Technology Slice Blog

Billy Ray Cyrus Could Have Been Better - Country music singer and actor Billy Ray Cyrus made waves when he said the Disney Channel TV show "Hannah Montana" destroyed his family, led to his divorce and caused his daughter, singer/actress Miley Cyrus to spin out of control. But this morning on "Good Morning America," the 49-year-old Cyrus sought to clarify those comments, telling "GMA" host Robin Roberts that a lot of what was written in the Feb. 22 issue of GQ Magazine "wasn't exactly what I said." "The way they wrote it, 'Hannah Montana,' you know, destroyed my family -- what I mean to say, and what I hope I said was, fame, the pressures of fame … fame can be a dangerous animal," Cyrus said. "And it's a delicate thing. It's funny. You know, when you get in this industry and … you strike so hard for that moment. But, fame is dangerous …" He said his family was upset with him for the comments to GQ. ...

Royal Philharmonic Plants - The 33-member orchestra played a three-hour recital to an auditorium packed with greenery to help test the theory that plants grow better when played classical music. The unorthodox audience was made up of over 100 different varieties of plants and bulbs including geraniums, fuchsias and perennials. Scientists have claimed that classical music - and the reverberation of sound waves - is thought to stimulate protein production in plants. In theory, this is thought to lead to increased plant growth, although experts have long been divided on the subject. Researchers have previously exposed rice plants to classical music and noted that some samples responded to noise levels with increased gene activity. A 2007 study by the South Korea National Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology showed two samples reacted positively to 14 different pieces of classical music. Royal Philharmonic Plants

Displaced People Global High - The number of internally displaced people worldwide reached 27.5 million in 2010, the highest number since the mid-1990s even though the situation in Africa improved, a refugee agency said on Wednesday. While refugees who cross a country's external border gain rights under international law, internally displaced people (IDPs) who have been forced to move due to conflict or hunger have no such rights in many countries. The number of IDPs in Africa fell by 4 percent to 11.1 million, while all other regions showed an increase, according to the annual report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center of the Norwegian Refugee Council. By comparison, there are about 15 million refugees worldwide, the report said. "This positive (African) trend gives us hope," said the report. "Indeed, the African continent remains at the forefront of policy development in support of IDP rights." The African Union (AU) in 2009 adopted the K...