On August 10, 1991, employees at the Sheraton Hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia found freelance journalist Danny Casolaro dead in room 517 — but who killed him?On August 10, 1991, journalist Danny Casolaro was found dead in a bathtub at the Sheraton Hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia. For weeks beforehand, Casolaro had been following leads for an investigative report on a vast, shadowy syndicate that he dubbed “The Octopus.” WikimediaDanny Casolaro was investigating a shadowy conspiracy he referred to as the “Octopus” when he died in an apparent “suicide” in 1991.

Utilizing silk thread to recreate the structures that give shape to our lives, Do Ho Suh's fabric installations challenge our conceptions of the home.Source: Lehmann Maupin Traveling through the major modern metropolises of our world, Korean artist Do Ho Suh has recreated his own heart’s keeper in the form of silk-constructed homes. Representing memories of his prior residences, the colorful installations span all the way from Suh’s childhood to his adult life.

Though it's never been photographed, people keep reporting sightings of the five-foot death worm lurking in the Gobi desert.According to sightings, the Mongolian death worm is a long, sausage-like sandworm, dark red in color with spikes jutting out of both ends of its shapeless body. Using venomous spit strong enough to corrode metal or electric shocks powerful enough to kill an adult human, these alleged deadly worms are said to live below the sands of the Gobi Desert.

Evocative of our own limits, these abandoned structures provide us an opportunity to consider our place--however temporary--in the world.A building is never just that. It can be a place we call home, a repository for memories, an intimate space where we share even more intimate ideas; it’s one of the ways we as people lay physical claim to the world in which we live. And just as a building is more than its material components, the same can be said for a building in shambles.

Explore Russia's closed cities that were founded by Stalin in the 1940s to house the Soviet Union's nuclear programs. A sign at the entrance of the city of Ozyorsk warning foreign citizens that entrance is prohibited. Also known as City 40, Ozyorsk is the place where the Soviet nuclear weapons program was initiated after World War II. 2007. Wikimedia Commons A checkpoint at the closed town of Zheleznogorsk, home to a military reprocessing facility and commercial nuclear waste storage facility.

Sex Slavery Pictures from History/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesA group of “comfort women,” women and girls who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese during World War II. As word of the Rape of Nanking spread, Japanese senior commanders grew concerned about the impact that it might have on Japan’s image. To discourage future mass rapes and to keep Japanese troops satisfied, they ordered the expansion of “comfort stations,” or military brothels.

Though Joshua Dobson managed to get himself fully inside the bear, police quickly noticed that the enormous stuffed animal appeared to be breathing.Greater Manchester Police/FacebookJoshua Dobson had been on the run for months when police found him hiding inside this teddy bear. When police in Manchester, England, arrived at a home in the Rochdale neighborhood in search of an 18-year-old fugitive car thief, they came across a strange sight. In the corner, a giant teddy bear seemed to be “breathing.

The zonkey is in perfect health and protected by anti-poaching laws. Nonetheless, this type of cross-breeding has consequences.Sheldrick Wildlife TrustThe young foal is perfectly healthy, but won’t be able to breed once it reaches maturity. When Chyulu Hills National Park officials in Kenya spotted a zebra with a strange-looking foal by her side, they couldn’t believe their eyes. While the young animal had stripes, they barely covered her brown body. That’s when they realized this wasn’t a zebra, at all — but a zonkey, a donkey-zebra hybrid.

After 14-year-old Natasha Ryan vanished in 1998, authorities believed that she was the victim of a serial killer. But five years later, she turned up alive and well at his murder trial.Natasha Ryan had run away before. So when the troubled 14-year-old suddenly disappeared from her school in Australia in August 1998, her parents believed she’d turn up again soon. But months passed, and Ryan was nowhere to be found. Then, as other women and girls began to go missing in the area, fears for Ryan’s safety increased, and police began to suspect she may have been another victim of Australian serial killer Leonard Fraser.

Nature’s Most Peculiar Plants: Rafflesia Arnoldii (Corpse Flower) Source: Divine Caroline The Rafflesia arnoldii, found in Southeast Asia, is known by the name “corpse flower” due to the smell of rotting flesh which it gives off. The plant is rootless, leafless, parasitic, and has the largest known flower in the world – it can grow to be approximately 3 feet across. The bloom only lasts a few days before dying off, but its foul scent and large, mottled, red petals make it an unmistakable bloom.