"Antarctica base gets 16,500 condoms before darkness":

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.

"Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable," Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.

It sounds like the issue is that people may become a little bit too comfortable during the long dark winter months...