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Half-Arsed History
QAH Episode 99: Victor Lustig, the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower
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Quarter-Arsed History presents: the story of Victor Lustig, a conman who managed to scam someone into buying the Eiffel Tower - potentially more than once.
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40051. Inventions Episode 51: The Internet
34:19||Ep. 40051The internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes.
20141. QAH Episode 141: The Stone of Scone
26:52||Ep. 20141Quarter-Arsed History presents: the story of the Stone of Scone, a block of sandstone upon which Scottish, English, and then British kings and queens have been coronated for well over a thousand years.
10390. Episode 390: The Miracle Landing of the Gimli Glider
01:00:48||Ep. 10390In this week's episode, hear the incredible tale of Air Canada Flight 143, when a Boeing 767 ran out of fuel mid-flight and so had to be flown and landed as a glider on a not-quite-abandoned airfield in the Canadian town of Gimli.
40050. Inventions Episode 50: The Global Positioning System
31:39||Ep. 40050The Global Positioning System began as top-secret military technology, before a series of interesting (and some tragic) events opened up a world of convenience and logistical optimisation to the world at large.
20140. QAH Episode 140: A Brief History of Morse Code
35:55||Ep. 20140Quarter-Arsed History presents: a brief history of Morse code, an encoding and transmission system that helped to transform long-distance communication in the mid 19th-century.
10389. Episode 389: The First Transatlantic Telegraph Cable
01:08:46||Ep. 10389In this week's episode, hear about the series of ridiculous setbacks and disasters that took place as part of the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable, a revolutionary step forward in global communications.
40049. Inventions Episode 49: The Personal Computer
33:16||Ep. 40049The personal computer is an invention that defines the modern information age, a deeply entrenched part of daily life for billions of people all around the world.
20139. QAH Episode 139: The SS Princess Alice Disaster
24:20||Ep. 20139Quarter-Arsed History presents: the story of the SS Princess Alice Disaster, when hundreds of people drowned in raw sewage after two ships collided on the River Thames.
Update: On Recent Episodes Being Late and a Few Other Things Too
12:19|TL;DL: No episodes for the next week or so. I'm a little bit burnt out after a huge year, so I've been struggling to get episodes out on time. Solutions for 2026 forthcoming; apologies for the disruptions in the meantime.