Patrick Leblanc’s Blog

So i went to Macdonalds yesterday and i saw an ads basically saying “For each Happy Meals sold, we give 10cents to the McDonalds Fundation for Kids. Since 2004, we collected 20M$ this way.”

At first I said “Well that’s nice.”

Then while eating my double cheese burger, I did some napkin maths.

20 Millions $ this way is 200 millions Happy Meals sold, or 50 millions a year since their program started.

Now let’s assume that only children eat Happy Meals. They are about 5 millions children from 0 to 12 years old in Canada. that means that, in average, every single kids in Canada get 10 happy Meals a year.

Obviously doubt that every kids are going to the McDonalds. I also doubt the 0-4 yr old slice is going either.

Then we wonder why kids have a weight problem nowadays…

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I wrote a little armory tracker, that tracks your arena teams should you want to add them to it.

More features are gonna be released along the way!

more infos here: http://pleblanc.com/wowarmory/index.php

Any suggestions or comments are welcome!

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A spam bot is using this domain name as a reply-to address. I just want to assure you that WE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience it may have caused. I’m working with my sys admin to see what we can do about it.

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Read this open letter to the CRIA (RIAA equivalent here in Canada). Extremely well written and basically covers everything I think on the subject.

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Yesterday I was asking myself what is the meaning of life. Who doesn’t! I’m still annoyed by this consumerism and indeed the meaning of life it tends to dictate. We need to work, 40 hours a week or more because the generally accepted goal is to raise in society. Starting as John Doe ending up Bill Gates. Now that’s a success story. Generally money doesn’t make you happy. That’s the politically correct statement at least, because sure as hell companies can’t dream of you having too much money to spend and spend billions of dollars convincing you are so unhappy, you need to buy more stuff, so everybody is working their arse off so they can be like the politically correct way of being rich: Suburb house with 2 SUV’s and a BBQ under the porch nearby the heated pool. That’s until you get a job promotion leads to a bigger house, more luxurious (and of course less reliable) SUV’s, fancy (stainless steel of course!) appliances in the kitchen until you get a new job promotion, that will lead to more luxuries. The homoeconomicus is said to make all the choices wisely so he maximizes his pleasure from every dollar spent. It doesn’t say his goals are rational, just that it gives him pleasure. And of course the more we spend, happier companies are.

We (for the most part of the western world and specifically the USA) no longer live in Democracies, we live in Consumerocracies. Voting for right or left parties merely gives the illusion people are in control of the policies that are going to be applied where in reality lobbies are determining the way of life in a country. Americans clearly wanted a shift in Iraq policies when they renewed the congress and house. Yet nothing happened save few pathetic attempts to make the thing changes. From right to left, mainstream politicians calculate their every moves so they don’t have to stick to ideas. Outsiders like Ron Paul get buried by all the main stream medias because what he advocate would be bad for their business. It would be like well known authors and artists that would defend the end of copyrights…it’s kinda like sawing off the branch you’re sitting on. In the end these type of ideas don’t get heard by the mass.

The mass is plugged on TV 6 hours a day, receiving hundreds of advertising a day from channels that live (and quite well) from ads. SO of course they are nice to people feeding them. Those are the same people financing presidential candidates to make policies in their interest. How can you believe that fuel efficiency didn’t move a iota those past 20 years in the US on cars? Lack of technology? no. Lack of laws? Probably. Essentially, lack of interest from consumers. Gas doesn’t costs much. I don’t need a more efficient car.

And now what do you see: people are rushing on Toyota’s and Honda’s and Hybrids because gas is getting expensive. Gas got expensive in Europe since day one so that’s why they have ultra efficient diesels that can do 400 miles on a tank. Now that people are interested in greener and more efficient cars, what do you know, GM and ford start rolling hybrids. The ecology wave is hitting the Americans. The beauty of free market is that some entrepreneurs are jumping on this opportunity to create, improve, sell ecological concepts and goods. They will eventually get more and more money, capable of supporting financially a politician that will secure their market. This politician will have better representation, will become popular, TV will want to have on screen because people like them and therefore will be able to sell at a higher price the ads before his appearance and so on and so forth.

The power that we have is no longer by the votes we cast in the ballot. It’s the power we have by our habits of consumption. Changing your habit of consumption has more real power than your vote. Companies know it. They know that they ultimately depend on what you decide to buy. And it’s the only thing they can’t directly control (until they start sending you goods and charging your credit cards because they determined you needed this product…LOL). That’s why they are pouring billions and billions of dollars in marketing and advertising to convince you to buy their product.

But you have the last word.

This is the meaning of life of the Homoeconomicus. Choosing rationally the goods it wants to consume which forces politics to shape its country the way it wants.

The power is still to the people! (but through their bank account…)

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Consumerism. That’s the new economic trend that businesses try to control. They want us to be sheep and spend more than we can on more stupid stuff that we could imagine in a life time.

I’m sick of it.

I’m sick to spend at the idea of spending 10$ on a Mcdonald’s in a theme park because “it’s a theme park. Im sick of buying stuff that are built and engineered to break down 3 years after purchase. I’m sick of telecoms companies, trying to leech off every single cent they can with every possible means. I’m sick of the medias supporting the hype for stuff like the iPhone.

Subprime market is not going well… no shit. People are so in debt they can’t pay anything anymore. Hell i worked in a bank, and I saw cases that were unimaginable (to me at least) of people being so in debt that 75% of their revenue were paying interests. INTERESTS!! How can it be legal?

How can a government let people getting so in debt, they can’t even pay back the capital? how can (responsible) adults went to at least high school, even college for most of them, borrow money they don’t have to stuff like vacations under the tropics ? A HDTV? Where is the logic? where is the sanity of doing that? Where is the sanity of paying a huge 4×4 in town, sucking up a gallon every 15 miles? Where is the sanity of spending all the money, getting to 55yr old and nothing for retirement?

Marketing companies became the masters of propaganda. they create complete useless needs out the blue, explaining to you how unhappy you were before and how this new product will make you happy again.

And you know why I’m this annoyed? it’s because it affects me! I have some of those needs and it kills me to think I have them. I resist pretty well compared to the average, but I still have some vibes of the Hype of the Day.

Companies are squeezing as much dollars as they can from everyone while others have the job of cornering you so they can lend the largest amount of money they can and be paid back. it’s a perfect duo between the loaners and the sellers.

Spending a life of work paying interests on things you will throw away in 5 years because they aren’t “in” anymore, because you need o lend more to buy the new hype, because really the old one sucked ass. Companies try to create an endless circle of unhappiness because “you need that new stuff and your life is miserable until you do” and it never ends.

I don’t want an Iphone, I don’t want HD-DVDs and blu-Ray, I don’t wanna pay 20$ for pastas in a cheap restaurant because”it’s downtown” I don’t wanna pay 99$ a song on itunes, I don’t wanna pay the full price of a game on Steam, I don’t wanna pay 600$ for a video card, I don’t want Vista, I don’t want V6 250HP cars to drive in town, I don’t want pay 10$ for pop corn at movies and Im sick of paying 74$ a month on a trainpass, that i take 14 minutes total a day, 5 days a week. For this one i have no alternative, they know it and they could very well put it to 150 bucks that I and everyone taking the train will still need to buy this stupid pass.

I’m a fervent capitalist. I think capitalism is the best economic system, much like democracy is the best political system. The anti-trust basis are good, the supervision of the state for the greater good of the society is good too. I just think that men and women being on the top of those instances are too easily corruptible. I’m sick of those monopoles and olypgoles that are running every capitalist countries and that our votes are merely the illusion that we have an influence in the war for the power left and right parties are begging for.

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http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/1387

Please, let your friends know the US aren’t completely screwed!

Here is the web site of mike gravel:

http://mikegravel.us/

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The problem is that patents, that were invented a century and a half ago for small inventors and artists to live from their creations without having industrialized giants to steal the idea, have completely been turned around from its original meaning.
(more…)

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Hello everyone.

As you may have guessed, I don’t have time to continue supporting TorrentCascade. I’ll be glad if anyone takes over the project but I feel there are already good alternatives. I’m not using TorrentCascade myself anymore, I’m basically relying on Torrentz to find anything.

It was a fun adventure, I thank everyone for their support and the kind words.

I may use this website for something completely different, but I don’t have any project idea yet.

Thanks again!

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I know 3 months…it’s a shame!
I’ve just update Isohunt, Snarf-it and Piratebay, so they are now working properly.

you MUST reload them (click modify on the search engine frame, and choose your engines accordingly).

I also changed the link of the Engine builder….it’s now linking to the correct, up to date version. Please check it out! There are major improvements since the previous release.

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