This Multi-Cooker Does a Lot of Things, But Producing Fine Jewelry Isn't One of Them

Imagine Shiloah Avery's surprise when she unpacked the box to her new Instant Pot on Christmas morning only to find a gold and diamond wedding ring inside. While the multi-cooker is famous for doing so many things — it combines an electric pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, yogurt maker, browning pan and warming pot in one handy unit — producing fine jewelry is not one of them.

"I pulled the bottom packaging material out and there was a wedding ring in the bottom of it. And it wasn’t just like an engagement ring, it was an actual wedding band and ring," the Port Orchard, Wash., resident told Q13 Fox. "...You could tell it'd been someone's ring for a long time."

Avery was determined to find the rightful owner. First, she contacted the company that makes the Instant Pot and put in a service ticket. But, feeling the need to be even more proactive, Avery posted a note about the ring to the Port Orchard Facebook group.

"I could only imagine if that was me, and it was sad," Avery said. "It's somebody's possession, especially being a wedding ring, so I wanted to make sure it got back to the owner."

A few months earlier, Joann Johnson had been shopping for an Instant Pot at the Walmart Supercenter in Port Orchard. Only the large version was on display, so Johnson opened a box containing a smaller one to get a look at the product. Sometime during that maneuver, the wedding ring slipped off her finger. It was only a few days short of her 20th wedding anniversary.

When she returned home and realized the ring was gone, Johnson also turned to the Port Orchard Facebook group for help, asking anybody who might encounter a diamond band at Walmart to please turn it in to customer service.

"Didn’t get any responses other than 'Gee, hope you find it,'" Johnson told Q13 Fox.

Avery's post did much better. Within 12 hours, the rightful owner had come forward.

Johnson said "it was like an electrical shock going through me" when she saw Avery's Facebook photo of an Instant Pot along with the caption, "I found a ring."

Johnson contacted Avery and proved the ring was hers by drawing a picture of it.

The two women met for the first time with the Q13 Fox cameras rolling. Johnson told the news team that Avery is her "Christmas angel" and that the return of her ring is truly a Christmas miracle.

“It’s been fun making a new friend,” Avery told Q13 Fox. “And it’s been really nice having a good ending to it.”

Credits: Screen captures via q13fox.com.

Music Friday: Seth Ennis Shares Story Behind His Proposal in the Newly Released 'Xmas'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome new songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, country music newcomer Seth Ennis shares the story behind his holiday marriage proposal in the newly released "Xmas."

The Georgia-raised 23-year-old turned to Instagram on December 23 to share a snippet of his new song, along with the caption, "She said yes." Then, three days later, he confirmed his engagement with a photo of him and his now-fiancée Janna Nevil celebrating with glasses of champagne.

In the song, Ennis says he can't wait to see his girlfriend's face when she sees the ring that he picked out. We also learn that Ennis' proposal has been a year in the making. It started last Christmas when he revealed his intentions to Nevil's dad.

Ennis sings, "I bet you didn't know at Christmas / I was talkin' to your daddy / I told him me and you were in love / And I just want to make you happy / For ever and ever keep loving you better / And never give up or leave / And baby next Christmas / I'm gonna ask you to marry me."

In a romantic example of life imitating art, Ennis stood by his lyrics and popped the question during the Christmas holiday. In the catchy chorus, he sings "Say yes, say yes, I hope you say yes / Say yes to me" — and she did.

Born in Dothan, Ala., Ennis began playing the piano at the age of 7. By the time he was in middle school, he was also a talented guitarist and drummer. The son of a military colonel, Ennis honed his talents as he spent his formative years on a military base in Japan.

“Country music is not that big in Japan,” he noted in his official bio. “If I were raised in Georgia my whole life, I’d probably sound a lot different than I do. But because of how much I moved around, and all the cultures I experienced, my sound is especially diverse.”

Ennis got his big break by being in the right place at the right time.

“There was a battle of the bands competition here in Nashville and when one of the bands dropped out, I got the call,” Ennis said. “I called my players together and we killed it.”

The victory earned Ennis a coveted spot at CMA Music Festival. That performance caught the eye of Sony, which signed him to a record deal in 2016.

In early 2019, Ennis will be embarking on a 14-city tour with performances in New York, Boston, Silver Spring, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Detroit, Minneapolis, Louisville, Atlanta, Orlando, North Myrtle Beach, Charlotte and Raleigh.

Please check out the audio track of Ennis performing "Xmas." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along...

"Xmas"
Written and performed by Seth Ennis.

I bet you didn't know at Christmas
I was talkin' to your daddy
I told him me and you were in love
And I just want to make you happy

For ever and ever keep loving you better
And never give up our leave
And baby next Christmas
I'm gonna ask you to marry me

Say yes, say yes, I hope you say yes
Say yes to me
Say yes, say yes, I hope you say yes
Say yes to me

Keeping it a secret
and trying to keep it that way
Until the holiday season
Gets harder every day

But even more than I do
When I just tell you
I want to see your face alright
When you see the ring I picked out
Old friends in your new home town
In December when you say

I can't believe I didn't know at Christmas
When I was talkin' to your daddy
I told him me and you were in love
And I just want to make you happy

For ever and ever keep loving you better
And never give up or leave
And baby next Christmas
I'm gonna ask you to marry me

Say yes, say yes, I hope you say yes
Say yes to me
Say yes, say yes, I hope you say yes
Say yes to me

I remember back in high school
Dreaming of what you'd be like
Hoping that I'd find the kind of girl who
is from a hometown like mine

Before I met you in that church
Took you out to that concert
Told my momma that I found my wife
When you know you know I knew the whole time

But I bet you didn't know at Christmas
That I was talkin' to your daddy
I told him me and you were in love
And all I want to do is make you happy

If you had me for ever and ever keep loving you better
And never give up or leave
And baby next Christmas
I'm gonna ask you to marry me

Say yes, say yes, I hope you say yes
Say yes to me
Say yes, say yes, I hope you say yes
Say yes to me

Say yes, say yes, I hope you say yes
Say yes to me
Say yes, say yes, I hope you say yes
Say yes to me

Credit: Image via Instagram.com/seth_ennis.

Oops! Famous 'Diamond Planet' Is Actually a 'Sapphire Planet,' New Research Suggests

Super-Earth 55 Cancri e, which made headlines in 2012 as "the diamond planet," needs to be reclassified as a sapphire planet, according to astronomers at the Universities of Zurich and Cambridge.

"We are turning the supposed diamond planet into a sapphire planet," said astrophysicist Caroline Dorn, the lead author of new research published in the British journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).

Previously, scientists speculated that one-third of the 55 Cancri e super-Earth, which is 40 light-years away in the constellation of Cancer, might be composed of pure diamond. The presence of carbon, combined with the planet's high density and extreme heat created the perfect conditions for creating diamonds. Taking a stab at the potential value of a diamond planet, a Forbes columnist did the math and came up with a value of $26.9 nonillion. That’s $26.9 followed by 30 zeros.

But, Dorn and her team say that new observations of 55 Cancri e, as well as two other super-Earths, have forced them to discard the theory of a "diamond in the sky." They determined that these new, exotic planets share a number of characteristics. They all formed at high temperatures close to their host star and contain high quantities of aluminum oxide — the compound that makes up sapphire and ruby.

"Perhaps it shimmers red to blue like rubies and sapphires, because these gemstones are aluminium oxides which are common on the exoplanet," said Dorn.

One of the super-Earths studied by Dorn and her colleagues is just 21 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. Super-Earth HD 219134 b orbits its star in just three days and boasts five times the mass of Earth, but has a lower density. Computer models showed that it is likely rich in the chemical building blocks of sapphires and rubies, but — unlike the Earth — contains very little iron.

Credit: Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech.

1,109-Carat Lesedi La Rona Likely Weighed 2,774 Carats Before Fracturing Into 5 Pieces

A senior research scientist at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) believes the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona — the second largest rough diamond ever found — actually weighed at least 2,774 carats before it fractured into five pieces during the sorting process at Lucara's Karowe mine in Botswana in November 2015.

Lucara had previously reported that the 813-carat "Constellation” and a 374-carat unnamed "shard" had broken off Lesedi La Rona. The total weight of the original rough diamond, had it remained intact, would have been 2,296 carats.

But, after getting a chance to study the trio, plus other large diamonds recovered during the same time period at Karowe, Dr. Ulrika D’Haenens-Johansson and her team from the GIA were able to identify two other rough diamonds that likely broke off the original. Those gems weighed 296 carats and 183 carats, respectively.

"Due to the similarity in their external characteristics — which include cleavage faces — as well as their extraction locations and dates, it was suspected that these stones might have originated from a larger rough that had broken," Dr. D’Haenens-Johansson wrote in the Fall 2018 issue of Gems & Gemology.

The five pieces totaled 2,774 carats, which is equivalent to 1.22 pounds (.55 kilograms). Had the original survived the recovery process, it would have still rated second behind the largest gem-quality rough diamond of all time — the 3,106-carat Cullinan, unearthed in South Africa in 1905.

Lucara CEO Eira Thomas told diamonds.net that evidence indicates the larger stone broke up both because of natural effects and being knocked around during the recovery process. The mining company has reportedly installed additional X-ray transmission (XRT) technology to ensure exceptional stones are identified and pulled from the line before they can be fractured.

The Constellation set a world record for a rough gem when Nemesis International and De Grisogono partnered to purchase it for $63 million in 2016. Graff bought the 374-carat "shard" for $17.5 million in May 2017 and subsequently paid $53 million in September 2017 for Lesedi La Rona.

Credits: Images courtesy of Lucara Diamonds.

Music Friday: 5 Golden Rings Shine in This Famous Mashup of 'The 12 Days of Christmas'

Welcome to a special holiday edition of Music Friday when we bring you fabulous songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today we present one of the most popular Christmas tunes on YouTube — Straight No Chaser’s clever mashup of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” To date, the original version of a cappella group's “12 Days” has been viewed more than 22 million times.

As everyone knows, the jewelry reference in this holiday favorite comes on the fifth day of Christmas when “my true love gave to me, five golden rings.”

Straight No Chaser’s “12 Days” is famous for its comic infusions of other songs, such as “I Have a Little Dreidel” and Toto’s “Africa.” SNC’s version of the popular Christmas song was inspired by a 1968 comic arrangement of the song by Richard C. Gregory, a faculty member of The Williston Northampton School in western Massachusetts.

Originated on the campus of Indiana University in 1996, Straight No Chaser is truly a grassroots, internet-inspired phenomenon. The 10-man group owes its worldwide fame to a video of its 1998 performance that was first posted to YouTube eight years later. That video went viral and caught the attention of Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman, who signed the group to a five-album deal in 2008.

“The 12 Days of Christmas” appeared at the eighth track from the group's debut studio album, Holiday Spirits, which peaked at #46 on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart.

The song's origin can be traced to England in 1780, where is was published as a chant or rhyme. The standard tune associated with it is derived from an arrangement credited to English composer Frederic Austin in 1909. Interestingly, he's the one who came up with the idea of prolonging the phrase "five... golden... rings..."

Straight No Chaser is currently on tour with shows set for in Indianapolis, Mesa, Hollywood, Oakland, Portland, Honolulu, Kahului and Waimea.

Check out the video of Straight No Chaser’s live performance of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” We know it will brighten your holidays. Enjoy!

Credit: Promotional photo courtesy of Atlantic Records.