One of the very last things to be shipped into the McMurdo US Antarctic research station before the winter set in was a small, but apparently vital supply: 16,500 condoms. There are about 125 people stationed there during the winter months.
Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them.
The base only has a skeleton staff through the long winter.
"Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable," Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.
It would appear that McMurdo is a very friendly place. If the condoms are all gone in September when the shipments begin again some 135 condoms per day would have been used. For a staff of 125.
The mind boggles. Bonus question: what ARE they studying down there?
Are you sure this didn’t come from a recruiting poster?
I considered volunteering for the wintering-over crew at McMurdo shortly before I got out of the Navy. I doubt it would have been as well-supplied back then, though … that was at the end of the Carter administration, when we couldn’t even get ammo for requalifying with small arms. I don’t know that women were allowed to winter-over then, either.
Bonus question: what ARE they studying down there?
Silly question. They’re studying how to maintain the physical ability of males to perform under extremely cold conditions. The ultimate goal is to eliminate cold related "shrinkage" forever!
There is also the anthropoligical question of how humans were able to mate and preserve the human race during the ice age when they were faced by extremely cold and harsh conditions.