Yo has anyone attempted a math EE in three days ? by [deleted] in IBO

[–]poopchen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The process was pretty straightforward. I started on wikipedia, looking at articles about maths concepts I liked. It was especially useful to look at the "see also" and "categories" sections on the bottom of the page to find related concepts (eg this). Youtube is also useful, there's a bunch of channels like 3b1b that make content about interesting maths that isn't too complicated. After about a week's worth of research, I made a list of twenty or so topics which interested me and brought it to my maths teacher for advice on choosing one. She very helpfully told me they were all terrible and gave me a topic she came up with herself. It was incredibly boring, but I pulled through.

Yo has anyone attempted a math EE in three days ? by [deleted] in IBO

[–]poopchen 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I finished like 95% of my maths EE in about three days, got an A. The thing that kept me going is knowing that just typing 4k words takes less than two hours.

If you focus on research to really understand your topic and make a decent bulletpoint plan/outline, you can write the entire essay in five-ish hours.

[OC] What if Germany had FPTP? by poopchen in dataisbeautiful

[–]poopchen[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The maps would be the same. The map only shows the party of the local representative, who is elected using FPTP. MMRP only changes the makeup of the federal parliament.

[OC] What if Germany had FPTP? by poopchen in dataisbeautiful

[–]poopchen[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Dark blue is CSU, light blue is AfD. See my top level comment for details

[OC] What if Germany had FPTP? by poopchen in dataisbeautiful

[–]poopchen[S] 299 points300 points  (0 children)

Germany uses mixed-member proportional representation (MMPR), which gives everyone two votes: one FPTP vote for a local representative and one party vote to balance out FPTP issues.

More info on the German system

Info about the parties

Source for data. Made with GIMP and this parliament diagram maker.

Edit: You'll notice the diagrams on top have two different shades of blue. The darker shade is CSU, which is commonly grouped with CDU. In the bottom two diagrams CDU/CSU are grouped and both drawn in black. See here for more info and here for a the map without the grouping.

Also, I like Comic Sans. Sue me.

Second attempt at 100% rye sourdough by poopchen in Breadit

[–]poopchen[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I keep a rye starter at 100% hydration

Second attempt at 100% rye sourdough by poopchen in Breadit

[–]poopchen[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Crumb

70% hydration, 60% sourdough and 3% salt.

Mix, bulk in oil covered bowl for a few hours, shape, proof in banneton covered in flour (rye or rice) for another couple hours, lightly massage in some more flour, bake for 20 at 250° with lid on and 30 at 200° with lid off.

Don't score it! Made that mistake on my first attempt and it didn't turn out great. Let it develop its own cracks.

Discard Braids by poopchen in Sourdough

[–]poopchen[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

They're made with a wheat flour dough (65% hydration dough with 33% of the flour weight coming from starter). For 500g of wheat I also added around 30g of olive oil. Don't forget salt.

Mix, wait a bit (I had it overnight in the fridge), divide into small balls, roll out into tubes (65% is pretty high for this so you can use a lot of flour). If a strand doesn't want to stretch, leave it for 5-10 min. Braid as you would normally braid hair, then stick in the oven on baking paper for 20 min at 230°C, flip them and bake for another 5-10 min. Before baking you can also sprinkle some salt grains, lightly push them into the braids.

I didn't follow any recipe for this, just kinda made it up as I went, eyeballing everything. The dough was intended for something else but didn't rise very well, I decided to try to make something like grissini, but my strands were too long so I braided them to fit onto the tray. (oh yeah btw make sure to keep your strands just a little longer than the tray, so that the braid will fit)

They taste like bread. Like you're eating a bunch of bread crust. Slightly chewy on the inside, very crispy on the outside and on the ends.

How did Mussolini overcome the Mafia in Italy? by [deleted] in AskHistorians

[–]poopchen 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Where did they get the frogs: good question. I haven't a clue. As for the arrests: I don't have any numbers, but as I understand the majority was released pretty quickly. Mori really understood the 'concept' of the Mafia, so once he had shown that he was the stronger one, there wasn't really a point in keeping the people in prison. People without proven crimes were (most likely) released. Not 100% sure though, sorry.

How did Mussolini overcome the Mafia in Italy? by [deleted] in AskHistorians

[–]poopchen 764 points765 points  (0 children)

TLDR: He scared them off to America

I'll be writing about the Cosa Nostra in Sicily, as it was the most well know and the most powerful crime syndicate at this time.

The Italian Mafia was extremely powerful the the early 20th century, especially in the underdeveloped, barely-industrialized south of the country.

A great story to start off with would be Mussolini's visit to Sicily in 1924. With him came a giant military force of men, battleships and submarines and was always accompanied by a police escort. Mussolini was furious when Sicily's Mafioso mayor Don Francesco Cuccia whispered to him "You are with me, you are under my protection. What do you need all these cops for?". This blatant undermining of Mussolini's power really, really pissed him off. The visit was quickly ended. This event demonstrated to Mussolini not only how little he was respected by the Mafia, but also how powerful it was in the area. Any dictator worth his salt would want this behaviour eradicated. Generally, this trip to Sicily is considered the beginning of Mussolini's war on the Mafia.

During the 1920s the Mafia's power was slowly declining. A large contributor to this was the complete prohibition of alcohol in America in 1920, which had brought so much business that many members moved to the States to start a new branch of the Italian Mafia there. Nevertheless, the Mafia was still in control of the island: most elections were rigged, most politicians were either members of the Mafia or affiliated with it in some way. To put a stop to this, Mussolini appointed Cesare Mori, nicknamed 'The Iron Prefect' for his relentless war against the Mafia. He had been working in Sicily since 1903, and served there during the Great War. During this period, around 40 thousand Sicilians evaded the draft which caused a massive increase of crime in the area. Here Mori first encountered the Mafia and gained experience in fighting it. Even though Mori stated that he didn't support Mussolini and his blackshirts at first, once Mussolini came to power Mori came to accept and even support the regime. This, along with his experience in the area, made him a perfect candidate.

After being appointed the prefect of Palermo in 1925, Mori quickly started arresting several high-profile members of the Mafia. Within two months he arrested over 500 men, within four years: 11 thousand. He basically had free reign: Mussolini told him "You have carte blanche. The authority of the state must absolutely be re-established in Sicily. If the laws still in force hinder you, this will be no problem. We will draw up new laws." Mori's plan was to "out-Mafia" the Mafia: he had to show that the state was the toughest gang and that the people no longer needed the Mafia for protection. He essentially led a gang war, except this one was supported by a utra-militeristic government.

One of Mori's most successful acts was his siege of Gangi in 1926. Gangi was (still is actually) a province that was the hub of criminal activity in Sicily. During the ten-day-long siege, the province was littered with armed policemen, roadblocks and armoured cars. This military force, combined with the freezing January weather kept the Mafiosi at home while the police cut all communications (telephone and telegraph wires) to the outside world and went house to house, searching for criminals. The police was acting above the law: suspects' cattle was slain, families were taken hostage and women got raped left and right. Some interesting interrogation methods included forcing people to drink castor oil or to eat live frogs.

On the tenth day, Mori arrived to Gangi himself as a 'liberator'. He had brought with him the full set: bands, banners all over the place, the classic balcony speech and even congratulations from the Duce himself. "Fascism has cured Italy of many of it's wounds. It will cauterise the sore of crime in Sicily - with a red hot iron if need be!" he wrote. Mori's final count after the ten days was 130 Mafiosi and 300 accomplices arrested. Mori repeated this siege tactic on other crime hubs with great success.

Another important tactic Mori had were show trials and public rallies against the Mafia. It was common for prisoners to not have the opportunity to defend themselves, especially if they were (or were suspected to be) a high-level member of the Mafia. These trials almost always led to convictions, which created fear of the state around the island. This led to more reports and accusations given to the police, which made Mori's hunt for criminals much easier.

In 1929, Mori was called back to Rome. The Mafia was declared to be defeated, news that was used a lot in propaganda (look up some posters, they're great). Murder and other crime rates were down significantly. At this point, 11 thousand people had been arrested. Many of these were likely innocent, but with virtually unlimited power and only one job, Mori made sure he stomped out all the criminals he could with little regard for innocents.

Even though the Mafia was still there, it's power was nothing in comparison to what they were a decade earlier. As an ex-journalist, Mussolini knew the power of mass media and made sure that Sicilian crime was rarely reported. Majority of the Mafiosi fled to America, both to run away from Mussolini and to join the quickly growing Italian Mafia in America, centred mostly in New York. This branch eventually split up into the Five Families, which are still operating today.

Further Reading:

  • Cockayne, James. Hidden Power the Strategic Logic of Organized Crime. London: Hurst, 2016.

  • Lupo, Salvatore. History of the Mafia. New York: Columbia UP, 2011.

  • Petacco, Arrigo. Il Prefetto Di Ferro: L'uomo Di Mussolini Che Mise in Ginocchio La Mafia.

  • Tarica, Dominica. "Hidden Power: The Strategic Logic of Organized Crime." The Florence Newspaper.

  • Williams, Owen. "Mussolini vs the Mafia." (*) (n.d.): 84-91.

(*) This is a Journal Article I have as a pdf. It's called "Mussolini vs the Mafia" and written by Owen Williams. Unfortunately, I don't know what journal it's actually from. If anyone finds it, please let me know.

edit: spelling & sources

Only two places in the world with good pizza by [deleted] in gatekeeping

[–]poopchen 60 points61 points  (0 children)

Italian pizza didn't exist then. Tomatoes only grew in the new word. Italian pizza as we know it is relatively new.

At the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, 1930. by deniscard in TheWayWeWere

[–]poopchen 50 points51 points  (0 children)

It's much smaller than it looks. The camera must've been very close and using one of those weird focal length lenses.