. In the event that you cancel due a death/serious illness or injury you must provide a doctors certificate. In the event that your cancellation is due to redundancy or jury service, official documentation will be required.
If written notification of cancellation is received due to one of the aforementioned reasons in section 1, more than 42 days prior to the commencement of your holiday all monies paid to date minus the cancellation scheme payment will be refunded. Alternatively, BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE will transfer all monies toward a future holiday.
If written notification of cancellation is received due to one of the aforementioned reasons in section 1, less than 42 days, all monies paid to date minus the deposit and the cancellation scheme will be refunded. Alternatively, BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE will transfer all monies towards a future holiday.
If notification of cancellation is received and the reason is not one of the aforementioned, you will forfeit all monies paid including your deposit and cancellation scheme and will be responsible for any balance outstanding if BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE are unable to re-let the accommodation.
All cancellations must firstly be notified by telephone and followed by written confirmation. It is in your best interests to advise BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE as soon as possible.
The cancellation scheme is only valid if the circumstances arise before you leave your place of residence for your holiday destination.
Please note this is not an insurance policy and is only valid prior to arrival. Please contact your own insurance company should you wish to be protected throughout the duration of your holiday.
BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE are relieved of all liability should the accommodation not be available due to circumstances beyond our control. If your accommodation is unavailable for whatever reason BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE will transfer you to a similar accommodation. If no similar accommodation is available BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE will transfer you to an alternative accommodation that is acceptable to you at no extra cost, or alternatively refund the total cost of your holiday. Please note that you will have no additional claim against BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE.
Both parties shall be released from their respective obligations in the event of national emergency, war, prohibitive government regulations or of any other cause beyond the reasonable control of the parties, or either of them renders the performance of the agreement impossible.
If you do not choose to purchase the cancellation scheme with your holiday and you cancel your holiday, please note that all monies paid to date will not be refunded under any circumstances. Please also note that you cannot add the cancellation scheme to a booking after you have paid the deposit on your booking and cannot be purchased less than 42 days prior to your holiday.
BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE reserves the right to terminate the hiring without notice and without compensation or refund whatsoever if the person responsible for the party or any member of his/her party causes a nuisance, annoyance or danger to other guests, staff or damage to the property of BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE.
BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE will not accept liability to any person staying or any person visiting the centre for any personal injury, fatal or nonfatal unless caused by negligent act or omission by BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE. No liability will be attached to BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE in respect of any loss or damage for anything brought onto the centre, including motor vehicles, personal effects or luggage, howsoever caused or sustained, or for persons coming onto the park at your request.
If you have an accident at the park involving the accommodation, the equipment supplied or in the grounds, you must inform the centre management immediately where practical, but no later than your day of departure. If you do not inform BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE prior to your departure, the ability to investigate could be seriously hampered. Therefore, unless there is a valid reason for the delay in informing BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE of the details, the situation will not be dealt with.
Any problems that occur with regards to your accommodation must be reported at the time of occurrence. Please report any issues direct to Reception. Failure to do so prior to your departure, unless there is a valid reason for the delay, will result in issues not being dealt with.
You will be responsible for any damage or breakages occurring in your accommodation throughout the duration of your holiday.
BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE has a limited amount of pet allocated accommodation. PETS MUST BE SPECIFIED AT THE TIME OF BOOKING. A STRICT LIMIT OF TWO PETS PER UNIT APPLIES. Pets must not be left unattended in your accommodation or vehicles. Any damage or extra cleaning incurred will be billed direct to the guest for immediate payment. Please note that pets MUST be kept on a lead at all times and MUST be poop-a-scooped at all times. Dog litterbins are located around the site. Dogs (excluding guide dogs) are not allowed in the Pier House Bistro, Restaurant & Bay Suite. Dogs are allowed in the bar area at the managements discretion and must be kept on a lead and under control at all times. Please ensure that your pet is fully inoculated, free of fleas and worms. The management reserves the right to refuse admission or eject any pets they might consider inappropriate as a family pet. Pets are not allowed on beds, bed linen or furniture. BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE insists that you bring your pets' basket/bed with you. Please note the management reserves the right to terminate the hiring without notice and without compensation or refund to any guest who brings unspecified pet(s) into the accommodation. We are unable to accept the following breeds of dogs at BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE: American pit bull terrier, Fila Brasileiro, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino.
The Pier House Seafront Bar & Bistro facilities are available to our guests whilst staying at BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult whilst on the premises. Children are the responsibility of their parents/guardians at all times and if necessary must be supervised when enjoying the entertainment provided by BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE.
BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE will make every effort to provide facilities, amenities and entertainment as specified. However, if due to illness, breakdown of equipment, lack of support from performers or other unforeseen circumstances which are out of the control of BRADDICKS HOLIDAY CENTRE, the management may have to withdraw a service or amend the entertainment programme without notice or refund of monies to guests.
Duvets and pillows are supplied in all self catering accommodation. Linen is provided in all units.
You will be required to bring your own towels, tea towels, toilet rolls and washing up utensils.


text:
package it.smartcommunitylab.riciclo.app.importer.model;

public class TipologiaUtenza {

	private String valore;

	public String getValore() {
		return valore;
	}

	public void setValore(String valore) {
		this.valore = valore;
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Pacific American Coal Ltd (PAK) has announced the initial drilling results from the 2018 exploration drilling programme at the Elko Coking Coal project in British Columbia, Canada.
A total of 9 holes were completed for 3451 m of drilling with all holes intersecting multiple coal seams. Of the 9 holes, 8 were completed using Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling with 1 core hole.
The initial drilling programme indicates the geological continuity of coal seams across the Western Coal License (Number 418648). These early indications suggest that all holes intersected the SM4, SM5/6 and SM7 seams, including the first hole to be drilled into the Central Coal License (Number 418650), which shows the potential propagation of the SM7 seam into that block. Due to the weather window available in that part of British Columbia, the decision was taken to drill to depths which were known to contain the top seams, whilst extending drilling below in certain cases where drilling conditions where most favourable to also test the continuity of the lower SM1 and SM3 seams.
Currently all the Indicated and Measured JORC 2012 certified resource are contained within the Western Coal License. DH_18_11 demonstrates the continuity of the resources into the adjoining Central license area. The initial interpretation is that seam SM7 is present in the Central Coal License, provides potential upside to previous understanding of the lateral extension of the higher value coal seams into the Central License area.
Using geophysical instrumentation, each drill hole was logged in order to confirm the presence of coal and to assist in defining coal seam thicknesses.
Based on these preliminary results and analysis the coal seams appears to be correlate across the property. Final coal assay and analysis will assist in confirming the extent of these correlations.


text:
Als Skimarathon werden im Allgemeinen Skilanglauf-Rennen bezeichnet, die über eine Strecke von 30 km oder länger ausgetragen werden. Eine genaue Abgrenzung des Begriffes existiert nicht.

In den Worldloppet-Skiverband werden in der Kategorie "Gold Master Award" nur Rennen über 50 km oder mehr aufgenommen; lediglich für Worldloppet-Rennen, die auf einer Höhe von mindestens 1500 m ausgetragen werden, beträgt die Mindest-Distanz 42 km.

Bei den Skimarathon-Europameisterschaften muss jeder Teilnehmer an einem Wochenende zwei Langläufe absolvieren – einen über eine Mindest-Distanz von 30 km und einen zweiten Lauf über mindestens 42 km; die maximale Streckenlänge soll 50 km nicht überschreiten.

Die namhaftesten Skimarathons sind Volkslangläufe, also vorwiegend Breitensport-Veranstaltungen, und im Worldloppet-Skiverband bzw. im Europäischen Skimarathonverband (Euroloppet) eingebunden. Um die Attraktivität von Langdistanz-Skirennen für professionelle Skiläufer zu erhöhen, wurden 2000 der FIS Worldloppet Cup (zunächst unter dem Namen FIS Marathon Cup) und 2011 die Rennserie von Ski Classics ins Leben gerufen.

Zu den traditionsreichsten Skimarathons zählt der schwedische Wasalauf, der seit 1922 durchgeführt wird und über 90 km führt. Das norwegische Birkebeinerrennet wird seit 1932 über 54 km ausgetragen und hatte 2013 ein Starterfeld von 14 713 Teilnehmern.

In Deutschland veranstaltete der DSV bis 2013 eine eigene Marathonserie als DSV Skilanglaufserie. Seit der Saison 2014/15 wird der Skimarathon Cup durch den DSV ausgetragen.

Einzelnachweise

Skilanglaufwettbewerb

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Hypothesis Testing for survey Suppose my null hypothesis is "Not more than 50% person prefer milk" and alternate hypothesis is "More than 50% (or majority) prefer milk". Actually the null and alternate hypothesis are set so only to test whether majority prefer milk or not.
Then I set the question in the questionnaire as:
"Do you prefer milk? Yes$\,\Box\:\:$ No$\,\Box\:\:$ Not sure$\,\Box\,$".
After a survey of 100 respondents I found that 40% ticked 'Yes', 57% ticked 'No', and the rest (3%( ticked 'Not sure'.
To test the hypothesis, I ran a one-sided binomial test in R using the command:
binom.test(40, 100, p=0.5, alternative="greater")

Then, on the basis of the test result, rejecting the alternate hypothesis and accepting the null hypothesis I got "Not more than 50% person prefer milk". But not that "Majority don't prefer milk".
So, to conclude that "Majority don't prefer milk" from such 'Yes/No/Not sure' type question where response option is 3 types (not 2 types i.e. Yes/No), how the reasoning should be narrated after that test, or what statistical test should I perform & how – to conclude that "Majority don't prefer milk".

A: You don't "reject the alternate hypothesis". You either reject the null or fail to reject it.
It's perfectly possible that you can neither conclude "a majority prefer milk" nor "a majority do not prefer milk" (because you cannot distinguish milk preference from 50%)
If you set up your hypotheses as:
$H_0$: Not more than 50% of the population prefer milk
$H_1$: More than 50% prefer milk
Then rejection of the null would lead to the conclusion that more than 50% prefer milk.
One must be very careful of hypothesis tests (especially one sided ones). Failure to reject the null is not positive assertion that the proportion who prefer milk is $\leq$ 50%.
--
You should explicitly clarify whether your hypothesis includes the 'not sure' as 'don't prefer'. It's probably better still to explicitly state it in terms of answers to the survey question and then interpret it in the conclusion. Consider this phrasing:
Let $p_Y$ be the population proportion who would answer 'Yes' in response to 'Do you prefer milk?'
$H_0$: $p_Y\leq \frac{1}{2}$
$H_1$: $p_Y> \frac{1}{2}$
This phrasing avoids the ambiguity in your question. What majority is being considered is then interpreted in the text, either before the test or in the conclusion -- or both.
--
Alternatively if you set up your hypotheses as:
Let $p_N$ be the population proportion who would answer 'No' in response to 'Do you prefer milk?'
$H_0$: $p_N\leq \frac{1}{2}$
$H_1$: $p_N> \frac{1}{2}$
Then rejection of the null would lead to the conclusion that more than 50% do not prefer milk.
--
If, instead, you want to investigate the sum of the two 'not-yes' categories, you'd say:
Let $p$ be the population proportion who would answer either 'No' or 'Not sure' in response to 'Do you prefer milk?'
$H_0$: $p\leq \frac{1}{2}$
$H_1$: $p> \frac{1}{2}$
Then rejection of the null would lead to the conclusion that more than 50% would not say they prefer milk. [If that was the test you were trying to carry out, I suggest you organize it as an explicitly as that so that the ambiguities inherent in ordinary language are avoided.]

A warning
One sided hypotheses would normally be based on a clear a priori reason to think that the alternative would not occur, or at the very least, is of no interest. In general, if you don't have that you'd use a two-sided test.
If you don't have good prior justification for a one-sided test, you'll likely be seen as significance hunting.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
SUIT CASE SAGA AT SLFA
Following the numerous misguided comments making the rounds purporting a seizure of players allowances and withdrawal of suitcases by the Sierra Leone Football Association.
The press statement noted that the SLFA Executive Committee had instructed that the said money be shared among players upon return of each player's team suitcase, to which all players had signed up some have complied.
The statement continued that all allowances and bonuses provided by the Government of Sierra Leone through the national sport Authority for the total energies AFCON 2021 group stage participation has been fully paid to all 28 players in the Leone Stars squad.
According to the released a total sum of $28,000 was recently paid to the team by the Sierra Fishing Company through the Deputy Minister of Finance 2 Mr. Bockarie Kalokoh as an appreciation for Leone Stars performance in their first group E match against Algeria, which ended in a 0-0 draw.
"After the country's elimination in the just concluded tournament, each player was allowed to take home nine set of team jerseys as a souvenir. SLFA would like to conclude by encouraging all journalists, bloggers and concerned individuals to kindly seek clarification on all information about the federation, through the media department, before publication". The press release noted.
Le200m Bail for Notorious Fraudster
Alleged Notorious Fraudster, Sahr Brian Sokenah was on Wednesday 9 February 2022 granted 200 million bail for allegedly defrauding one Magdalene Sesay of KIA Sportage Jeep valued 70 million Leones. The accused made another appearance before Magistrate Sahr Kekura of Pademba road court N 1 on one count charge of Fraudulent Conversion Contrary to section 20 (1) (iv) (a) of the Larceny Act 1916
According to the particulars of offence, it was alleged that the accused on a date unknown between Wednesday 1st January and 31st December 2020 at low cost Kissy in the western Area in Freetown Fraudulently converted to his own use or benefit certain property that is to say one KIA sportage Jeep with registration number AQG 358 value seven thousand united State dollars equivalent to seventy Million Leones (70,000,000) entrusted to him by Kala Komas for the purpose of sale property of Magdalene Sesay
When the charge was read to the accused person, No plea was taken
Counsel representing the accused person E.W. Conteh and A. Boyze Kamara applied for bail for and on behalf of the accused person that he is a Sierra Leonean ordinarily resident within this jurisdiction that he has reliable sureties who are willing and ready to enter into recognisance on his behalf, adding that he is not a flight risk nor will he interfere with prosecution witness or witnesses. His application for bail was made pursuant to section 79 (2) of the Criminal procedure Act No.32 of 1965
However Magistrate Kekura giving his ruling said upon hearing the application for bail on behalf of the accused, granted bail to the accused person in the sum of two hundred million Leones or one surety in like sum surety must be elderly and responsible citizen, he added that the surety must be gainfully employed from a recognised institution and should produce his employment letter couple with his identity card of the said institution and that the bail to be verified by the Bench and to be approved by the Deputy Acting Registrar
Sergeant 9939 Lahai M was prosecuting. Whiles the matter was adjourned to the 16th February 2022.
PERSONAL GLIMPSES
WHITHER TRUE DEMOCRATIC PLURALISM?
By: Winstanley. R. Bankole. Johnson
First reports that our APC Party publicity Secretary Mr. Sidi Yaya Tunis had been invited to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) was real dampeners to my spirits. Initially I thought it was the work of pranksters, but actual disappointment set in after confirmations on the matter from reports filed in by the BBC stringer Umaru Fofana. From those BBC reports I was unable to discern anything incendiary or inciteful. So my initial doubts were justified given that Sidi Yaya Tunis, recognized by the PPRC and globally as the Publicity Secretary of the main opposition APC Party would appear to have been taken in for questioning by the Police for doing his lawful duty to wit: Publicizing the APC Party through the airwaves, and all of which was happening under a political dispensation that is priding itself with the setting up of a National Peace and Cohesion Commission as evidence of its commitment to democratic pluralism.
My spontaneous reaction to Sidi Tunis' ultimate detention was to visit our archives to trace video clips featuring three prominent SLPP personalities during the latter days of the APC regime as follows:
1. An interview by an international Press house to obtain Mr. Bio's views should former President Ernest Bai Koroma attempt to postpone the 2018 elections
2. A public address by Francis Ben Kaifalla as a member of a rights group called "The Renaissance" in which he was calling for a nationwide protest (without the requisite Police Clearance) on a day he dubbed "Black Monday" – everybody was to wear "Black" on that day.
3. An interview by Radio Democracy of Lahai Lawrence Leema as Publicity Secretary of the SLPP during which, waving a copy of the National Constitution, he publicly invited the Military to wake up to what he considered their constitutional obligations and to "intervene".
All of the above videos and the incidents they depict occurred in the latter days of the APC government in power, during periods of heightened political tensions. Though they all had a proclivity of sowing bad blood or worsening political rivalries, yet none of their actions was ever considered incendiary or inciteful enough to have warranted Police invitation to any of them for further investigations on grounds of disturbing peace and social order. Nor did the APC government seek for the extradition for Mohamed Yongao (now compensated as our Envoy to Russia) for insinuating threats to destabilize the entire country whilst addressing his party supporters at a UK gathering prior to the elections.
As a matter of fact on the day Lawrence Leema was being conveyed from the CID precincts, an SLPP Youth-man sprawled himself in front of the Police truck deliberately obstructing its further movement, but even at that he wasn't arrested and taken into custody for "obstructing Police Officers in the execution of their lawful duties".
Between the elections of 2018 to date, despite their many unsavoury utterances, the Police have never called in any member of National SLPP Grassroots Committee for questioning for openly threatening to "annihilate and exterminate all past and current APC Party memberships, office bearers and their entire relations and to further ensure the total destruction of all their lives and properties from the face of the earth even before the security forces step in bring the situation under control".
Can anything or statement be more incendiary and hateful??
From interviews conducted with the BBC Stringer Umaru Fofana and our APC Scribe Ambassador Dr. Osman Foday Yansanneh, the only sin Mr. Sidi Yaya Tunis would appear to have committed and that seemed tantamount to sowing national discord was to have publicly revealed our Party's alternative strategy to progress to another level of engagement with its memberships ("Level 3"), so as to properly canvass them to ensure that they do everything that is lawful to unseat this government at the next elections. The word "Lawful" was repeated many times over during that interview to discard any doubt that insurrectionist intentions are contemplated.
And I don't suppose that strategy should be peculiar to the APC Party only. In fact prior to the 2018 elections SLPP functionaries – more particularly it's Publicity Secretary Lawrence Leema – were on the airwaves repeatedly urging their SLPP memberships to "make it their civic responsibility to vote the APC government out of office". So if the SLPP are on record to have openly campaigned on a ticket in 2018 to "redeem Sierra Leone from the APC using lawful means" unmolested, what then is making it an offense now for the APC to begin our own campaigns on the same theme of "redeeming Sierra Leone from the SLPP" come 2023 – unmolested? Or is this a further indication that the APC can be more tolerant?
It will be a matter of serious concern to the ECOWAS Community of Nations particularly and the United Nations at large if in a multi-party democracy like ours Publicity Secretaries of opposition parties worth their salt cannot sufficiently articulate their Party's ideologies (for example to rid this country of SLPP) and their strategies (such as the APC progressing to Level 3 using all lawful means of mass voters registrations and mobilization for voting on elections day), as the next elections loom, or if they are precluded from doing same . Then of what use are opposition political parties and the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC)?
Already opposition parties are complaining of persistent political harassments and Police intimidations in various forms, which are the very reasons for the formation of the Coalition of Progressive Political Parties (COPPP). And if simple canvassing on the airwaves by the Publicity Secretary of the main opposition party can now constitute incendiary, hate and incitement then of what uses are our Party Memberships and Voters Identity Cards? Might as well we just declare Sierra Leone a One Party State again!!
Peace Guarantors
And this is why I think the UNDP and other local Peace Guarantors may need to step up their acts by proactively intervening to (as our Secretary General Yansanneh puts it) "tranquilize" this growing volatility ahead of the 2023 elections by agreeing a Road Map and Code of Conduct before things degenerate further, as they are bound to if unchecked as we progress towards the next elections. Their starting block should be the unconditional release of Mr.Sidi Yaya Tunis with appropriate apology.
No matter how hard we work governments are bound to change, but all law-abiding citizens would prefer such changes to be done lawfully, just as Mr. Sidi Yaya Tunis and the APC are contemplating, because this is the only country we have
THE OSWALD HANCILES COLUMN
Bad Politicians Give Birth to Coups
My attention has been drawn to a statement by Ben Kaifala, Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption
Commission of Sierra Leone, and President of the Network of Anti-Corruption Institutions in West Africa (NACIWA)… saying "we have not had a single country where a coup has changed much"; and adding, "there is no good coup". I disagree with even the premise that Ben Kaifala has couched his words.
The issue is not whether there are "good coups" or "bad coups", but how bad governance, corruption, mismanagement of a country's resources, the general failure of pseudo-democratic governments to create the enabling conditions for the majority to get basics of food and water and jobs…. inexorably lead to coups. In simpler words: fake politicians within fake democratic systems give birth to coups!!
The role then of anti-corruption leaders like Ben Kaifala is to lobby parliament for tougher laws against corruption. The current law in Sierra Leone that states that a person convicted of corruption should be fined Le50,000,000 is a joke. A government official would steal Le10,000,000,000 (billion), and if convicted easily pays the Le50,000,000 fine. Yes, a judge has the discretion to sentence the convicted person to 5 years in prison. But, with a hypothetical Le10 billion in his hand, the corrupt government official can easily reach 'an arrangement' with a presiding judge and give the judge Le200,000,000 as 'dash' to avoid time in jail. The corrupt person would still be left with a huge profit. Thus, the corrupt have an incentive to be corrupt because of this lax law. Also, the convicted person can even contest an election after 5 to 10 years.
As more and more government officials steal more and more money, the masses would have less and less services provided for them; and their poverty would worsen. They would cry out loud as a few government officials and politicians would be growing richer and richer as they are getting poorer and poorer. The soldiers would hear the cry of the people. And stage coups.
That there are "no good coups" is not correct. In West Africa, there were two great coups that dramatically transformed their countries – that of Captain Thomas Sankara of Burkino Faso, and Flight Lieutenant J.J. Rawlings of Ghana.
I am going to shock my readers by stopping right here: my shortest article. ('Una go lef for complain now: "Oswald lek for rite boku"…'). Let's debate the issues, please.
I pause,
Oswald Hanciles, The Guru
Kande Yumkella: Ready for Green Freedom War?
" What Africa needs is the Green Fanaticism of Oswald Hanciles, The Guru, dear Hon. Kande Yumkella (KKY), parliamentary leader of the National Grand Coalition party of Sierra Leone; if I don't wade in, even for Africa to get a significant part of the $100 billion annually pledged by the Western nations for Green Finance in the developing world…won't be forthcoming… And Africa needs my almost forty years green pedigree as a Green Warrior in three West African countries; Africa needs my relentlessness; and imagination – a Greta Thunberg/Nelson Mandela/Martin Luther King Jnr./Martin Luther/Winston Churchill… approach. HRH Prince Charles (eldest child of Queen Elizabeth, and heir to the British throne) at COP-26 called out for 'war footing' on Climate Change. He is right.
"Britain's Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said the 'Doomsday Clock' started ticking when the steam engine was invented in Glasgow, the United Kingdom, in the late 18th century. Boris Johnson got it wrong!
"The THOUGHT of the Doomsday Clock was when European conquerors invaded the Americas and stimulated the genocide of over 50 million of the indigenous peoples in the 'New World' in the 16th century. That Doomsday Clock continued ticking faster during the over three hundred years of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the worst enslavement of man of other people. That Doomsday Clock continued ticking as the Western nations and the United States accumulated enormous wealth and subjugated the rest of the world in the era of imperialism, raping and plundering man and nature; the Doomsday Clock ticked much faster after the rigging of the global economic systems after the Second World War, which worsened poverty in Africa, even after the pseudo-Independence era of the 1960s in Africa.
"The Doomsday Clock has been (is being) powered by the egotism and egoistical thinking of the people of the West; the greed and insensitivity of people who see nothing wrong in wasting the world's resources, overeating into obesity….while destroying nature, and implicitly committing mass murder. It's this THOUGHT that the concept and movement I founding in Calabar, Cross River State, south east Nigeria in 1992 – the SLAVE SHIP-FREEDOM SHIP – aims to exorcise in the minds of the West; awaken their collective consciences; and to spur into positive green action Africans whose ancestors, and leadership today, have been (are) collaborators in the kidnap and selling into slavery other Africans in the era of the Atlantic Slave Trade; who collaborated with European colonialists for about three hundred years, and have refused to unite in Africa to fight for global justice, while manifesting recklessness and predation in their leadership in Africa.
"You are eloquent and erudite, Hon. Kande Yumkella, but you speak in the tone and diction of the white oppressors – that which has not been listened to from Conference of Parties (COP-1) in 1992 to COP-26 in 2021.
"Listen!!:
"$2 trillion annually for man-made Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation measures in Africa from the richest nations of the world. (And Reparations for the Protracted Holocaust of the Atlantic Slave Trade and Trans-Saharan Slave Trade)" – Oswald Hanciles.
"The children and youth of Africa who would face the brunt of starvation and dehydration and excruciatingly slow deaths at what Jerome Hallam of Extinction Rebellion has called 'the Annihilation Project' of Climate Change…would NOT FORGIVE you if you don't think out of the box and reach out to Green Radicals like Oswald Hanciles…. November 13, 2021" – That was my comment posted on social media after I had listened to the interview on BBC of Kande Yumkella during the COP-26 conference in Glasgow, United Kingdom, October 3…
ROPA: MAADA BIO'S MEDIA HANDLERS CONTINUE DRESSING HIM IN BORROWED ROBES
By KABS KANU
Maada Bio now looks comical. His appearance is distorted and disfigured because his robes hang loose about him like a giant's robes on a dwarfish thief, with apologies to William Shakespeare.
Yesterday, his handlers said he had been declared the Champion of Blue Economy, though fishing is regressing in the country with acute shortage of fish and sea foods and there is no structure in place to boost marine technology and tourism.
Today, they are saying that he has been endorsed as Chairman of the African Peer Review System because of progress Sierra Leone has achieved in promoting democracy, the rule of law and constitutionality, though we all know otherwise that President Bio is one of the worst abusers of human rights , democracy, the constitution and the rule of law.
We have never known the Chairmanship to be given on the merit of a country's achievement of democratic and constitutional ideals. From what we know, the Chairmanship of the African Peer Review System is rotational and it is just for a one year non-renewable term.
But the President's handlers are so obsessed with dressing him in borrowed robes that they keep heaping attributes on him that are completely foreign to his nature.
But given that nothing good comes out of African politics because the leaders of the AU are mostly corrupt, lack democratic credentials and do not respect human rights , their countries' constitution and the rule of law, the APR system is plagued with distrust and has made little progress .
A review of the system found the following problems, according to Yarik Turianskyi of the University of Pretoria.
Yarik Turianskyi is Manager of the Governance and African Peer Review Mechanism Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs and guest lecturer in African Governance and Eastern European Politics, University of Pretoria
1. "The first decade saw 17 mostly solid, comprehensive and honest review reports being published. However, even then most enthusiastic member countries failed to implement their recommendations."
2. "At the same time, attendance of the peer review mechanism's annual forums, which were held on the sidelines of African Union summits, dwindled. Most heads of state delegated authority to ministers, who don't have the same political clout."
3. "What was supposed to be a frank discussion between African leaders about governance problems devolved into a mostly technical exercise, sprinkled with words of praise – but never criticism – from the few attending presidents….,,, Things went from bad to worse when not a single state was reviewed between 2013 and 2016.".
4. "But there are still questions about whether African leaders have the will to make the peer review mechanism a strong initiative that can change the continental governance landscape. Its recently launched African Governance Report is a case in point. Although it provides trends and data on governance on the continent, it doesn't mention any countries by name. This shows an unwillingness to "name and shame" those that lag behind in implementing progressive policies and ratifying treaties."'
So, even if the AU proffered those words of praise for President Bio, they are not credible themselves. Would you take seriously men who hide their own criminal governance and refuse to name and shame offenders and now hand out Chairmanship to a colleague who is equally a criminal and say they did it because his country had made progress in democracy, good governance?
Let us be honest. Neither the AU nor the APR system is credible. Neither of the two had the moral compass to shower praises ( Fake as they are ) on any of their colleagues, when they lack the moral will to name, shame and chastise them for bad governance . It is like thieves commending another thief for honesty.
This is what we know of the APR system :
THE AFRICAN PEER REVIEW SYSTEM Panel is composed of eminent persons from all five of Africa's regions and appointed by the Forum, and responsible for ensuring the APRM's independence, professionalism and credibility. Panel members are selected and appointed by the Forum for a term of up to four years, with the exception of the Chairperson and the Vice-Chairperson who are appointed for one-year, non-renewable terms.
MEMBERSHIP OF THE APRM
Membership of the APRM is voluntary and open to all African Union (AU) countries. Accession begins with an expression of interest in membership followed by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the country and the APR Forum.
ESCALATING POLITICAL AND ETHNIC BITTERNESS BETWEEN SLPP AND APC WILL NOT BIRTH A GOOD CHILD IN SIERRA LEONE
By Kabs Kanu-
The never -ending bitterness and conflict between the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party ( SLPP ) and the opposition All People's Congress ( APC), presaged by acrimonious personality differences between the present Head of State, Maada Wonie Bio and former President Ernest Bai Koroma and their key allies, followers and betrayers, will not birth a good child in Sierra Leone ( As we say in our local parlance ) .
Tensions and tempers have escalated beyond control and both parties resemble mean, gnarling dogs on opposite sides of the fence, straining at the leash to get at each other and growling at each other. If those leashes are removed and the dogs set free from their shackles, only God knows the disaster that would ensue and how much they will tear each other apart. This is the state of affairs in Sierra Leone today between the SLPP and the APC that the impotent, hypocritical, secretly complicit international community, moral guarantors of peace and stakeholders are failing to address. They must have surely noticed the encroaching cataclysm in Sierra Leone ( The Lord Forbid ) but as always, as they did in Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone , DR Congo, Somalia, Eritrea, Kosovo, Bosnia etc in the 1990s, they are waiting for blood to start flowing and humanitarian disasters to be created before intervening. They always fail to heed the early warning signs.
Journalists and political activists who give warnings of these kinds are often misunderstood and misread and accused of wishing evil for their country , but this is not the case. I do not want to see any conflagration in Sierra Leone.
I love my country beyond words and do not want to see any disaster visited upon it. However, somebody, bearing on the experience he has had in life, must warn when things begin to get out of hand. We just cannot sit down and wish that everything would go away. We must ring the alarm bells when all seems to be getting lost.
The political bitterness in Sierra Leone today between the SLPP and the APC is no different from the dangerously chaotic situation that prevailed in Nigeria in the early 60s, between temperamental politicians like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Samuel Akintola of the West and Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and The Sarduana of Sokoto Sir Ahmadu Bello of the North , Chief Fani Kayode, Anthony Enahoro etc that later led to the disastrous military coup of 1966 and the bloody Nigeria- Biafra war that killed millions of innocent people.
Sierra Leone had always been a disunited country. If you read the history of our country, there had never been a period when its people have been free of crisis.
But some things make the present political schisms and tensions in the country more worrying this time:
1. Unlike the last war, the political crisis brewing in Sierra Leone today has a dangerously and venomous tribal and ethnic bent. If there is another war in Sierra Leone ( The Lord forbid ) , it will be disastrously tribal and regional this time , because the country has been dangerously divided along tribal and regional lines since the present government of President Maada Bio came to power in 2018.
2. Political and ethnic tolerance has gone through the window. When I worked at the UN as Sierra Leone's Minister Plenipotentiary and serving on the UN Peace building Commission Special Sierra Leone Configuration, political and ethnic tolerance were key among the desired deliverables that the Commission worked relentlessly on. By 2012, the then UN Secretary General, Ban Ki – Moon, praised Sierra Leone all over the world as the UN model for postwar reconciliation, political tolerance and peace. However, since President BIO came to power in 2018, all the postwar gains have been undone and replaced by dangerous intolerance and ethnic and political animosities. Tribalism and ethnicism have always been a factor in African politics but we have been suppressing it until now. Today, our supporters of our political parties run tribal, ethnic and regional bully pulpits, especially on social media.
3. The spirit of impunity, another evil that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission adjudged to have caused the last war, and that the UN Peace building Commission fought like a gladiator to defeat and thought it had extinguished, has reared its ugly head again. In Sierra Leone today, people's fundamental human rights and civil liberties are abused and innocent citizens are maimed and killed by government without any compunction. What is most surprising is that whenever the errant, hypocritical international community confer an accolade on President BIO for respecting democracy and human rights, he follows it up immediately by committing egregious human rights abuses and violations of the Constitution and the rule of law that stun men and women of conscience, making everybody wonder whether this international community and our President actually have a secret understanding and are working in concert.
4. Unchecked, ceaseless, unnecessary and dangerous hedging, harassment, molestation and victimization of innocent citizens and political opponents have become the order of the day in Sierra Leone since the SLPP Government came to power in 2018. The government just would not let its opponents be. Unnecessary and unlawful arrests, detention and imprisonment of political opponents ( Look at Mohamed Kamarainba perishing in jail for a bailable offence and the many people in jail for allegedly insulting President Bio ) have become the vogue. And the international stakeholders and moral guarantors of peace, like Britain and the U.S are doing nothing about it. They have men and women on the ground in Sierra Leone but they fail to sanction the President or his government . Rather, assurances are made everyday about fostering economic and diplomatic cooperation with the government. This is a shame.
5. Police harassment , brutality and massacre of innocent citizens are going unchecked in Sierra Leone . After the war, thanks to the late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of the SLPP and former President Ernest Bai Koroma of the APC, the Sierra Leone Police was reformed so immaculately that it earned the tag of a FORCE FOR GOOD . But since President BIO came to power in 2018, the impressive force for good has metamorphosed dangerously into A SATANIC FORCE FOR EVIL, especially under the tenure of the present Inspector of Police, Ambrose Sovula . One only has to consider the beastly and bloody police massacres at Mile 91, Tombo, Lunsar, Tonko Limba, Makeni and the Pademba Road Prisons to see the deadly, brutal, murderous police force this nation has suddenly found itself up in arms with. The murderous acts of the Sierra Leone Police are capable of driving our nation back to war.
6. No sense of patriotism or loyalty to the country as everybody has taken sides along tribal, ethnic, regional and partisan lines. Reasoning patriotic voices no longer exist in Sierra Leone. What we now have are pugilists, inciting and urging on the politicians to fight , like manic, bloodthirsty spectators at a dogfight. And the social media, good as it is, has not helped our nation at all however, as it has provided platforms for every Dick, Tom and Harry to spin lies, provocation, trolling of victims and opponents and spewing intolerant political and ethnocentric hatred that are further dividing our nation and pushing it to war . Even the tribalized civil society and the media have taken sides with the government and are now part of the problem. Sierra Leone no longer has patriotic media or civil society that are watchdogs of the nation and providing checks and restraints on politicians and their acolytes. Everybody is now either SLPP or APC. No middle line. No neutralists.
ACC Clowns Are Clownishly Clowning Their Clownishness
By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
The current Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC)'s script was scripted on the very day its Commissioner, Francis Ben Kaifala, was commissioned by President Julius Maada Bio to see how the main opposition, the All People's Congress (APC), could be annihilated. And, true to that unwritten job description, the ACC Czar appears to be doing the biddings of the Head of State and his wife with other party faithful hanging either on the First Lady's frock or the President's tail coat for protection!
Whenever corrupt practices are unearthed involving any member of the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), or even at the Office of the President and that of the First Lady, Ben Kaifala and his clowns of ACC investigators always behave "like toads in a state of petrification", to quote from Wole Soyinka's 1986 Nobel Lecture titled "This Past Must Address Its Present". Or at best; they behave like ghosts who are terrified by their own terrified shadows!
So, I'm still not surprised that Ben Kaifala and his clowns of ACC investigators are yet to start full investigations into allegations that fake receipts, in relation to President Bio's countless overseas travels, were submitted by the Office of the President when Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSL) went there to verify the veracity of those receipts. According to Winstanley R. Bankole Johnson, the former Mayor of Freetown, "For the very first time since Independence in 1961, the 2020 Audit Report made direct and specific references to financial inconsistencies, irregularities and inaccuracies at as sublime an office as the highest seat of government – State House – and they relate to outright frauds and forgeries…."
But "inconsistencies, irregularities and inaccuracies" in recklessly spending public monies are not worthy of an investigation, or investigations, by the ACC as long as they have to do with the Office of the President whose chief occupant says he hates corruption. By willfully failing to investigate the Head of State's office, but harassing prominent APC members undeservedly; Ben Kaifala and his clowns of ACC investigators have "provoked a feeling of indecency…like the deformed arm of a leper which is thrust at the healthy to provoke a charitable sentiment", to quote Soyinka's1986 Nobel Lecture again. The Fake-Receiptgate, at President Bio's Office, is suggestive of, or a metaphor for, what the SLPP government has turned Sierra Leone into: a country of seemingly state-sponsored corruption being accepted with alacrity by the very institution established to swordfight it!
I have written it many times, and I will write it today for the umpteenth time, that Ali Baba cannot sit atop the Cave shouting about the thievery of the Forty Thieves whilst he is also helping himself with the loots inside the Cave. Probably, President Bio might be feigning ignorance of the maxim of "He who comes into equity must come with clean hands". The Commander-in-Chief cannot be telling his neighbours to weed out the grasses in their backyards whilst the frontage of his own house appears to be full of elephant grasses and garbage.
For four years now, Ben Kaifala and his clowns of ACC investigators have failed several honesty tests. From the one-point-five-million-Dollargate to the Chinese Ricegate to the New York Missiongate unto the current Fake-Receiptgate; yet Professor David Francis, Alpha Timbo, Ali Kabba, and the Chief of State Protocol (SCOP) at State House are still untouched. The common thread that runs through these eminent law-abiding citizens is that they are all SLPPers who are pushing the "New Direction" to the liking of President Bio. This fact was not lost on Maria Elena Brewer, the United States Ambassador to Sierra Leone from 2017 to 2021, who before her departure asked the Bio-led administration to start removing the specks in its eyes instead of the Opposition's.
In Diplomatic-speak, the former US Ambassador was telling President Bio that whilst he was fumigating his neighbours' houses; his own house was reeking with the very stench he was trying to get rid of in the homes of his neighbours. It was like she was appealing to the Christian virtues in the President to "…first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." (Matthew 7:5, King James' Version.)
Also, Maria Brewer was indirectly speaking to Ben Kaifala. She might be sending a coded Christian message to him that "the man who finds fault with another for sin, while he is more guilty, is a hypocrite" (quoting the Book of Matthew again). The anti-corruption chieftain and the President are not expected to duel corruption with preconceived accused persons in mind. But looking at all the major "indictments" from the ACC, since President Bio took over the rudder of state in 2018 to date, it is clear that Ben Kaifala and his clowns of ACC investigators have been humorously exaggerating APC corruption whilst turning blind eyes and giving deaf ears to SLPP grand corruption.
That same trend of thought is being thought out by lawyer Basita Michael who notes, in a recent tweet, that "…It would be ideal for the ACC and the [SLPP] government to change course and take on the fight against corruption impartially and avoid appearing to use their authorities as a weapon to repress [their APC] opponents…." The last two Audit Reports (2019 and 2020) have shown that the SLPP government seems to be infested with certified thieves. Majority of Sierra Leoneans are now frighteningly witnessing the frightful rags-to-riches statuses of most presidential appointees. There are countless instances of "unexplained wealth" (in the parlance of the ACC) amongst those walking on, and working at, the corridors of power. But my good friend and younger brother, Ben Kaifala, always sees flawless thieveries in SLPP's thieveries!
Francis Ben Kaifala and his investigators have transformed the ACC into a circus to such an extent that most of their indictments are becoming amusements for certified inmates at "Krase Yard". And most right-thinking Sierra Leoneans no longer take the ACC Czar and his investigators seriously. They are often being seen as clowns who clownishly clown their clownishness even when comic relief is seen as a sign of bad taste!
It is on that note that I will end today's One Dropian dropping with an African proverb that says, "no matter how far you urinate, the last drop always falls at your feet." Indeed. Ben Kaifala and his clowns of ACC investigators should get it at the front of their minds (they might forget it if they get it at the back) that there will always be consequences for their actions and inactions!
Where is Emerson Amidu Bockarie
By Mustapha Dumbuya
In Sierra Leone, plenty people can recall how Emerson Bockarie Political song had gaining momentum and added value in the Country's Development.
Emerson Bockarie started his musical career over decades and most of his songs were focus mainly on corruption and mismanagement of the Country's resources by government officials especially the ruling Government.
Despite in Africa, musicians who always sing against political leaders/Govt. faces several challenges such a harassment intimidation by some Government officials who may want to personalize.
But over the years, this artist passively ignored all the harassment intimidation and criticism forged ahead with his career without any divided mind.
But what question the general populist of hearted sierra Leoneans may what want to ask is: whether Emmerson Bockarie has missing in action?
It is almost a year since the people of Sierra Leone are waiting for what sons he may come out with.
Over the years there where different reports has been published including the Audit report that pointed out massive corruption of the Sierra Leone Peoples part government came in power in 2018.
Mr Bockarie had produces several album of songs that oppose every Government that comes in power to rule Sierra Leone.
This has led to thousands of Sierra Leoneans to always rely on what idea he may compose to feed the people and always sensitize them on what is happening in the country. Mostly the lay man can't understand except through Mr Bockarie's song.
Mr Bockarie started his musical career at the time he was a student at Njala University and one of his first song is (U GO SI Am) meaning "You will see it" and his second album was Borbor Bele and was the best selling album in Sierra Leone's music recording history. An unsuccessful attempt was made to ban the title track, 'Borbor Bele' from the airwaves in Sierra Leone because it depicts "a corrupt politician, civil servant or non-governmental organization employee who
Many younger Sierra Leoneans believed that Emerson write and sing intelligent songs that has to with corruption both formal and non-formal in Sierra Leone is what obviously sets him apart from all other Sierra Leonean musicians as the people's favorite.
Emmerson's new Tu Fut Arata has now replaced Borbor Bele as another best-selling album ever in Sierra Leone by a Sierra Leonean.
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Improved peptide identification in proteomics by two consecutive stages of mass spectrometric fragmentation
Jesper V. Olsen and Matthias Mann
PNAS September 14, 2004 101 (37) 13417-13422; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0405549101
Jesper V. Olsen
Matthias Mann
Communicated by John B. Fenn, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, July 30, 2004 (received for review April 27, 2004)
Figures & SI
MS-based proteomics usually involves the fragmentation of tryptic peptides (tandem MS or MS2) and their identification by searching protein sequence databases. In ion trap instruments fragments can be further fragmented and analyzed, a process termed MS/MS/MS or MS3. Here, we report that efficient ion capture in a linear ion trap leads to MS3 acquisition times and spectra quality similar to those for MS2 experiments with conventional 3D ion traps. Fragmentation of N- or C-terminal ions resulted in informative and low-background spectra, even at subfemtomol levels of peptide. Typically C-terminal ions are chosen for further fragmentation, and the MS3 spectrum greatly constrains the C-terminal amino acids of the peptide sequence. MS3 spectra allow resolution of ambiguities in identification, a crucial problem in proteomics. Because of the sensitivity and rapid scan rates of the linear ion trap, several MS3 spectra per peptide can be obtained even when sequencing very complex mixtures. We calculate the probability that an experimental MS3 spectrum originates from fragmentation of a given N- or C-terminal ion of a peptide under consideration. This MS3 identification score can be combined with the MS2 scores of the precursor peptide from existing search engines. When MS3 is performed on the linear ion trap–Fourier transform mass spectrometer combination, accurate peptide masses further increase confidence in peptide identification.
linear quadrupole ion trap
Fourier transform MS
peptide sequencing
The identification of proteins by MS is a fundamental issue in proteomics (1). Initially, proteins were identified solely by the measured peptide masses after enzymatic digestion by sequence-specific proteases. Although this mass fingerprinting method works well for isolated proteins, the resulting protein identifications are not sufficiently specific for protein mixtures, where peptide fragmentation by tandem MS (MS2) is currently the method of choice (2–4). Peptide mixtures are resolved by nanoscale liquid chromatography, and peptides are ionized on-line by electrospray (5). Mass spectra are taken every few seconds, followed by isolation of the most intense peptide ions, fragmentation by collisions with an inert gas, and finally the recording of a mass spectrum of the fragments. This fragment mass spectrum, also termed MS/MS spectrum, tandem mass spectrum, or MS2 spectrum, consists mainly of N- and C-terminal fragments of the peptide ions at the amide bonds, called b ions and y ions, respectively (6, 7). Unfortunately, the sequence of the peptide cannot easily be derived from the fragmentation spectrum. Instead, algorithms have been developed to match these spectra to sequence databases (8–10). For each MS2 spectrum, a list of peptides with associated scores is returned. Peptide identification is one of the cornerstones of proteomics; however, the reliability of these identifications continues to be controversial, especially in the very large data sets that can be produced by modern mass spectrometers (11–13). For example, Keller et al. (14) and Peng et al. (15) have shown that commonly used scoring criteria for ion trap data and the popular sequest database searching program (9) can result in a large percentage of misidentified proteins (as large as 25% or more). Very high scoring thresholds, on the other hand, lead to very low error rates but discard most true peptide hits. Great progress has been made recently in statistical analysis of protein identification by MS2, which now allows estimation of false-positive and false-negative rates in any data set (11, 16, 17), without, however, increasing the confidence in the identification of any given peptide.
To improve peptide identification, the mass of the precursor ion (MS1 mass) can be measured more accurately or additional stages of mass spectrometric fragmentation (MSn) can be acquired. Very high mass accuracy is only available from specialized types of mass spectrometers, but compact ion trap instruments are capable of additional rounds of fragmentation. Just as one stage of MS2 provides more information than the molecular mass alone, additional stages provides further information on the fragments (18–21). Even though the signal decreases in every stage of MS2, the signal-to-noise ratio increases, and additional information about the structure of the analyte ion is obtained (22). Ion traps have been used for the structural analysis of small molecules by several stages of MS. In the proteomics field only MS2 has been widely applied because ion traps previously could not be filled with a number of ions sufficient to allow recording of a spectrum after several stages of fragmentation and because MS/MS/MS (MS3) was too slow to be performed on a time scale compatible with chromatographic separation. Furthermore, no algorithms that incorporate MS3 information in peptide identification have been available, although an algorithm for the use of MS3 information in de novo sequencing has been reported (23).
Here, we use a linear ion tap with greatly increased capture efficiency and storage capacity compared to conventional, 3D ion traps (24). We demonstrate sensitive and rapid MS3 and describe an algorithm that scores MS3 spectra to peptide fragment sequences and thereby significantly increases confidence in peptide identification.
Mouse Liver Cytosolic Protein Preparation. A crude mouse liver protein fraction was obtained from an ongoing experiment in our laboratory (kindly supplied by L. Foster, Center for Experimental BioInformatics) and was prepared as described (12). The cytosolic fraction was harvested from contaminating subcellular organelles by high-speed centrifugation through a sucrose gradient and collected in fractions. The protein fractions were precipitated by dilution with 5× excess of absolute ethanol, and protein concentration was determined by Bradford assay (Bio-Rad).
In-Solution Digestion. One milligram of lyophilized BSA (Sigma-Aldrich) or alternatively 190 μg of mouse liver cytosolic protein pellet was resolubilized in a buffer containing 6 M urea (Invitrogen) and 2 M thiourea (Fluka) and reduced, alkylated, and digested essentially as described (25). To reduce disulfide bonds 100 mM DTT was added to a final concentration of 10 mM in the protein solutions and incubated for 1 h at 56°C in the dark. The free thiol (–SH) groups were subsequently alkylated with iodoacetamide (50 mM final concentration) for 30 min at room temperature.
The reduced and alkylated protein mixtures were digested with endoproteinase Lys-C (Wako Biochemicals, Osaka, wt/wt 1:50) for 4 h and with sequence grade-modified trypsin (Promega, wt/wt 1:50) for 8 h at 37°C after dilution to 1.5 M urea with 50 mM NH4HCO3, pH 8.0. Proteolysis was quenched by acidification of the reaction mixtures with glacial acetic acid. Finally, the resulting peptide mixtures were desalted on RP-C18 STAGE tips as described (26) and diluted in 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid for nano-HPLC-MS analysis.
Nano-HPLC-MS2 and Data Analysis. All nano-HPLC-MS2-experiments were performed on a Agilent 1100 nanoflow system connected to a 7-Tesla Finnigan linear quadrupole ion trap-Fourier transform (LTQ-FT) mass spectrometer (Thermo Electron, Bremen, Germany) equipped with a nanoelectrospray ion source (Proxeon Biosystems, Odense, Denmark) as described (12) with a few modifications. Briefly, the mass spectrometer was operated in the data-dependent mode to automatically switch between MS, MS2, and MS3 acquisition. Survey full-scan MS spectra (m/z 300–1,500) were acquired in the Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT ICR) with resolution R = 25,000 at m/z 400 (after accumulation to a target value of 10,000,000 in the linear ion trap). The three most intense ions were sequentially isolated for accurate mass measurements by a FT ICR-selected ion monitoring (SIM) scan with 10-Da mass range, R = 50,000 and target accumulation value of 50,000. These were then fragmented in the linear ion trap by using collisionally induced dissociation at a target value of 5,000. For MS3, up to three ions in each MS2 spectra (the most intense ions with m/z >300) were further isolated and fragmented. Former target ions selected for MS2 were dynamically excluded for 30 s. Total cycle time was ≈3 s. The general mass spectrometric conditions were: spray voltage, 2.4 kV; no sheath and auxiliary gas flow; ion transfer tube temperature, 100°C; collision gas pressure, 1.3 mTorr; and normalized collision energy, 30% for MS2 and 28% for MS3. Ion selection thresholds were: 500 counts for MS2 and 50 counts for MS3. An activation q = 0.25 and activation time of 30 ms was applied in both MS2 and MS3 acquisitions.
Peptides and proteins were identified via automated database searching (Matrix Science, London) of all MS2 against an in-house curated version of the Mouse International Protein Index protein sequence database (versions 2.18, 40,402 protein sequences, www.ebi.ac.uk/IPI) containing all mouse protein entries from Swiss-Prot, TrEMBL, RefSeq, and Ensembl as well as frequently observed contaminants, porcine trypsin, achromobactor protease I (lysyl endoproteinase), and human keratins. Spectra were normally searched with a mass tolerance of 3 ppm and strict trypsin specificity. However, to simulate ion trap-only conditions loose search parameters were applied as follows: MS tolerance 0.25 and MS2 tolerance 0.5 Da, semitryptic specificity allowing for up to two missed cleavages; fixed modification: carbamidomethylation of cysteine; variable modification: oxidation of methionine and protein N-acetylation.
Automatic MS3 Spectra Score and Validation. MS3 spectra were automatically scored with a modified version of msquant, open-source software available at http://msquant.sourceforge.net. The msquant software is a validation tool that parses out the mascot peptide identifications and allows manual verification against the raw MS data (LTQ-FT raw files). The MS3 scoring algorithm described in the text was integrated into msquant and is also freely available under public license.
Linear ion traps have greatly increased ion storage capacities compared to standard 3D ion traps (24, 27), which should make it possible to routinely perform an additional step of MS2.Totest this possibility, we enzymatically digested standard proteins and a centrifugation fraction of homogenized mouse liver and analyzed them by HPLC/MS3 on a linear ion trap (Finnigan LTQ, ThermoElectron, San Jose, CA). Fig. 1a shows the mass spectrum (MS1 spectrum) of the peptides eluting at 99.27 min in the LC gradient of the separation of mouse liver peptides. Isolation and fragmentation in the LTQ resulted in the MS2 spectrum shown in Fig. 1b . The y5 ion and the b8 ions were separately isolated, collisionally activated, and mass analyzed. Fig. 1 c and d is marked with the MS3 fragment ions. Note that y ions have the same chemical structure as peptide ions, except that they are N-terminally truncated by one or more amino acid residues. Consequently, they give rise to the same ion types upon further fragmentation, mainly b and y ions. The MS3 y ions derived from y-ion fragmentation are at the same m/z values as the y ions in the MS2 spectrum. The b ions are offset to lower mass values by the sum of the N-terminal amino acids of the peptide that are not contained in the y-precursor ion plus the mass of the peptide N terminus if it is modified. We designate these offset or moving b ions in the MS3 spectrum b̂ (pronounced b hat).
Overview of MS3 analysis in the LTQ-FT. (a) MS1 full scan acquired in the FT ICR cell for a high dynamic range survey of the total mass range. (Inset) SIM FT ICR–MS1 experiment of a precursor from the survey scan to obtain low-ppm mass accuracy. (b) MS2 scan. The precursor ion is isolated and fragmented in the linear ion trap to obtain sequence information. (c) MS3 scan. The b8 ion derived from MS2 is isolated and fragmented further. (d) MS3 scan of the y5 ion.
The peptide C terminus is absent in b ions, therefore y ions originating from b-ion fragmentation (which we designate ŷ), have the mass of internal fragments, that is the added amino acid residue masses plus the proton mass. MS3 ŷ ions are offset from the y ions in the tandem mass spectra by the sum of the amino acids not contained in the b-precursor ion plus the mass of the C terminus (mass of OH for unmodified peptides). In this designation, the stationary b and y ions have the same name, m/z, and chemical nature in MS2 and MS3 spectra, whereas b̂ and ŷ ions do not contain the original N or C terminus of the peptide but are the middle product of the two cleavages of the peptide sequence. They are equivalent to the internal cleavage products sometimes observed at low intensity in MS2 spectra.
The most intense fragment ions of doubly or triply charged tryptic peptide are usually y ions in the range of 500 to 900 Da, and they contain the C-terminal 4–8 amino acids of the peptide. However, b ions in this mass range may also be picked for sequencing. Inspection of hundreds of spectra of such ions revealed that they typically have low background and therefore a high signal-to-noise ratio, a principal advantage of MSn, which tends to decrease background faster than analyte-related fragments at every fragmentation step. The trapping and fragmentation potentials used in the LTQ are only capable of containing fragment ions larger than 1/3 of the fragmented m/z value. Therefore, the y1 and the characteristic a2,b2 ion pair are often missing from the spectra. However, the y-ion series from y-ion precursors are usually among the most intense ions and several b ions may also be apparent, suggesting very information-rich spectra. This has also been the conclusion of Zhang et al. (28) who have studied the ion trap fragmentation of singly charged peptide ions produced by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI). That situation is analogous to the fragmentation of y ions in our system, which are also usually singly charged and should have the same characteristics as MALDI ions after collisional cooling in the ion trap. These researchers noted that, despite facile cleavage at preferred sites, these fragmentation spectra were sufficient for extensive manual de novo sequence interpretation if the signal-to-noise ratio was sufficiently high. Recent progress in modeling fragmentation peptide events (29–31) may further help in the interpretation of MS3 spectra.
MS3 Spectra at Low Sample Amount. To test whether it was possible to obtain MS3 spectra at high sensitivity, we loaded 0.5 fmol of a BSA digest on column and performed MS3 analysis. As shown in Fig. 2, excellent signal-to-noise spectra were obtained with accumulation of peptide precursor for only 250 ms. Since most analysis of peptide mixtures is performed in the femtomol range of peptide loaded on the column, routine MS3 analysis is very feasible from a sensitivity standpoint.
MS3 at high sensitivity. (a) FT ICR SIM-MS1 spectra of two tryptic BSA peptides from a 0.5-fmol injection on-column. Fill time refers to the ion accumulation time in the linear ion trap. (b) MS2 fragmentation spectra of the two peptides, LVTDLTK and LVVVSTQTALA. (c) MS3 spectra of a selected fragment from each peptide, y5 (TDLTK) and b6 (LVVSTQ), respectively. For fragmentation symbols see ref. 19.
MS3 Acquisition Cycle on a Combined Ion Trap FT Instrument. The MS3 fragmentation will be most useful for increasing confidence in peptide identification for low mass accuracy, low-resolution ion trap instruments. However, the combined LTQ-FT mass spectrometer used in these experiments allows accumulation and fragmentation in the linear ion trap section at the same time as ions are analyzed in the FT ICR (Penning trap) (32). We routinely analyze complex mixtures by taking a survey MS1 spectrum of the whole mass range in the FT ICR part, followed by SIM MS1 scans at high resolution and mass accuracy (12). While the signals for a particular m/z are acquired by SIM FT ICR detection, the ion trap accumulates the same precursor ion and obtains the MS2 spectrum. Normally, this would be followed by idle time in the LTQ, while the FT still acquires the SIM spectrum. In the scheme depicted in Fig. 3, we used this time slot to obtain one or more MS3 scans before the next SIM and MS2 scans. Since the fill times for MS2 or MS3 spectra are shorter than the times required for measuring the SIM scan (see accumulation times in Fig. 2), the MS3 scan takes away little or no time from the sequencing of new precursors if one or two MS3 spectra are obtained per MS2 spectrum, at least for the acquisition scheme used in this experiment. However, in the analysis of very complex mixtures, the addition of an MS3 step could decrease the number of total MS2 spectra acquired. In the analysis of the complex mixture of mouse liver peptides, fill times for the MS3 experiment were typically ≈1 ms, much smaller than the ion activation times (two times 30 ms) and the scan times (≈50 ms). This finding suggests that many more MS3 scans could be acquired if ion activation times were shortened, faster scan times were used, and remaining electronic delay times were eliminated.
LTQ-FT MS3 optimized scan cycle. Scan times and set-up for complex peptide mixture identification by MS3. The LTQ-FT mass spectrometer is a dual instrument with two independent detection systems (FT ICR and LTQ), which can be operated simultaneously. The peptide precursors analyzed by SIM in the FT ICR are fragmented simultaneously in the LTQ by MS2 and MS3. No additional dead time is introduced by the MS3 scan.
MS3 Spectra Increase Confidence in Database Identifications. Fig. 4a shows the MS2 spectrum of a mouse liver peptide. The mass spectrum had been searched with mass tolerance typical of ion trap instruments and also without requiring strict tryptic cleavage by using the mascot search engine (10). Under these conditions, the peptide IEFGVDEVIE was the top match closely followed by the peptide IFVWDWQR. The peak matched as the b8 and y6 fragment of the two sequences, respectively, was subjected to MS3. As seen in Fig. 4b , the full series of b̂ ions and the y3 and y4 ions were matched, assuming that the precursor was the y5 ion of the second-highest-scoring peptide sequence. Furthermore, the prominent y3 ion is easily explained as facile cleavage C terminal to acidic residues (in this case glutamic acid) of singly charged ions in ion traps (33). The fragment derived assuming the top mascot score, however, only matched the same y4 ion that was already matched in the MS2 spectrum. In this case, accurate mass measurement had already identified the correct peptide match (see Fig. 4). However, accurate mass measurement is not available on many instruments, and low mass accuracy combined with loose criteria for trypsin specificity would have led to misidentification of the peptide had MS3 not been used.
MS3 spectra increase identification specificity. (a) HPLC-MS2 spectrum of doubly charged peptide ion at m/z 575.29 from a complex liver sample. (Inset) FT ICR SIM scan of precursor ion. The peak assignments of the b- and y-ion peaks of the top-ranked peptide match (IEFGVDEVIE) are in gray. Ions matching the second-ranked peptide (IFVWDWQR) are indicated in black. (b) MS3 spectrum of the most intense ion from the MS2 spectrum at m/z 889.4 supports the second and not the first peptide, in agreement with the accurate mass values.
An Algorithm to Identify Peptides by MS3 Spectra. Several different algorithmic approaches have been developed for matching fragmentation spectra to their cognate sequences in protein databases. However, no database searching programs have been described for matching MS3 ions.
Since MS3 fragmentation spectra are relatively simple, we directly calculated a probability for a given peptide MS3 spectrum to match a given fragment ion sequence in the following way. First, the mass list was reduced to the top four fragments per 100 Da. We derived this value empirically but also note that a recent and highly efficient algorithm for spectrum, spectrum matching, uses a value of four signals per 100 Da (34), suggesting that this is a good balance between retaining significant ions and discriminating against background. We then calculated the b and ŷ ion masses in the case of putative b-ion precursors or b̂ and y ions in the case of putative y-ion precursors and determined the number of matches, k. Then the probability P of obtaining k random matches between calculated and measured MS3 peaks is a measure of the significance of the fragment under consideration and can be obtained by simple statistics. It is the same as the probability of obtaining k successful events, each with probability P, with a total number of n tries:
where n over k is the number of permutations of a subset of k elements in a set of n elements
The probability of a calculated fragment, p, to match one of the experimental masses by chance is simply 4/100 or 0.04, independently of the mass range considered, because we allow four measured masses per 100 Da. n is the number of calculated fragments in the mass range under consideration.
As an example, we consider the case in Fig. 4b . We calculate the four most intense signals per 100 Da in the mass range 250 to 870. We then calculate the masses of the fragments of the putative b8-precursor ion of sequence IEFGVDEV of which the b3 to b7 and the y2 to y5 ions are in the mass range of the spectrum (n = 9). There is only one match (k = 1), for the y4 ion, and the probability for this to be a random match is 9 × 0.04 × 0.968 = 0.26, so this single MS3 fragment match is not statistically significant. For the correct fragment, the y6 precursor of sequence VWDWQR, however, k = 6 and P = 3 × 10–7, so this match is highly significant. In fact, this significance value is not far from that of a completely de novo-derived sequence of six amino acids. In this case, P = 1/(186) = 3 × 10–8, which is the likelihood to determine the sequence correctly by chance (recognizing that there are only 18 distinguishable amino acids within the mass accuracy of an ion trap).
We have expressed the likelihood for random match as –10 × log(P), to make them comparable to the output of the mascot search engine (10). The algorithm used in mascot is not published but also involves probability-based matching. Therefore, the total probability of the MS2 and the MS3 matches to be incorrect should be the product of the probabilities of the mascot and the MS3 score calculated here, and the combined score should be the sum of the scores since they are expressed as logarithms. However, we caution that the MS2 and MS3 scores need not be completely independent. For example, a random match may erroneously label a series of low-mass y ions. Since these ions may not move upon MS3 fragmentation, they could contribute to the score in both the MS2 and MS3 spectra. We also note that the MS3 scoring is against a single sequence or a few sequences and does not involve a database search. The MS3 mass range is frequently relatively small and the spectra quite information rich, to the point of allowing partial de novo sequencing of the sequence. These factors combine to make the MS3 score for correct matches statistically highly significant.
We have integrated the algorithm to calculate the MS3 score into msquant, an open source MS validation and quantification software written in-house. Here, we have combined the MS3 score with output of the mascot search engine, but it can in principle be combined with the output of any other MS2 search engines, too. If the output of those search engines is not a probability, then the two scores can be combined in more sophisticated fashion, as for example, demonstrated in ref. 14. It should also be possible to combine the information in the MS2 and MS3 spectra directly, making use of the fact that one ion series remains stationary, whereas the other ion series moves by the mass difference between peptide precursor and fragment mass.
Application to Complex Peptide Mixtures. To obtain a statistical overview of MS3 fragmentation in complex peptide mixtures, we analyzed all of the peptides sequenced in the mouse liver nano-HPLC MS3 experiment by either high-stringency or low-stringency database search. For the high-stringency search, requiring mass deviations of no more than 5 ppm and fully tryptic peptides, Table 2, which is published as supporting information on the PNAS web site, lists all of the measured peptides, their sequences as well as the fragment types selected for further sequencing and the score added by MS3 matching. Inspection of ≈2,000 such peptides in Table 2 reveals that there were generally one or two MS3 events per peptide that led to successful matching against the expected part for the sequence. In ions with a low mascot score, MS3 events often did not target b or y ions predicted from the peptide sequence, or else the MS3 spectrum did not yield significant matches. As mentioned above almost all precursors were singly charged y ions (79%), but doubly charged y ions and b ions also occurred. Not unexpectedly, y ions with N-terminal prolines were frequently picked for MS3 sequencing, since they are often the dominant fragment ion in proline-containing peptides. A summary of MS3 fragment ion types is given in Table 1.
Table 1. MS2 and MS3 statistics from complex mixture analysis
In Fig. 5a , we have plotted the distribution of mascot search scores and the distribution of combined mascot results with the best MS3 scores for each peptide. The mascot scores show the typical distribution with many peptides close to cut-off and a rapid decrease to higher values. Only 20% of the peptides score >50. The combined MS2 and MS3 score, however, has a broad distribution extending beyond scores of 100. More than 70% of the peptides are above a combined score of 50. In effect, a large proportion of the peptides is now identified with near certainty. Peptides that remain at their original location may be misidentifications, particularly the peptides close to the cut-off of 15. For some of the peptides with relatively high mascot scores, no MS3 score exists because the acquisition software for a variety of reasons did not select b or y ions for further fragmentation. We note that a number of proteins were identified with single peptides, as is typical of the analysis of very complex mixtures. These proteins are often discarded, because a protein based on a single peptide match may not be significant. Many of these single peptide hits can be rescued by MS3, which tends to independently confirm the C-terminal sequence of the single peptide.
Distributions of mascot peptide scores and distributions of combinedmascot score with MS3 score. (a) mascot peptide scores (binned in decades) from a high-stringency mascot search (tryptic constrains and 5-ppm mass accuracy of precursor ion) are shown in gray bars. The black bars indicate the distributions of mascot results combined with the best MS3 scores for each peptide. (b) Same as a but with results of a low-stringency mascot search (half-tryptic peptides allowed and 0.25-Da mass accuracy of precursor ion). Note that the number of high-scoring peptides caused by combined MS2 and MS3 score is very similar in the high- and low-stringency cases. (c) Subtraction of tryptic from semitryptic peptides, showing that essentially all peptides verified by MS3 were fully tryptic.
Finally, in Fig. 5b we have plotted simulated ion trap only results by searching the data with relatively poor mass accuracy (0.25 Da for the precursor) and requiring tryptic peptide specificity only for one terminus of the peptide (Table 3, which is published as supporting information on the PNAS web site). Under these conditions, many more MS2 spectra match a peptide sequence and the number of false positives is much higher than before. Note that there are many more peptides with marginal scores. It has been shown that score distributions under such conditions can be modeled by two curves, of correct and incorrect matches, respectively (14). Adding the MS3 scores leads to essentially the same distribution as the combined distribution in Fig. 5a , whereas the peptides matched with relaxed mass accuracy and semitryptic peptide specificity are not supported by MS3 scores (Fig. 5b and Table 2). This finding is also in agreement with a recent report by our group, which found that nontryptic or semitryptic peptides are very rare occurrences, and usually the product disintegration of tryptic peptide in solution or in the source of the mass spectrometer (12). Comparison of the shifts between the MS2 only and the combined MS2 and MS3 distributions in Fig. 5 demonstrates that an additional step of MS3 is even more effective, on average, than a highly accurate mass, in enhancing confidence in peptide identification. The highest confidence, of course, is obtained by both MS3 and accurate mass determination.
Since initial testing of the MS3 procedure and algorithm, we have routinely used it in our laboratory. Table 1 summarizes the analysis of >10,000 peptides with a variety of different acquisition schemes. The results show that the MS3 procedure is robust and yields added information, that is, increased peptide identification scores, for almost all peptides.
In summary, we have shown that a second step of peptide fragmentation, MS3, is both practical and informative when carried out on a linear ion trap with high capture efficiency and ion storage capacity. MS3 can be performed at subfemtomol sensitivity while still involving only relatively short ion accumulation times of <1 s. A statistical score for MS3 fragment spectra revealed highly significant fragment matches for correct but not for incorrect peptide matches. An MS3 step can readily be integrated into the acquisition cycle in complex peptide mixture, and our data show that this is highly desirable for low-mass accuracy instruments such as linear ion traps. For high-mass accuracy instruments, such as the linear ion trap–FT MS combination, the added certainty in peptide identification will also in most cases outweigh the fact that fewer M2 spectra can be acquired. Intelligent, real-time decisions on which peptides to perform MS3 on would clearly allow the greatest depth of proteomic analysis.
We thank Dr. L. Foster for providing the mouse liver sample and other members of the Center for Experimental BioInformatics for constructive comments and discussion. The Center for Experimental BioInformatics is supported by a generous grant by the Danish National Research Foundation. The LTQ-FT was a kind loan of the Max Plank Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany.
↵ * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mann{at}bmb.sdu.dk.
Abbreviations: FT ICR, Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance; LTQ, linear quadrupole ion trap; MS2, tandem MS; MS3, MS/MS/MS; SIM, selected ion monitoring.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
Copyright © 2004, The National Academy of Sciences
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text:
An article in the Times Reporter that was written by Jon Baker a few years back told of a supposed communication from beyond the grave of Tuscarawas County Sheriff John Howard, of Goshen. Howard, who was 56 at the time, died on May 4, 1869, following an April 30th buggy accident near the Goshen Canal bridge. His wife was also in the buggy but received only minor injuries. Maj. Charles H. Mathews, the editor of the Ohio Democrat newspaper of New Philadelphia, who had always had a fascination with spiritualism, attempted to contact Howard. He composed a short letter to the deceased sheriff on May 9:
"My Dear John Howard, I hope you will pardon me for addressing you so soon after leaving the body. Will you do me the favor to answer the enclosed questions? Hoping soon to hear from you."
The letter was forwarded along with his questions in a separate envelope to famed medium James Vincent Mansfield, who conducted a mail-order spiritualism business out of his New York City home. The cost for the service was $5 and four, 3-cent stamps. Some of Mansfield's more famous customers included Mark Twain.
Several days later, Mathews received a response. His questions were returned with the envelope seal unbroken and was opened in the presence of Howard's widow and a witness.
Mathews later published his "spirit communications" from John Howard in the Ohio Democrat.
"I embrace this, the first opportunity to assure you I have a conscious existence beyond the mangled clay tenement that reposes in yonder cold grave," Howard supposedly told the medium. Howard also said when he became awakened to conciousness days after his death that he was greeted by several people he knew. The first to greet him was supposedly David W. Stambaugh, of New Philadelphia, who had died on January 22, 1869. Stanbaugh had served as prosecuting attorney and was a state senator at the time of his death. Later in the communication, Howard spoke to his widow.
"Say to my dear, now afflicted wife, I will speak to her as soon as I recover sufficient strength to do so."
Howard also said he could not provide proof to skeptics saying they "are too much wedded in their idols, or preconceived ideas to listen to any new revelation." He also made a prediction. "The time is rapidly approaching when present theological teachings will be displaced by teachings more liberal- teachings that have vitality and assurances of immortality, beyond the cold, cold grave."


text:
Home Sports Spartan golfers ready to get to work
Spartan golfers ready to get to work
by SAM CHANDLER
Mountain Brook High School senior golfer William Wann, above, will help lead the Spartans' chase for a third straight Class 7A state title.
Four Mountain Brook High School golfers placed among the top six at last year's Class 7A state boys golf tournament.
Unfortunately for the competition, all four return this season.
William Wann, Reynolds Lambert, Mac Scott and Gordon Sargent will lead the Spartans' pursuit of a third straight 7A title. Last year they won their second consecutive championship behind state-record-matching rounds from Wann and Sargent.
Both shot 133 over 36 holes to tie for low medalist honors.
"When we go to tournaments, we have a lot of fun," Wann said. "But when we go to the golf course, we go to work."
Much has transpired since the 2018 state tournament, especially for Wann and Lambert. The seniors signed college golf scholarships during a ceremony in November.
Wann will play at Mississippi State, and Lambert will play at Furman.
"They both work really hard, and they inspire the other guys to work hard," said Mountain Brook head coach Alex Lockett, the 2018 USA Today Coach of the Year. "They just lead by example."
Wann and Lambert have played together since they were seventh-graders at Mountain Brook Junior High. In preparation for their final high school seasons, both have been refining different parts of their game.
Wann said he has focused on gaining strength and improving his course management. Once he steps up to the first tee, he wants to hit longer shots and make fewer mental errors.
Lambert, on the other hand, said he has concentrated on his short game. He wants his putter to become as trusty as the irons that he uses reliably shot after shot.
"I think definitely our goal is trying to win our third state championship in a row," Lambert said. "But I think for me, one major goal, and probably for William as well, is to try to be a good leader this year."
There are many younger players for Lambert and Wann to lead, including Scott, a junior, and Sargent, a sophomore.
Sargent already has verbally committed to Vanderbilt University, even though he has only played one season of high school golf.
His coach said he has just started to tap into his potential.
"If he continues on the path that he's been on, the sky's the limit," Lockett said.
Mountain Brook's top four players headline a team that is as deep as any in the country.
While many high school programs search for golfers to fill out their varsity rosters, the Spartans pull from a trove of talent.
"We have probably 15 guys who could all play varsity golf at any other school," Lambert said. "It's not a guaranteed thing that you'll qualify each week, so that just keeps us motivated in the winter to keep practicing."
Lockett attributes Mountain Brook's talent to the community's strong junior golf programs. Many of his players grow up learning the game at Birmingham Country Club or Mountain Brook Club.
By the time they reach high school, they are polished golfers with a desire to succeed.
The results speak for themselves.
"I think everybody's really driven to be the best they can be," Wann said. "We've just got to stay focused on the task at hand and keep looking forward, whether it's the next shot or next round."
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