Scorpions

Not only do they hide in shoes and dark corners, waiting to sting the unwitting, but scorpions also pack a secret weapon, researchers reported. Certain species secrete a painful and paralyzing "pre-venom" in addition to the normal poison used to kill enemies and prey, a team at UC Davis found.

Think of the scorpion reach as one of your favorite hip-opening yoga moves on steroids. It's challenging, but it leaves you feeling strong and limber and ready for anything. Fitness expert Mike Fitch uses it as a dynamic warm-up in his new Animal Flow body-weight resistance class at Equinox gyms. -- What it does The total body exercise stretches your hips, spine and legs as it strengthens your shoulders and tones your abdominal muscles. -- What to do Start in an elevated plank position with your body in one long straight line.

Joe Borchard has all but erased Scott Cline from the Camarillo High football record book, but Cline is an ongoing presence on campus nonetheless. As baseball coach, junior varsity football coach and math teacher, Cline, 29, is the hometown hero who returned to launch a career and raise a family amid familiar surroundings and fond memories. Cline played quarterback when Camarillo won a Southern Section championship in 1984.

Hunter Virant, Camarillo High's standout left-handed pitcher, decided he needed to be a little emotional Tuesday against Oxnard in a game for first place in the Pacific View League. "I've never really gotten pumped up like that," he said. "I was yelling and trying to get everybody fired up. " A nine-inning game that featured a pitcher's duel between Virant and Oxnard's Oscar Sandoval provided plenty of tension and excitement. In the end, a bases-loaded walk in the top of the ninth gave Camarillo a 3-2 victory and a one-game lead with one to play.

Enrique Hernandez and two of his brothers are on the hunt, armed with 8-inch tweezers and a plastic jar. They poke boldly through the rubble in an empty lot behind their house and soon snatch the day's first trophy: a writhing, 2-inch-long scorpion. Within half an hour, they've trapped 30 of the golden arachnids, whose slender pincers belie the ferocity of their sting. This species, Centruroides suffusus, can kill a child and inflict vicious pain on adults.

Hunter Virant, Camarillo High's standout left-handed pitcher, decided he needed to be a little emotional Tuesday against Oxnard in a game for first place in the Pacific View League. "I've never really gotten pumped up like that," he said. "I was yelling and trying to get everybody fired up. " A nine-inning game that featured a pitcher's duel between Virant and Oxnard's Oscar Sandoval provided plenty of tension and excitement. In the end, a bases-loaded walk in the top of the ninth gave Camarillo a 3-2 victory and a one-game lead with one to play.

Bravo Tom Werman! Critics have been ignoring heavy metal since its conception. So what if groups like Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, Motley Crue, AC/DC, Scorpions and others have each sold over a million LPs? The critics don't like them, so they must not be worth listening to. ROY SCHAIRER Camp Pendleton

Desert 18, Paraclete 10--Fullback Mike Williams rushed for 236 yards in 22 carries, caught two passes for 68 yards and scored all three Desert touchdowns as the Scorpions (3-6, 2-2) handed the Spirits (2-7, 0-4) their 20th consecutive league loss. With Paraclete leading, 7-0, on a 10-yard pass from Larry King to Christian Anderson, Williams jump-started the Desert offense with an 81-yard run on the Scorpions' first offensive play.

The plan seemed foolproof. In fact, fourth-down plays for Camarillo High worked every other time the Scorpions had run them against Oxnard on Friday night. So, when Camarillo was faced with a fourth-and-four situation on Oxnard's 47-yard line late in the fourth quarter, it seemed natural that the Scorpions would gain the yards needed. But on the final fourth-down effort, with 2:30 remaining, Camarillo wide receiver Chad Roberts was stopped two yards short on an inside reverse.

Abe Valdez led undefeated Camarillo (6-0, 4-0) to impressive victories over Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley in a Marmonte League double-dual cross-country meet Thursday at Cal Lutheran. Valdez, a sophomore transfer from Rio Mesa, ran the three-mile course in 15 minutes, 59 seconds, nine seconds ahead of Tom Bibbs of Simi Valley. Although two of Camarillo's top runners missed the team bus, the Scorpions easily defeated Thousand Oaks, 26-32, and Simi Valley, 19-44.

Even in territory as well-traversed as California, biologists can discover new creatures. The latest? A species of scorpion in Death Valley National Park. Wernerius inyoensis is tiny — just over half an inch long — and may live underground. Matthew Graham, a doctoral student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, discovered it during a nighttime search of the park, using a special ultraviolet light that made the animal glow in the dark. Scorpions have chemicals in their exoskeletons that fluoresce under UV light.

Darkness cloaked the desert, pierced only by a canopy of stars that provided a glittering backdrop for 20 college students treading cautiously over the cracked, dry landscape. But a soft hiss stopped them in their tracks. Mudassar Haq heard the rattlesnake and shouted to alert the others as classmate Thomas Parker shined a flashlight on a large sidewinder slithering away under a tuft of salt grass. "I immediately knew what it was, that's something you don't think twice about," said Haq, 20, a Cal State Fullerton junior.

Traveling is full of creatures great and small. On Wednesday, it was turtles on a JFK runway. On Thursday, it was reports of a scorpion aboard an Alaska Airlines flight this month. An Oregon man said he was stung by a striped bark scorpion on a flight between Seattle and Anchorage.  "I picked my hand up and said, 'Oh, my God -- that's a scorpion,'" Jeff Ellis told KPTV , which also put up a slideshow of photos of the incident. Ellis said he was trying to sleep on a June 17 flight when he felt something crawling up his sleeve.

It's awards season and the Golden Globes are right around the corner. On Sunday, the Beverly Hilton will sparkle with stars and become impossible to infiltrate, unless you somehow have a room. But fret not, the hotel's iconic Trader Vic's tiki lounge has shared the recipe for its Scorpion cocktail. So why not mix up a few of these formidably strong libations while you watch the Globes? Consisting of tart lemon juice and sweet orange juice, and spiked liberally with light rum and brandy, the drink will transport you to the Polynesian tropics (where perhaps you'll find Jon Hamm lounging in a loincloth.

As a defense attorney in one of the world's crime capitals, Sanele Mtshazo said his greatest asset was police bungling: In nearly every case, there was botched evidence or missing fingerprint, ballistics or DNA reports. Often he ruefully watched someone he had defended walk free, and thought, "That one should have gone to jail." Once, it was a man he thought had raped a child.

One of its claws might feed an entire family, but this sea creature would be more likely to eat the family. British researchers said Tuesday that they had discovered a foot-and-a-half-long fossilized claw of an ancient sea scorpion, a species that would have been 8 feet long, making it the largest arthropod ever discovered. "We knew the sea scorpions were among the largest creepy-crawlies ever, but we didn't realize just how big they could get," said paleontologist Simon J.

Michael Woods gained 98 yards in 22 carries for Littlerock High, which christened its new stadium with a 14-6 victory over Hesperia on Saturday at Littlerock. The Lobos (2-0) started their first two drives at their 49-yard line and scored on both possessions. Littlerock ran 12 consecutive times on the first drive, ending with a six-yard touchdown run by David Newton with 4:50 remaining in the first quarter.

Camarillo 43, El Camino Real 6 KEY PLAYS Camarillo converted four El Camino Real turnovers into touchdowns to jump ahead 29-0 at halftime. . . . The Scorpions extended the lead to 36-0 on Bill Bell's 44-yard run, the second of his three touchdowns. . . . El Camino Real scored its only touchdown on quarterback Carl McFadden's 3-yard pass to wide receiver Peter Pistone with 31 seconds remaining in the third quarter. . .

IN the deserts of the Middle East, the giant yellow Israeli scorpion is a ruthless hunter whose bite can bring on fever, convulsions, coma and, sometimes, heart failure in humans unlucky enough to run afoul of it. But the same venom that has earned this four-inch arthropod the name deathstalker scorpion may be the key to longer life for humans under attack from an even more insidious predator.

A Scottish scientist has discovered tracks made by a huge water scorpion 330 million years ago, the first evidence showing it could survive out of the water. The six-legged hibbertopteroid measured 5 feet long and 3 feet wide, according to an article published this week in the journal Nature. Evidence that it was dragging part of its body suggests that it was probably moving out of water, said Martin Whyte, who discovered the fossil in Scotland's Midland Valley.