Continuation Part 17: Amanda Knox/Raffaele Sollecito

[acbytesla]

Careful, bad sign! Steff was the head of a huge forensic team.

That means little. And I'm not sure it's true. What is huge? 5 people? That might mean Stef has good people or managerial skills. It might means she knows how to brown nose the right people.

A tiny speck of Stephen Lawrence blood on David Norris' clothes was not even tested for DNA until a decade later.

This idea DNA mysteriously appears or flies through the air is one of the biggest "urban myths" you guys like to propagate.

Wow! This is the kind of statement that demonstrates both ignorance and the failure to apply simple observational logic.

Look around you Vixen! Ever heard of dust or pollen? Can't you see it all around you? Does it float in the air landing on everything? The fact that you can see it makes it significantly larger than DNA. Why would DNA be any different?

But DNA does not require to float through the air to contaminate something. Have you acquainted yourself with Locard's principle? Touch a surface and you will both take and leave something behind like DNA.

Floating DNA is why laboratories take great care with the movement of air.

Please stop. It's sad to see this kind of stubborn ignorsnce.

 

[skbuncks]

To put things in perspective 250pg* of DNA is still 1000 times smaller than a grain of maize pollen**. I don't think anyone would argue that pollen is not airborne.


For an alternate perspective if we imagine a pea sized blob of DNA in the palm of our hand then a similarly scaled up knife blade would tower above us, into space, past the moon and beyond*** (and it would weigh somewhere in the region of 224,000MT).

* Approximation of Stef's 'few hundred picograms'
** Grain of maize pollen is 0.225µg
*** 17.5cm x factor of 4x10^9=700,000Km (assuming 1g of DNA).

 

[zotz]

That means little. And I'm not sure it's true. What is huge? 5 people? That might mean Stef has good people or managerial skills. It might means she knows how to brown nose the right people.

Wow! This is the kind of statement that demonstrates both ignorance and the failure to apply simple observational logic.

Look around you Vixen! Ever heard of dust or pollen? Can't you see it all around you? Does it float in the air landing on everything? The fact that you can see it makes it significantly larger than DNA. Why would DNA be any different?

But DNA does not require to float through the air to contaminate something. Have you acquainted yourself with Locard's principle? Touch a surface and you will both take and leave something behind like DNA.

Floating DNA is why laboratories take great care with the movement of air.

Please stop. It's sad to see this kind of stubborn ignorsnce.

"Humans shed 500 million cells a day, and drop off 0.0028 to 0.0085g of skin flakes every hour. This means that over two to four weeks, you lose your entire outer layer of skin. Most of it becomes dust, which clogs up corners and sticks to tables and surfaces."

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-05/17/shed-skin-cleans-the-air

 

[acbytesla]

"Humans shed 500 million cells a day, and drop off 0.0028 to 0.0085g of skin flakes every hour. This means that over two to four weeks, you lose your entire outer layer of skin. Most of it becomes dust, which clogs up corners and sticks to tables and surfaces."

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-05/17/shed-skin-cleans-the-air

Frankly, the only evidence that troubled me in the slightest was Raffaele's DNA on the bra clasp. I also understand to a degree Vixen's skepticism to the idea of contamination. It seems like the defense is always arguing "contamination". It's almost axiomatic.

But there is absolutely NOTHING else that is credible that points to their involvement. The witnesses are a joke. There is close to no connection to Rudy. There are the backgrounds and character of both Raffaele and Amanda to consider.

There is no motive and the whole thing seems absurd.

When it gets down to it. In this case, ithe is the idea that it isn't contamination that doesn't fit.

 

[zotz]

There is no motive and the whole thing seems absurd.

"We live at a time where violence is purposeless," said Manuela Comodi. The Italians are not lazy. It takes a lot of work to convict two innocent people just as Steve Moore said. Vixen, Mignini and Comodi are examples of how personal belief overwhelms evidence. This is a pitfall for many of us. Vixen still believes in Kokomani even though she knows that he was admitted to hospital for drunkenness on Nov. 10, 2007. Vixen knows all this but doesn't care. It is the power of denial. It is no use to throw evidence and facts at her.

 

[Bill Williams]

Vixen, Mignini and Comodi are examples of how personal belief overwhelms evidence. This is a pitfall for many of us. Vixen still believes in Kokomani even though she knows that he was admitted to hospital for drunkenness on Nov. 10, 2007. Vixen knows all this but doesn't care. It is the power of denial. It is no use to throw evidence and facts at her.

Even Judge Massei said that Kokomani got it wrong, that Knox wasn't even in Italy when the things Kokomani alleged were supposed to have happened.

I thought ISF was about evidence-based postings. Apparently not.

 

[Vixen]

Gosh,
a fellow English gal was raped + "topped",
as you put it.

But it did not seem to focus Antonio Curatolo's,
nor Nara Capezzali's,
nor Marco Quintavalle's mind...


Vixen,
A witness who has testified in 2 previous murder trials,
who heard or saw something possibly relevant, or even something that just did not appear right,
when something as shocking as a brutal rape and murder occurred near them,
should have reported this to the police.

How come Antonio Curatolo did not tell the investigators that he saw 2 kids hangin' out for hours, arguing, and looking down from the railing last night, when he was asked if he had heard something or seen something?

MIGNINI: What did you do there that morning?

CURATOLO: I went to get a cappuccino at the café. Then I sat down at the bench, smoked a cigarette. Every so often came some kid I knew, a friend, and we chatted. But there was something strange because there was a lot of movement by the police, coming and going. We were in the Piazza until around 1:30, 2:00. Or rather, I was there for even longer, only that the Carabinieri came to ask us if we had heard something or seen something. I said I hadn’t heard anything. Apart from the kids who were out having fun that night I didn’t see anything grave. We were there for a little while, and there was this coming and going of the police. We went to look down and we saw people wearing white suits – the police, Carabinieri. There was a mess of people down there.

Link:
http://www.amandaknoxcase.com/antonio-curatolo/


Vixen,
Gian Luca Marini came forward and was interviewed at The Questura on Nov. 2nd. Alice Puelo was interviewed on Nov. 3rd.

Both saw something out of the ordinary and tried to help the police catch the person who raped and murdered Miss Kercher. They went to the police and reported a suspicious man in a Laundromat.

BUT Toto told the cops he hadn't heard anything last night,
even though these 2 kids were about 50 meters away from him for hours.

Weird, that.

* * *

Nara Capezzali told PM Mignini in the Massei Court, much later,
that the boyz in her building went running down to see what all the commotion was when the cops were investigating Miss Kercher's rape and murder.

Question – Then what happened that morning?

Answer – That morning while I was cleaning the house, I heard the boys coming downstairs running, saying: “Signora, signora, they have killed a girl over there in that cottage”; “Not really – I say – you lot are always carrying on!”, “No, no, I’m telling you the truth̀!” In fact they all ran to go and see, but I didn’t go because I’m not like that. Then after I went out to get the bread…

Link:
http://www.amandaknoxcase.com/meredith-kercher-scream-compromised-witness/


Why didn't she go down there too
and tell the cops that she heard a horrible scream,
"a woman's scream, so blood curdling it made my skin crawl,”?

Heck,
Mauro Palmieri came forth on Nov. 4th to report that he received a strange text on Oct. 31st, something that he thought might be related to this terrible crime which had the town of Perugia worried.

And soon afterward,
Alessandra Formica came forward to tell the cops of a man of color who, apparently not wanting to be seen, went running by her and a guy friend as they traversed to stairs downward to their parked car, and this guy bumped in him.

(Wasn't this right near where "Toto" was hangin' out?
Odd that he never mentioned seein' this on 1 of his 4 or 5 ciggy breaks
or hearin' anybody say "Watch it, you ******' idiot"!)


Yet Nara did not tell the cops of her hearing a blood curdling scream last night for 25 days? And Toto did not come forward for almost 6 months? And Marco Quintavalle didn't come forward with his re-ah-vised story that he saw AK as he opened up his store, right near where the local newspaper reporter lived, until a year later???

* * *

I argue this case we discuss for many reasons,
1 being I had to go to court for a supposed rape.
A rape where afterwards, we both went back to sleep, in the same bed.
1 where the woman, some 9 months later, wanted some serious $$,$$$.00
Glad that my court hearing was not in Perugia, Italy,
and that a jury of 8 women, 4 men, with a female Judge believed me + found me not guilty!

I also argue because my biological father died of heroin a bit over 10 years ago.
Know some dudes from "DogTown" who surfed that like H too, and OD'd.
So I know a lil' bit about H users and some of the bull crap stories that they tell.
And I like to sometimes get smoked,
(as [SIZE="-7"]Raff[/SIZE] was when interrogated on the night of Nov. 5th)
And I believe that a terribly unjust conviction was declared against [SIZE="-7"]Raff[/SIZE] and Miss Knox.


How the heck can someone of your intellect believe
Antonio Curatolo, Nara Capezzali, or Marco Quintavalle?


Is it because you really, really believe the images from LifeTime movie screengrabs that I posted yesterday to be an accurate reconstruction of the rape and knifing murder of Miss Kercher?
RW

Sorry to hear about your dad. What a tragic waste of life.

My view of Toto, Nara and Quintavalle is they are totally independent from one another, and taken in its entireity, the court were entitled to accept their evidence, as a whole, corroborated.

Nara, not having any desire to "rubberneck" on the police scene, is quite typical of many people (IMV possibly, the majority) who, "don't want to get involved".

Being "nice" is not one of the criteria for being a witness.

All kudos to the local hack who made, "don't care", care.

 

[Vixen]

Vixen,
Why didn't Antonio "Toto" Curatolo,
sitting out in the open on a chilly Holiday night,
hear that "blood curdling scream" that made Nara's skin crawl
while inside her cozy apartment with her double pane windows closed?

He was quite a way off. If he really was a liar, he'd surely have lied about hearing a scream.

 

[acbytesla]

Sorry to hear about your dad. What a tragic waste of life.

My view of Toto, Nara and Quintavalle is they are totally independent from one another, and taken in its entireity, the court were entitled to accept their evidence, as a whole, corroborated.

Nara, not having any desire to "rubberneck" on the police scene, is quite typical of many people (IMV possibly, the majority) who, "don't want to get involved".

Being "nice" is not one of the criteria for being a witness.

All kudos to the local hack who made, "don't care", care.

How bloody ridiculous. Neither testimony holds up. If you believe a junkie on his memory of 6 months earlier, there is not much I can say for you. Also you are unwilling to take his testimony in total which in fact provides an alibi. And Quintavalle testimony not only contradicts what he said when interviewed days after the murder but his own employee.

 

[Kauffer]

He was quite a way off. If he really was a liar, he'd surely have lied about hearing a scream.

Hahaha. Nara was behind double glazed windows further away. Haha Oh dear!

 

[Vixen]

Heck,
for that matter,
I don't seem to recall reading that "Toto" even heard the leaves rustling,
as Nara Capezzali said she did heard from inside her, ah, apartment...

Maybe in California you never hear the leaves rustling.

 

[RoseMontague]

Yes and thank you as always. But I would like some hard comparison such as the salt example. Obviously some other common, small, relatively uniform, thing could be used instead.

I'm mostly asking for one of the DNA experts here to do the math and compare it to the number of pico grams claimed by Stef. If my math is reasonably correct and the DNA is even 1/10,000 of grain of salt it is clear to all how easy it would be to transfer or move around a lab.

Anyway thanks again.

5 picograms or less or it could be nothing at all is the quote I remember.

 

[zotz]

He was quite a way off. If he really was a liar, he'd surely have lied about hearing a scream.

The tow truck driver was closer than Nara was and was outside. He said he left around 11:40. He didn't hear a scream.

Self-correction: The CCTV timestamp (which was 10 min. slow) put the tow truck driver's departure at 11:24.

My Bad.

 

[Vixen]

Hiya Vixen,
I need some help,
my place is rather messy and dis-organized right now,
it could use a good cleanin'.

What do you think that Miss Knox and [SIZE="-7"]Raff[/SIZE] used to clean up with overnight
in Miss Kercher's bedroom?

I'm tryin' to figure out your vision of what happened, ok?
After AK + [SIZE="-7"]Raff[/SIZE] realized that ol' Curatolo was diggin' that article he was readin' in the magazine L’Espresso, they ran down to meet up with Rudy to have some fun with poor Meredith, well things got outta hand and Amanda whipped out that huuuge kitchen knife from her purse to stab Mez as Rudy and [SIZE="-7"]Raff[/SIZE] held her down and watched, but afterwards Rudy felt remorseful and used the 3 towels from the small bathroom to try and save Meredith, right?

So there weren't any more towels in there, ok?

I don't seem to recall reading any of the towels
from Filomena + Laura's bathroom being missing,
do you?

And that mop that you sometimes harp on about
did not have Miss Kercher's DNA nor blood on it, right?


Do you think that [SIZE="-7"]Raff[/SIZE] and Amanda headed back + forth
to and from his pad all through out the night, while drunk or buzzed,
grabbing more cleanin' supplies from his flat,
while Rudy was out dancin'?

Odd that there is no CCTV footage from the car parking lot
or other evidence of this,
right?

So how did they do The Clean Up?

It obviously was cleaned up as some of "Rudy's" footprints are so far apart, he'd need to be an Olympic triple-jump record breaker.

It's not me who's alleging Amanda headed back and forth between the cottage and Raff's: she says so herself in her email home to >25 people.

Raff and Amanda were doing one heck of a lot of cleaning that night, especially for Raff, who had a cleaning lady, and Amanda who rumour has it did not exactly suffer from an Obsessive Compulsive Cleaning Disorder.

In fact, in her six weeks at the cottage, all her dirty clothes were piled up against her bedroom wall.

What's with all the cleaning on the murder night?

 

[Grinder]

"We live at a time where violence is purposeless," said Manuela Comodi. The Italians are not lazy. It takes a lot of work to convict two innocent people just as Steve Moore said. Vixen, Mignini and Comodi are examples of how personal belief overwhelms evidence. This is a pitfall for many of us. Vixen still believes in Kokomani even though she knows that he was admitted to hospital for drunkenness on Nov. 10, 2007. Vixen knows all this but doesn't care. It is the power of denial. It is no use to throw evidence and facts at her.

I'm having a hard finding sources for this other than from PIP.

Guede’s attorney Walter Bisotti dramatically flashed a certificate showing that Kokomani was admitted to a hospital for drunkenness on November 10, 2007.

As Frank of Perugia Shock points out, “The drunkenness has several stages. If you have to be taken to the hospital it means you may have reached the delirium (even if not yet tremens): you see things that don’t exist.”

It also turns out Kokomani couldn’t possibly have worked in Perugia with Guede, as claimed, since Guede was living in Milano at the time.​

It would strengthen my feeling that Koko was involved as a driver or more.

I do believe that Rudi and Koko both worked at the same place as Rudi had returned from Milan some time earlier. I think Rudi mentions it in his 2008 witness interview or whatever it's called.

The quote is from here

 

[Vixen]

It had to have been with a magnifying glass and toothbrushes since the cleaning was done at the microscopic level. Carabiners with ropes suspended from the ceiling would have to be used like when Tom Cruise broke into CIA headquarters in Mission Impossible.

Try it. Next time you spill some food in the kitchen, test how quickly you can clean it up with no trace.

I am still awaiting an answer to my question: What happened to Amanda's coat and the bag for clothes she took over to the cottage?

 

[RWVBWL]

"I didn’t know what to do, it’s not easy"?

Sorry to hear about your dad. What a tragic waste of life.

No biggie,
I hadn't talked with him since the early '80's when he left me stranded in Hawaii
without a plane ticket home after I surfed in the U.S. Championships.

But if you ever fly into LAX,
well ol' Kenny was 1 of the dudes who built this odd lookin' buildin' there:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_Building
back in '61 right before I was born the next year here in L.A.
Somewhere in our Family's photo collection there's a pic of him shirtless,
sittin' on the top before it was finished.

That's 1 of his Grandsons in my current avatar,
sittin' with me on the beach near Santa Monica Pier recently,
too bad that ******* never got to meet Ashton, he's pretty cool...

Construction workers are of a different breed, I guess.
As are homeless hard core drug users who are also drug dealers.
The things these folks will do...

My view of Toto, Nara and Quintavalle is they are totally independent from one another, and taken in its entireity, the court were entitled to accept their evidence, as a whole, corroborated.

Nara, not having any desire to "rubberneck" on the police scene, is quite typical of many people (IMV possibly, the majority) who, "don't want to get involved".

Vixen,
I posted this yesterday:
Question – Then what happened that morning?

Answer – That morning while I was cleaning the house, I heard the boys coming downstairs running, saying: “Signora, signora, they have killed a girl over there in that cottage”; “Not really – I say – you lot are always carrying on!”, “No, no, I’m telling you the truth̀!” In fact they all ran to go and see, but I didn’t go because I’m not like that. Then after I went out to get the bread…

BUT I left something out,
something that you might not know of.
What do you make of this?!!!?

Question – About what time?

Answer – It would have been around eleven, and I stopped at the newsstand and there were already these posters which talked about this girl and then I said: “Oh God, I heard it then, it was this girl”
Question – But I wanted to ask you something, on this poster, when you say all the names, whose names? Meredith, and then whose names?

Answer – Of Meredith who was killed, of Sollecito, the girl. The black lad and that other tall one.

Question – So the names of Sollecito, Knox, Guede and Lumumba, these four names?

Answer – Yes.

Question – So these four names you read them on the poster which you see not the day after, but the day after that day?

Answer – The day after.


Question – The call to the police, the one you make, you don’t remember the day, here it takes place in the next statement of the 27th, the statement means the summary of what you did, so it shows on the 27th that you have telephoned and they ask you: “Why did you call the police only today?” and that is November 26th. How long had passed from when you had the memories? Was it two or three days or longer?

Answer – I don’t remember, perhaps even longer, some days longer, but I don’t remember.

Question – Madam many days had passed.

Answer – Yes, because I didn’t know what to do, it’s not easy.

* * *

I mentioned that I had to deal with a rape accusation in court.
It was the details, Vixen, the minute details that often tripped up this woman's accusation against me.

As it is so with Nara Capezzali:
When Nara woke up the next morning and was told by some guys a girl had been murdered in the cottage she didn’t mention hearing a scream.

Nara said she saw posters about Meredith’s death around 11am even though her body wasn’t discovered until after 1pm.

Nara saw the names of Lumumba, Knox, Sollecito and Guede on posters on November 3.

Nara didn’t report hearing the scream for 25 days, and her excuse was:
"I didn’t know what to do, it’s not easy"!

And you call it not wanting to rubberneck,
+ believe her???


Link:
http://www.amandaknoxcase.com/meredith-kercher-scream-compromised-witness/

 

[Vixen]

Greetings,
I'm still perplexed by The Down Stairs Crime Scene in the case we discuss here.

(Thanks MichaelB for the new Riccardo Luciano English translations!!!)

What am I perplexed about, and why?

There is a bunch of missing Crime Scene video footage from downstairs on Nov. 2nd.

Right after Flyin' Squad Officer Lorena Zugarini uses 2 kicks to smash in the kitchen door, IIRC there is missing footage, then the cops then enter and look around the boyz flat, find the marijuana plants, yet we never see any of their bedrooms where blood found, like we see on Stefano's bed the next day.

Here is a description of what I had previously found
while watchin' the publicly available Crime Scene video's:

At about 16:28:14, on Nov. 2nd,
the investigators are outside, heading downstairs.
At 16:28:42, Officer Zugarini starts to break+enter the downstairs flat by kicking in the kitchen door window. The video shows, at 16:40:40 a chair in the main bathroom, (which I recently posted a photo of) it has a bathtube and shower, but no shower curtain is seen. No blood drops are visible in this bathroom that I can see. The video shows the pot plants, and ends at 16:41:26,

But the video does not show the living room with the tv and chair, the blood drops there, nor any of the boys bedrooms, like Stefano's which has blood on his bed and duvet, nor the other bathroom with the blood in it.

The next day, Nov. 3rd.
video is shown which has this:
Crime Scene Blood Marker: #1+#2,
Time Stamp: 18:25:47
Blood drops and straight lines found on Stefano's bed and comforter.


Crime Scene Blood Marker: #3,
Time Stamp: 18:30:01
Found behind Riccardo's locked bedroom door,
which was then broken ito by police or someone else?
1 bloody outline. Found near 1 pair of sandals, another bloody outline on the floor. Or is that a crayon outline, highlighting something?


Crime Scene Blood Marker: #4,
Time Stamp: 18:47:05
Blood see on a freshly washed blue pillow case of Stefano's
found lying on the floor near the TV in the living room.


Crime Scene Blood Marker: #5,
Time Stamp: 18:47:16
many blood drops found on chair facing a small tv in the living room, with small markers D, E, F, G where the seat cushions would have been, if they had not been lifted upwards, stripped of their covering.


Crime Scene Blood Marker: #6,
Time Stamp: 18:48:42
Multiple dark red blood drops found in the small bathroom,
with all the small, med, + large drops of blood there.


Crime Scene Blood Marker: #7,
Time Stamp: 20:45:20
1 blood splatter drop, seen when coming out of 1st bedroom to right of tv,
near the blooded, blue pillow case of Stefano's at Marker #4.

* * *

Here in The U.S.A.,
we have a terrible case of possible police abuse of power,
and there is concern that a publicly released video footage had been doctored.

I shoot + edit photo's for a living.

Another guy, interviewed in this tragic, current case I bring up, states this:
“I edit footage for a living. But anyone can see that this official video has been cut…. Why?”
<snip>
“These could be glitches,” Norton said in an interview late Tuesday night. “But this looks edited to me. I’m not sure, but maybe there was video that they didn’t want to show people, so they cut and pasted other parts. It’s extremely suspicious.”

Link:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-sandra-bland-social-video-react-20150722-story.html


This is cause for concern,
for a few days later, the young women, black
who had been pulled over for a minor traffic violation,
and then threatened by a white police officer,
who stated "I'll light you up" as he pulled a Taser on this woman,
when she would not put out her cigarette or leave her car,
was found possibly murdered in a jail cell in Texas 3 days later.

* * *

Look,
I know some cops who surf, and some DA's too. They're bro's + bro-ettes!
Hard job, glad they too dig ridin' waves to get away from the City Life
that we here in L.A. deal with daily while livin' in 1 of the largest cities
in The U.S.A.


But with that said,
that vid from Texas bothers me.
It looks altered, as if someone does not want me to see something.

As does the video from The Down Stairs Crime Scene
in the case we discuss, for on Nov. 2nd
it is odd, there are parts missing,
as noted.

It's almost as if whomever shot or edited the video
did not want me to see what they found downstairs on Novemeber 2nd..
Not until the next day.

But upstairs,
on Nov. 2nd,
they even video-ed inside Miss Kercher's bedroom as she lay murdered,
lying on her pillow, naked + raped, covered under her duvet
where a movie ticket from The Cinegatti, for Oct. 29th, is seen.
And a female cops laughs in there at some point...


In the brutal rape+ murder we discuss here,
there is something very odd about what happened downstairs.
Read all the interviews of the boyz downstairs, in chronological order.
And then wonder why there is missing video footage from Nov. 2nd, 2007.

Why did the camera stop right after finding the pot plants,
but before going into the boyz bedrooms or seeing all the cats blood?

Heck,
where is a photo of the cats blood on the light switch downstairs?

What you have to remember, Randy is that - in England anyway - the police are a law unto themselves. They are under no obligation to communicate with the press. I dare say the Perugia/Rome cops simply took it upon themselves to censor ten minutes of that video.

Did the defense complain at the time? Or was it in their interests not to?

 

[Vixen]

Stefanoni's education, training and employment record has been well hidden. This "talented forensic scientist" has published little and nothing of note. There is considerable doubt if she really has earned a bona fide doctorate rather than the use of the term "Dr" being applied to her as a courtesy title.

Whereas, Conti and Vechiotti, for example, have their own histories available for scrutiny - as you would expect.

I asked Stefanoni's employers to provide a copy of her CV. They declined to do so.

Additionally, it should be noted that American Bar Association guidelines for disclosure require all experts connected with the provision of evidence in criminal cases to submit their CVs as part of the regime. And of course this is sensible because it permits courts to assess the value of expertise.

By what authority did you have to demand Steff provide you personally with her CV.

Why not simply look up the entry requirements and criteria needed to be chief.

 

[Vixen]

Do you understand what a catalyst is?

What we know is that chlorine based bleaches do not effect Luminol. Oxygen based bleaches do. Both will effect DNA. The strength and duration of bleach exposure in experiments with Luminol are much higher than that used for DNA cleaning in labs. Although I can find no direct comparisons. The chemistry suggests DNA is more susceptible to bleach than haemoglobin. I think that the idea that bleach cleaning would eradicate Luminol reactivity but preserve intact DNA is not scientific.

Of course I know what a catalyst is. I was my chemistry teacher's pet. In my report he said I always knew the answer.