Coastal taipan Coastal taipan The coastal taipan ("Oxyuranus scutellatus"), or common taipan, is a species of large, extremely venomous snake in the family Elapidae. The species is native to the coastal regions of northern and eastern Australia and the island of New Guinea. According to most toxicological studies, this species is the third-most venomous land snake in the world after the Inland taipan and Eastern brown snake based on its murine . German naturalist Wilhelm Peters described the coastal taipan as "Pseudechis scutellatus" in 1867. Two subspecies are recognized as being valid, including the nominotypical subspecies. The coastal taipan is the longest
A Gentle Creature A Gentle Creature "A Gentle Creature" (), sometimes also translated as "The Meek One", is a short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in 1876. The piece comes with the subtitle of "A Fantastic Story", and it chronicles the relationship between a pawnbroker and a girl that frequents his shop. The story was inspired by a news report that Dostoyevsky read in April 1876 about the suicide of a seamstress. Dostoyevsky referred to it as a "meek suicide" that "keeps haunting you for a long time." The story opens with the narrator in a frenzy about an apparent tragedy that has just