Anschar Diamonds Blog

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you romantic favorites with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, we shine the spotlight on one of the most requested wedding songs of the 1990s: “Beautiful in My Eyes” by Joshua Kadison.



Kadison’s lyrical love letter offers a sweet and sentimental prediction of how a relationship will become stronger through the years. Kadison pledges that even as they grow old together — and lines appear on their faces — she will always be beautiful in his eyes. To emphasize the concept of a “perfect” love, Kadison introduces an iridescent gem in the first verse.

He sings, “You’re my peace of mind / In this crazy world / You’re everything I’ve tried to find / Your love is a pearl.”

Released in 1994 as the second single from his critically acclaimed debut album Painted Desert Serenade, “Beautiful in My Eyes” ascended to #19 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and charted in seven countries. The song was Kadison’s most successful single, even surpassing the performance of his breakout hit, “Jessie.”

Thirty years after its release, “Beautiful in My Eyes” is still recommended on MyWeddingSongs.com's compilation of "25 Groom Dedicated Songs to His New Life Partner."

Born in Los Angeles in 1963, Kadison started writing songs at the age of 12. Four years later, he hit the road as a teenager, searching for life’s answers after the tragic death of his mother. He made a living performing at bars in cities, such as Santa Barbara, Nashville and Dallas. His major influences included Cole Porter, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, Nina Simone, Igor Stravinsky and Bela Bartok.

“All of that time on the road was great therapy for me,” he told Billboard magazine. “It strengthened my soul and focused my songwriting — however corny that sounds.”

At 30 years old, he got his big break when he was signed by EMI Records and released Painted Desert Serenade. VH-1 named Kadison the network’s major video breakthrough artist of 1993.

Despite his commercial success, Kadison still didn’t feel fulfilled.

“It felt as if I had the world at my feet, but it wasn’t what my soul wanted,” he told songmeanings.com. “I felt I had learned all I could from my experiences in the pop music field. The lessons of fame and success and all that go with them were amazing, but I knew there was much more to life I had to learn.”

Kadison has been mostly out of the musical spotlight since 2012.

Please check out the video of Kadison’s performance of “Beautiful in My Eyes.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Beautiful in My Eyes”
Written and performed by Joshua Kadison.

You’re my peace of mind
In this crazy world
You’re everything I’ve tried to find
Your love is a pearl
You’re my Mona Lisa
You’re my rainbow skies
And my only prayer is that you realize…
You’ll always be beautiful in my eyes

The world will turn
And the seasons will change
And all the lessons we will learn
Will be beautiful and strange
We’ll have our fill of tears
Our share of sighs
My only prayer is that you realize…
You’ll always be beautiful in my eyes

You will always be
Beautiful in my eyes
And the passing years will show
That you will always grow
Ever more beautiful in my eyes

And there are lines upon my face
From a lifetime of smiles
When the time comes to embrace
For one long last while
We can laugh about
How time really flies
We won’t say good-bye
Cause’ true love never dies…
You’ll always be beautiful in my eyes

You will always be (You will always be)
Beautiful in my eyes (Beautiful in my eyes)
And the passing years will show
That you will always grow
Ever more beautiful in my eyes

The passing years will show
That you will always grow
Ever more beautiful in my eyes



Credit: Photo by Sabine from Deutschland, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

In the lead-up to the the 1954 Miss Universe pageant, the runaway favorite to win the title was Maria Martha Hacker Rocha, a statuesque 21-year-old Brazilian beauty with captivating blue eyes. She had captured the title of Miss Bahia in her home state and went on to become the first-ever Miss Brazil.



The pageant took place at the Municipal Auditorium in Long Beach, CA, and although Rocha eventually would become the runner-up to American Miriam Stevenson, the Brazilian won the hearts of fans all over the world. They were smitten by her grace and elegance.

Around the same time as Rocha was competing on the world stage, an incredible 74.5-pound aquamarine crystal was unearthed on a farm near Teofilo Otoni, Brazil. Its color was so rich, so intense that the Brazilian gem dealers needed to come up with a special name to distinguish it from the rest.

The rare, intense blue aquamarines from the Santa Maria de Itabira mine in Brazil were called “Santa Maria.” Similar-color aquamarines from Mozambique and other countries in Africa were named “Santa Maria Africana.” Lighter hues were named after the Brazilian state where they were mined, specifically “Espirito Santo.”

The new classification would be called “Martha Rocha,” representing a tone and intensity of the finest-color aquamarines. Even today, gem experts use this rating as a lasting tribute to the Brazilian beauty queen with captivating clear blue eyes.

Rocha, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 87, continues to be a symbol of beauty in Brazil. She has streets named after her in Bahia, Santa Catarina and São Paulo. The Brazilians even named a delicious and decadent dessert after her. Ask for a "Martha Rocha" at a Brazilian fine dining establishment and you will receive a treat made from white and chocolate cake with cream, peaches, creamy egg custard and walnuts.

Aquamarine, the official birthstone for the month of March, is the sea-blue variety of the mineral beryl, whose family members include emerald (intense green) and morganite (pink to orange-pink). Aquamarines can range in color from light blue to pure blue to shades of greenish-blue. The variations in blue color are dependent on trace amounts of iron in the gemstone’s chemical composition. Interestingly, pure beryl is absolutely colorless.

Aquamarines are mined in many countries, including Nigeria, Madagascar, Zambia, Pakistan, Mozambique and the US, but most of the finest-quality gemstones still come from Brazil.

Credit: Martha Rocha image by Gráficos Bloch S.A., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Aquamarine image by Greg Polley / Smithsonian.

Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown recounted on Thursday night's airing of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon how her new engagement ring slipped off during Jake Bongiovi's underwater proposal and how her new fiancé's quick reaction saved it from plummeting to the ocean floor.



Although the couple announced their engagement on Instagram in April 2023, the bizarre proposal story was never publicly revealed. Brown decided to detail the underwater drama on Fallon's show because it was, "Too good of a story to not tell."

The 20-year-old actress explained that the couple had bonded over diving.

"We love diving," she said. "We got our diving licenses together."

During a vacation in April of 2023, Bongiovi reminded Brown that she had to be up early the next morning to dive at a spot they usually go to.

Brown said, "It’s boring. Let’s go somewhere new."

But Bongiovi insisted, "No, we have to go to this spot.”

At the dive site the next morning, the couple was many meters below the surface when the 21-year-old aspiring actor and model, handed his girlfriend a shell with a ring attached to it.

Brown laughed as she tried to imitate the unintelligible bubble speech produced by his breathing apparatus.

“And I looked at him and he was like, ‘Blub blub blub’.”

Brown tried to say "Yes" to his proposal, but the thumbs-up sign means "let's head to the surface" so that wasn't going to work. She finally settled for the "OK" sign made with the thumb and forefinger.

“So [the first sign], technically, would mean, ‘No, I don’t want to marry you. I want to go up.’ So I was like, 'Okay,'” she said. “I think it was underwhelming, but we freaked out.”



Bongiovi placed the ring on his fiancée's finger, but as she turned her hand with her fingers pointing down to show off the new ring, it slipped off.

"The ring falls off my finger and plummets so fast," she said. "It was like a cinematic movie. Jake threw himself [at the ring] so deep that the diving instruction said, ‘You can’t do that! Your ears! Literally, your brain will explode!'"

Brown continued, "He does a cinematic grab, opens his hand. He had saved the ring.”

The actress feels that Bongiovi's heroism in that moment is a reflection of who he is.

"And I feel that we will always have each other's back," she said. "And if anyone drops the ball, we got it."

When the couple got to the surface, Bongiovi revealed that the ring used for the underwater proposal was not her actual engagement ring. It was a prop.

Safely on the boat, Bongiovi asked Brown to marry him for a second time, but this time with a family heirloom (her mom's engagement ring).

Recounted Brown, “He was like, ‘You know, I bought you this ring (the prop) because your mum wouldn’t let me take her ring. My mom was like, ‘Absolutely not, Jake. You’re not taking my ring down there. I know you’ll drop it.’ And sure enough, I did.”

Bongiovi's parents, rock legend Jon Bon Jovi and mom Dorothea were on the boat to witness the second proposal.

Said Brown, "We were like, ‘We’re engaged, but also we have to tell you this crazy story that just happened.’”

Please check the video of Brown's fun retelling of the proposal story on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The story starts at the 3:27 mark and runs for about three minutes.



Credits: Screen captures via YouTube.com / The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Launched by the Lego Group in the summer of 2001, Bionicle was a line of articulated plastic action figures that deviated from the Danish toy company's core business of interlocking building blocks.



Lego pulled the plug on Bionicles nearly 14 years ago, but the legend lives on — thanks to a 14-karat, super-rare, special-edition Bionicle Hau mask that surfaced at a Goodwill store in western Pennsylvania and recently sold at auction for $18,000.

During the era of Bionicles, the now-$10-billion-a-year toy company ran competitions with the top prize being a "playable" golden Hau mask. It is estimated that only 30 of the special collectibles were ever created, with approximately 25 presented to competition winners and the rest handed out to Lego employees.

Each piece measured one inch tall and weighed 26.14 grams (0.922 ounces). At today's gold price of $2,126 per ounce, the value of the precious metal content alone is approximately $1,146.

When the golden Bionicle Hau was found in a box of donated jewelry at the Goodwill store in DuBois, PA, employees didn't think much of it. But when the item was listed on Goodwill's online store, offers began flooding in and supervisors began to take notice.

“We didn’t know it was worth anything until people started asking if they could buy it for $1,000,” Chad Smith, the vice president of e-commerce and technology at the Dubois store, told USA Today.

Offers for the 14-karat Bionicle Hau topped out at $33,000 during an early February Goodwill auction, but that buyer couldn't come up with the funds. Goodwill re-listed the item with the bidding starting at $3,000. After 48 bids, the piece sold it to an anonymous collector for $18,101.

Goodwill spokesperson Jessica Illuzzi told USA Today that all of the money earned from the sale of the Lego collectible will support Goodwill's mission of helping people with life challenges and providing training opportunities.

Credit: Image courtesy of ShopGoodwill.com.

When the arachnophobic "Little Miss Muffet" sat on her tuffet in the 1805 nursery rhyme, young readers at the time could have hardly envisioned a future world in which her curds-and-whey snack would provide one of the ingredients for an eco-friendly way of salvaging gold from electronic waste.



Researchers at ETH Zurich reported that they have successfully recovered gold from old computer motherboards utilizing sponges derived from whey, the liquid that is leftover after curds are drained during the cheesemaking process.

Because the method utilizes various waste and industry byproducts, it is not only sustainable, but cost effective.

“The fact I love the most is that we’re using a food industry byproduct to obtain gold from electronic waste,” noted professor Raffaele Mezzenga from the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich.

In a very real sense, he observed, the method transforms two waste products into gold.

“You can’t get much more sustainable than that!” he said.

Researchers explained that electronic waste contains a variety of valuable metals, including copper, cobalt and even significant amounts of gold. The downside of recycling is that the current methods use a lot of energy and employ highly toxic chemicals.

The far more sustainable method described in the journal Advanced Materials simply requires a sponge made from a protein matrix.

ETH Zurich senior scientist Mohammad Peydayesh and his colleagues denatured whey proteins under acidic conditions and high temperatures, forming a gel. Then they dried the gel, which transformed it into a sponge of protein fibrils.

In their experiment, they extracted the metal parts from 20 motherboards and dissolved them in an acid bath to ionize the metals.

When the sponge was placed in the ionized metal solution, the gold ions adhered to the protein fibers. While other metals also adhered the the fibers, gold ions did so more efficiently, the researchers reported. From 20 motherboards, they were able to extract 450 milligrams of gold at a purity level of about 91%, or 22 karats.

The business case for moving forward with this method of recycling is simple. According to the researchers, the cost of materials and energy for the entire process is 50 times lower than the value of the gold that can be recovered.

Credits: Motherboards image by Crista Castellanos, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Arthur Rackham illustration via William Fayal Clarke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you romantic songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, a giddy and love-struck Brad Paisley is about to propose to his girlfriend, but accidentally leaves the engagement ring at home in 2001’s “You Have That Effect On Me.”



In this song, Paisley takes on the role of a young man who is so head-over-heels in love that he can hardly think straight. He tells his girlfriend how anxious he’s been during the past few weeks — that he’s been haunted by the vision of getting down on one knee and forgetting what to say. Each morning, while brushing his teeth, he’s rehearsed the lines, but still can’t get them straight.

He successfully acquires the ring of her dreams, but when it's finally time to pop the question, the awkward boyfriend comes up short.

Paisley sings, “You’ve had your eyes on a 2-carat ring / I finally went out and I bought it / Right now it’s at home sittin’ on my TV / Would you believe I forgot it.”

Our protagonist tries to explain away his absentmindedness: “You can’t blame me ’cause it’s plain to see that you have that effect on me.”

The character Paisley portrays in the song may be a close reflection of himself.

The singer famously recounted how, as a 19-year-old, he became spellbound by actress Kimberly Williams, who starred in 1991’s Father of the Bride. Paisley developed an instant crush when he saw her on the big screen and his feelings only grew stronger when he saw her in Father of the Bride II in 1995. It wasn't until 2001 that he gathered the courage to contact the actress and ask her out on a date.

In Paisley's world, good things come to those who wait. Williams accepted his marriage proposal in August of 2002 and the couple tied the knot in March of 2003.

“You Have That Effect On Me” was the 11th track of Part II, his second studio album — a release that rose to #3 on the US Billboard Top Country Albums chart and #31 on the US Billboard 200 chart.

Born in Glen Dale, WV, in 1972, Bradley Douglas “Brad” Paisley was introduced to country music by his grandfather, Warren Jarvis, who gave the eight-year-old his first guitar, a Sears Danelectro Silvertone. Jarvis taught his grandson to play, and by the age of 10, Paisley was already performing at his church.

While in junior high, Paisley was doing a show at a local Rotary Club, when he was discovered by a program director for a Wheeling, WV, radio station. He was invited to be a guest on the popular radio show “Wheeling Jamboree” and the rest is history.

Paisley has sold more than 11 million albums, won three Grammy Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, 14 Country Music Association Awards and two American Music Awards. In 2001, at the age of 28, he became the youngest artist ever to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.

He is currently on a European tour with performances scheduled in Glasgow, London and Belfast.

Please check out the audio track of Paisley performing “You Have That Effect on Me.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“You Have That Effect On Me”
Written by Brad Paisley and Frank Rogers. Performed by Brad Paisley.

Every morning the last couple of weeks
In between shaving and brushing my teeth
I’d lean on the sink and practice my lines
By now you would think they’d be memorized

But leave it to me to come all this way
Get down on one knee and forget what to say
I’m at a loss, should have known this is how it would be
‘Cause you have that effect on me

I must admit I still don’t understand
Why I lose my head holding your hand
There’s no explanation, no simple excuse
For this intoxication I feel around you

Now truth be known since I’ve met you girl
I’ve been walkin’ around in my own little world
One look in my eyes, oh and darlin’ any fool could see
That you have that effect on me

You’ve had your eyes on a 2-carat ring
I finally went out and I bought it
Right now it’s at home sittin’ on my TV
Would you believe I forgot it

But you can’t blame me ’cause it’s plain to see
That you have that effect on me
Yeah, you have that effect on me
Girl, you have that effect on me



Credit: Photo by minds-eye, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Panamanian archeologists have recovered a trove of golden treasures from the 1,200-year-old tomb of a powerful chief at El Caño, an ancient necropolis about 110 miles southwest of Panama City in Coclé province.



Among the artifacts discovered in the tomb were gold breastplates, gold bracelets, gold belts adorned with gold beads, gold-clad whale teeth earrings, a set of gold plates and gold earrings in the likenesses of a man, woman and crocodile.



Also in the funerary trousseau were two bells, skirts made with dog teeth and a set of bone flutes.

A more disturbing finding was that the tomb held as many as 32 other occupants, who were likely sacrificed to accompany the powerful leader to the "beyond." The archeologists said the chief was buried face-down, as was the custom of that society, but are unsure of the exact number of those who joined him because the excavation has yet to be completed.



Dr. Julia Mayo, the director of the El Caño Foundation, believes the tomb was constructed in 750 AD and that the gold items belonged to a high-status adult male from the Rio chiefdom who died in his 30s.

She added that the recovered items possess not only economic value, but also "incalculable historical and cultural value."



In ancient times, El Caño was considered a city of the dead. The necropolis was built circa 700 AD and abandoned circa 1000 AD, according to the researchers. In addition to monoliths, the site contained a cemetery and a ceremonial area with wooden buildings.

Mayo said the findings are significant because they shed new light on "multiple" or "simultaneous burials" of the Coclé society, which included a high-status person, as well as eight to 32 others, who were sacrificed to serve as companions in the afterlife.

Credit: Images courtesy of Ciudad del Saber/Panama Culture Ministry.

If you mosey on down to the lower level of the Diamond Discovery Center at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, AR, you'll see an ingenious piece of diamond-sorting technology that has stood the test of time. It's a replica of a "grease table" that allowed miners to separate small diamonds from dirt, rocks and other minerals.



First invented and used in the late 1890s to support the diamond mining efforts in Kimberley, South Africa, grease tables functioned on the scientific principle that diamonds are naturally hydrophobic, meaning they repel water.

The table is set up as a series of pitched stairs on which a gooey grease is applied. A gentle stream of water enters the table from the top and is collected in a trough below. When fine diamond-bearing material is added to the stream at the top of the stairs, the soil and minerals slide easily over the grease and out the bottom, while even the smallest of diamonds remain relatively dry and get caught in the grease.

At the end of the run, the grease is scraped from the steps and boiled down so the grease turns to oil. At that point, the oil and water separate and the diamonds fall to the bottom of the container, where they can be retrieved.

Before the invention of the grease table, teeny diamonds had to be picked by hand.

Here in the US, grease tables were employed at the diamond processing plants that operated on the current site of Crater of Diamonds State Park, where amateur miners get to keep what they find at the only diamond site in the world that’s open to the general public.

One of the early manufacturers of the tables was the Kimberlite Diamond Mining and Washing Company, which operated from 1912 until 1919, according to an article published on the Arkansas State Parks' website.

Park interpreter Sarah Reap wrote that the company referred to its machine as “unerring,” noting that “even microscopic diamonds are "trapped" and its "power of discrimination is little short of marvelous."

The grease table did have its limitations, however. For the grease to work properly, the temperature in the processing room had to be between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. If the grease was cold and hard, the diamonds would slide right off. If the grease was too warm, it became too sticky.

According to Reap, modern grease tables use a combination of wax and petroleum jelly.

It's amazing to think that a technology developed more than 100 years ago is still in use today, joining other tried-and-true inventions, such as the light bulb (1879), stapler (1866), bottle opener (1892) and the escalator (1892).

If you'd like to see a grease table in action, check out this video hosted by author and Arkansas diamond mining expert Glenn W. Worthington…



Credit: Image courtesy of Arkansas State Parks.

With many of you starting to plan your summer vacations, it's important to take note of the best ways to safeguard your fine jewelry when traveling. The importance of getting this right can't be overstated. In a recent survey by Jewelers Mutual (JM), nearly all respondents admitted to bringing their treasured pieces with them on holiday, while a surprisingly large chunk also reported suffering a loss.



For many women, their engagement ring is, by far, the most expensive piece of jewelry they possess, yet a whopping 87% of respondents regularly travel with this precious keepsake.

The pleasure of wearing your best jewelry on holiday has to be weighed against the risks. The JM survey revealed that a whopping 35% of respondents reported losing jewelry away from home. (Hotel rooms emerged as the most common location for such misfortunes).

JM recommends balancing fashion options with the purpose of your trip. If you are going to a beachy resort, you may get away with a few pieces of casual jewelry or no jewelry at all. If you're traveling for work or attending a destination wedding, it's likely your better jewelry will be making the trip.

Says JM, be sure to take an inventory of the pieces you choose to bring for your records. Pack them securely in your carry-on bag and wear any jewelry that reasonably suits your traveling attire. For added security, avoid wearing overly flashy or expensive jewelry while traveling.

Make sure to keep the carry-on bag in your sight at all times. That includes offers of help from airport staff, cab drivers, bellhops and the like.

If you do decide to remove your jewelry for whatever reason, put it into your carry-on bag, not in a TSA bin or bowl.

Never, never, never pack your fine jewelry in checked luggage.

According to the JM survey, approximately 40% of respondents said they insure their travel jewelry. Yet, nearly half of these individuals rely on their homeowners' policies, which typically have lower, insufficient coverage limits for jewelry.

In fact, about 50% of travelers attested they were uncertain whether their insurance policies provided adequate coverage while traveling abroad.

Travelers with insurance were more likely to secure their jewelry in hotel safes and dedicated travel cases, while those without insurance tended to keep their jewelry close by during their travels, reported JM.

The JM study also revealed that younger adults are more likely to opt for specialized jewelry insurance, recognizing the unique advantages it offers in safeguarding their precious possessions beyond traditional homeowners' or renters' policies.

"Our goal is to educate and empower consumers to safeguard their jewelry so they can wear it without worry,” said Howard Stone, vice president of Global Risk Services and Analytics at Jewelers Mutual. “The insights gained from our latest study underscore the need for more informed decision-making when it comes to traveling with jewelry, and we are committed to being a trusted advisor for loss prevention education and helping consumers keep themselves and their jewelry safe."

The Jewelers Mutual study of 300 adults was conducted in August of 2023 by usertesting.com via an online survey.

Credit: Image by BigStockPhoto.com.

When it comes to engagement ring preferences, oval-cut diamonds, solitaire settings and yellow precious metals are surging, according to The Knot’s 2023 “Real Weddings Study.”



A comprehensive look into the hearts and minds of more than 9,000 US couples who walked down the aisle last year, the study also covered the timing of proposals, the nitty gritty of wedding planning and how much couples spent along the way.

When asked about their preference of engagement ring center stone, diamonds remained the top choice (85%), while the preference for solitaire mountings increased by 10% compared to 2015, and the use of side-stones/accents decreased by 12% over that same period.

Round is still the most popular shape for a center stone (34%), but that choice is down 15% since 2015. The oval shape (preferred by 23%) and pear (8%) have been trending up over the past eight years.

Yellow gold is making a resurgence. Exactly 31% of The Knot's respondents chose yellow gold, an increase of 15% compared to three years ago. White gold is still the top choice at 39%.

The average total carat weight of an engagement ring is on the rise at 1.6 carats, a phenomenon attributed to popularly priced lab-grown diamonds and moissanite.

The Knot reported that the average length of an engagement was 15 months, during which couples spent an average of seven hours per week planning for their weddings.

December continues to be the most popular month for engagements. Christmas Day and Christmas Eve are the most popular days to pop the question. Couples said the holidays often present an opportune time to make the occasion extra special. Exactly 38% of proposers tied the momentous event to a planned trip, while 20% said they wanted propose when family and friends were around.

Exactly 58% of respondents said they felt some or a lot of pressure to plan a unique proposal. The importance of getting it right led 7 in 10 proposers to start strategizing up to six months in advance.

Once again, October is the most popular month for weddings (17% of all weddings), while September 21, 2024, is expected to be the most coveted date. Other popular 2024 dates (all Saturdays) include May 28, June 22, September 14 and October 12.

The average combined wedding ceremony and reception spend in 2023 was $35,000, up $5,000 compared to 2022.

In 2023, the New York Metro area was the most expensive place to have a ceremony and reception ($63,000), followed by Chicago Metro ($56,000), San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland ($51,000) and Los Angeles Metro ($48,000). The least expensive Metro areas were Tampa-St. Petersburg-Sarasota ($30,000), Sacramento-Modesto ($30,000) and Minneapolis-St. Paul ($30,000).

The Knot reported that the average number of wedding guests in 2023 was 115 (lower than the 2019 average of 131), while the average ceremony/reception spend was $35,000 (significantly higher than 2019's average of $27,000). Cost-per-guest in 2023 stood at $304, compared to $214 in 2019.

These were the average costs of key bridal services in 2023: reception venue ($12,800), photographer ($2,900), florist ($2,800), wedding dress ($2,000), groom's attire ($330), reception DJ ($1,700), wedding cake ($540), wedding day hair and makeup ($290), and catering ($85 per person).

The “Real Weddings Study” is based on responses from 9,318 US couples married between January 1 and December 31, 2023. To provide the most comprehensive view of 2023 trends, The Knot also included in this report wedding statistics from ad hoc studies conducted throughout the year.

Credit: Image by BigStockPhoto.com.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you wonderful tunes with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, the brainy British performer who blinded us with science in 1982, admits to being “Cruel” in a deeply personal song about an emotionally lopsided romance. Thomas Dolby, with a sweet assist from Eddi Reader, uses jewelry imagery to tell the story of a thoughtless boyfriend who refuses to change his ways.



He sings, “You were a shining pearl / In a broken shell / Under moonlight / And I was cruel.”

Dolby and Reader trade verses throughout the song, but join voices in a line about chasing false hope.

Together they sing, “But when my tears are washed away / You’ll still be blind / Skin-diving / For jewels.”

“Cruel” was released in 1992 as the second track from Dolby’s fourth studio album Astronauts & Heretics. Although the song failed to meet the commercial success of his biggest hit, “She Blinded Me With Science,” Dolby told PopMatters.com in 2008 that “Cruel” was one of three songs that best defined him as an artist.

When asked by PopMatters.com what he wanted to be remembered for, he answered, “My more obscure songs like ‘Screen Kiss,’ ‘I Love You Goodbye’ and ‘Cruel.’ I think it’s inevitable when you have hits as big as I had with 'She Blinded Me With Science' and 'Hyperactive,' that still get played on the radio 20 years later, people will tend to assume those songs define your music. But in my case, the music I really care most about is my quieter, more personal side.”

Thomas Morgan Robertson was born in London in 1958. The son of a distinguished professor of classical Greek art and archaeology, Dolby sang in a choir at age 11 and learned to sight-read music shortly thereafter. The artist’s stage name is a nod to Dolby noise-reduction cassettes. His schoolmates razzed him about the Dolby cassette player that he carried everywhere.

Dolby is primarily known for synth-pop, a subgenre of New Wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s. Dolby said he “got his hands on a kit-built synthesizer and never looked back.”

Early in his career, he promoted himself as a kind of musical mad scientist. Later on, he would become a technology entrepreneur in Silicon Valley.

He is currently the head of the Peabody Conservatory’s Music for New Media program at Johns Hopkins University. The four-time Grammy nominee will be touring this summer with appearances scheduled for Riverside, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Irving, TX; Houston, TX; Boston, MA; Atlantic City, NJ; Rochester Hills, MI; Cincinnati, OH; Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; and London, UK.

Please check out the audio track of Dolby and Welsh songstress Reader singing “Cruel.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Cruel”
Written by Thomas Dolby. Performed by Dolby, featuring Eddi Reader.

Cruel – what a thing to do
I’ve been cruel to you such a long time
And how can I hide my shame
‘Cause there I go again
At the wrong time

And I know that it was just the fear of flying
And I know it’s hard to keep myself from crying
But when my tears are washed away
You’ll still be blind
Skin-diving
For jewels

You were a shining pearl
In a broken shell
Under moonlight
And I was cruel

And I know that it was just the fear of flying
And I know it’s hard to keep myself from crying
But when my tears are washed away
You’ll still be blind
Skin-diving
For jewels

Cruel – I’ve been such a fool
And I’ll be missing you
Such a long time
I was cruel



Credit: Image by DavidWeesner, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Fifteen-thousand light years away in the northern constellation of Sagitta (the Arrow), a pair of aging Sun-like stars orbited each other so closely that the larger of the two eventually completely engulfed the other.



Nasa scientists believe that the smaller star continued orbiting inside its dominant companion, increasing the giant’s rotation rate. The bloated companion star spun so fast that a large part of its gaseous envelope expanded into space.

Due to centrifugal force, most of the gas escaped along the star’s equator, producing bright diamond-like flashes that are actually clumps of dense gas that span 12 trillion miles.

The Hubble telescope captured a beautiful pic of what Nasa has nicknamed the "Necklace Nebula." The space agency shared the photo last week on its Hubble telescope Instagram page, here. As of Sunday night, the post titled "Happy #JewelDay!" has earned more than 84,000 Likes.

Nasa explained that the dominant star and its companion are only a few million miles apart, and appear in the photo as a single bright dot at the center of the formation. Radiating from the center, one can see the glow of oxygen (green), hydrogen (blue) and nitrogen (red).

Credit: Image courtesy of ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll.

Metahuman artist MonoC undergoes a “gemorphosis” after falling in love with rubies in a two-part video collaboration sponsored by Gemfields, a world-leading supplier of responsibly sourced colored gemstones.



MonoC (pronounced "maa·nok") doesn't exist in real life, yet she has nearly 50,000 followers on Instagram and is sought out by top brands to endorse products. The metaverse jetsetter is able to form meaningful connections between her subject matter and the audience without the inherent human limitations of space and time, according to her creators.

In the first of two 30-second videos created for Gemfields, MonoC explores her surreal interpretation of where rubies are formed. She steps through a portal and finds herself in a fancifully world of radiant red gemstones.

"Within the @gemfields ruby world, I could feel the rubies around me like a pulse, like a heartbeat," MonoC wrote on Instagram. "It put me in a trance and I felt oddly contemplative. Questions arose. How can moments in time be kept eternal? How do you make a feeling last forever? These are the sort of thoughts seeping into my mind while thinking of the enduring power of love. I wonder, could that feeling be found in a physical form? Could a mineral formed by Mother Nature capture the essence of love? Did these rubies hold the secret?"



In the second video, we see MonoC drawn into the story of passion and devotion. She gazes into a red gemstone and sees a couple whose affection for one another is mirrored by the pulsating rubies in the air. This couple’s love culminates in a proposal, with a ruby engagement ring as a symbol of their commitment to each other.

MonoC's "gemorphosis" is complete and we see her transforming into a faceted, ruby-like incarnation of her former self.

MonoC commented about the second video on Instagram: "I picked up a @gemfields ruby and within its fiery red depths I saw a story. A memory of a couple, deep in love, who chose this ruby in the moment when their love shone greatly. Did they choose this ruby or did the ruby choose them? It seems as though the ruby is as much a part of their love as they are. The story of the couple is entwined with the ruby, etched deep inside as an everlasting memory of a moment in time. Eternal love."

MonoC, whose name is a shortened version of "Monochromatic," is a virtual influencer conceived by Hong Kong-based Gusto Collective. Led by CEO Aaron Lau, the future-facing company traverses seamlessly across the physical and virtual worlds to provide immersive content and experiences for numerous brands.

"MonoC is born out of data, but lives for art," Lau stated in a press release. "Art has always been a powerful communicator, connecting artist and audience, and today's digital art makes this connection more immediate, more immersive and more enthralling."

“Collaborating with MonoC has enabled us to adopt a surrealist perspective to explore the powerful feelings that can be evoked by the meaningful gift of a gemstone,” said Emily Dungey, Gemfields’ marketing and communications director. “This two-part film explores the profound symbolism of love, and the natural fit for ruby as its keepsake. Rubies are instinctively symbolic of passion, emotion and the connection some of us are lucky enough to forge with the one we love.”

Please check out the videos at this link…

Credits: Images courtesy of Gemfields x MonoC GEMORPHOSIS.

Michael Shaw, the collector who lent his pair of Dorothy's Ruby Slippers to the Judy Garland Museum in August of 2005 only to be shocked by news of a brazen smash-and-grab one week later, was recently reunited with his treasured Hollywood memorabilia in a private ceremony at the scene of the crime.



“It’s like welcoming back an old friend I haven’t seen in years,” said a teary-eyed Shaw as he stood beside a display of the slippers, along with the federal agents and local authorities who spent almost two decades tracking down the Technicolor treasures featured in 1939’s beloved The Wizard of Oz.



Shaw, a former child actor, had acquired the slippers from Kent Warner, a Hollywood costumer who discovered them in an MGM warehouse shortly before the famous May 1970 auction that liquidated costumes and props from Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Shaw told The Los Angeles Times in 1988 that when Warner brought him the ruby slippers, “I was so thrilled I literally started crying… I told him that if I never owned another possession, I’d be happy.”

Shaw eventually amassed an impressive collection of movie memories and traveled them around the country as part of a show called “Hollywood on Tour.” Shaw said last week that when people saw the slippers in person, “It was like they became 12 years old again.”

Just after the emotional reunion ceremony at Garland's restored birthplace home, Shaw surprisingly turned over the slippers to Heritage Auctions, which will spotlight them during an international tour — with stops in Los Angeles, New York, London and Tokyo — and then auction them some time in December.

“You cannot overstate the importance of Dorothy’s ruby slippers: They are the most important prop in Hollywood history,” said Heritage Auctions executive vice president Joe Maddalena.

Gilbert Adrian, the chief costume designer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, created the ruby slippers for Victor Fleming’s big-screen adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s children’s novel. (The magical slippers were silver in the book, but Adrian reinterpreted them as ruby because this was to be the first feature film shot in Technicolor).



Adrian had intended to use bugle beads to simulate ruby, but they proved to be too heavy. Instead, most of the bugle beads were replaced with sequins, 2,300 on each slipper. The butterfly-shaped bow on the front of each shoe features red bugle beads outlined in red glass rhinestones in silver settings.

Only four pairs of Ruby Slippers are known to have survived. One pair remains among the most popular attractions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

Each of the pairs is believed to be worth about $3.5 million, according to federal prosecutors.

In 2005, the Judy Garland Museum borrowed Shaw’s Ruby Slippers for its annual Judy Garland Festival. It was to scheduled as a 10-week exhibition, but on August 28, 2005, someone slipped into the museum after hours, shattered the plexiglass case holding the slippers and stole them, leaving behind only a single red sequin.

“It’s the worst nightmare for me,” Shaw said at the time.

In July 2018, after Shaw and investigators feared the slippers had disappeared forever, the FBI and Grand Rapids Police Department recovered the pair during a sting operation.

In May 2023, a federal grand jury indicted Terry Martin for stealing “an object of cultural heritage” from the museum. Five months later, Martin pleaded guilty. Shortly before sentencing last month, Martin told the court he’d stolen the shoes because he thought the sequins were genuine rubies.

Unable to sell them on the black market, Martin said he ditched the slippers with someone who had recruited him for the job. Martin's accomplice was charged last week with theft of a major artwork and witness tampering.

According to Heritage Auctions, Dorothy's Ruby Slippers will once again dazzle and delight crowds around the world before stepping up to the auction block.

“This is a day that is years in the making, a real-life Hollywood ending,” Maddalena said. “It took an ensemble cast of law enforcement professionals giving the performance of a lifetime — and their coordination, cooperation and commitment restored the ruby slippers to their rightful owner. As we all look forward to the next chapter in their storied history… we are reminded of what these legendary objects are and what they represent: an iconic piece of our collective history, an enduring symbol of the magic of storytelling and an ever-shimmering reminder that dreams are best in Technicolor.”

Credits: Photos courtesy of Heritage Auctions / HA.com.

On Tuesday, model and author Emily Ratajkowski shared with her 30 million Instagram followers pics of her engagement diamonds reimagined into two "divorce rings."



Ratajkowski told vogue.com, “The rings represent my own personal evolution. I don’t think a woman should be stripped of her diamonds just because she’s losing a man.”

Back in 2018, Ratajkowski and former spouse Sebastian Bear-McClard took an active role in the engagement ring’s design. The couple reportedly worked on more than 50 sketches before agreeing on the final look — a pear-shaped and princess-cut diamond nestled side by side on a simple yellow-gold band.



“We liked the idea of two stones instead of one and spent a long time looking at rings with multiple stones for inspiration,” Ratajkowski told vogue.com. “At one point it included a ruby as the second stone, [but] ultimately we loved the idea of the femininity of the pear contrasted with the architecture of the princess."



The model, who has been divorced for two years, employed the assistance of jeweler/friend Alison Chemla, who helped design the original ring. Ratajkowski's 3+ carat pear-shaped diamond is now prong set diagonally on a simple 18-karat yellow gold band, which she wears on her left pinky. For her left ring finger, the 3+ carat princess-cut diamond was joined up with two trapezoid-shaped stones in what seems to be a platinum shared-prong setting. The three-stone ring also features a simple 18-karat band.

Ratajkowski, 32, told vogue.com that her inspiration for the "divorce rings" arose from reading a friend's essay in The Paris Review. Titled “The Unravelers,” the piece by Stephanie Danler includes the story of her grandmother’s snake ring — a ring that is made up of the different stones from her various marriages.

“I loved the idea of a ring unabashedly representing the many lives a woman has lived,” Ratajkowski told vogue.com.

Chemla told pagesix.com, “Just like a divorce is a separation of two people, these rings are a separation of two stones. Now she has two rings she can proudly wear everyday that serve as a reminder of how strong and powerful she is."

Ratajkowski, who became a best-selling author with the publication of My Body, told vogue.com that she loves the rings so much, she hasn't been able to take them off. In fact, she's been sleeping with them on.

Her Instagram followers seem to love the concept, as well. As of Wednesday afternoon, Ratajkowski's "divorce rings" post had earned more than one million Likes.

Credits: Images via Instagram / emrata.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you wickedly fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, a giant-sized, treasure-hoarding coconut crab named Tamatoa brags about sparkling like a wealthy woman's neck in “Shiny” from Disney’s 2016 animated blockbuster, Moana.



The song's official video has been viewed more than 596 million times on YouTube.

Voiced by New Zealand’s Jemaine Clement, Tamatoa is a dastardly — but lovable — Disney villain who collects rare sea treasures from the seabed and conspicuously displays them on his shell. Among the treasures he’s salvaged from the depths are pearls, diamonds, gold and a power-granting magical fishhook that was lost by the film's hero, Maui.

The crab sings, “Watch me dazzle like a diamond in the rough / Strut my stuff; my stuff is so… Shiny.”

Even though Tamatoa is able to overpower Maui, he is no match for the strong-willed and clever teen, Moana, who tricks the crab into relinquishing the magical hook.

Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mark Mancina, “Shiny” is the eighth track from the two-CD set titled Moana: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. The album peaked at #2 on the US Billboard 200 and charted in 17 countries. The single reached #6 on Billboard‘s Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.

Miranda is the Pulitzer Prize, Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award-winning composer, lyricist and actor, who is best known as the creator and original star of Broadway’s Hamilton. Clement is a comedian, actor, voice actor, singer, writer, director, multi-instrumentalist and one half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords.

Moana was released in theaters on November 23, 2016, and went on to gross more than $687 million worldwide.

Please check out the official video of the animated Tamatoa (Clement) performing “Shiny.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Shiny”
Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mark Mancina. Performed by Jemaine Clement.

Well, Tamatoa hasn’t always been this glam
I was a drab little crab once
Now I know I can be happy as a clam
Because I’m beautiful, baby

Did your granny say listen to your heart
Be who you are on the inside
I need three words to tear her argument apart
Your granny lied!
I’d rather be…

Shiny
Like a treasure from a sunken pirate wreck
Scrub the deck and make it look…

Shiny
I will sparkle like a wealthy woman’s neck
Just a sec!

Don’t you know
Fish are dumb, dumb, dumb
They chase anything that glitters (beginners!)

Oh, and here they come, come, come
To the brightest thing that glitters
Mmm, fish dinners

I just love free food
And you look like seafood
(Like seafood)

Well, well, well
Little Maui’s having trouble with his look
You little semi-demi-mini-god
Ouch! What a terrible performance
Get the hook (get it?)
You don’t swing it like you used to, man

Yet I have to give you credit for my start
And your tattoos on the outside
For just like you I made myself a work of art
I’ll never hide; I can’t, I’m too…

Shiny
Watch me dazzle like a diamond in the rough
Strut my stuff; my stuff is so…

Shiny
Send your armies but they’ll never be enough
My shell’s too tough

Maui man, you could try, try, try
But you can’t expect a demi-god
To beat a decapod (look it up)

You will die, die, die
Now it’s time for me to take apart
Your aching heart

Far from the ones who abandoned you
Chasing the love of these humans
Who made you feel wanted
You tried to be tough
But your armor’s just not hard enough

Maui
Now it’s time to kick your…
Hiney
Ever seen someone so…

Shiny
Soak it in ’cause it’s the last you’ll ever see
C’est la vie mon ami
I’m so…

Shiny
Now I’ll eat you, so prepare your final plea
Just for me
You’ll never be quite as…
Shiny
You wish you were nice and…
Shiny



Credit: Screen capture via YouTube / DisneyMusicVEVO

The glint of gold caught the eye of early man more than 5,000 years ago and has been coveted by ancient and modern civilizations ever since. We can all agree that gold is rare, valuable and astonishingly beautiful, but here are some little-known, fun facts about the precious metal — as provided by the World Gold Council — to share around the water cooler.



Gold by the Numbers:

49 - The portion of all mined gold that is made into jewelry. This industry is the single largest consumer of the precious metal.

22 – All of the gold ever mined would fit into a cube measuring 22 meters.

187,200 – All the gold ever mined would tip the scales at 187,200 tons.

9 – One ounce of pure gold can be hammered into a single translucent sheet 0.000018 cm thick and 9 meters square.

11.2 million – If all the existing gold in the world was pulled into a 5-micron-thick wire, it could wrap around the Earth 11.2 million times.

1064 – Gold melts at 1,064 degrees Celsius (1,943 degrees Fahrenheit).

31.103 – There are just over 31 grams in a troy ounce of gold.

1/5 – It is rarer to find a one ounce nugget of gold than a 5-carat diamond.

1849 – The year of the California Gold Rush, when 40,000 miners headed west to seek their fortunes. They were called 49ers and the vast majority never got rich.

1885 – While digging up stones to build a house, Australian miner George Harrison found gold ore near Johannesburg in 1885, sparking the South African gold rush.

2,316 – “Welcome Stranger,” the largest gold nugget ever found, weighed an astonishing 2,316 troy ounces (144.75 pounds). It was unearthed at Moliagul, Australia, in February of 1869.

200 – This how many gold coins Julius Caesar presented to each of his soldiers for defeating Gaul in 52 BCE.

400 – The “London Good Delivery” is an investment-grade gold bullion bar containing 400 troy ounces of gold.

530,000 – The number of gold bars held by the US Federal Reserve. The bars weigh a total of 6,700 tons.

750 – Gold is often alloyed with other metals to change its color and strength. Eighteen-karat gold is composed of 750 parts of pure gold per 1,000.

Credits: Image by Stevebidmead, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Wow, how times have changed. Did you know that during the 1600s young suitors expressed their love by gifting silver thimbles engraved with courtship quotations?



Curators at National Museum Cardiff in Wales believe that thimbles, worn on the finger during needlework, were considered an intimate (and therefore romantic) possession, suitable as a gift between lovers.

The discussion about romantic silver thimbles was sparked by the surprising find of Robert Edwards, who unearthed a fine example of a post-Medieval thimble while metal detecting near Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Engraved around the base of the thimble is the phrase "LYKE STIL AND LOVE EVER," which translates to “like enduringly, love forever.”

The sentiment behind the engraved thimble is similar to that of posy rings, which were commonly exchanged between lovers from the 15th through the 17th centuries in both England and France. What made posy rings unique were the secret, romantic quotations inscribed on the inner surface of the band.

Edwards described how he discovered the historic thimble just a few inches below the surface.

“I was out detecting under the shade of an oak tree and was having no luck, until I changed the program and found a great crisp signal," he said. "At first I thought it may be a sixpence, but to my surprise it was something silver – and not a coin!

“I like to think about who used [the thimble]," he continued. "Was it used in the castle I could see over the way? Did someone get in trouble when it was lost? I’m very happy that I’ve been able to share it with the rest of you.”

A National Museum Cardiff press release described the design of Edwards' find as having six transverse bands scored in a zig-zag pattern around the body, layered over an incised brickwork or basket-weave pattern. The two-piece construction is made up of a rounded top soldered to the main body.

Although the item was found in November of 2020, Wales officials declared the silver thimble as a treasure just this month. Treasure hunters in Wales are required to report finds that are more than 300 years old.

According to smithsonianmag.com, now that the thimble’s status has been established, museums will get a chance to purchase it at a price determined by the country's Treasure Valuation Committee.

Tenby Museum & Art Gallery reportedly has expressed an interest in acquiring this find for its collection. Edwards may keep his find only if no museum wants to procure it.

Credit: Image courtesy of National Museum Cardiff.

After enduring a COVID-related slump, marriage rates in the US are finally back to pre-pandemic levels, according to stats released by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).



Exactly 2.06 million couples took their vows in 2022, the first time the number has surpassed 2 million since 2019. The rate of 6.2 marriages per 1,000 population was the highest since 2018, when it was 6.5.

The CDC has yet to release its numbers for 2023, but all signs point to a continuing upward trend.

The number of marriages in 2020 (at the height of COVID) was the lowest recorded in the US since 1963, as many couples had to delay weddings during the pandemic.

The beginning of a recovery was seen in 2021 as COVID-related restrictions eased up. The number of marriages increased from 1.67 million in 2020 to 1.98 million in 2021, and the rate increased from 5.1 marriages per 1,000 to 6.0.

Across the nation, 36 states and the District of Columbia reported marriage rates in 2022 that either matched or exceeded the levels seen in 2019.

The six states with the highest marriage rates in 2022 were the following:
-Nevada (25.9)
-Hawaii (14.4)
-Montana (9.9)
-Utah (9.9)
-Arkansas (7.9)
-Vermont (7.8)

The unusually high rate for Nevada is attributed to Las Vegas being the "wedding capital of the world." The CDC's data reflects the location where the marriage occurred and not necessarily the place of the couple's residence.

The six states with lowest marriage rates in 2022 are shown here:
-Louisiana (3.7)
-New Mexico (4.2)
-Illinois (4.9)
-Maryland (5.0)
-Delaware (5.1)
-New Jersey (5.1)

Historically speaking, marriage rates in the US have progressively declined since the early 1980s. The 6.2 rate in 2022 stands in sharp contrast to the all-time high of 16.4 in 1946, when soldiers returned home after serving in WWII.

The CDC also reported that the number and rate of divorces in 2022 (673,989 and 2.4 per 1,000 population) ticked down slightly from 2.5 in 2021, continuing a longstanding downward trend. In 2010, the divorce rate was 3.6 per 1,000.

Credit: Image by BigStockPhoto.com.

Diamond is made of pure carbon and is the hardest material known to man. However, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA, conducted millions of supercomputer simulations to predict the existence of a carbon-based "super-diamond" that is 30% tougher than its traditional counterpart.



Their next challenge is figuring out how to produce the new super-diamond on Earth.

The scientists call this theoretical new material "BC8" — an eight-atom cubic crystal that exhibits extreme resistance to compression, but only exists under pressures surpassing 10 million atmospheres.

Where do such extreme pressures exist? Researchers point to the center of carbon-rich exoplanets, which have considerable mass and experience gigantic pressures reaching millions of atmospheres in their deep interiors. Unfortunately, nobody on Earth will be visiting an exoplanet anytime soon. Our nearest exoplanet neighbor is 4 light-years away (that's 24 trillion miles).

“The BC8 phase of carbon at ambient conditions would be a new super-hard material that would likely be tougher than diamond,” said Ivan Oleynik, a physics professor at the University of South Florida (USF) and senior author of a paper recently published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.

One of the reasons a diamond is so hard is that each of its carbon atoms form a perfect tetrahedral shape with four neighbors, creating an extremely stable and strong configuration.

“The BC8 structure maintains this perfect tetrahedral nearest-neighbor shape, but without the cleavage planes found in the diamond structure,” explained study co-author and LLNL scientist Jon Eggert.

Minus the cleavage planes, the super-diamond is predicted to offer a 30% greater resistance to compression.

Harnessing the power of Frontier, the world’s fastest supercomputer, the team performed multi-million atomic molecular-dynamics simulations and learned that BC8 can only be synthesized within a very narrow range of pressures and temperatures.

The team at LLNL dreams of one day growing BC8 super-diamonds in the laboratory. If they are eventually successful, the new super-diamond could lead to advancements in manufacturing, space exploration and technology. Whether the new material will have applications for the jewelry industry has yet to be determined.

Credit: Image by Mark Meamber/LLNL.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, R&B legend Stevie Wonder teams up with pop princess Ariana Grande in the high-energy, gospel-tinged showstopper, "Faith," from the soundtrack of the 2016 animated family flick, Sing.



In the first line of the song, Wonder describes a young woman with unusual footwear and a spring in her step: "See the girl with the diamonds in her shoes? Yeah / She walks around like she's got nothin' to lose / Yes she's a go-getter, she's everybody's type / She's a queen of the city but she don't believe the hype."

The meaning behind gem-embellished footwear has been hotly debated since Paul Simon first performed “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” on Saturday Night Live in 1986. In reviewing Simon's song about the unlikely romance between a poor boy and a rich girl in New York City, critics wondered if the diamond/shoe reference symbolized conspicuous consumption or something more positive and upbeat?

One contributor to songmeanings.com compared wearing diamonds on the soles of one’s shoes to looking at the world through rose-colored glasses.

“Everywhere you go, your interaction is done through the diamonds on your shoes,” he wrote, “and diamonds as a symbol of wealth, happiness and love mean you are interacting with your world through a constant ‘happy’ filter, you have a skip to your step, you are happy.”

We believe this is exactly what Wonder and his co-writers are conveying in "Faith," which can be heard during the opening credits of Sing, which featured an all-star voice cast (Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane and Scarlett Johansson) and grossed $634 million worldwide. It even spawned a sequel, Sing 2, in 2021.

Grande was only 23 years old when she was invited to join Wonder (then 66) in a sound booth to record "Faith" in 2016. The spellbound singer recounted the experience during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

"Not only did I get to sing with him, but we were in the same booth," Grande said. "So it was like me and Stevie Wonder, arm in arm, holding hands in the booth, singing together, laughing, having a good time. I was like, 'Whoa.'

"Every time I got comfortable with the fact that I was in a booth arm-in-arm with Stevie Wonder, then he would hit a Stevie run and I'd be like 'Oh [bleep]' Stevie Wonder. It was surreal."

"Faith" charted in seven countries and was nominated for Best Original Song at the 74th Golden Globe Awards.

Please check out the video of Wonder and Grande performing "Faith." We also have the lyrics, below, if you'd like to sing along…

"Faith"
Written by Ryan Tedder, Stevie Wonder and Francis Farewell Starlite. Performed by Stevie Wonder, featuring Ariana Grande.

[Stevie Wonder:]
See the girl with the diamonds in her shoes? Yeah
She walks around like she's got nothin' to lose
Yes she's a go-getter, she's everybody's type
She's a queen of the city but she don't believe the hype
She's got her own elevation, holy motivation
'Til I wrote some letters on big bold signs

[Together:]
I got faith in you baby, I got faith in you now
And you've been such a, such a good friend of me
Know that I gotta love you somehow
I met you, hallelujah, I got faith

[Ariana Grande]
See the boy with the Stevie Wonder swag?
Ain't gotta clue all the magic that he has
He's a go-getter, he's everybody's type
I'ma make it my mission, make him feel alright
He's a twelve on a ten point, rockin' out to his joint
Just say the word 'cause I can sing all night

[Together:]
I got faith in you baby, I got faith in you now
And you've been such a, such a good friend of me
Know that I love you somehow (love you somehow)
I met you, hallelujah, I got faith

[Wonder:]
Faith, yeah
Yes I do, mmm
I get it runnin' and my mind goes crazy
I think about you mornin', noon, night and day

[Together:]
I get it runnin' and my mind goes crazy
I think about you mornin', noon, night and day
I get it runnin' and my mind goes crazy
I think about you mornin', noon, night and day
I got faith in you honey, I got faith in you girl
I met you, hallelujah

I got faith in you baby, I got faith in you now
And you've been such a, such a good friend of me
Know that I love you somehow (love you somehow)
I met you, hallelujah, I got faith
(Faith, faith, baby)

I got faith in you baby, I got faith in you now
And you've been such a, such a good friend of me
Know that I gotta love you somehow (love you somehow)
I met you, hallelujah, I met you, hallelujah
I met you, hallelujah, I got faith

Faith



Credit: Screen capture via Youtube.com / Stevie Wonder.