Maggie Koerth-Baker - Mental floss presents Be amazing: catch a giant squid, start your own religion, walk on fire, glow in the dark, quit smoking, identify a witch, perform your own surgery

Glow in the Dark Control the Weather Perform Your Own Surgery Get Out of Jury Duty Identify a Witch Colonize a Nation Impress a Girl Make a Zombie Start Your Own Religion

To Christopher Baker, for all his support, compassion, and love. MK

YOU WILL NEED

• A reliable guide
  (emphasis on reliable)
• Tenacity
• A shovel

Tip #1: LOOK IN PLACES YOU WOULDNT EXPECT

In other words, dont head straight for the Caribbean. Instead, try looking somewhere new, somewhere exoticlike, say, New Jersey. Turns out, the Garden State harbored a lot more piracy than youd think. Most famously, the state (then a sparsely populated colony) was one of the last places notorious privateer-turned-pirate William Kidd visited before he was captured in 1700. Kidd was hanged in England, swearing to the end that hed buried a fortune and would happily trade it for his life. No one was willing to take him up on his offer, possibly because a cache of gold worth roughly $2.4 million in todays currency had already been found near Long Island shortly after his arrest. But Kidd claimed that another $7.2 million worth of gold was left for the repillaging. If he wasnt lying, then its still buried. Where? A story published in Issue 14 of the magazine Weird New Jersey suggests that the most likely spot is the Garden States Raritan Bay, where Kidd is known to have anchored and where 17th century gold coins have been found in two different locations. Further proof: Two of Kidds former crewmen later turned up nearbyliving significantly reformed (and, reportedly, well-financed) lives.

Tip #2: LOOK FOR OBJECTS YOU HADNT IMAGINED

Its true, all the glitters isnt goldsometimes, its space rocks. In 2005, a professional meteorite hunter named Steve Arnold started leasing tracts of western Kansas farmland and scouring them for the metal lumps known as pallasites, extremely rare meteorites made up of iron and laced with hunks of crystal. Arnolds search was the result of an extensive study of pallasites found strewn over one Kansas county since 1900all of which were leftover bits from a much larger meteorite that entered Earths atmosphere somewhere around 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. By Arnolds calculations, there were still tons of pallasites left to be discovered and in October 2005, he was proven right. More than 5 feet beneath the farm field, he discovered the largest pallasite on record, a 1,430-pound behemoth. And, thanks to a rollicking collector market, Wired magazine estimated in January 2007 that the rock is worth more than $1 million. In fact, smaller pallasites Arnold has found have sold as yuppie objets dart for anywhere from $40,000 and up.

Tip #3: LOOK FOR TREASURES BIGGER THAN A BREADBOX

Youd hate to miss the forest for the little wooden chests. After all, one of the greatest missing treasures in all of Europe isliterallythe size of a room. Originally given to the Russian Czar Peter the Great as a sign of friendship with Prussia, the Amber Room was just what it sounds like: An 11-square-foot room where just about every inch was covered in precious, intricately carved amber. Today, it would be worth $142 millionthat is, if anyone knew where it was. Despite the Russians valiant attempts to disguise the room behind wallpaper, the Nazis ended up finding and dismantling it during World War II. What happened next is all speculation. Various first-and-second person accounts have placed it in an abandoned German mine, in a torpedoed Nazi steamboat at the bottom of the Bering Sea, andmost ironicallyburnt to cinders by the Allies during an air raid. Whatever the case, most historians dont expect the room to ever turn up intact. In 1997, however, German police did bust a man for trying to sell a jasper and onyx mosaic that had once been part of the Amber Room. The lead wasnt particularly useful, though. It turned out that the mans father had been part of the escort that brought the room from Russia nearly 60 years before and had swiped the piece then as a personal trophy. In April of 1997, the mosaic was returned to Russia.

Tame a Lion

Method A: TOUGH, LIKE ISAAC VAN AMBURGH: The man who popularized big-cat acts in America, Van Amburgh got his not-exactly-auspicious start in 1833 when his boss was apparently eaten by the feline co-stars. So its not surprising that Van Amburghs training techniques had all the compassion of a Charles Bronson revenge film. Clad in a toga and quoting biblical passages about man having dominion over the animals, Van Amburgh became famous beating lions, tigers, leopards, and panthers into submission with whips and a crowbar.

Method B: TENDER, LIKE GUNTHER GEBEL-WILLIAMS: Von Amburghs example ruled the animal-taming business until Gebel-Williams came along. In 1947, when he was 13, Gebel-Williamss mother abandoned him, leaving the boy with a circus. Understandably mistrustful of people, Gebel-Williams developed a special bond with animals, particularly big cats, which he hand-raised using positive reinforcement, rather than threats, to train them. However, this method wasnt without danger. During the course of his life, the cats knocked out all Gebel-Williams real teeth (and two sets of replacements).

Walk a tightrope

According to Jean Franois Gravelet

YOU WILL NEED