Rabid

The Ventura County Public Health Services is cautioning residents against handling bats or other animals behaving atypically. Eight residents were recently given rabies shots after handling a rabid bat found on the ground, officials said. Recent research shows that rabid bats can transmit the virus without biting a person, officials said. It is also recommended that all domestic animals be vaccinated against rabies.

Three centuries ago, a cluster of overly imaginative girls created the Salem witchcraft epidemic when they publicly swore that they were being harassed by bewitched neighbors. After executing a number of prominent citizens so accused, the authorities belatedly decided that the youthful accusers, not the accused, were the problem.

Some raccoons carry it. Dogs can too. And let's not forget bats, cats and rats. USC Coach Kevin O'Neill wants his players to have it as well, since he thinks it will increase their intensity. "I always tell our guys, play like you have a shot of rabies in you," he said after his team's 67-46 win over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday. "Play like you have rabies." By his account, they did, minus the foaming mouths. After slow starts in their previous two games -- both losses -- the Trojans came out more aggressively and jumped out to a 30-13 lead in the first half.

A dead bat found last week on the campus of Linda Vista Adventist Elementary School in Oxnard was rabid, health officials said Wednesday. The bat was found by Principal Barbara Ogle about 7:30 a.m. Thursday. Although a couple of children were standing in the area where the bat was found, health officials said no one came into direct contact with the animal. Ogle said she used a small piece of paper to scoop the bat into a glass jar.

The discovery of a second rabid bat in Ventura's Pierpont neighborhood last week has prompted health-care officials to caution county residents about the transmission of rabies. Dr. Paul Russell, acting health officer for the county, warned that rabies can be transmitted by the bite of a rabid animal and through contamination of open wounds, such as scrapes or cuts.

If they ever had an Angriest Man in Costa Mesa contest, I wouldn't want to be the one competing against Sid Soffer. The 59-year-old City Council gadfly says folks have never even seen him angry yet. If so, his version of placid runs just a little hot.

Mexican jalapenos, Sichuan mala peppers, African kambuzi — mere child's play. Although many places claim to have the maddest, baddest chile this side of Hades, northeast India's "ghost chile" is scientifically recognized as the hottest commercial chile pepper on the planet, 200 times spicier than jalapenos. The peppers are so hot that workers handling them wear goggles and gloves to avoid burns. "One chile goes a long way," says Thoudam Anand, a thirtysomething government worker in Imphal, in Manipur state, who grows ghost chiles in his garden.

At night, when the lawns are empty and the lamps along the walking paths are the only source of light, Topcider Park on the outskirts of Belgrade is a perfect meeting place for spies. It was here in 1992, as the former Yugoslavia was erupting in ethnic violence, that a wary CIA agent made his way toward the park's gazebo and shook hands with a Serbian intelligence officer. Jovica Stanisic had a cold gaze and a sinister reputation.

Steve Spence knew he was done for when he took the trash out — barefoot — to the curb of his Moorpark home Sunday night. He looked down, and on his foot was a furry bat with black wings. It was exactly like the hundreds that migrate to his neighborhood, and especially his house, every spring and leave every August. He shook the bat off. Then Spence, 54, looked closer, and on his foot was a red bite mark. "I immediately thought 'I'm screwed,'" said Spence, a case manager for a nonprofit that serves the homeless and mentally ill. The bat was rabid and had infected Spence.