Free Republic

Thomas the Tank Engine has had a team of multicultural female trains join the Steam Team in an equality overhaul. The new series of the children’s animated show Thomas and Friends will see the beloved locomotive leave his home in Sodor to travel the world for the first time. Now called Thomas And Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!, the new series also marks the first collaboration between a children’s TV programme and the United Nations to promote the Sustainable Development Goals. For the first time Thomas will discover new countries and cultures by travelling to China, India and Australia. The...

What better way to celebrate Christmas Eve than with a game the whole family can play? So gather round the tree, load up the eggnog with some Barbancourt 5 star, and stand by for fun! Rules: Each question begins with an illustrative scenario, after which follows one or more puzzlers. Points are awarded based on difficulty. 1. Shauna Wilton, a female professor of political sciences at the University of Alberta has it in for Thomas the Tank Engine, which is England’s version of Barney, but on wheels. Wilton has academically analyzed 23—count ‘em!—Thomas episodes and doesn’t like the way they...

Remember when Jerry Falwell took so much heat for suggesting that the Teletubbies were kind of light in the loafers? If you recall, it was actually a media studies lecturer at Sussex University named Andy Medhurst who had said years earlier that, "Tinky Winky is the first queer role model for toddlers." Well now there's a new scandal in children's TV. This time the culprit is Thomas and Friends. Only this time, the hidden message is much more nefarious than homosexuality. And this time we are not talking baseless accusations, but real scientific research: Research by the University of Alberta's...