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When Jeff noticed that his garden was getting destroyed, he put out a camera to catch the culprit, a groundhog! But Chunk won Jeff’s heart over, and now he lets him have whatever he wants.

The most remarkable thing about the title of this column, “Cornell student presents senior thesis in her underwear” is that not one reader thinks it’s a joke. That, my friends, is further proof of the low esteem in which most Americans hold our universities. The left has rendered our universities, in the description of Harvard Professor Steven Pinker, a laughingstock. As reported in the Cornell Sun and then around the world, this is what actually happened last week at Cornell University, one of our “Ivy League” universities: Letitia Chai, a Cornell senior, presented a trial run of her college scholar...

From the New York Daily News website:”Prince Chunk, the astonishingly fat cat whose plight captivated the nation, has died. The portly pussycat passed away in his sleep Sunday just days after he was diagnosed with heart disease, his owner said. “We’re all upset,” said Vince Damiani, 20, of Blackwood, N.J. “We lost a family member.” Chunk became an international sensation two years ago when he was discovered wandering the streets of Voorhees, N.J., and was dropped off at the Camden County Animal Shelter. The tubby tabby had been abandoned after his owner lost her home to foreclosure – a tale...

A huge chunk of ice about one-eighth the size of Manhattan has broken off of Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier, NASA scientists report. A 2.7-square-mile (7-square-kilometer) section of the glacier broke up on July 6 and 7 and was spotted in NASA satellite images. Greenland's ice sheet, which is 2 miles (3.2 km) thick and covers an area about the size of Mexico, has been losing ice mass at an accelerating rate over the last decade. The ice sheet discharges much of its ice through fast moving glaciers that flow into the sea, with large chunks breaking off into the ocean....

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A falling chunk of glacier crushed two brothers to death at a popular tourist spot, and one remained buried under ice blocks the size of large vehicles, police said Friday. The two Australians apparently ignored rope barriers set up to prevent hikers from wandering into dangerous areas.

Extremely high concentrations of pesticide have been detected in a pack of frozen green beans imported from China by Nichirei Foods Inc., the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the Tokyo metropolitan government announced Wednesday. The beans were found to be contaminated with high levels of the organic phosphate pesticide dichlorvos. A 56-year-old housewife in Hachioji, western Tokyo, was hospitalized Sunday after she started eating the beans before spitting them out. The metropolitan government said the beans were ingen green beans and the package contained 250 grams of them. The ministry is warning customers not to eat this brand of...

Huge chunk snaps off storied Arctic ice shelfBreak marks latest in erosion that has whittled 9,000 square kilometres down to 1,000 over past century JESSICA LEEDER From Tuesday's Globe and Mail July 29, 2008 at 3:39 AM EDT A four-square-kilometre chunk has broken off Ward Hunt Ice Shelf - the largest remaining ice shelf in the Arctic - threatening the future of the giant frozen mass that northern explorers have used for years as the starting point for their treks. Scientists say the break, the largest on record since 2005, is the latest indication that climate change is forcing the...

WASHINGTON – As consumer safety recalls of Christmas products made in China continue at a torrid pace, a new report shows the average Chinese worker making toys is paid a meager 36 cents an hour – just 2.5 percent of what U.S. toy manufacturers pay domestically. Today, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the latest recall of a Christmas import – a holiday candle set that tips over and whose exterior coating is flammable. The snowman and Christmas tree candles were manufactured in China. The Consumer Product Safety Commission warned the candles should not be used because of the...

It is one of the most popular toys on children's wish lists this holiday season, but independent laboratory tests show the "CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationT Fingerprint Examination Kit" contains asbestos. The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) and Public Justice, a Washington, D.C. public-interest law firm, are demanding that companies involved in the distribution of the toy protect children and other customers from exposure to the substance, which has been linked to fatal lung cancer and other serious diseases. The toy is made in China. In a letter to CBS, the toy's licensor; Planet Toys of New York City, the toy's...

Dollar Tree announced Thursday the recall of about 300,000 toys. (A previous version of this story incorrectly listed Dollar General as an affected retailer.) They include bead and wire toys for babies and Speed Race Pull Back and Go Action cars. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said that the toys, which were made in China, have high levels of lead that violate federal paint standards. There were no reports of injuries. One group of toys has colored beads that slide on wires attached to a natural wood platform. They have item number 903419 and date code 71 printed on...

Starbucks has issued a recall for 140,000 coffee mugs because the handles may just come right off. I'm trying to find a pic of the affected mugs but haven't yet. Made in China. So I have coined a new keyword: Chunk - Chinese junk

LONDON (Reuters) - A team of British scientists has set sail on a voyage to examine why a huge chunk of the earth's crust is missing, deep under the Atlantic Ocean -- a phenomenon that challenges conventional ideas about how the earth works. The 20-strong team aims to survey an area some 3,000 to 4,000 metres deep where the mantle -- the deep interior of the earth normally covered by a crust kilometres thick -- is exposed on the sea floor. Experts describe the hole along the mid-Atlantic ridge as an "open wound" on the ocean floor that has puzzled...

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (Sept. 7) - A bartender who last week was left a $10,000 tip by a regular customer now has more than the excitement of the offer: she has the cash. Cindy Kienow received a check Tuesday from Applebee's franchise owner JS Ventures Inc. for about $6,300, her share of the tip after taxes. The customer gave Kienow the hefty tip Aug. 27 on a $26 meal. But since he paid by credit card, the restaurant wanted to make sure it was a valid charge before giving Kienow the money. "I've had a lot of fun," Kienow said of...

THE ratings-starved Maury Povich and Connie Chung weekend show on MSNBC ended its short, six-month run with a bizarre send-off - sure to live on as a tone-deaf stunt Chung will not soon be allowed to forget. Perched on the edge of a white grand piano and decked out in a full-length evening gown, the former CBS and CNN anchorwoman warbled a farewell song that put down Dan Rather (with whom she co-anchored the CBS news in the early 1990s), her husband and cable TV - all at the same time. "Thanks for the memories," she sang to the tune...

I was flipping through channels at the gym today, and I saw something I couldn't believe. Connnie Chung on CNN did a segement where she was fantasizing writing a letter to Ann Coulter. It was filmed like a dream sequence, and it showed her writing with a voiceover reading the letter. In the letter she says that maybe her psychological problems would be cured if she ate ...maybe a raisin or something. If that wasn't bad enough, at the end, she said, PS: BY THE WAY, DEAR..QUIT MIXING THE FINLANDIA WITH YOUR HALDOL!!! I couldn't believe it...then she and her...

SEATTLE - The sheer rock fin emerging in Mount St. Helens' crater lost about a third of its northern face recently, but because lava keeps pushing to the surface, the height remained the same Thursday — around 330 feet. A burst of seismic activity at the mountain Sunday night likely corresponded to the collapse. "Certainly a big piece fell off — something like 65,000 cubic yards," said geologist Dan Dzurisin at the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash., about 50 miles from the mountain and 150 miles south of Seattle. Bad weather had iced over scientists' cameras on the rim...

Internet giant Google's stock has soared since it went public almost two years ago -- and that has created a windfall for state government coffers. California took in a record $11.3 billion in personal income tax receipts in April, $4.3 billion more than it collected last April. It's almost certain that a significant chunk of April's haul came from Google employees -- perhaps one-eighth or more of the tax receipt gain. The fact that a single high-flying Silicon Valley company is giving such a big boost to the state treasury can be determined by examining insider stock trading information filed...

One would think that "standing up for a stronger, more secure nation" would also include protecting our borders against the massive onslaught of illegal aliens and tons of illegal drugs entering with near impunity. Unfortunately, that is not the case at all. The federal government talks of terrorism. Well, when American citizens are not able to walk the streets of major cities because gangs of illegal aliens, not police, control those streets, we class that as terrorism. That came about, of course, because of the negligence of the central government. Our country's borders have major holes through which thousands of...