Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Sep 1, 2011

Money Talks:

Today’s the day Netflix changes its pricing structure.
What it amounts to it separation of the monthly DVD rental price and its unlimited streaming plan. You can do one or the other for $7.99 a month, or both for $15.98 a month. And by the way, just because you signed up before the changeover, it doesn’t matter -your September bill will cost ya $15.98 if you don’t do anything.

Fashion Emergency:

Department store J-C Penny got a little flack yesterday over a girls t-shirt that had a message that lot of people considered offensive:
The shirt’s message: “I’m too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me.”
On top of that, the sales copy for the shirt on Penny's website read: “Who has time for homework when there’s a new JUSTIN BIEBER album out? She’ll love this tee that’s just as cute and sassy as she is.”
The website TheFrisky.com called out the retailer yesterday morning with a blog post that asked it’s readers to sign a petition against the “demeaning” t-shirt. They called it “proof that the bimbo-i-fication of girl culture is alive and well.”
Just a couple hours later, J-C Penny issued a statement that said they were “immediately discontinuing” sale of the shirt. They agreed the t-shirt did “not deliver an appropriate message” and apologized to customers. (Bartha)

Today's police blotter:

Cops say a medieval battle broke out on the streets of San Diego, California.
According to the NY Post, a teenager was throwing rocks at a passing S-U-V when a passenger opened a window and shot several arrows from a crossbow. The boy was hit. But, he's expected to recover. (Still)

Setting a good example:

Today's nominee for Consumer of the Week goes to 22-year-old ASHLEY McDOWELL of Spartanburg, SC, who thought she'd lucked into a great deal: $180 bucks for an iPad.
She paid the two men, who said they had bought several at bulk rate, they handed her a FedEx box, but when she took it home to open it --good guess-- no iPad inside. At least not a real one. It was a replica made out of a black piece of wood with the Apple logo and some stickers on it.
First red flag she should've picked up on: The two guys she bought it from were standing outside a McDonald's. On a Monday night. At 10 pm. Second clue: They asked for $300, she said she only had $180, they said okay. (Maiman)

Ways to tell if your iPad is a piece of wood (Maiman):

--Sold by the foot at the lumberyard
--Comes with free box of nails
--No disc tray, just a couple of tree knots
--Hard to set up the home page
--Hard to find the home page
--Special features section includes commentary from Bob the Builder
--Great for vegetable slicing when you can't find a cutting board
--Instead of a virus, succumbs to Dutch Elm Disease
--Screen cleaning requires Murphy's Oil Soap for Wood
--Termites