This was probably already talked about but I must have missed it. Whatever happened to Aliโs friend jessi houk. She was originally her maid of honor and then she said they had a falling out. I never figured out why.
During the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 Houk was sent on a reconnaissance mission behind German lines. He was gone for three days and was listed as missing but he finally was able to get back with important information. During the war Houk earned a Silver Star, Bronze Star with Oak Leaf cluster and a Purple Heart. He ended the war with the rank of Major and returned to baseball, becoming the back-up catcher for Yogi Berra and later managed the Yankees. His nickname of course was "The Major."
The first Cope Award was presented in 1973 to R. B. Woodward and Roald Hoffmann (the only shared Cope Award). In his award lecture, Woodward described his fascination in his early teens with the DielsโAlder reaction. Beginning in the late 1930s with his B.S. and Ph.D. theses and extending throughout his career, Woodward studied the mechanism of the DielsโAlder reaction and used it extensively in his total syntheses. This article describes the evolution of Woodwardโs mechanistic thinking, beginning in the late 1930s and early 1940s with his proposal of a chargeโtransfer mechanism for the DielsโAlder reaction, eventually leading to the WoodwardโKatz twoโstage concerted mechanism in 1959, and then to its mechanistic solution in terms of orbital symmetry control. There was much debate in the chemical literature about the validity of Woodwardโs early mechanisms, especially with Michael Dewar. However, as discussed in this paper, many of Woodwardโs mechanistic hypotheses have turned out to be valid. Modern calculations with quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics simulations have shown that Woodward indeed had perfectly described not only the cyclopentadiene dimerization mechanism, but a new class of transition states now known as ambimodal or bisโpericyclic transition states. This mechanistic type was first discovered in 2002 by the late Pierluigi Caramella from Pavia, Italy. In recent years, the Houk group has found that ambimodal reactions are operative in the [6+4] cycloaddition that Woodward and Hoffmann predicted in 1965, and that Houk studied experimentally as a graduate student. Molecular dynamics simulations of many DielsโAlder and ambimodal cycloadditions, in solvents and in enzymes, provide a timeโresolved picture of how Woodwardโs favorite reactions occur. ย Lastly, Roald Hoffmann provides a Coda in which he describes his joy in โbeing taken along the journeyโ of the cycloaddition story from Woodwardโs youth to todayโs trajectory simulations.
https://ift.tt/3gS88OM
This Monday the 23rd there will be a silent advocacy for the double homicide of Jennifer Dupras and Cynthia Houk (12/11/18.)
The silent gathering will be from 8AM-6PM in front of the DA's office, located at the Del Webb Building in Downtown Fresno. I know people have work so feel free to come whenever you can. I will be there all day and will appreciate any support. The address is 2220 Tulare St 93721, I will provide signs and water.
We are at a point in the case where District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp and her office will either accept the Fresno County Sherrifโs evidence and make an arrest to bring the suspect to trial, or deny the case and close it until further evidence is found (they have already spent 8 months gathering every possible piece of evidence.) We are gathering silently and peacefully to let DA Lisa Smittcamp know that we as a community cannot accept anything other than an arrest and full trial.
*I have been told the detectives are certain of who has committed this atrocity and any jury would find the suspect guilty.
Please use the hashtags #JUSTICEGORJAC #JENANDCYNTHIA
edit: if you aren't able to attend but would still like to help, Emails to the DA saying that you care and have your eyes on this case help immensely.
(Again, Signs and water provided.)
https://www.facebook.com/events/634334633603172/?ti=cl
"Jordan Brown was a fifth-grader in February 2009 when Pennsylvania police arrived to take him away as the sole suspect in the shotgun slaying of his dadโs pregnant fiancรฉe, Kenzie Houk.
Houk, 26 and about eight months pregnant with Jordanโs little brother, was found dead in her bed by her 4-year-old daughter on Feb. 20, 2009. (This account of the case is pulled from reports by ABC News, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Post-Gazette and available court documents.)
Owing in part to the discovery of a shotgun in the family home, near Wampum, as well as a shell casing outside and evidence of gunshot residue on his clothes, police zeroed in on 11-year-old Jordan.
Houkโs older daughter, then 7, also said she had heard a loud noise in the house around the time of the shooting."
I just read about this case on people.com. The rest of their story: https://people.com/crime/jordan-brown-case-murder-kenzie-houk-interview-after-prison/
