San Diego city workers helped a couple rescue an accidentally trashed $30,000 engagement ring from the Miramar Landfill — and the whole operation took just four minutes. Typically, the nasty process of digging through mountains of stinky trash bags in a hazmat suit could take many hours, and there's never a guarantee that the jewelry will be found at all. …

With their family's home reduced to ashes in the aftermath of the deadly Carr wildfire, Jerry Ogle and his dad returned to their property off Iron Mountain Road in Redding, Calif., with the hopes of finding a very special heirloom amidst the devastation. It was Ogle's grandmother's engagement ring — a precious gift given to him by his grandfather just …

A team of archeologists from Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority unearthed an elaborately worked 2,200-year-old golden earring bearing the likeness of a horned animal. The hoop earring was discovered during excavations just outside Jerusalem's walled Old City and was likely worn by a member of the elite class during a period of Greek influence. The earring is …

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you exceptional songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, the talented members of the One Voice Children’s Choir will dazzle you with their interpretation of Rihanna’s “Diamonds.” Their video at the end of this post has been viewed on YouTube nearly 24 million times. In the song, …

A Memphis plumbing crew required a high-tech camera and a little bit of luck to successfully rescue a diamond engagement ring that a bride-to-be accidentally flushed down a second-floor toilet. The ring had traveled 21 feet through the waste line and was just 12 inches from dropping into what plumbers call “The Abyss” when it was recovered. Last Tuesday morning …

Red Sox pitcher Joe Kelly said it was one of the "funniest, coolest and randomest" baseball stories he's ever been part of. It all went down at Boston's Fenway Park last week, and this is what happened… Tony La Russa, who owns three World Series rings and happened to be wearing one of them during Thursday night's Red Sox game, was …

By studying minute inclusions trapped within blue diamonds, scientists have been able to determine that their origin is far deeper in the Earth than other diamond varieties. The journal Nature recently revealed that blue diamonds form about 400 miles below the surface, four times deeper than about 99 percent of all other diamonds. “We knew essentially absolutely nothing about where …

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you new songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Thai-German pop star Jannine Weigel performs “Diamonds,” a tune about a boyfriend who gives her the confidence to shine like a precious stone. In the song, the multi-talented 18-year-old — whose Thai nickname “Ploychompoo” happens to mean “pink …

This October, Sotheby’s London will host its first-ever auction dedicated entirely to gold. Titled “The Midas Touch,” the sale will feature unusual golden artifacts cherry-picked from a wide range of Sotheby’s departments. According to the auction house, the various offerings will take collectors on a journey through the great civilizations of the world. The Midas Touch will put artists next …

Here's a fun piece of trivia regarding peridot, August's popular yellowish-green birthstone. According to the Smithsonian, peridot was first discovered on the Egyptian island of Topazios around 300 BC. The ancients anointed the vibrant green stone as the “gem of the sun” and appropriately named it "topazion" to honor its place of origin. Eventually, the name was shortened to "topaz." …