A mass release of a million minutes of historic footage to YouTube this month might be bad news for office productivity but is good news for history buffs.
More than 50,000 news clips from as far back as 1895 to the present have been released by British Movietone and the Associated Press, and can be watched on demand online for free.
Buried in this vast archive are many relevant clips for the UAE and the Arabian Gulf. Here is a small selection.
[ UAE Defence Forces Unified, May 1976 ]
Five years after the December formation of the United Arab Emirates, the country formed the Union Defence Force.
At a meeting led by Sheikh Zayed, the founding President, and attended by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and now President of the UAE, Sheikh Rashid Al Maktoum, then ruler of Dubai, and Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, now Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, a declaration was signed to unite the separate defence forces.
Unification Day is now celebrated across the country each year on May 6.
[ Swimming championship in Abu Dhabi, June 1975 ]
Predominantly Emirati crowds gathered in the summer of 1975 to watch a special kind of endurance race.
Triggered by the firing of a small pistol and watched by people who appeared to be coaches in their colourful tracksuits, more than a dozen men in swimming shorts and lycra caps dived into Abu Dhabi's warm waters, racing towards a small boat in the distance.
Sheikh Zayed, the President, watched the action through a pair of binoculars before presenting the winners with their medals.
[ Indoor ski slope being built on the Arabian Peninsular uses new technology, May 2005 ]
This behind-the-scenes footage reveals the extraordinary construction feat that was the building of Ski Dubai. The main 85-metre-high structure, constructed from 3,000 tonnes of steel, was built on the ground and then lifted into place with heavy-duty hydraulic cylinder jacks.
"The biggest challenge of all, because it's inclined, was ensuring it was lifting very evenly and the structure was performing as predicted," says Phil Taylor, chief executive officer of Ski Dubai, in the footage. "Every half-hour there were stops, there were measurements taken. It was very, very gradual. The first 10 centimetres actually took us seven hours."
[ Hijacker, JAL jumbo at Dubia Airport, July 1973 ]
In the summer of 1973, all eyes - and film cameras - were on a plane parked at Dubai Airport. Japan Air Lines Flight 404 landed in the city en route from Schiphol, Amsterdam, to Tokyo.
Shortly after take-off, 145 passengers and crew were taken hostage by five terrorists from Palestine and Japan. The UAE allowed the plane to land after some other Middle Eastern countries refused. It remained on the tarmac for several days before flying to Syria, and Libya, where the hostages were released.
The hijackers demanded the release of Kozo Okamoto, a member of the Japanese Red Army involved in a shooting at an Israeli airport. Their demands were refused.
[ Sheikh Rashid in London, 1963 ]
For his visit to London in 1963, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed, then ruler of Dubai, entered the UK capital in style.
He arrived at the city's Victoria Station on board the Golden Arrow, a luxury service that linked London and Paris by rail and cross-Channel ferry. Passengers travelled in Pullman carriages, with the French link called La Fleche d'Or.
Sheikh Rashid's semi-official visit was more than just a holiday. The ruler had big plans for the emirate and held a number of business meetings, with work starting that year on the main runway at Dubai International Airport where the second part of this film, showing the ruler's return, was filmed.
[ Ablaze in the Gulf, April 1961 ]
Captured here is the aftermath of the worst peacetime maritime accident in the history of the Arabian Gulf - the explosion and fire on the MV Dara that claimed the lives of at least 240 men, women and children.
This aerial footage captures the burning passenger ship as it drifted off the waters of Dubai. On April 8, 1961, the Clyde-built Dara had put to sea from Dubai because of heavy weather but then an explosion, possibly caused by a bomb, ripped through the hull.
A rescue effort saved more than 500 passengers, most of whom were from the Indian subcontinent, and in particular Goa.
Shortly after this film was shot, the hulk of the Dara sank under tow, with the wreck now lying just north of the emirate's coast.
[ Vegetables grown in the desert, 1972 ]
Think of Saadiyat Island, and visions of five-star beach hotels and the new Louvre Abu Dhabi come to mind.
Back in the 1970s, though, the island was the site of an ambitious project to grow fresh vegetables.
An experimental station was set up on the direct instruction of Sheikh Zayed, the Founder and first President of the UAE, who had read about new techniques for growing plants in sand in Time magazine.
A select group of Emiratis was sent to the University of Arizona for training, and several greenhouses were built on Saadiyat.
This film starts with the crew rather theatrically staggering through the sand and imagining the whole thing as a mirage. In fact, the scheme continued for several years, producing many tonnes of cucumbers, tomatoes and other produce until it was eventually halted on economic grounds.
[ Highlights of a football match between Arsenal and Dubai, November 13, 1976 ]
The season of 1976 to 1977 was hardly a vintage one for Arsenal Football Club. Finishing eighth in the old First Division, the Gunners also crashed out of the FA Cup with a 4-1 defeat at home to Middlesbrough.
But the season was remarkable for this match - a trip to Dubai in November 1976 for a friendly game with Al Nasr.
The ground in Dubai was about as far from the Marble Halls of Highbury as can be imagined, with spectators crowded along the touchline or watching from dunes that overlooked the pitch.
Arsenal's squad included the England striker Malcolm McDonald, with the Gunners victorious 3-1, even though the game was played in 31 degrees centigrade - mild for Dubai but well above anything for a match in England.
