How to generate an array of random numbers following a normal distribution with arbitrary mean and standard deviation

Here is a recipe to generate an array of random numbers following a normal distribution with the supplied mean and standard deviation in Python:

 def random_normal(mean,std,n):  
      """  
 Returns an array of n elements of random variables, following a normal   
 distribution with the supplied mean and standard deviation.  
      """  
      import scipy  
      return std*scipy.random.standard_normal(n)+mean  

Update Oct. 23rd 2014: code snippet available on github.