- WELLINGTON (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, a New Zealand
newspaper reported Monday.
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- 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.
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- The base only has a skeleton staff through the long winter.
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- "Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little
bit uncomfortable," Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.
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- About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo
base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when
there is constant darkness.
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- The first sunrise will occur on August 20 and McMurdo's
population will start to increase again in September when supply flights
resume, peaking at more than 1,000 during the summer period.
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- Reporting by Kazunori Takada, editing by Miral Fahmy
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