From Reuters:

One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year’s supply of condoms.

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 (125 scientists and staff). “Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable,” Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.

McMurdo Station

From Wiki:

McMurdo Station is Antarctica’s largest community and a functional, modern day science station, which includes a harbor, 3 airfields, a heliport and over 100 buildings, including a bowling alley with an antique Brunswick manual pinset machine. There is even a 9-hole disc golf course on site. Most of the residents (approximately 1,000 in the summer) are not scientists, but station personnel who are there to provide support for operations, logistics, information technology, construction, and maintenance.

We wonder if McMurdo is anything like Mr. Show’s biosphere.