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The sand is pumped underground along with water and other chemicals to extract oil and natural gas trapped deep in rock. But researchers found that air samples taken at some drilling sites contained high enough levels of very fine silica particles to be dangerous to workers.

A new documentary looks at obsessive fans of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror film The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. These fanatics look for hidden meanings in the movie, and while some of their theories sound outrageous, it's too simple to call such thinking deranged.

Over the past three decades, artist and sculptor Arthur Wood has turned his four-story home into a towering cathedral built out of salvaged junk. But after a fire in 2006, the New York City Department of Buildings determined that the Clinton Hill landmark was no longer a safe place to live.

The housing recovery is well on its way, economists say, and Americans are becoming more comfortable spending on things like remodeling, moving, gardening and furniture. One economist expects increased housing wealth to boost consumer spending by $100 billion this year.

This model was hailed as a success in Somalia and is now being marshaled to fight rebels in the eastern Congo. It involves Western nations providing financial support to African troops who do the peacekeeping. But why are African countries so silent about their casualty figures?

When does a story about science become science fiction? Cosmologist Lawrence Krauss and theoretical physicist Brian Greene discuss how to spin a yarn about string theory or the Big Bang, without hyping the science. And novelist Ian McEwan, whose books touch on neurosurgery and quantum field theory, talks about what science offers to fiction.

South Korean company Samsung is the world leader in smartphone and cell phone sales. Bloomberg journalist Sam Grobart gained access to the company's headquarters, and wrote about his findings in Bloomberg Businessweek. Weekends on All Things Considered guest host Laura Sullivan talks to Growbart about some of the surprising things he found within the company, and how it became a global powerhouse.

In recent months, there have been bipartisan calls for more transparency in the Obama administration's drone program. Host Rachel Martin talks with Gregory McNeal, a professor of national security law at Pepperdine University's School of Law, about proposals to bring more openness and accountability. One idea is the creation of a "drone court" that would review decisions to target and kill suspected militants.

Phil Ramone was a violin prodigy; he played for Queen Elizabeth when he was 10. As a fledgling recording engineer, he manned the booth for "Alice's Restaurant." And as a producer, he recorded hits for Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel and Paul Simon. As NPR's Sami Yenigun reports, Ramone died Saturday at the age of 79.

Call it minimal Motown: The Canadian band is four singers, a drummer — and that's it.