mod python?

[Sposhua]

I've just heard about an "exciting" thing called mod Perl
( http://perl.apache.org ) - Apache/Perl integration. From what I can work
out, basically it's faster as it doesn't have to start the interpreter a
billion times, and it makes it possible to write Apache modules directly in
Perl. Is is

a) Really exciting?
b) Is there an equivalent for Python?
c) What the heck is an Apache module anyway? (in practical terms)