The Real Housewives of Orange County Recap: Glamping Trip!

Last week on the RHOC, Tamra had her breast reduction surgery, Gretchen had started auditioning for The Pussycat Dolls and, of course, there was more drama with Vicki.

Just another day in Orange County, right? Is there any other type of day?

Let’s check in with these crazy women once again with THG's +/- recap!

Vicki visits Tamra and asks “Where are your boobs?” Then Vicki tells Tamra that she and Alexis are friends now, except “you can’t fix stupid anywhere in the world.”

This friendship is going to be an awesome one, right? Because friendships motivated by jealousy always are.

Alexis, meanwhile, is planning a Glamour Camping (Glamping) party and she’s making S’more’s goodie bags. She thinks it’ll be great to get the girls together in a place where they can lounge in their sweats and get to know one another.

Except her nose isn’t entirely healed so she can’t carry anything heavy or bend over. I can’t wait to see how Glamping goes. Can’t wait. Plus 10.

Gretchen’s nursing a sore throat and Slade tries to help her rest her voice by telling her to text him if she needs anything from downstairs, to which she replies “I’m writing it!” Minus 5 for missing the point.

Alexis is really concerned with her nose. Vicki says she can’t even tell Alexis had a nose job, but that’s because she doesn’t spend a lot of time staring at Alexis’ nose. It’s totally obvious she’s had a nose job and on top of that she won’t stop talking about it.

Brianna, Heather, and Vicki trash talk Alexis’ decision to bring her hair and make-up girl, Shannon, along as her “medical support” for the trip. And Alexis and Shannon decide to slam dance in their vehicle on the drive to the Glamping facility. That can’t be good for Alexis’ nose, right?

Eddie comes to visit Tamra and brings her flowers. Plus 5.

Tamra’s using her old implants, which she requested to bring home with her post-surgery since they’ve been a part of her life for so long, as ice packs. Plus 5. Somehow, I find this hilarious and it makes her way more down-to-earth.

The girls have arrived at the Glamp site and they learn that while they may have King-sized beds, they’ll be cooking their own food. Heather takes the lead on what they order which seems to annoy Alexis. Minus 5 to Heather.

But really, Heather’s the one who thinks cooking equals opening a take-out container, so letting her order isn’t the smartest move these girls could make.

The girls gather around a picnic table and Alexis goes on a tirade about how there’s nothing glamorous about this at all! They have no wine! There’s no counter space in the bathrooms! They don’t have red and white wine glasses! They have no ice for their noses! Minus 10.

Vicki’s disappeared from the group to go call Brooks to let him know she’s there and she’s safe. Brianna says their relationship (Brooks and Vicki) is weird. That’s the truth. Plus 5.

Alexis and Heather start talking about how Alexis and her husband are renting their house in a market when they could own. This is hard for Heather to understand and really none of Heather’s business. Plus 5 to Alexis for keeping cool.

Alexis brought everyone infinity scarves as gifts for Glamping. In a one-on-one, Vicki says that without Tamra around, she really likes Alexis.

Heather’s determined to salvage this Glamping-turned-camping experience, so she actually pays attention to the guy who tells them how to start the fire so they can cook their food. Plus 5.

Alexis, meanwhile, is ready to just order a pizza.

While cooking, Vicki can be heard saying “Ow! I keep burning my fingers!” To which Brianna replies “Stop sticking your fingers in the fire, Mom!”

How did Brianna get so smart? It can’t be because she sucked wisdom from Vicki’s bosom. Unless she sucked all the intelligence Vicki had.

A skunk crashes their party and Vicki saves the night by shouting at it and chasing it away. If only the skunk had gotten her first.

Vicki uses Brianna’s cancer scare for sympathy. Again. And talking about how it’s caused her to reevaluate life. She says she wants to make amends for her part in any wrongs that have been done. But only her part. Alexis buys it. Seems like Heather does, too.

Heather calls home and her husband says he’s worked his regular life. She got to sleep. She wins.

Vicki asks Brianna if she’s becoming a rebel and then asks about her relationship with her boyfriend and wonders why she had to find out that Brianna was in a relationship from Facebook. (Uh-oh, Brianna.)

In a one-on-one, Brianna says she tries to keep the details of relationship as vague as possible because her mother will have to know ALL THE THINGS about it otherwise. Smart girl, that one. Plus 5.

With Heather’s insistence, Vicki’s decided she’s going to buy herself something “fabulous” to wear on her ring finger since she’s no longer wearing her wedding ring. Alexis says Brooks should buy her a “promise ring.” I can’t tell if Alexis is joking or serious.

After a “swarm” of bees causes the women to relocate inside the market diner, Heather puts on her financial planner hat when they start talking about safe communities and diamonds. Heather says they should all make sure their diamonds are insured in case of theft and Alexis says she wears a fake one most of the time.

Between the renting thing and the fake ring thing, alarm bells are ringing in Heather’s head. Plus 5 for the super sleuth.

Back in the real world, Gretchen and Slade go to a vocal producer’s studio to work on her songs for The Pussycat Dolls show. Gretchen’s really struggling.

The producer tells her she’s going to have to keep working on it. In the car on the ride home, Gretchen blames Slade. If he hadn’t done his improv routine, she wouldn’t have gotten into that screaming match with Vicki. Slade tells her she doesn’t have to fight his battles. Minus 10 all around.

EPISODE TOTAL: +15! SEASON TOTAL: -25!

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10 Colleges That Are Taking on Personal Finance ...

As the economy struggles to recover from the downturn that has marked the past few years, many are focusing increased amounts of attention on their personal finances, hoping to spend less, save more, and plan for the future. The trouble is, the majority of young people have no idea where to start. A

by Charles Schwab found that only 52% of high school students have savings accounts, even though 75% of them claim to be knowledgeable about money management. Somewhere along the line, students are missing out on key pieces of financial education and many schools are starting to take note.

Several states now require personal finance courses at the high school level, but colleges are getting in on the game as well, with some even making personal finance courses a requirement for graduation. Whatever the rules, it?s clear that young people need a bit of help when it comes to learning how to manage money, and these colleges are making sure that their students will be ahead of the game. Mark this year?s Financial Literacy Month by learning about just a few of the colleges and universities that are stressing financial education.

Penn State Erie

In a partnership with National Educators Council, Penn State Erie is taking part in the Financial EduNation Campaign. Starting in April 2012, the college will be providing free personal finance programs to students, parents, educators, and other organizations throughout the state as their part of promoting the campaign. Aimed at teens and young adults, the programs are completed online through a program that features celebrities, business leaders, and sports stars. So far, the school has reached out to more than 25,000 students in middle school through college, but they hope to expand the program during the coming month.

Indiana University Kelley School of Business

Students at this business school can get a crash-course in financial education in a sophomore course taught by Professor Brian Jbara. Jbara has reported an increased interest in his course in recent years, as students worried about a poor job market, student loan debt, and a generally poor economy look to build real-world skills before graduation. Jbara believes that helping students to learn more about their financial lives is critical to their success in their first jobs and beyond. His course has grown from just 25 students to 225 over the past 10 years he has been teaching it, a testament to the growing popularity of personal finance education on college campuses.

NYU

At NYU?s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, there are a number of personal finance courses students can take. While the courses may have been largely ignored in past years, that isn?t the case anymore, as students flock to the office to register for personal finance courses. In fact, the courses were so popular and had so much interest from students outside of professional fields that the school actually added several other sections to their line-up. In addition, the school has been approached by family members of students who want to learn more about how to address their own financial situations, and the school may branch out further in coming years to meet the needs of a community that increasingly wants to build better personal finance skills.

Washington University, St. Louis

Professor Michael Gordinier has taught a personal finance course at Wash U since 2003, open to any student at the school in their junior or senior year of study. Over the past few years, the course has grown in popularity and has become one of the better-attended and most-requested classes on campus, boasting a class size of almost 200 students, up from just 80 a decade ago. The course is often more full than that, however, as many business students often audit the course (they cannot take it for credit) just to get information. At the end of the semester, many students thank Gordinier for helping them save more or get out of debt, a big payoff for a semester of work. Gordinier thinks all schools should offer similar programs, which are currently pretty uncommon, to students so that they can learn practical skills in money management.

Champlain College

At Champlain College, students don?t get a choice when it comes to taking courses in finance; they?re required. Undergrads at Champlain must attend two sessions on financial literacy during their time at the school, a change that was made because administrators felt too many students were graduating without basic financial skills. The courses cover topics like credit scores, saving, budgeting, retirement, and credit strategies, among others. Students learn fundamentals that will help them get jobs, buy homes, and manage debt. In addition to the required courses, students at Champlain can continue their financial education through courses in student loans and employment benefits. The school hopes to host a financial literacy conference in the coming years.

Drexel University

If you want to take a personal finance course at Drexel University in Philadelphia, you had better get ready to battle for a spot. The last three times the school offered a personal finance course for business students the sections filled up almost immediately, forcing the school to schedule additional sections to meet the demand. While personal finance courses were limited to business majors in the past, the school is working to create additional sections of the course for non-business majors due to its overwhelming popularity. School administrators say they aren?t surprised by the number of students looking for practical, real-world information, especially in an uncertain job market.

Baylor University

Baylor University first launched a personal finance course 15 years ago at the request of parents who wanted their children to emerge from college with some practical skills under their belts. Franklin Potts, the professor teaching the class, now sees hundreds of students each semester. Potts believes that schools put too much emphasis on information that isn?t useful to everyday life, sacrificing lessons in important practical matters. And the course isn?t popular with just liberal arts majors; business school students flock to it as well, as many business courses don?t ever touch on issues like retirement, insurance, or budgeting.

Wellesley College

Called Econ 223, you might not realize this class even has anything to do with personal finance at first glance, but it?s helping students at Wellesley learn some pretty fundamental skills. Professors Anne Witte and Saundra Gulley inundate students with the essentials of personal finance, from insurance, to retirement funds, to managing credit. The duo created the course about five years ago when they noticed that students on campus seemed wholly unprepared to manage their own finances, and it remains a popular choice on campus today. Witte says that she believes every student should have to take a class like this one, so that they can learn from things in the classroom rather than making real-world mistakes.

Kansas University

Students at KU now have the option of taking a personal finance course during their time at the school, getting the chance to learn about topics like budgeting, bill paying, renting, retirement, investing, and even buying a home. The course was created in the fall of 2007 at the urging of parents and business school faculty who thought the school sorely needed a more practical financial course for students. Today, about 100 students from different majors and levels are enrolled in the course and it is growing in popularity as students reap the benefits of their newfound financial knowledge.

Georgetown University

Georgetown costs students a pretty penny to attend, so it only makes sense that it would offer a course to help students manage their financial lives. After all, they?re going to have some serious loans to pay back. Seniors at the school can take part in a series of financial literacy workshops that cover topics like loan repayment, spending, credit cards, taxes, and employment benefits. In addition to these workshops, the school?s alumni association also takes part in a series called Common $ense, where students can connect with alumni to learn about a variety of financial issues.

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GM: Explosion at battery research facility ?unrelated to the Chevrolet Volt?

One person was hurt at the GM research site in Michigan during ?extreme testing on a prototype battery? unrelated to the Volt ?or any other production vehicle,? the company said.

An explosion during "extreme battery testing" Wednesday morning of a prototype energy cell at a General Motors battery research facility in Warren, Mich., injured one person and did major structural damage to the building.

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At the heart of the explosion was a lithium-ion battery, according to a fire department official cited in local news reports. The morning blast did not, however, involve batteries that power the Chevrolet Volt, the new plug-in hybrid car whose batteries caught fire weeks after a crash test, General Motors said in a statement.

But the flap over the Volt battery fire has left some insiders feeling more than a little peeved and defensive at the amount of news media attention being devoted to what they say is an almost inevitable, if not routine, event in the business of battery research and extreme testing.

"The whole reason they have these labs is precisely to do this kind of aggressive testing ? anticipating the worst thing a consumer could do with this product," says one expert with direct knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the explosion, who asked not to be named. "This is going to turn out to be a mountain out of a mole hill. Yeah, we're doing a lot of testing. That's what we have to do. Sometimes things explode."

?The incident is still under investigation by GM and the Warren authorities," the GM statement said. "Any information or discussion of the nature of the work in the lab or cause of the incident is entirely speculative and cannot be confirmed at this time. The incident was unrelated to the Chevrolet Volt or any other production vehicle. The incident was related to extreme testing on a prototype battery.?

Despite criticism of the Volt by conservative pundits, a follow-up investigation by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration concluded the new car was no more prone to fire than any other vehicle.

"The debate over batteries recently really hasn't been about safety so much as about their longevity," says Tom Turrentine, director of the plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle research center at the University of California, Davis. "I think we are mostly over the hump with battery safety. But there's no question that battery labs are notorious for explosions when they're testing."

Lithium-ion batteries are attractive to automakers because they can hold so much power ? about four times the amount of energy a conventional lead-acid battery. Even so, earlier lithium-ion batteries used in other commercial applications burst into flame on occasion. Laptop computer manufacturer Dell Computer recalled millions of batteries after a handful of its laptops burst into flames several years ago.

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Simple nests of apes are feats of engineering

When they are ready to snuggle up at the tops of trees, great apes make themselves cozy "nests" in which to rest for the night. New studies of these one-night nests reveal their incredible complexity.

"They are almost as complex as a man-made shelter you might make," study researcher A. Roland Ennos of the University of Manchester, in the United Kingdom, told LiveScience. "They know how the wood is going to break, and they have a feel for how strong they have to make it (the nest). That shows the apes have intelligence and have a feel for the physics of their environment."

These nests are about 4 to 5 feet long and about 3 feet wide (1.2 to 1.5 meters long, and slightly less that 1 meter wide). The apes make them in the forest canopy, which can be between 30 and 60 feet (10 and 20 m) up, and it takes them only about 10 minutes to build. They use the nests only once, and then move on. The nests keep them warmer, away from insects and keep them safe, up off the forest floor.

Nests for napping
In the new study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers studied fresh nests left by wild orangutans in Indonesia. They studied the size, shape and composition of the nests, which are made in the crooks of large branches; living branches about an inch (3 centimeters) wide, are bent and interwoven to form the nest.

"They are just bent. They can actually stay living and later on you can go back to them and see they are like an archeological artifact of all these strangely bent items," Ennos said. "It's very similar to weaving a basket, they have to break the branches, weave them together and form a nice, strong, rigid structure." [ Sleep Soundly: Images of Primate Nests ]

They even use the smallest branches to line the nest, building a mattress and pillow of sorts.

These complicated nests are a sort of tool for the apes. "In order to build these nests they must have some sort of picture and feel for the world and the strength of branches and how they behave," Ennos said. "People talk about man as the tool user and tool master, but the nest of the orangutan is really a complicated tool for sleeping."

Chimp nests
Other great apes make complex nests as well, including chimpanzees and bonobos. Another recent study, published March 28 in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, analyzed the nest-building habits of West African chimpanzees.

The researchers saw the chimps built nests very similar to those of the orangutans, except sometimes the chimps chose to nest on the ground. To find out what caused the chimps to sleep on the ground versus way up in the trees, where it's seemingly safer from predators, the researchers gathered information about the areas where they found either ground or tree nests.

Chimpanzee nest-building habits could provide clues to what drove humans from the trees. Researchers have suggested that perhaps a lack of trees in different habitats could have caused humans to nest on the ground. The new study didn't find evidence that ground-nesting chimpanzees do so because of a lack of trees. (Past research published in 2011 in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology found that chimp nests in trees were better at keeping away insects and were also warmer than sleeping on the ground.)

"This suggests that our direct ancestors were neither the only, nor the first, species to come down from the trees," study researcher Katherlijne Koops, of the University of Cambridge, said in a statement. "This is intriguing as it has long been believed that coming down from the trees was a crucial evolutionary shift."

You can follow LiveScience staff writer Jennifer Welsh on Twitter, on Google+ or on Facebook. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter and on Facebook.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

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Facebook Offers starts rolling out, spamming your news feed with coupons (video)

When Facebook first announced Offers you we're probably wondering if there was even room for yet another coupon service. Between Google, Groupon, Yelp, Living Social and countless others we're not entirely sure there's a niche left untapped for Facebook, but that isn't going to stop Zuck and crew from trying. The service is officially rolling out as we speak, and offering its wares to any business with a Facebook page, regardless of size. The hope is that it'll catch on with smaller businesses in particular, which will now have an easy way to place deals directly into user's news feeds. Of course, after the failure of Facebook Deals, you'd be forgiven for assuming this experiment is doomed from moment one. Check out the video after the break and the source link for more details.

Continue reading Facebook Offers starts rolling out, spamming your news feed with coupons (video)

Facebook Offers starts rolling out, spamming your news feed with coupons (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With $1M And An Alpha, Leaf Aims To Overhaul The Payments Experience For Local Merchants

Leaf, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup, is aiming to make the experience of paying in a shop more modern with paperless receipts for customers and transaction data in the cloud for merchants. Backed with $1 million in seed funding, the company just kicked off an alpha with more than a dozen merchants in Boston. It enters a super competitive and complicated space with many other players like PayPal, Intuit, Square, which has its own Pay With Square service, and Stockholm's iZettle. So first off, Leaf is not a mobile wallet. It's not a dongle. It's a service that's either an app integrated into a merchant's existing point-of-sale terminal or that's part of a special terminal that Leaf leases for $20 a month. There will also be a consumer-facing app that you can download in two weeks for the iPhone and Android devices.

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