By Lindsey Bell

New Way of Detecting Cancer

There’s a new way to detect cancer, but it’s not a medical test like anything you’ve ever seen before. The California Canine Training Center has trained dogs to detect cancer in urine samples through smell.

Dierdra McElroy, the head of California Canine, recently shared with Fox News about one of her dogs, Olivia, who has a 98 percent accuracy result when attempting to detect cancer in urine samples. McElroy started California Canine in 2010 to train dogs to sniff out narcotics. But for the past few years she has been working with dogs of various breeds and sizes to detect cancer instead. Getting dogs into hospitals and doctor’s offices hasn’t been easy, McElroy said. She hopes that soon her dogs will be able to help provide early cancer detection.

Switzerland Is the Best Place to Live

U.S. News & World Report recently released the results of their annual survey about the best places in the world to live. “Switzerland took the top spot for the first time based on a combination of its attitude toward education, democracy, business, and quality of life,” reported The New York Times. America, which held the number 4 slot last year, slid down the list to number 7.

The survey compiled the opinions of over 21,000 “business leaders, informed elites, and general citizens.” The results were broken down into categories such as best countries for women, most powerful countries, best countries for children, and others. While America held on to the title of most powerful country, Switzerland took the number 1 spot for overall best country to live in. Canada ranked second, Britain third, and Germany fourth.

Man Transforms Potholes into Art

When Jim Bachor drives over a pothole, he sees more than just an annoying hole in the road. He sees the beginnings of an art project. Bachor’s neighborhood in Chicago was so full of potholes that he began filling them himself. He didn’t fill them with plain concrete, though. Instead he transformed them into beautiful works of art. What used to be an ugly pothole is now a street mosaic in the form of a flower, bird, picture, or funny saying. His most popular piece is a mosaic that reads, “This is not a pothole anymore.”

He makes the mosaics out of glass and marble and has found that these materials hold up very well on the streets. Each piece takes about 8-10 hours for Bachor to create. One woman recently told Lee Cowan with CBS News that she loves the mosaics. “I think it’s great. . . . Looks beautiful. I laugh every time I see it.”

Former Westboro Baptist Church Member Explains Why She Left

Megan Phelps-Roper grew up in the controversial Westboro Baptist Church that is known for protesting at military funerals and targeting gays and Jews. At a young age she held signs at protests and yelled angry words at those with whom she disagreed.

In 2009 she joined Twitter, and that’s when her life began to change. She began interacting with people with whom she disagreed and realized they weren’t awful people as she had been led to believe. “They didn’t abandon their beliefs or their principles, only their scorn,” she shared at a recent TED Talks event.

The love of these people, Megan said, is what led her to leave the Westboro Baptist Church in 2012. Now Megan is on a mission to help people understand the power of loving dialogue, even with people with whom you don’t agree.

Lindsey Bell is an author and speaker living in Southwest Missouri with her husband, Keith, and their two children (lindseymbell.com).