The mikveh likely dates back to before World War II, when the Polish town of Chmielnik had a thriving Jewish community.Ofer Adaret/Haaretz The Jewish ritual baths were used for purification before religious ceremonies or holidays. The new owner of a shuttered Polish strip club was in for a big shock when he found a mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath, in the basement of his new property. A few years ago, Marian Zwolski, a businessman from Chmielnik in Poland, purchased the Sphinx, a nightclub that has been out of business for 15 years.

"We were shocked to see beautifully preserved and concentrated plant material."Mark Mitchelli/Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology The armored nodosaur looked fierce but actually was a herbivore. About 110 million years ago, a giant plant-eating nodosaur gobbled down its last meal on Earth — and its stomach was preserved so well over time that scientists have now been able to determine what, exactly, its last meal was. The remarkable specimen was first discovered in 2011 during a mining operation in Alberta, Canada.

The study looked at 1,241 venues in 78 countries on all continents. Seventy-five percent broke basic mistreatment rules.World Animal ProtectionZoo D’Amneville in France offers customers shows such as these, where once free-roaming tigersare made to mimic their trainer for an audience. A new investigative survey by the nonprofit group World Animal Protection (WAP) uncovered some disturbing realities of animal mistreatment in a wide swath of the 1,241 venues belonging to the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).

While some of the octopuses appeared to throw objects to clean their dens or discard food, more than half were recorded throwing objects after fighting, mating, or grappling with another octopus. John Turnbull/FlickrThe scientists studied the behavior of the gloomy octopus (Octopus tetricus). While observing hours of video taken near octopus dens in Jervis Bay, Australia, scientists noted a strange phenomenon: Sometimes, the octopuses gathered objects and flung them at other octopuses.

Once a bustling hub for the steamboat and railroad industries, the town of Cairo, Illinois now sits abandoned due to economic decline and racial violence.Named for the city in Egypt, Cairo, Illinois (pronounced CARE-o), began as a small town with big dreams. Perched at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, it seemed strategically placed to become a major hub — and some even suggested that it should become the new capital of the United States.