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Afghanistan during the Durrani Period.In the life of a person, nation and history in general when great changes are seen they are usually the result of either great positive events or more often than not very great negative occurrences. Afghanistan was flourishing nation some centuries ago. It had avoided the fate which much of India was facing as though India had finally freed itself from foreign rule, it had done so just in time for the British East India Company to decide that it no longer had the means to pay for Indian exports with gold and silver so it was willing to try to gain direct control of the Subah of Bengal which had been Mughal India’s wealthiest province and alone represented 12% of all global trade in the world. Yet, what seemed at the time to be a generosity of fate for Afghanistan did not pan out so. Though it was not colonized, it would after the fall of the last free Indian Empire, known as the Sikh Empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1840 to the British, begin to lose large parts of its territory. The unfortunate occurrence of the fall of the Sikh Empire, placed the border of the British Empire directly with Afghanistan. At this time, the Sikh Empire had conquered a great deal of Afghan territory, but Afghanistan was not a land locked nation at this time. The Emirate, had access to the Indian Ocean through Baluchistan, and even though the Sikh Empire was in place, Afghanistan was still allowed to access the waterways. Afghanistan's zone of influence also stretched to the Indus in many places and the Khyber pass, North West Frontier and much of what today is considered part of Pakistan was actually under Afghani influence. There is credence to this, and I will give two familial descriptions which really show true.The Sikh Empire was the last Indian Empire to fall to the British Empire.When my Great Grand Father began his first contract to build railway infrastructure it would be in the North West Frontier. His employees were largely Pathans, and they told him very straight forwardly that this was Pathan territory historically and not India, even though Maharaja Ranjit Singh had conquered some of it. The Pathans at this time still viewed that rule as favorable as they were not restricted from their freedom of movement and trade. The Pathans had gripes about the 1893 Durand Line, and the fact that Pathan lands had been officially divided in half. They had lost access to Baluchistan and Afghanistan though not land locked yet on a practical level was on a potentially tactical level. For my Great Grand Father it would take more social tact and knowledge of history than even hard work to get this first project done. Decades later in 1915 he took my Grand Father to this very place, to show him where he had started. It was a spiritual journey back to a place where he had faced hardship but come out successful. He had incredible respect for the Pathans and their straight forward nature. My Grand Father would tell this story many times to me, and he would always tell it when we would go to see one of my fathers real-estate projects as on the way barren hills would come, which reminded him of that place.Pathan Tribesmen, late 1800s, North West India.Another example of comes to me from my maternal grand father, who in the early 20th century had been in the Indian Army. Much of his stationing had been in the North West Frontier and he came back with a similar idea that Afghanistan really continued well over the border into North West India at that time. Afghanistan at this time was not subject to a tight border, as India did not vigorously control the border. Freedom fighters from India being pursued by the colonial police would cross over to Afghanistan at night and either never be seen again or comeback much stronger like Subhas Chandra Bose. Afghani Pathans would come to India to seek work and return home during the hot Indian Summer, so trade continued.The problems for Afghanistan began with World War II, and the closure of Indian-Afghan Border by the British. For the first time in history free movement was not occurring between India and Afghanistan. It was only a sample of what was to come. But, for Afghanistan it was a clear indicator that the Durand Line which had been imposed on Afghanistan was not acceptable. The Royal Government of Afghanistan would ask that the Durand Line be renegotiated before the departure of the British Empire from India, but instead no interest was shown by the British in this proposal. They would partition India and create Pakistan on Afghanistan’s border which continued to state that the Durand Line was the official border.Prime Minister Daud Khan being remembered in Modern Afghanistan.The later part of the 20th Century would see Afghanistan's Monarchy overthrown in the game of balance between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Pakistan would through out the 1960s and 1970s support radical groups in Afghanistan to combat the Socialists who had gained control of Afghanistan via reformed royalist Prime Minister Daud. The U.S. with the intention of creating a “Vietnam” for the Soviet Union pushed this agenda, and Pakistan saw this as an opportunity to treat Afghanistan as it’s fifth province. Finally, in 1979 the situation became so unstable in Afghanistan that the socialist government needed far more just assistance. Repeated failures had resulted even with reforms which in every other socialist nation had brought about temporary economic booms. The land reforms in Afghanistan should have created an air of prosperity for the poor, but this had not happened, as U.S. and Pakistani supported rebels created havoc in Southern Afghanistan. The repeated destruction had created a war zone long before the world realized the reality in Afghanistan. The economic lead Afghanistan had in terms of income for its average citizens over both India and Pakistan at this time had been consumed in this geopolitical game.The Soviet Union would invade Afghanistan in 1979. The reality was that it feared the spread of Iran’s Islamic revolution to its southern republics and at the same time it was largely believed that Afghanistan’s government would be toppled by the joint U.S. and Pakistani effort which had resulted in large parts of the nation being ruled by warlords. The result is well known, as this was the trap the Soviet Union should have avoided. Though occupying Afghanistan in less a month, the occupation would prove impossible as radicalized elements would flow in from Pakistan with the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and China supplying arms and financing to wage gorilla warfare. The Soviet Union was now doing battle with five nations, and Pakistan would in essence be given the green light to have an atomic weapon, as the Reagan Admiration believed this created balance with the Soviet Union.Kabul 1970sKabul 1993Afghanistan emerged out of this decade long war, in literal ashes. It had gone back to the 10th century, electricity resources, roads, hospitals and schools were nearly all destroyed. Pakistan would place the Taliban in control, after a lengthy civil war. Terrorists would find safe haven in this radicalized atmosphere. Women and even young adults would be publicly executed over moral allegations in public stadiums and the Hindu and Sikh minority were ordered to wear patches similar to tactics used in NAZI Germany. The nightmare would grow worse. Both India and Iran would finally back the Northern Alliance of Ahmed Shah Masood, to try to end this nightmare of oppression. It would be a cowardly act which would end the life of Ahmed Shah Masood just days before the 9/11 terror attacks.Kabul 2019, emerged again as a capital city with on going new construction.The 9/11 attacks would clear the way for U.S. intervention in Afghanistan and the removal of the Taliban. A process of rebuilding would start. but Afghanistan remained a nation which was poor and trade within Central Asia remained a nonfactor in creating wealth. Sadly, Afghanistan today is readily being handed back to the Taliban, as the U.S. wishes to exit. Afghanistan is a nation which has a highly favorable view of India and of Democracy though at the same time it is a conservative Muslim nation. The recent attacks on India Nationals in Kabul, have been claimed by radical groups linked to the Taliban. Once more the idea of an Afghanistan which could move towards progress and selective modernity is being lost. Instead, the goals of Pakistan and China are taking precedence. Once more Afghanistan is being sold to the wind, and it will only be paid attention to again when either larger Geopolitical goals are at stake or eminent threats once more come from Afghanistan. The lesson of history is once more lost, that Afghanistan is more prone to spiral down hill than any nation in the region. It is land locked and dependent on foreign assistance such as it received from India and the U.S. during the past 20 years. Without this type of assistance Afghanistan has little chance to progress as the forces around it only wish to dominate through theological ideology. Ultimately they will benefit from Afghanistan’s untapped mineral wealth. Afghanistan is at a turning point in its history and it seems the last 20 years will be more an anomaly than a trend as Afghanistan is once more being forgotten about all too soon.Prime Minister Modi inaugurates Afghanistan’s Parliament, which was built completely with Indian Assistance.

This is a serious question as we are talking about the origins of Doctor Who’s Daleks. The Suez defence light is a bit of a myth (or a bit of magic maybe?) generated post-war, although grounded in the story of one of the strangest and potentially devastating secret weapons of the war: one which was built in large numbers, deployed in North West Europe but never actually put to use.The idea behind the myth was to use strobe lights to confuse and disorient the enemy such that they were unable to effectively target friendly forces during a night attack, while simultaneously illuminating the enemy. A sort of cloak of invisibility.Jasper Maskelyne, an eccentric professional magician who served with the British Army, had an idea for ‘dazzle lights’ to protect the Suez canal from air attack. The myths about his weapon grew from a book he wrote about it - The War Magician - in which he claimed almost single-handed responsibility for allied victory.From his experience of designing stage illusions, Maskelyne suggested using a network of 21 powerful searchlights - each containing 24 randomly spinning beams - to confuse and disorient German bomber pilots attempting to attack the Suez canal. Basically blinding the bombers with giant disco balls.Although Maskelyne claims in his book that this weapon was deployed and prevented German bombers targeting the canal, in actual fact only one prototype was constructed. Neither German nor Italian bombers had the range to bomb the canal, and after El Alamein there was no real threat to justify further development of the system.Yet the British did develop an idea for using strobe lights in land warfare. Confusingly this was code named the Canal Defence Light (CDL). More than 300 CDL tanks were built on Matilda, Grant and Churchill chassis for the Normandy landings and advance into Europe. However they were never actually tested in action - mainly because they were so secret that commanding generals had no idea how to use them or how effective they could be in combat.The M3 CDL tank. The guns are dummy, used to disguise these tanks. A large electric generator was mounted in the hull to power the searchlight and oscillator motors. Many were sent to Europe with 79th Armoured Division, but the type was not used in anger.The CDLs were fitted with one or more powerful searchlights which were projected through vertical slits in a fixed armoured turret on a standard tank chassis. The searchlight slits had an electrically operated shutter which oscillated around six times a second creating a strobe effect.M4 CDL prototype clearly showing the searchlight projection slits. The M4 version would have had two strobes working in stereo. A machine gun was added for self-defence.In tests the CDLs proved impervious to anti-tank fire. Gunners were consistently unable to get an accurate shot on them or reliably estimate their trajectory or range. The CDLs could also cloak the advance of regular tanks and infantry, which could be concealed in cones of darkness between the line of strobe tanks. This created - in theory - a formidable and ‘’invisible’’ night assault weapon system, which would have resembled something from the set of Doctor Who. Eisenhower was so impressed he ordered a version for the US forces code named ‘Shop Tractor’.Exterminate - were CDLs the original Daleks?Ultimately the cloak of secrecy surrounding the outlandish CDL tanks outweighed the cloak of invisibility they were supposed to deliver in battle. The ignorance of British and American field commanders of the potential of these weapons and their lack of training in using them in combat prevented the strobe tanks influencing the tide of war.“I regard the failure to use this tank as the greatest blunder of the whole war,” said Major General Fuller, one of the great tank warfare theorists in 1949. Fuller also believed that American and British forces might have reached Berlin before the Russians if the CDL had been used in conbat. But others thought that CDLs could have been easy targets for anti-tank guns using filters designed for bright sunlight.Neither Maskelyne’s dazzle light idea nor the CDL tanks are still secret, although they are linked. As a form of deception, the CDL project took its code name from Maskelyne’s abandoned Suez canal defence scheme. That’s magic, surely?EDIT: Raymond Cusick - who designed the Daleks - spent some time in the army as an engineer in Palestine and was a military history buff. Strobe weapons have continued to be developed such as the Dazer Lazer and Kongsberg Immobilizer. All are designed to neutralise opposition through temporary blinding, disorientation and nausea.

It was “heavy” for a rock song when released in October 1964 and an outlier for future change but it's also essentially a repeat of the format of their better previous third single You Really Got Me (rel. Aug 1964) which was more significant and would influence some of the Garage rock and later Heavy Metal and Punk that followed.The Kinks — You Really Got MeBut there are several others, the earlier Misirlou by Dick Dale (‘62), The Witch and much recorded by the Sonics (rel Nov ‘64) and many early Link Wray instrumentals including Rumble (‘58) & Slinky (‘59) are also precursors of hard rock.Dick Dale — Misirlou (1962) — Dick is associated with the development of the Fender Stratocaster and Showman amp which he used to get volume when playing live. His single note staccato style of playing is considered to be an influence on Jimi Hendrix and a precursor of Heavy Metal.The Atlantics — War of the Worlds (‘63) — Noisy Australian surf musicThe Sonics — The Witch (1964) — Played with wild abandon, they may have only been known in the Pacific North West at the time but Seattle native Hendrix, who upped the volume on his late 60s recordings, mentions the Seattle venue were the Sonics played in Spanish Castle Magic. Dick Dale claims to have met Hendrix separately. Unlike the Kinks, The Sonics were loud throughout their main heyday from ’63 — ’66 and not just on a couple of singles. They built on the previous raucous music of local bands the Kingsmen and the Wailers.Link Wray — Rumble (1958) — Slow & heavy and popularized the power chord much used in Heavy Metal & Punk and an influence on the Sonics.Slinky (1959)But before all these in 1954 Pat Hare turned up the volume fully on his tiny store bought amplifier and achieved the first recorded use of heavily distorted power chords on Electric Guitar on Junior Cotton's Cotton Crop Blues.He also played with Little Junior Parker and Muddy Waters and shortly after the above he recorded l'm Gonna Murder My Baby.No distortion pedals were used in this electric blues single, just volume and fingers. There were many other pioneers too, but volume and distortion had a 10 year history at least before the Kinks delivered All Day and All of the Night.