ooVoo opens up 12-way chat on Facebook and the iPad, gives other apps a facelift

If there's some video chat corollary to Moore's Law, ooVoo is adhering to it. Almost a year to the day after announcing six-way calls, the company is expanding its offerings to include 12-way chats on both Facebook and ooVoo's iPad app. It would seem that on FB, at least, that means true 12-way, face-to-face conversations -- an obvious one-up to Facebook's native video calling app, which is powered by Skype. On the iPad, however, that 12-way claim comes with a substantial quid pro quo: while you can partake in chat with 12 people at once, you can only view up to four people's streams at a time. Moving on, folks using ooVoo on Android or the iPhone will notice some UI tweaks starting today, while people plugged into the desktop version will be treated to a more drastic overhaul. Rounding out the list of newsy bits, the ability to record and upload video chats to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter is now free. You can get your update on now at ooVoo.com, the Apple App Store or Google Play, and we've got one last screen shot after the break to help illustrate what's on tap.

Continue reading ooVoo opens up 12-way chat on Facebook and the iPad, gives other apps a facelift

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The real 'Dancing' star? Host Tom Bergeron

Adam Taylor / ABC

By Ree Hines

The end of yet another season of "Dancing With the Stars" is upon us, and like others before it, it's had plenty of bad ballroom moments. Judges' scores often didn't match the dances. Results shows featured more filler than action. And one twist even took power away from the people who watch the show.

But it wasn't all bad. In fact, one part of this season -- and the others before it -- was perfect. When it comes to fine form and show-saving service, host Tom Bergeron deserves all 10s.

Sure, Tom doesn't have to teach celebs to salsa, evaluate their moves or even hit the floor himself (except for that one time when he did just that), but that doesn't mean he's not able to carry the show when the other parts fall apart.

He is, after all, the best live-TV host in the biz (no offense to the also awesome Ryan Seacrest), and that means something.

This season it's meant defusing tension, wise-cracking through dull moments and even acting as the ballroom's always-appropriate father figure.

As for the tension, for a show chock-full of sequined costumes and spray tans, "Dancing" features as surprising amount of high-stress moments. Sometimes they're the result of problems on the panel (such as inequitable scoring) or grumpy pros (such as Maksim Chmerkovskiy after facing some of that inequitable scoring) and sometimes it's just the normal tension that comes with face-to-face critiques.

Regardless of the cause, Tom's there to save the day with his quick wit -- or in the case of moody Maks, he's there with a hop and camera-ready reaction when the pro gooses him (and mad or not, Maks always gooses him).

Back in week six, when head judge Len Goodman nitpicked William Levy's rumba for featuring too much side-to-side hip moves when what Len really wanted to see was "back and forth action," Tom didn't skip a beat before telling the audience "Later at home tonight, Len will be reading 'Fifty Shades of Grey.'"

Of course, some situations call for more than a quick zinger. Good thing Tom shines during the serious moments, too.

Longtime viewers will no doubt recall Tom's fast thinking back in the show's fifth season, when Marie Osmond passed out on stage. Tom knelt by her side, showed concern, maintained a calm demeanor for the audience and threw to a commercial as easily as if it had all been rehearsed.

This season, when "Dancing" queen Katherine Jenkins had her own panicked crisis following an injury on the dance floor, Tom was by her side and once again making sure all was well before getting back into the usual swing of the show.

Another rescue Tom deserves credit for was his role navigating the dreaded Dance Duel. This season's dance-off twist prevented the audience from having a say in the eliminations. Sure they were still encouraged to vote, but they could only help determine the bottom two pairs. The judges picked who would stay and who would go based on slap-dash duels.

Needless to say, many fans of the show weren't fans of the twist, and the pros and the stars felt much the same. But someone had to keep it moving and check in with the celebs after the judges delivered their Duel reviews. Normally the post-judge chatter goes to co-host Brooke Burke Charvet, who's often called the Brooke-bot due to her predictable questions made up largely of the line "How does that feel?" But Tom mixed it up when it was his turn.

"I know Brooke gets some heat for saying (that)," he told Entertainment Weekly. "I found myself treating it like it was a landmine. I didn't want to step on."

And he didn't. But that's Tom. He's always on his toes. And he's just as good out of the ballroom when he's out promoting the show.

When asked what fans could expect on "Dancing" in the future, he once deadpanned to Maximo TV: "Well, there will be more people getting spray tanned and dancing. Then there will be fewer of them every week. And at the end, somebody will win a little goofy trophy and go, 'Really?!'"

It's almost time to bring out that goofy trophy this season. But should the ballroom bosses decide to tweak the show's formula before returning for next season, here's hoping they realize that Tom's the one part of the show they should never change.

Would you still tune in to the ballroom bash if Tom Bergeron ever left the show? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

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Astrophile: The case of the disappearing pulsar

Astrophile is our weekly column on curious cosmic objects, from the solar system to the far reaches of the multiverse

Object: pulsar in a double system
Orientation: out of view

The crime scene: 1600 light years away in the constellation Puppis. The victim: radio pulsar J0737-3039B. For five years, Pulsar B had blinked faithfully at a team of astronomers watching from radio telescopes on Earth. The star was a spectacular find: unlike every other pulsar ever observed, this one was in a close binary orbit with another pulsar. Together, the pair provided a precise laboratory to test Einstein's theory of general relativity, and a means of detailing how pulsars behave.

But in March 2008, Pulsar B went dark.

"We weren't able to detect the pulsar at all," says Maura McLaughlin of West Virginia University in Morgantown. "It's the first time we've ever seen a pulsar disappear."

This cosmic whodunit is without a culprit, however. No one snuffed out Pulsar B ? it just rotated out of view.

J0737-3039A/B, the first double-pulsar system ever, was discovered in 2003 by the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia.

Pulsar A spins once every 23 milliseconds. Pulsar B is slower, completing a rotation once every 2.8 seconds. Pulsar B passes in front of its partner every 2.4 hours, and its strong magnetic field blocks the light from Pulsar A for about 30 seconds.

The fact that each pulsar's light has to pass the other on its way to Earth provided an exquisite test of general relativity's dictum that mass bends spacetime. If spacetime is like a sheet, a massive object like a pulsar is similar to a heavy ball sitting on that sheet and creating a well. That means the pulses from Pulsar A should arrive microseconds later than usual when they travel past Pulsar B ? and they do. The data agrees with Einstein's predictions to within 99.99 per cent, McLaughlin says.

"We can see the light from one pulsar being bent as it travels through the gravitational well of the other pulsar," she says. "It's really neat. We have proof that one of these objects is distorting spacetime."

The eclipsing pulsars also provided a test of "spin precession", the idea that the pulsars' axes should wobble around like a top as they spin. Rene Breton, then a graduate student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and colleagues measured the light from 63 eclipses collected over four years at the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. They combined those measurements with a model to infer the shape of Pulsar B's magnetic field. From there they figured out where its spin axis was pointed.

The study was among the first to observe spin precession in a real astrophysical system ? another triumph for general relativity. It showed that, over four years, the axis rotated at a rate of a bit less than 5 degrees per year. Over 75 years, the beam will wobble in a full circle.

"It proves that the precession is a real effect ? it's really happening," McLaughlin says.

But sadly, Pulsar B's precession means it rotates in and out of view from Earth.

"The pulsar has been getting fainter and fainter and fainter since we found it. Then a few years ago we just weren't able to detect it at all," McLaughlin says.

Astronomers at Green Bank still check once a month to see if the pulsar has returned yet. Because it's always rotating, the beam should come back. Depending on the beam's shape, it could be as early as 2014 or as late as 2030.

But there's a silver lining. The fact that at least one double pulsar system is currently masquerading as an ordinary pulsar-neutron star system means that there are probably many more double pulsars out there ? thousands in our galaxy alone, according to a new study led by McLaughlin's group.

"We expect there to be lots of other B pulsars out there, whose beams are precessing out of and into our line of sight," she says.

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U.S. Advisers Say 'No' to Routine PSA Tests for Prostate Cancer

MONDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) -- In a highly anticipated move sure to unleash heated debate, a prominent U.S. government advisory panel is recommending that men of all ages no longer be screened for prostate cancer by undergoing the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent group of medical experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine, said PSA screening results in overdiagnosis of prostate cancer and unnecessary treatment that can leave men impotent and incontinent.

This final recommendation comes seven months after the task force drafted a report giving a "D" rating for the PSA blood test. Previous guidelines had stated that most men should undergo screening beginning at age 50.

"Some may say that by rating the test a 'D' we're taking away the possibility of an informed decision, but we don't want that to be the case," said task force co-vice chair Dr. Michael LeFevre, a professor in the department of family and community medicine at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. "This decision does not preclude a man choosing to be screened."

The task force is the same panel that in 2009 rejected regular mammograms for women in their 40s, after also concluding the benefits don't outweigh the harms.

The new recommendation is published online May 22 in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

About 242,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in Americans this year, and about 28,000 will die from it, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. More than two-thirds of those deaths occur after age 75, the task force said.

PSA tests -- which measure prostate-specific antigen, a protein produced by the prostate gland -- can detect which men are developing the malignancy. But they cannot discern between cases that will never become life-threatening and those that require treatment, such as surgery, radiation or hormone therapy.

Basing its recommendation mainly on two major trials of PSA testing in asymptomatic men in the United States and Europe, the task force concluded screening may only help one man in every 1,000 to avoid dying from prostate cancer. Up to five in 1,000 men will die within a month of prostate cancer surgery, the panel said, and between 10 and 70 per 1,000 men will suffer lifelong adverse effects, such as urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction and bowel dysfunction.

Many will also suffer unduly from persistent anxiety, the report said.

Critics of the task force's decision said the group underestimated the PSA test's benefits and overestimated its harms and also overlooked significant methodological flaws in the studies on which it based the "D" recommendation. None of the task force members are urologists or oncologists, making them unqualified to broach the topic, some health experts said.

"I think they're throwing away the baby with the bathwater," said Dr. William Catalona, a professor of urology and director of the clinical prostate cancer program at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who wrote an accompanying journal editorial condemning the move.

"There's just no other way to detect prostate cancer early than through PSA testing," Catalona added. "If we were to completely stop PSA testing in all men . . . it would result in countless men dying of metastatic prostate cancer. People are happy to be cured of their prostate cancer, even if they have some side effects."

Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society and an outspoken figure on the pros and cons of cancer screening tests, encouraged men to make their own choice about PSA screening while keeping the risks and benefits in mind. Certain men, including blacks and those with a family history of the disease, are at significantly higher risk of developing prostate cancer, he noted.

"I am hoping this (recommendation) shuts down mass screenings, where men are only told that this will help them, which is stretching the truth," Brawley said. "They're rarely told about the potential for harm and that, for the people running the screening, the [venture] is usually quite lucrative for them."

LeFevre said it remains to be seen whether health insurers will change their coverage of PSA screening based on the task force's recommendation. For one thing, insurers aren't supposed to tailor coverage decisions to USPSTF guidelines, he said.

"If you look at the overall costs of screening, the PSA test itself is very small," LeFevre said. "I'd be surprised to see them take what I call the political risk of backing away from that."

More information

For more on prostate cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

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Wisconsin April 2012 Housing Statistics | Wisconsin Real Estate ...

The Wisconsin housing statistics are now in for April of 2012. Here is an excerpt from what the Wisconsin Realtors Association (WRA) had to say:

?The strong pace of existing home sales continued, with 10 straight months of double-digit sales growth. Home sales rose 19.5 percent in April 2012 compared to April 2011, according to the most recent monthly report by the Wisconsin REALTORS^??Association (WRA). Home prices were also up for the second straight month, rising 2.4 percent to $128,000 in April compared to April 2011.?

?After several years of a stagnate housing market, it?s encouraging to see sustained growth in home sales, especially as we enter the summer, which is the prime season for home sales in the state,? said Rob Keefe, Chairman of the WRA board of directors.

The WRA says an improving state jobs market is helping home sales. Since December, the state has added nearly 18,000 nonfarm private jobs even as government employment fell by 3,400 based on seasonally adjusted estimates.

Below are the number of Home Sales and Median House Prices for the state of Wisconsin, Rock County, and Dane County. These stats include Janesville and Madison. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions pertaining to these figures. As you can see, home sales have been increasing substantially this year. The median sale price in Dane County has risen approximately $8,500 year over year. In Rock County Wisconsin, the median sale price has fallen, $2,450, year over year.

If you would like some insight into how much your home is currently worth, I would be happy to provide you with a free comparative market analysis. This is a report that gives a close estimate to what your home might sell for in your current local Wisconsin real estate market.?Has your home value?fallen?below?what you currently owe??A?short sale?may be right for your situation. Visit the following page on?Wisconsin Short Sales.

Housing Statistics for the State of Wisconsin:

April 2012
Home Sales: 5,252
Median Home Price: $127,900

April?2011
Home Sales: 4,365
Median Home Price: $125,000

Housing Statistics for Dane County, WI:

April?2012
Home Sales: 503
Median Home Price: $201,500

April?2011
Home Sales: 436
Median Home Price: $193,000

Housing Statistics for Rock County, WI:

April?2012
Home Sales: 140
Median Home Price: $87,500

April?2011
Home Sales: 172
Median Home Price: $89,950

This information is courtesy of the WRA, Wisconsin Realtors Association. Please follow this link for further details:?WRA Housing Statistics

View my report from last month.?Wisconsin March Housing Statistics

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3. Wisconsin February 2012 Housing Statistics The Wisconsin housing statistics are now in for February of...
4. Wisconsin July 2011 Housing Statistics The Wisconsin housing statistics are now in for July of...
5. Wisconsin June 2011 Housing Statistics The Wisconsin housing statistics are now in for?June of 2011....

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