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In the summer of 1495, King Hans of Denmark and Norway anchored his warship off the southern coast of Sweden. While Hans was on land, his vessel—known as Gribshunden or Griffen—mysteriously caught fire and sank to the bottom of the Baltic Sea.Hans was on his way to Kalmar, where he hoped to be elected king of Sweden and reunite the broader Nordic region under a single ruler. As such, Hans brought many opulent status symbols, including luxurious foods and spices, to help persuade the Swedish leadership to agree to his plan.Remarkably, many of those foods and spices have survived underwater...

What's good for the body is good for the brain. For example, getting lots of exercise, reducing stress, going easy on the alcohol, and not smoking are all no-brainer brain boosters that you've heard about. But what has been getting more attention these days is the surprising connection between your gray matter and your diet. "The nutrients from food influence chemicals that directly and indirectly affect your brain and in turn change the way you think and feel," says nutritional psychiatrist, Uma Naidoo, MD, a professional chef, nutrition expert, and author of the book This Is Your Brain on Food....

A popular, but pricey, spice called saffron may be able to improve sleep quality in adults who often experience unrestful nights, according to a new study. The research comes from the same team that previously linked saffron with an antidepressant effect, at least in people who have up to moderate depression and who are also taking a prescription antidepressant medication. Saffron is a popular spice derived from the flower best known as ‘saffron crocus.’ The spice resembles a crimson-colored thread; it is plucked from the crocus flowers, meaning that unlike other spices, this one hard to gather in large quantities....

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to unite the country on Thursday after a big election win, with his party on course to increase its majority on a mandate of business-friendly policies and a tough stand on national security. Official data from the Election Commission showed Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead in 300 of the 542 seats being contested, up from the 282 it won in 2014 and more than the 272 seats needed for a majority in the lower house of parliament. That would give it the first back-to-back majority for a single party since 1984. “Together...

18-year-old wanted to trick stores into thinking she had a babyA teenage thief made a fake baby out of a bra cup and cuddly toy in an attempt to steal from a discount store in the UK. Saffron Curtiss-McGinty planned to hide her loot underneath a child's buggy, but with no baby to justify pushing a pram, she went about making one. The 18-year-old dressed a toy dog in a baby-grow and scratch mitts, and drew facial features on a bra cup to make a face. But staff at the B&M store in Stratford Road, Solihull, became suspicious and stopped...

Spice promotes apoptosis and inhibits growth of cancerous cells in animal modelsNew research suggests that saffron provides a significant chemopreventive effect against liver cancer in animal models. When saffron was administered to rats with diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-induced liver cancer an inhibition of cell proliferation and stimulation of apoptosis was observed. Full findings appear in the September issue of Hepatology, a journal published by Wiley Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), or liver cancer, is the fifth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer mortality in the world. Medical...

LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Oct. 2, 2009 – The Kansas National Guard agribusiness development team here, along with local and provincial officials, participated in a ceremony to introduce a profitable crop to area farmers at the Laghman Agricultural Research and Development Center in Mehtar Lam district, Sept. 29. Mohammad Ismail Dowlatizai, director of agriculture for Afghanistan’s Laghman province, speaks to local farmers and provincial representatives about the benefits of growing saffron, Sept. 29, 2009. An agribusiness development team from the Kansas National Guard is working with farmers in Laghman province, Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Saffron,...

YANGON (AFP) - A United Nations special envoy flew to Myanmar Saturday, as the ruling junta deployed an overwhelming security presence in the nation's biggest city in a campaign to choke off mass protests. UN chief Ban Ki-moon has dispatched Ibrahim Gambari to broker talks between the military and its pro-democracy opponents, who have mounted two weeks of mass nationwide rallies. A violent operation to close down the demonstrations, which has run for four days and claimed at least 13 lives, appeared to have largely succeeded in deterring anti-government campaigners from returning to the streets. Downtown Yangon was largely deserted...

The New York Media are all a-twitter over The Gates : a massive "art project" in Central Park,which resembles nothing so much as une homage to Le Home Depot. (Click on link for rest of nasty comments.)

The Romans used it to scent their baths and Francis Bacon wrote that "it makes the English sprightly". Now, saffron - the most expensive spice in the world - could become an antidote to Afghanistan's opium production, and Britain's drug problem.   Farmers will reap about $200 a kilogram for their saffron crop About 400 farmers in the western province of Herat have begun to grow the spice - which retails for about £4 a gram in the UK - as a substitute crop for poppies, the opium sap of which produces heroin. When the saffron is harvested in the...