Columbian Exchange (Thank you Christopher for my masala dosa)

• Columbian Exchange(from the eponymous book) refers to the exchange of crops, animals and diseases between the Americas(New world) and Europe-Asia(Old world) since Christopher Columbus landed on America
• Europe/Asia got its chocolates(cocoa), vanilla, peanuts, maize, tomatoes, potatoes, chillis, tobacco, malarial cure quinine(from the American plant cinchona, making it easier for the Europeans to colonize the tropics). The Americas got sugarcane, coffee and animals such as horses, donkeys, mules, pigs, chicken, dogs, cats and the then deadly diseases measles and small pox that wiped out vast numbers of native american population

Marquis de Sade, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and Richard von Kraft-Ebing

• Richard von Kraft-Ebing was an Austro-German psychiatrist who popularized the terms Sadism (derived from the French writer Marquis de Sade whose writings contained brutal sexual practices) and Masochism (derived from the Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch whose writings contained female domination) in his book Psycopathis Sexualis
• Marquis de Sade is brilliantly portrayed by Geoffrey Rush in the movie Quills (2000) and von Sacher-Masoch's most famous story has been adapted by Roman Polanski in Venus in Fur (2013)

Aside: von Kraft-Ebing was of the view that masturbation caused homosexuality

James Cameron, Titanic, Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings and Yamaguchi

• James Cameron, the director is also the original artist of the nude Kate Winslet in The Titanic
• He is supposed to do a film on Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person to have been officially recognized to survive the nuclear blasts on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that occured on separate days

Hobson, Morton and the dilemma

I want to buy a blue pen to write. I go to a shop

• There is one black pen. I either take it or not = I have a Hobson's choice
• There is a light blue and a navy blue pen = I am pinned under a Morton's fork

In either case, I end up in a dilemma

420: IPC, Indian Parliament & Marijuana

• Section 420 in the Indian Penal Code covers offences related to cheating. The Indian Parliament houses 545 MPs on numbered seats. There is no seat 420, 419A exists
• 420 internationally is a code term to associate oneself with Marijuana. People rejoice with the herb on 4/20(April 20th) or just on any other day at 4:20 PM/AM

Climate change and Trees

• Trees develop leaves/flowers based on environmental cues to assess the season. When Temperature & humidity is their cue, climate change can adversely affect them
• Other trees detect the day-night duration. Climate change can not affect such trees as the day-night lengths in a particular season remains the same over the years

Flamenco, Romani gypsies and Punjabi Jats

• Flamenco is a form of Spanish folk music and dance that grew out of Andalusian(southern Spain) and Romani music/dance styles
• The Romanis are gypsies found to be medieval migrants genetically linked to the Jats(Indo-Pak) and their language is similar to Punjabi & Marwari 

Source:

Wikipedia

Aside:

A Romani flamenco song I found

somewhat similar to the Rajasthani Manganiyars

Witch's milk (When a boy/girl baby nipples ooze white fluid)

• The hormone prolactin in sufficient amounts causes a female (or male) mammal to produce milk. Pregnant women produce 10 times the normal amount of prolactin 
• Excess prolactin is at times passed to the baby through the placenta causing lactation

Source:

Wikipedia

Hygiene hypothesis and peanut allergies (Dirt is good for you)

• States that a lack of early childhood exposure to infectious agents leads to defects in immunity making you susceptible to more allergies
• Peanut allergy affects 0.6 - 1.5% of Americans,  .025% of Indians

Source:

Wikipedia

foodsmatter.com

Albinism, melanism and panthers

• Albinism- Absence of skin coloring pigment, melanin. Melanism- Excess of melanin
• A black panther is a leopard(Asia & Africa) with melanism. In the americas, a black panther is a melanistic jaguar

Bulls and bears, stock market terminology

• A bull attacks by goring, with an upward swing of its horns. Rise in stock prices
• A bear stands and attacks with a downward blow from its paws. Fall in stock prices.

Naxal, Naxalite, Naxalism(noun) (All naxals are Indians)

• Communist guerrilla groups in India. Derived from the village Naxalbari,West Bengal where the movement originated
• Origin traced to 1967, when CPI(Marxist) split to form CPI(Marxist-Leninist)

Source:
Wikipedia