16,500 Condoms Delivered to Antarctica Research Base

4 years ago Lifestyle

antarcticaPhoto:

Image (c) National Science Foundation

Last month, researchers in Antarctica received about 16,500 condoms, which are being made available for free to avoid any uncomfortable situations.

The condoms were sent with the last shipment of supplies to McMurdo, a U.S. research station. The U.S. base is host to only 125 scientists over the winter, which has been the real issue here. Winter brings the region into total darkness and many of the researchers simply leave - it is a time when everybody knows everyone else and passes large amounts of time indoors. Purchasing condoms therefore, has become a somewhat uncomfortable business.

The McMurdo station manager said that people get bored especially in this period, but they know how to occupy their time.

After the winter and up until the sun rises in full on August 20th, the base is to be repopulated and the number of researchers will grow to about 1,100.Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

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Written by: Vlad Jecan

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Comments

Old Comments

Sqoozes says

Mar 5th, 2009 at 12am
16,500 condoms? A bit much..

Taylor says

Jul 16th, 2008 at 12am
Does anyone know the gender ratio at McMurdo base? I tried to find it but I couldn't get any specific data. Anyways, I thought that would be interesting (and if the ratio is really skewed as I assume it may be it would be even more interesting). Here's a little math for you: Lets assume an even distribution of "couples" and that gives us 62.5 (only one party in any pair would need a condom) and assume approximately 72 days between the time the condoms were delivered (sometime in May) and the time that the base returns to capacity on August 20th. 16,500 condoms/62.5 couples/72 days = approximately 3.67 times per day per "couple". Impressive. Of course this only an approximation and while not necessarily assuming heterosexual intercouse, does assume that each couple either is using or necessarily needs to use a condom each time, and negates any other usage of the condoms than for intercourse between two individuals (if they really are as bored as I assume they would be, who knows how they "entertain themselves").

Paracelse says

Jun 16th, 2008 at 12am
We have to change the Islands name from Antarctica to Erotica.... ;)

Michelle Waitzman says

Jun 12th, 2008 at 12am
125 researchers, 16,500 condoms... When will they find the time to do any research??? Sounds like a whole lot of "passing the time" to me. I wonder if there have ever been any babies born in Antarctica?

Maura says

Jun 11th, 2008 at 12am
Um...It's McMurdo. Not McMundo. Time to fire your editor... ;-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMurdo_Station

Chris says

Jun 11th, 2008 at 12am
Thanks for the tip off Maura. Guess I'll have to fire myself lol. Chris

Um…It’s McMurdo. Not McMundo. Time to fire your editor… ;-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMurdo_Station