An old disease, invasive wild pigs, and gas station credit cards

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Image for article titled An old disease, invasive wild pigs, and gas station credit cards: Lifestyle news roundup — Image: Wellcome Images/Gizmodo, Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times (Getty Images), Tondini, Isidro, Camarós/Frontiers, Photo: Franziska Kraufmann (AP), Triton Submarines

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A disease called sweating sickness killed thousands of people — then disappeared

Death and illness have never been strangers to humanity. But for a brief time around the 1500s, there was one particular ailment that was both brutal in its devastation and completely undecipherable to medical practitioners of the time. This malady was known as sweating sickness, and even today, scientists don’t know where it came from, why it seemed to suddenly leave, and whether it could ever return again.

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Invasive wild pigs from Canada are coming to the U.S.

Wild boars photographed in the winter around the city of Stuttgart, Germany.

Canada’s wild hogs are apparently poised to invade America’s yard. In new research this month, scientists have found evidence that these invasive wild pigs have a “high potential” to cross over the Canadian border and establish new populations in mostly pig-free parts of the U.S., particularly South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Minnesota.

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Let’s talk about why gas stations charge more for credit cards

A photo of a gas station billboard in LA showing card prices 20 cents higher than cash prices — Gas prices are pointing up at a gas station in Sherman Oaks but 2.9 million are driving to Memorial Weekend getaways on Wednesday, May 22, 2024 in Los Angeles, CA.

In the year of our lord 2024, who carries cash anymore? I don’t, but the other day when I filled up with gas I regretted my decision to stick with plastic money instead of paper money because card transactions were 20 cents more per gallon. Why do gas stations tack on these extra charges for card transactions? According to the Association for Convenience and Petroleum Retailing or NACS, it’s because credit card companies collect on average about 2.5 percent of every card transaction processed.

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Meet the latest billionaire who can’t resist the Titanic

A version of this article originally appeared on Jalopnik.

An Ohio real-estate magnate is planning to take his own two-person submersible down to Titanic wreckage-level depths to show the journey can actually be done safely following the deadly implosion of the OceanGate Titan submersible in June of 2023. These rich guys never really learn do they?

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Somehow the ancient Egyptians were advanced enough to try cancer surgery, study says

The left image shows several of the metastatic lesions found on skull 236, along with suspected cutmarks. The top right image shows skull 250, while the bottom right shows skull 236.

Humans have been waging war against cancer longer than assumed, new research suggests. Scientists have discovered archaeological evidence that ancient Egyptians attempted to surgically remove cancerous lesions, pushing the practice back to over 4,000 years ago.

An old disease, invasive wild pigs, and gas station credit cards: Lifestyle news roundup

Plus, meet the latest billionaire who can’t resist the Titanic