For Boys Only Read online

  To my two boys, hope you like it.

  —MA

  To all of my nephews in the Newquist, Johnson, Barranco, and Bradley clans. You guys rock.

  —HPN

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Table of Figures

  INTRODUCTION

  READER! BEFORE YOU START THIS BOOK, STOP RIGHT HERE!

  SUPER CARS

  HISTORY’S WEIRDEST DISASTERS

  THE ELEPHANT STAMPEDE

  THE BOSTON MOLASSES DISASTER

  SNAKES FROM THE VOLCANO

  THE TEXAS CHAIN REACTION DISASTER

  THE EASTLAND ROLLOVER

  ODDS ARE …

  MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

  HOW TO LAND A PLANE IN AN EMERGENCY

  FUN MATH TRICKS

  MOST VENOMOUS SNAKES

  MOST DANGEROUS SNAKES

  ULTIMATE FRISBEE

  FEAR FACTOR

  NATURE’S DEADIEST

  GREAT MYSTERIES - WHAT THEY LEFT BEHIND

  THE STATUES ON EASTER ISLAND

  STONEHENGE

  THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE

  WHERE WERE THE ETRUSCANS FROM?

  BADAKIZU EUSKARAZ?

  WEAPONS - THAT CHANGED HISTORY

  BOW AND ARROW

  STIRRUPS

  ENIGMA

  ♠ ♣ ♦ ♥ CARD TRICK 1 ♠ ♣ ♦ ♥ - “THE FLIPPED CARD”

  HOW TO ESCAPE FROM BEING TIED UP

  DETECTIVE STUFF - CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION

  BLOOD TESTING

  DNA TESTING

  WHAT ARE YOU REALLY WORTH?

  CODES - THERE IS DANGER MAY COME VERY SOON

  ♠ ♣ ♦ ♥ CARD TRICK 2 ♠ ♣ ♦ ♥ - “THE MATH GENIUS MAGIC TRICK”

  PRESIDENTS

  TOP ELEVEN - GREATEST MOMENTS IN SPORTS HISTORY

  BASEBALL

  HOCKEY

  BASKETBALL

  SOCCER

  ATHLETES - WHO CHANGED THE WORLD—LITERALLY

  AMAZING - COMEBACK-UPSET-REFUSE-TO-LOSE

  BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

  BALL GAMES

  EXTREME SPORTS

  TREASURE - BURIED AND OTHERWISE

  THE MONEY PIT OF OAK ISLAND - NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA

  RMS REPUBLIC - ATLANTIC OCEAN

  CAPTAIN KIDD’S TREASURE - LONG ISLAND SOUND, NEW YORK AND CONNECTICUT

  LONG ISLAND’S SHIPWRECK VALLEY - LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK

  THE TOMB OF TUT - THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS, EGYPT

  LOST DUTCHMAN MINE - APACHE JUNCTION, ARIZONA

  WONDERS OF WORLD

  GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZA, EGYPT, AROUND 2500 B.C. (Fig. A)

  HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON, IRAQ, 600 B.C.

  TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS, TURKEY, 600-300 B.C. (Fig. B)

  STATUE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA, GREECE, 500 B.C. (Fig. C)

  MAUSOLEUM OF MAUSSOLLOS, HALICARNASSUS, TURKEY, 353 B.C.

  COLOSSUS OF RHODES, GREEK ISLAND OF RHODES, 280 B.C. (Fig. D)

  LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT, 280 B.C.

  CHANNEL TUNNEL, STRAIT OF DOVER, ENGLAND, 1994

  CN TOWER, TORONTO (ONTARIO) CANADA, 1976 (Fig. E)

  EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 1931 (Fig. F)

  GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, GOLDEN GATE STRAIT, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, 1937 (Fig. G)

  ITAIPU DAM, PARANA RIVER, SOUTH AMERICA, 1984

  DELTA WORKS, NETHERLANDS, EUROPE, 1997

  PANAMA CANAL, ISTHMUS OF PANAMA, CENTRAL AMERICA, 1914

  THE TWO MOST HORRIFYING, AND DISGUSTING CREATURES IN THE WORLD

  THE GREAT GAME OF

  FANTASY WARS

  WHO WOULD WIN?

  CRUSHING CONQUERORS

  FANTASY WARS

  HOW THREE THOUSAND MEN BEAT FIFTY THOUSAND, AND OTHER GREAT BATTLE STORIES

  OKINAWA ISLAND, 1945

  COSTA RICA, 1856

  BENGAL, 1757

  EGYPT, 1798

  FANTASY WARS

  HOW DOES IT WORK ?

  COMPUTER BYTE SIZES

  SO YOU WANT TO BE A ROCK STAR

  THE ONLY FOUR - SPORTS DYNASTIES WORTH MENTIONING, AND WHY NO ONE WILL EVER TOP THEM

  LARGEST PORTS FACILITIES IN THE UNITED STATES

  THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MOVIES EVER SHOWN IN AMERICA

  HOW TO CREATE A BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE

  EARTH’S EXTREMES

  MOON MANFACTS

  SPACE DISTANCES

  COOL THINGS TO EXPECT IN YOUR LIFETIME

  GREAT MYSTERIES: FAKE

  RICH

  GREAT MYSTERIES: SPOOKY

  AREA 51

  THE GHOST SHIP

  THE TUNGUSKA EVENT

  BERMUDA TRIANGLE

  AMELIA EARHART

  D.B. COOPER

  WORLD’S GREATEST DAREDEVILS

  NIAGARA FALLS TIGHTROPE WALKERS—THE GREAT FARINI AND BLONDIN

  THE SOLO SAILOR—SIR FRANCIS CHICESTER

  THE MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN THE TOWERS—PHILIPPE PETIT

  SKYSCRAPING—ALAIN ROBERT

  SPEED RECORDS

  SPEEDS … IN MILES PER HOUR

  U.S. STATES AND CAPITALS

  PEOPLE, PEOPLE EVERYWHERE …

  ALL-AMERICAN PREDATORS

  HOW TO FIGHT OFF AN ALLIGATOR

  DISEASES YOU DEFINITELY DON’T WANT TO GET

  ANTHRAX

  BOTULISM

  EBOLA

  PLAGUE

  SMALLPOX

  THE BIGGEST MAN-MADE THING

  BUILDINGS

  TUNNELS

  TOWERS

  ON PLANET EARTH ON PLANET EARTH

  DAMS

  BRIDGES

  PLANES

  SHIPS

  WALLS

  THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW (BUT PROBABLY SHOULD)

  Copyright Page

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Research is fun, but it helps when you can call on smart, informed people to share ideas and get pointed in the right directions. The following experts generously offered their time and their knowledge: Kevin Baker, author of a forthcoming book on baseball in New York; Dr. Jerome Cormello, professor of military studies, U.S. Army War College; Steve Case, About.com’s skateboarding guru; Dr. John Hale, University of Louisville, authority on Vikings and their ships; Dr. Ross Hassig, scholar of Aztec armies; Jeanne Heifetz, expert on color names and their histories; Everett Howe, code master; Lee G. Miller, who did new detective work on the Lost Colony of Roanoke; and Kabir Nigam, who gave us a teenager’s view of skateboarding and its heroes.

  Thanks to Ken Wright for being such a good agent and nudging all of us in the right directions.

  —MA

  An author works hard to create a book, but it takes many people to make that book a reality. I want to thank everyone at F&F for producing the incredibly cool book you’re holding in your hands, especially Jean Feiwel, Liz Szabla, Dave Barrett, and Karen Fein. Thanks to Ken Wright, who made sure that all things became possible. My ongoing gratitude to people who provided support and inspiration along the way: my parents, brothers and sisters, and their families, Michael S. Johnson, Thomas Werge, John Kunkel, Tucker Greco, Rich Maloof, Pete Prown, Lou Dobbs, and Darren Molony. And of course, all “the boys” from the not-too-far-distant past: St. Bridget’s, Brophy, Phoenix, Notre Dame, the Skidders, the bandmates, the writers, and the guitarists.

  While this book may be for boys only, there will come a day when you’ll find that girls are a nice addition to our exclusive club. Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true. So thanks to Trini, Madeline, and Katherine, because they’re the girls who make it fun for me to be a boy.

  There are many Internet sites and public libraries that provided me with much-needed information in the middle of the day and the middle of the night. There is no end
to the astounding things you can find if you set your mind to it—look hard enough, and you’ll find the entire world is waiting for you.

  —HPN

  Table of Figures

  Fig. C

  Fig. D

  Fig. E

  Fig. F

  Fig. 1

  Fig. C

  Fig. D

  Fig. C

  Fig. D

  INTRODUCTION

  “That is so interesting.”

  “Wow!”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  How many times have you said these things, when you landed on a neat Web site, or glanced at a magazine? Harvey and I are writers who love discovering new things. We thought it would be fun to have a whole book of the most interesting stuff we could find. Not a record book with endless tables of facts. We wanted a book that would be as filled with adventure and the unexpected, as all of the snakes, and battles, and sports cars, and ridiculously poisonous dart frogs we talk about. This is a book to get lost in, and find your own way out—and don’t be sure that when you’ve read a page once, you’ve seen all that’s there. Look again, look back, look ahead! There are things here to do, to see, to think about; codes to break, puzzlers to solve, even mysteries we couldn’t figure out, which we hope you can. And while you do all that, we’re gathering even more amazing entries for next time.—MA

  Cool stuff is all around you—adventure, sports, animals, magic, warriors, movies, video games, and even danger. A lot of it you learn about in school and at home. But sometimes you just want the really good parts and nothing else; you don’t want to sit through the boring junk. Marc and I know that—it’s the way we’ve felt ever since we were kids. So when we wrote this book, we made sure it would have only the best stuff. We skipped everything else. And on those occasions where we had different ideas on what was the very best, we put it all in to let you decide. So there’s something exciting to do, mind-boggling to figure out, and cool to learn on every page. We’ve got bloodthirsty barbarians, sports heroes, vicious predators, ancient mysteries, and daredevils all over this book. And that’s just the beginning. It’s a big world out there, with a lot of amazing things for you to explore. Welcome to the coolest place to start.—HPN

  HOW DO WE KNOW ALL THIS STUFF?

  We did a lot of reading and researching for all of the different topics in this book. We rode roller coasters, hunted down and talked to math experts, read books and Web sites on sports history, swam with sharks, and visited some of the Seven Wonders of the World. There are a lot of ways to do research, and we’re pretty sure we did just about all of them.

  There are a few Reader Challenges in this book, where we invite you to find answers to our persistent questions. Let us know what you learn, and we’ll try to include it in the next edition. If you’re up to the challenge, here are a few tips, based on the rules we followed in writing this book.

  1. Always use more than one source for your information. That way, you can be pretty sure that what you’ve found is accurate. If you use only one book or one Web site, you can’t be sure that some of their information isn’t made up, out of date, or just plain wrong. Going to a few different places helps confirm that you’re on the right track.

  2. An expert in one thing is not an expert in everything. Your best friend may know a ton about baseball, but that doesn’t mean he knows anything about the planets. Use books or Web sites that feature experts in the subject you’re researching.

  3. Some facts are open to interpretation, so try to figure out where each expert is coming from. Then you can make your own decision about what’s important. We found experts who have different opinions on many of the entries in this book. They might measure the strength of venom in different ways (amount in a drop or amount in a bite) or disagree on the hottest spot on Earth (is it the place that has high temperatures through the whole year, or the place that had the one-day record for heat?). We wrestled with some of these facts—it was a lot like wrestling an alligator—and did our best to give you the most accepted interpretations of each of them.

  4. Think of research as a game, and you’ll have as much fun as we did discovering the amazing facts in this book.

  READER! BEFORE YOU START THIS BOOK,

  STOP RIGHT HERE!

  Are YOU ready for a Test of Skill and Daring that will Impress Your Friends, Awe Your Enemies, and lead YOU to be eligible to win some pretty cool Prizes?

  We knew you were, so here goes. In order to give you a real challenge, the kind of fiendishly difficult test that only you could master, WE DEVISED A SERIES OF CODES THAT ARE CAREFULLY PLANTED THROUGHOUT THIS BOOK. And we searched the country and found a real Code Master TO DO IT. Our Diabolical Brain spends his days devising secret codes so difficult that the world’s most powerful computers couldn’t break them in a thousand years—and he’s written some special puzzles as a challenge for you. You’ll see some PUZZLES right away. The Apprentice Puzzles are not only pretty easy to crack, they hold Hints and Clues—find as many of those as you can, because after that the road gets steep and winding.

  The Apprentice Puzzles give you the equipment you’ll need on your next quest: Find the fifteen Guardian Puzzles . Solve them and you will have the keys to the Three Master Puzzles . Pass beyond those gates and you can enter the Sanctum Sanctorum, the Mystic Land of the Ultimate, Great, and Final PUZZLE SUPREME —crack that, and the SECRET WILL BE REVEALED (and remember, you could win stuff).

  But beware, things are not what they seem. Our Big, Bad Brain does not believe you can untangle his dark and devious schemes and has laid many traps. Be Alert! Keep Watch, Clues May Lurk Anywhere!

  P.S. The puzzles are here for extra fun; if you don’t feel like puzzling today, that’s OK, we also have snakes, cars, magic tricks, battles, pizza, adventures, skateboards … .

  SUPER CARS

  BUGATTI VEYRON

  252 miles per hour

  Zero to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds

  Made by Volkswagen—the same company that makes the “slug bug” Beetle—the Veyron costs $1.2 million. The Bugatti brand has been around since the late 1800s, and this particular one is the most powerful supercar ever made: 1,000 horsepower, equal to more than 200 lawn mower engines.

  KOENIGSEGG CCX

  242 miles per hour Zero to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds

  Made by Swedish carmaker Koenigsegg, the CCX costs $755,000. New owners are encouraged to visit the factory in order to take special driving lessons on how to handle this four-wheeled beast.

  MCLAREN F1

  240 miles per hour

  Zero to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds

  Created by America’s most famous racing team, McLaren, the F1 is the only American car on this list. It is no longer made, but whenever one is put up for sale by its owner (for a million dollars or more), McLaren Automotive rebuilds it for the new owner. There are only 64 of them in the world.

  FERRARI ENZO

  217 miles per hour

  Zero to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds

  Ferrari is Italy’s most famous carmaker, and Enzo is the name of the company founder. The car costs $620,000, and buyers fly to Italy to have the car’s interior custom fit to their bodies.

  PAGANI ZONDA

  C12 F ROADSTER

  214 miles per hour

  Zero to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds

  Pagani is another Italian carmaker, and its convertible F costs $690,000. The designer, Horacio Pagani, designed his first supercar at age 12 out of modeling clay.

  SUPERCARS ARE THE FASTEST, MOST EXPENSIVE cars that can be driven on American roads. (Racing cars can’t be legally driven on because of speed, safety, and noise concerns.) Mainstream car companies like General Motors and Nissan make millions of cars a year; supercar manufacturers make only a few dozen or a few hundred, and each one costs more than most people’s homes. They are usually hand-built and require an elite team of physicists to design them so they don’t fly off the road or burn up from the heat of their engines and brakes. Some supercars can outr
un regular sports cars by nearly 100 mph.

  Getting picked up from school in one of these cars would probably make the other kids—as well as all your teachers—stop and stare. Maybe even drool. So start saving your pennies for the coolest cars to ever hit the road. This is the supercar list you might want to have when you get your driver’s license.

  MERCEDES-BENZ SLR MCLAREN

  207 miles per hour

  Zero to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds

  This is a car you might actually see driving around, as Mercedes is a popular brand in America and the price is only $455,000. This car was designed with the help of the same McLaren team that created the F1, above.

  LAMBORGHINI MURCIELAGO

  205 miles per hour

  Zero to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds

  Italy’s Lamborghini makes supercars that can only be described as “wicked.” This one costs $280,000. Murcielago means “bat” in Spanish and the first time this car was ever used in a movie was Batman Begins.

  FERRARI 575M

  MARANELLO

  202 miles per hour

  Zero to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds

  This supercar sells for $285,000. A Ferrari was featured in the Disney movie Cars as the dream car that the owner of the tire store had waited his whole life for.

  SPYKER C12

  LA TURBIE

  201 miles per hour

  Zero to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds

  Spyker is an old-time race car company in Holland, and it sells this supercar for $355,000. The car has no keys for the door or ignition; everything is controlled by a computer card. Each La Turbie has been sold before it was even finished.