It’s quite an imposing structure is it not, a massive edifice thrusting up out of the ocean though you will never guess what it is. Well you might guess the lighthouse bit, but go on have a guess at what is so special about it.

It is one of many Atomic Powered Lighthouses that the Soviets built. That’s right atomic powered. You see the Russian Northern coast is a vast territory that runs for a few thousand of miles and is all inside the Arctic Circle. The long polar winters mean no daylight at all, each day passing without any sign of the Sun rising above the horizon. There is only darkness for 100 plus days a year.

Now back before GPS these waters could be difficult to navigate easily so the Communist Party decided to build a chain of lighthouses like the one above along the coast, however because they were situated hundreds of miles away from any populated areas these lighthouses had to be unmanned and fully autonomous. So they developed and installed special lightweight atomic reactors, and left these lighthouses to get on with it. Crazy eh.

See more photos at English Russia

There’s an interesting article up at BBC News talking about research at Oxford University using Tetris of all things to combat the effects of PTSD.

I do find while playing games like Tetris, Pac-Man and Zuma that my mind does tend to ’switch-off’ as I focus entirely on the game at hand, so I’m not that sceptical about the claim myself.

What about yourself, video games as therapy, what do you think?

It’s Bungie Day, go play a Bungie game or visit Bungie.net to celebrate.

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Halo 3 screenshot by BigToe67
Lyrics from Here’s to the Heroes sung by Mario Frangoulis from the album Follow Your Heart