Coastal taipan venomous snake in Australia. Adult specimens of this species typically attain sexual maturity around in total length (including tail). More mature specimens can grow to between . Other taipans, including the inland taipan, attain broadly similar sizes although they tend to be slightly smaller in average size. A specimen of an average total length weighs around . According to the Queensland Museum, the longest recorded total length for the coastal taipan was a specimen that was and weighed . However, though exceptionally rare, much larger specimens are widely believed to exist, including specimens of as much as . The taipan
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