Curio Cabinet

Camp’s closed for good, and for good reason! A camp started in the 1990s to serve children with HIV/AIDS is closing down, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. For 30 years, children with HIV/AIDS could go to One Heartland to spend some time camping in a judgment free space. The camp was founded in 1993 by 22-year-old Neil Willenson, who was inspired by the story of a 5-year-old boy in Wisconsin who faced daily discrimination due to his HIV-positive status. When the camp was first founded, it was called Camp Heartland, and they didn’t have a permanent site of their own. Instead, they rented space for a week at a time at various locations throughout the Midwest. By 1996, they were able to secure a permanent home in Willow River, Minnesota, around 40 minutes from Duluth. The camp largely served children who contracted HIV from their mothers during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding. Children with HIV were heavily discriminated against, and it was difficult to find an accepting space where they could be open about their HIV-positive status.
 
Now, after decades of invaluable service to a marginalized community, One Heartland is finally closing its doors. The reason isn’t for want of support or lack of funding, though. It’s just that after 30 years, so few children have HIV or face discrimination because of it that the camp is no longer needed. Nowadays, perinatal HIV transmission rates are extremely low in comparison to when the camp was founded, thanks in large part to the advancement of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Patients with HIV can now live long, healthy lives with the right treatments. In fact, while ART can’t cure HIV, it’s effective enough that it can render the virus undetectable in many patients. One Heartland was an incredible thing to have, but it’s also strangely positive to see the need for it become a thing of the past.

 
[Image description: A loop of red ribbon against a white background.] Credit & copyright: Anna Shvets, Pexels

Litterbugs, beware! If these athletes catch you littering, you’ll have nowhere to run…because they’re already running. Joggers around the world are preparing for World Plogging Championship 2025, a competition where the goal isn’t just to finish the course, but to clean it up in the process. The name “plogging” is a combination of “jogging” and “plocka upp,” which means “to pick up” in Swedish. The unique sport was created by Erik Ahlström of Sweden in 2015, who came up with the idea while jogging in Stockholm and observing the litter there. The next year, the city hosted its very first “plogga,” where runners gathered together to jog and pick up litter as a large group. Since then, the sport has spread around the world, and Championships have been held in Italy since 2021. The latest race was held in September of 2024, bringing 80 competitors from 13 different countries to Gandino and Bergamo. Over the course of several races, including trail and urban races, competitors collected over 2,800 pounds of litter. The runners were judged not just on their time, but on the amount and quality of the litter they collected along the way. The organizers used an algorithm to determine the amount of CO2 that the litter would have otherwise omitted into the atmosphere, and combined that with the time and elevation changes (in the case of the trail competition) to create a final score. Serbian Milos Stanojević won the men’s division, while Italian Donatella Boglione won the women’s division, with a score of 211,436 points and 122,803 points respectively. While competitors have already started training for this year’s championship, proponents of plogging say that anyone can participate in the sport. There are currently around three million ploggers who clean up the environment as they stay fit, and Ahlström himself has said that it’s not necessary to job the entire time. In an interview with The Plastic Runner he explained, “One does not necessarily have to run or jog—plogging can be done walking down the street, on the golf course, biking, paddle boarding, swimming or wherever you are.” It’s good to see that this innovator is still plugging for plogging.

 
[Image description: Plastic litter on a sandy beach.] Credit & copyright: Ron Lach, Pexels

How did you ring in the new year? If you ventured out to a party, chances are that champagne played a part in your celebrations. For centuries, this unique, sparkling wine has played a major role in all sorts of festivities, yet its creation was something of a fluke, and its signature bubbles were once considered a flaw.
 
Champagne is a type of sparkling wine from the Champagne wine region in northeastern France. The borders of the region are specifically defined by an appellation, a legal document which also lays out rules about how champagne can be produced. Only certain grapes can be used, the three most common varieties being pinot noir and pinot meunier, which are red grapes, and chardonnay, which are green. One of the most important production rules is that the wine must undergo secondary fermentation inside the bottle, which is what causes it to become carbonated. Modern champagne is always pale gold to light pink in color.
 
In the 5th century, ancient Romans planted the first vineyards in what is, today, France’s Champagne region. By the time the Kingdom of the West Franks was established in 843 CE., different regions in the area were already known for producing their own varieties of wine. Hugh Capet, a descendant of Charlemane who was crowned King of France in 987, was so fond of the Champagne region’s wine that he featured it prominently at royal banquets, and other European leaders would journey from afar just to have a taste. Modern champagne-lovers might have been taken aback by this wine, though, since it lacked bubbles.
 
At the time, the Burgandy region, in eastern France, was most famous for its dry, red wines. It was much harder to produce red wine in Champange, to the north, since colder winters made grapes harder to grow and often kept them from ripening fully. This harsh weather also led to modern champagne’s most famous feature: its bubbles. Much to early Champagne-region winemakers’ displeasure, bottled wine stored there during winter would often cease to ferment because of the cold. This was all well and good until spring, when dormant yeast cells awakened and started the fermentation process up again. Since the wine had already been bottled, the carbon dioxide released during fermentation had nowhere to go, which sometimes caused the bottles of wine to explode. This led early Champagne-region wine to be nicknamed “le vin du diable” or “the devil’s wine.” Even if the bottles didn’t explode, winemakers weren’t pleased to find bubbles in their wine, since they considered it a flaw.
 
In the late 16th century, the wine of the Champagne region gained one of its most famous champions: a monk named Dom Perignon. As cellar master of the Abbey of Hautvillers, he established a set of rules for growing grapes and creating wine in the region that many winemakers after him came to follow. However, it’s not completely clear how Perignon felt about champagne’s bubbles. One common myth claims that, upon tasting sparkling wine for the first time, the monk shouted, “Come quickly, I am tasting stars!" But the quote actually came from an 1800s wine advertisement. Still, by the 17th century plenty of people had finally warmed up to champagne’s effervescent nature, most famously Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who made the wine a hit amongst French nobility. The wine’s association with the upper class made it even more popular, and by the 18th century, winemakers in the Champagne region were making their wine sparkle on purpose…though it was a tricky process to perfect. Plenty of wine bottles still exploded every year until the 19th century, when better glass-making methods allowed for bottles strong enough to withstand the pressure.
 
Despite several political upheavals that affected the Champagne region during and after the 18th century (including two world wars) their wine has remained popular the world over. Today, champagne’s fancy reputation has made it a go-to drink for fancy parties and big celebrations. Here’s hoping that your 2025 is filled with a fun moment for every bubble in your champagne glass.

 
[Image description: Glasses of champagne on a table shown at a tilted angle.] Credit & copyright: Rene Terp, Pexels

Are you a night owl or a morning person? Do you know someone who’s both? Some people seem to naturally thrive on less sleep than others, and modern research is shedding some light into why. Sleep deprivation is no joke. Once thought to be just a way for the body to rest, scientists have been learning about the various important functions of sleep in recent years. While sleeping, the body actually performs crucial brain maintenance, replenishing energy stores and flushing away toxins that build up throughout the day. At the same time, the brain consolidates long-term memories while sleeping. No wonder, then, that extreme sleep deprivation can have devastating—even fatal—consequences.
 
For most people, it takes around seven to nine hours of sleep each night to feel rested, but a small percentage of people do fine with just four to six. They’re called “natural short sleepers” and they’re now said to have a condition called Short Sleeper Syndrome (SSS). It sounds like a detrimental disease, but people who have SSS show no ill health effects from their diminished sleep. Not only do they sleep less than most people, they also have an easier time falling asleep, often wake up without the need for an alarm, and have more energy and a better mood during the day. The lack of negative side effects are leading scientists to believe that people with SSS are getting higher quality sleep than those without the condition, which is why they can reap benefits from sleeping for such a short time. While SSS appears to have a genetic component (scientists have identified seven genes associated with SSS), researchers believe that studying other mechanisms behind SSS could help those who struggle to get quality sleep. Of course, there are some things that anyone can do to get the most out of their sleep: going to bed at the same time each night, getting plenty of sun during the day (especially in the morning) and keeping bedrooms dark and quiet. Eating too much or drinking alcohol before bed can also decrease sleep quality. It’s all a tad more complicated than chamomile at night and coffee in the morning.

 
[Image description: A black alarm clock sitting on a nightstand on top of a notebook beside a blue-and-white-porcelein cup] Credit & copyright: Aphiwat chuangchoem, Pexels