Blog Posts by Melissa Knowles

This story is a tearjerker, so grab your tissues now. A 92-year-old woman from Iola, Kansas, had a wish fulfilled by her family just six weeks before she died. Dorothy Ellis had seen a man flying over her house in a motorized parachute and decided that she wanted to do the same thing. So her family made her wish come true.

Dorothy's granddaughter Holly and the hospice nurse who cared for Dorothy made arrangements for a pilot to fly over the family's ranch house in southeastern Kansas. So on Sept. 18, 2012, on a crystal-clear day with blue skies above and green grass below, Dorothy was taken for the ride she had wished for in a rainbow-colored parachute, and her son Tom captured it all on video.

In all four minutes of "Grandma Dorothy Flies Over the Rainbow," viewers get to witness Dorothy living out her dream. Holly said, "It shocked the hell out of us," when they found out that this was what Grandma had in mind to do before she died. Holly added that her grandmother had said, "I

We are bombarded with commercials and advertisements on TV, on the radio, and of course right here on the Internet. They're unavoidable. In fact, ads are so prominent now that to get consumers' attention, marketing agencies have had to become extra-creative.

So if you're an ad agency looking for a creative way to get people's attention, look no further than the latest gimmick from Miracle Whip. They've launched a fake charity ad campaign called "Miracle Whip Open Mouth Anthem," encouraging people to "keep an open mouth."

The "We Are the World"-style song brings together a bizarre collection of celebrities, including Don Dokken, Gilby Clarke, Susan Boyle, Lance Bass, Wynonna Judd, and even the Village People for the collaboration.

Here's a sampling of the lyrics from the wacky spot: "In this world there's lots of turkey, but also a lot of fear. People making up their mind, before the facts are clear. And when it's time to make a sandwich, ugly judgment rears its head. If it's tangy,

Bullying is one of the biggest social problems facing our society, and the saying "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" not only is a cliché but also has been proved to be false. Words can indeed have a lingering effect on people's lives beyond their childhood.

Canadian poet Shane Koyczan brings to life his feelings about how bullying affected him in a new video that is going viral. Koyczan, previously known for his performance at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, combined the words of his poem "To This Day" with 20-second segments from different animators and motion artists.

The seven-minute video recounts some of Koyczan's haunting childhood memories. Each moment is a poignant reminder of the pain he felt being alone and also the pain that he shared with a childhood companion who was also the victim of bullying.

The video was posted to YouTube only a couple of days ago, and it already has been viewed more than one million

There is no good way to find out that your significant other is cheating on you, but one woman in Russia discovered her boyfriend's infidelity in a pretty surprising manner. Marina Voinova was looking up an address on Russia's version of Google Maps, Yandex Maps. She wanted to get a closer glimpse of a building using the street view feature. So she zoomed in, and there was her boyfriend Sasha with his arms around another woman.

Well, perhaps it was just an old picture that was taken before he and Marina were a couple. Only problem with that was that Marina and Sasha had been together for five years, and the Yandex Maps feature has only been around for three years. And, the plot thickens: Sasha is seen in the photograph with his arm in a cast, which he had to wear last summer.

When Sasha returned home, Marina asked him to type the address she had looked up into Yandex Maps. Once Sasha saw the incriminating image of himself, Marina said, his entire face changed color and he confessed

These days, many of us turn to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, and the like to catch up on our friends' lives, instead of picking up the phone to call them or paying them a visit. But getting bad news via social media about someone we love is a new and sometimes disturbing trend.

A Clayton County, Georgia, woman is outraged because after she searched for nearly a month for her son, she learned of his death via an unusual Facebook message from the police. The Clayton County Police Department sent the message to Anna Lamb-Creasey to inform her of the death of her son, Rickie Lamb, after he was struck by a vehicle on Jan. 24.

Lamb-Creasey told Atlanta's WSB-TV News that she was not aware that Facebook messages not sent from friends show up in another box titled 'other.' Lamb-Creasey was further confused because the message was sent by someone called Misty Hancock, but the message asked for Lamb-Creasey to contact Lt. Schindler. Clarence Cox, a spokesperson for the Clayton County

When you think of great escape artists, the names Harry Houdini and David Blaine likely come to mind. Both Houdini and Blaine are known for their amazing stunts and ability to get themselves out of seemingly impossible contraptions. Well, get ready to add a new name to your list, and it's an unexpected one.

Meet Mariska, aka the Houdini Horse. Her owners, Sandy and Don Bonem, say the 9-year-old Friesian mare has learned how to unlock almost every gate she has been put behind. In addition to her own enclosure, she also unlocks those of neighboring horses. The Bonems note that Mariska is particularly adept at getting into containers where food is stored.

Online, Mariska is receiving a lot of attention for her escape artist antics. A video featuring one of her exploits has climbed to over 750,000 views in a matter of weeks. Sandy Bonem wrote of her difficulty in keeping Mariska secure, "She learned each of these doors one step at a time. Then we added safety backups she is much too

If you built your dream home for yourself and your family and then were told by the government that it had to be knocked down, what would you do? That's the problem that 63-year-old farmer Robert Fidler is facing in the southern England county of Surrey, but there's more to the story.

In 2001, Fidler began constructing the home, which is now called Honeycrock Farmhouse and resembles a castle, but he did not get permission to build it from the Reigate and Banstead Borough Council. He secretly lived in the castle, which he hid under a large blue tarp and behind giant 40-foot-high bales of hay. In 2007, Fidler was ordered to tear down the four-bedroom home.

The guidelines from the council state that any structure built without planning permission but unchallenged for four or more years does not have to be demolished. Reigate and Banstead refused to grant retrospective planning permission, and after six years of fighting through the appeals system, Fidler and his wife, Laura, are being

How awesome would it be to sit at the gears of a fighter jet and see the world from tens of thousands of feet above ground at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour? Most of us will never get the opportunity to fly a fighter jet, of course, but worry not, you can now experience the view.

A new YouTube video uploaded by a Navy pilot gives viewers a firsthand experience inside the cockpit of an F-18 Super Hornet -- no rigorous training required. The video was uploaded by YouTube user Sir Francis 92, whose nickname matches the name on the pilot's helmet. It documents an entire flight from takeoff to landing from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Along the way, the pilot demonstrates some of the incredible rolls and turns that make these jets so special. The pilot even engages in a midair refueling from another jet.

More than 65,000 people have already viewed the 12- minute video, and people are in awe of the pilot's flying and service. One person wrote, "You sir are a badass."