James "Jimmy" Weekley has lived in Pigeonroost Hollow in West Virginia for 70 years. He grew up surrounded by family and friends, part of a tight-knit community in the state's southern mountain valley. Like his grandfather, father, uncles and sons, Weekley worked as a coal miner. And like most West Virginians, Weekley saw coal as the economic lifeblood of his community.

About a month ago, I met Mabruk and Malik Eshnuk, a father and son who had traveled from Pittsburgh to western Libya to help rebels battling forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The family originally hails from the Libyan coastal city of Zawiya, but left years ago.

Mabruk and Malik were filled with optimism when I spoke to them. Mabruk, the father, had a ready smile and a voluble manner — he spoke so quickly it was often hard to follow him.

The turmoil in the stock market could curb the spending spree that's been underway in the tech industry, making it for start-ups to raise capital.

Money was on the mind of a group of about two dozen, carefully selected entrepreneurs gathered in Seattle this week.

They're all participants in TechStars, a boot camp and incubator for start-ups. By the end of the three-month program, most of them will be looking for funding from angel investors or venture capitalists.

Three years ago, the global economy was brought to the brink by a near meltdown of the international banking system. Now we're in trouble again, but this time our economic woes stem largely from the actions of governments. Escaping from this crisis is more of a political challenge than a financial one.

That doesn't necessarily mean it will be any easier.

On today's All Things Considered NPR's Kelly McEvers brings us an update on a story she reported in May. The story was about how the Bahraini government had started targeting women in effort to quell a rebellion that raged in the country since February.

Kelly reported on one women who agreed to be interviewed by NPR only if she could whisper and talk in English so the government could not track her down.

Banana peels don't get a lot of respect. Though we here at Shots have never actually heard of anyone slipping on one, it seems they're stuck in the cultural lore as a nuisance, or even a hazard.

But a Brazilian researcher, who also happens to be a banana lover, has taken an interest in the lowly banana peel and is helping to remake its image. The banana peel, it turns out, can take water dirtied by heavy metals from mining operations or other activities and turn it to clean drinking water.

Researchers have created a new thin flexible sensor that can be applied with water, like a temporary tattoo. Measuring activity in the brain, heart and muscles, the innovation could cut down on the number of wires and cables medical personnel use to monitor patients, among other applications.

The electronics can bend, stretch and squeeze along with human skin, and maintain contact by relying on "van der Waals interactions" — the natural stickiness credited for geckoes' ability to cling to surfaces.

As the Republican presidential hopefuls converge on Iowa this week for Thursday night's debate and Saturday's influential straw poll, we caught up with Republican strategist Marc Lampkin, deputy campaign manager for George W. Bush's 2000 presidential bid and a former staffer to Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) years before he became House speaker. His thoughts on the unofficial kickoff to the GOP primaries:

People with osteoarthritis in their knees aren't getting much exercise, a new study finds, even though exercise actually helps reduce pain and stiffness and can prevent future disability. What kind of exercise would help beat the pull of the couch? Try walking and swimming, doctors say.

It's not a huge surprise that exercise doesn't appeal to people with arthritis. Who wants to run with aching knees? It's human nature to want to coddle aches, not exorcise them.