In a recent announcement, McDonald’s revealed that they would remove their “pink slime” ingredient from their food manufacturing process. Many suspect that the decision was largely due to clips such as this one showing chef Jamie Oliver making McNuggets.

How the American kids react to the “food” is disturbing- there is clearly something wrong with the way we are teaching health in schools.

Jamie, I applaud you for trying, but the real problem isn’t that junk food exists or how it’s made. The real problem is the simple fact that a lot of Americans don’t realize how much food affects their health and body.

“You are what you eat” isn’t on the high priority list for public education, especially when the food served in schools isn’t very healthy in the first place.

As adults we’re all used to seeing company logos and instantly attaching them to the brand we probably know and possibly love. But what goes through the mind of a 5-year-old child when it sees the same logos?

It’s interesting how the kid recognizes some but not others. His parents clearly frequent coffee shops as he recognizes those and connects them to coffee. And Disney, of course. Oh, and Apple!

This actually made me examine these logos in a way I hadn’t previously. I now realize what the likes of Pepsi, CBS, and Boeing were going for, whereas before I just took them for what they were.

I can’t help thinking there is something in this. If I were a new company I’d commission several different logos and then include children in the focus group helping to decide which to go for. Or is that too simplistic?

This video shows a short clip from the new animated TV series based on the 2004 cult film Napoleon Dynamite. It may only be just over a minute long but it’s enough to get me watching.

Napoleon Dynamite has been turned into an animated series. It premiered on Sunday, Jan 15, 2012 on Fox, with the first two episodes titled Thundercone and Scantronica Love respectively.

The story centers on the main character named Napoleon Dynamite and his friends and family. Nothing much happen in the rural Idaho setting, which means the characterization has to be superb. And it is.

The brilliant thing is that all the cast from the film returned for the TV show. I’m guessing they were lured back by the promise of huge wages for little work. But still, it’s nice to see.

I’m not a fan of Weebl and Bob, but this episode is just plain funny. It’s not big or clever, but it is funny. Especially when Stephen Hawking enters stage left in his out of control wheelchair.

I haven’t seen many episodes of Weebl and Bob, otherwise known as The Everyday Happenings of Weebl (and Sometimes Weebl’s Friend Bob). And those I haven seen have mostly left me cold. I just don’t get it.

This one, however, made me laugh out loud. And it’s rare for anything on YouTube to have that effect on me after years of desensitizing myself.

I guess it shows my level of maturity that what sends me into fits of giggles is Stephen Hawking getting the piss taken out of him. I’m clearly going to Hell.

This video shows a one-year-old baby confronted with a print magazine after having been exposed to an iPad her whole. Possibly the greatest tribute to Steve Jobs so far.

The creator of the video suggests this baby has learned that pictures can be zoomed in with that pinch gesture, and cannot understand why the same gesture doesn’t work on ordinary paper.

There are people countering this suggestion by stating that babies have been doing this for years. Perhaps they have, but even that shows how genius a product the iPad is, because it taps into nature.

The fact is technology hasn’t always felt natural, which is why we’ve had to learn how to use it. But Apple has helped transform that, and with touchscreens the way we interact with technology now just feels right.

Best cover of Enter Sandman I’ve ever heard? Check. Amazing when it’s being performed by The Mini Band, a group of youngsters aged between 8- and 10-years-old. Wow.

This video has become a big hit on YouTube, with 1.5 million views at the time of writing. It shows The Mini Band performing a cover of Enter Sandman by Metallica at the recent Bucklebury Beer Festival.

The lead and rhythm guitarists are particularly brilliant, and the drummer is a natural. The only disappointment is the singing, which isn’t the kid’s fault by any stretch of the imagination; it’s just that a young voice doesn’t suit the song.

I’m guessing we’ll be seeing a lot more of this band in the future. There is already talk of them appearing on a U.S. chat show. I certainly want to hear more. Mind blown.

Forget ratings and album sales; I reckon you haven’t really made it until you’re parodied on Sesame Street. Welcome to the big time Glee!

I don’t think any Glee fan is too old to appreciate this video. You may be all over the various G sounds, but I bet you’ll get a chuckle out of the Muppet versions of Glee’s teens and teachers.

The Rachel is even more of a demanding diva, and even on this kid-friendly show the Sue is every bit as mean. But just with the original version, everything ends up alright in the big musical number!

There are few bands more beloved on the internet than OK Go. Except perhaps for everyone’s favorite band of puppets, The Muppets. Put them both together and you’ve got the recipe for internet gold.

This video wins on its cool value alone. We’ve all enjoyed The Muppets’ second coming, and seeing them come together with one of the internet’s most celebrated bands was something we never expected.

Everything that OK Go touch is gold. The same can be said for The Muppets. If I was too get too critical I might suggest the modern re-imagining doesn’t have quite the same charm as the original theme song, but who am I to pick apart the greatest pairing of our time?

This video is pretty damn awesome, mixing My little Pony and Watchmen. But the bigger picture reveals a very strange and rather scary trend where grown men have turn into little girls.

OK, so they don’t literally turn into little girls. That would be madness. But in mind and spirit they do, getting fixated on My Little Pony so much so that they’re called Bronies (Bro Ponies).

These men, mostly in their 20s and 30ss, love My Little Pony (both the animated television show and the characters) so much they buy the action figures and start acting like pre-pubescent girls.

Am I the only person who thinks this is bizarre? I’m a gamer and a geek, but I draw the line at playing with plastic ponies. Sorry. Still, the video is good, and that only came about because of these Bronies. So I shouldn’t complain.

SpongeBob SquigglePants is a new video game from THQ for the Nintendo Wii, the Nintendo 3DS, and the uDraw gaming tablet. And this is the trailer for the game.

OK, so it doesn’t look great, at least to me. But then I don’t think I’m exactly the target audience for this one. I’m in my mid-thirties, whereas SpongeBob SquigglePants looks better suited to 13-year-olds.

There is nothing wrong with that either. My age group get plenty of games targeted at us these days, so it’s nice to see a title full of mini-games meant just to appeal to youngsters.

It helps that it’s SpongeBob as well, because he is awesome no matter what age you are. Or maybe I’m just a big kid at heart at the end of the day.

This video shows a sweet, perfectly innocent child’s toy turned into a machine capable of voicing the most obscene language there is. Awesome.

The toy (or rather those manipulating it) begins by saying “not the retard,” before morphing into “motherf*cker.” Then we have “f*ck” and”f*ck it” before ending with an “oh shit” or two.

I’ve seen a few videos similar to this in the past, but most have been parents mishearing what these toys are saying and going to the newspapers about it. This is the first time I’ve seen someone trying to generate swearwords using one.

I know this is neither big or clever but it made me laugh. And that’s a rarity for a YouTube video these days.

This video is the trailer for the movie version of Alice In Wonderland. Which you’ve no doubt seen before. But there is a reason why it’s worth watching again…

The story of Alice In Wonderland is a fantastical classic which has delighted both adults and children alike for almost 150 since it was first published in book form in 1865.

As well as the book and the multiple movies, Alice In Wonderland is a musical which many theater groups and universities stage every year. And that is just as much the case now as it was 100 years ago.

Although the Tim Burton, Johnny Depp version is brilliant, there’s nothing quite like seeing the story played out on stage by real-life actors standing right there in front of you. Think of watching the movie as a warm-up for the main event.

Why not use a company’s own product to mock them? Genius!

GoAnimate is one of the options (alongside Xtranormal and Stupeflix) on the new YouTube Create, a feature built into YouTube which means you can create your own videos without the need for any extra hardware such as a camera and a microphone.

It’s a great idea, which is why I gave it a positive write-up over at WebTVWire. However, it isn’t very long until one large and rather obvious problem raises its ugly head: to do anything original or exciting using GoAnimate you have to pay. Which sucks.

I know companies have a bottom line of making money, but I was hoping YouTube (or its owner Google) would have taken care of that side of things, allowing the end users to play to our heart’s content. Sadly, that isn’t the case, and it means GoAnimate is a little bit crap.

I could watch Statler and Waldorf all day and night. I used to hate them when I was a kid and they were actually on TV every week, but now I think they’re absolute genius.

This is a compilation video of all the best lines Statler and Waldorf delivered from the balcony on The Muppet Show. And it’s brilliant.

It’s strange how your tastes change as you get older. This goes for films (from the funny to the serious), music (pop to rock), television shows (from soaps to drama), and even comedy.

I now find Statler and Waldorf hilarious, and I can only assume it’s because I’m old and crotchety just like they are. OK, so I haven’t got gray hair and I don’t shout at people in the street, but I’m getting there slowly.

We’ve all seen Up, right? If you don’t recognize the name, it’s that animated Disney film which sees an old guy and his young assistant go on an adventure in a flying house.

Unbelievably, a group of engineers have made the flying house from Up a reality.

OK, so it isn’t a real house made of solid materials with its foundations hanging off the bottom as in the film. But that was always unlikely and actually turns out to be nearly impossible.

However, this video does show a real-life lightweight house flying in the sky, projected upwards by massive balloons filled with helium.

I’m impressed, I really am. One question, however: how on Earth is this thing landed safely?

Anyone who has a cat will simply adore this video, because it features a scene which all cat owners will recognize as having happened at some point. And when it does, it’s very, very funny.

The Simon’s Cat series of animations are brilliant, being so well observed. And I have to say this is one of my favorites, because it’s pure, simple, and very true to life.

Quite simply, if you leave a little bit of sticky tape out on the floor, it’s guaranteed your cat will investigate. It’s also guaranteed the piece of tape will eventually get stuck to the cat’s body. This can provide hours of entertainment for those of us who like tormenting our pets just a smidgen.

Put a piece of sticky tape around your cat’s tail, sticking it to itself the other side, and you’ll have a good few minutes of laughter. In my case, followed by a few minutes of pain when the cat gets its own back by attacking my foot.

This video shows Heather Russell singing She Needs Love, an original piece supposedly written by her. the video is spreading like wildfire, and has even been picked up by the mainstream press.

Personally I’m not buying the BS being written about this girl and this song. Sure, she can sing, and a lot better than Justin Bieber can, but she still needs a lot of work to get anywhere close to being ready for the big time.

As for the song, well, I don’t like it. It’s repetitive, the lyrics are drivel, and I have my doubts that a 10-year-old wrote it by herself. And if she did then she’s a pretentious little scrotum who needs to act her age… young.

I have no doubts heather Russell will now be offered a record deal, and then all her and her parents’ dreams will come true. But that doesn’t mean I have to be a fan.

‘We gotta switch him back…’

It is good to see that, even though they are on movie number three, there are still funny moments happening in Toy Story.

I always get a little wary when movies get to number three because that’s when they are the most likely to tire out – taking for granted they were good enough to have a third movie in the first place.

But Pixar Animation seems to be still running strong as the golden child of animation, and Toy Story 3 just goes to show that brilliance still shining.

I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

Happy New Year! Not from me, but from the Happy Tree Friends, that group of unfortunate cartoon animals who have died more times than Kenny from South Park.

For those not aware of the brilliance that is the Happy Tree Friends, they are a bunch of characters who are killed or seriously injured in a multitude of different ways in these short and superbly engineered animations.

This particular one sees the creatures visiting the cinema to see a movie. Things start badly when the projectionist crashes into two of them outside, and slams another one against the wall with his door.

Then the ones who made it into the theater get crushed, before the projectionist himself gets garroted by the strips of film. What a nasty way to go out. Especially at New Year!

A new show full of mystery and intrigue, as well as the usual blend of fun and humor, has arrived on Nickelodeon. It’s called House of Anubis, and this video shows the trailer for its U.S. debut.

House of Anubis is a show which features a co-ed boarding school in England which contains lots of mysteries which need investigating, rooms which need exploring, stories which need telling.

This series was filmed in England, being a remake of the original Dutch/Belgian TV series called Het Huis Anubis. Luckily for U.S. viewers, an American girl is at the head of the cast of characters.

House of Anubis made its television debut in the States on Nickelodeon this weekend, and the series will continue through January.