Digital Digest: 24/01/2011

The Best Of The Web

Sunday 23 January 2011 20:00 EST
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Video

www.good.is

In the pantheon of great speeches, few rate higher John F Kennedy's inaugural address. On a cold winter morning 50 years ago today, the 43-year-old JFK delivered his homily on what it meant to be an American and what it means to live in a civilised society. It is as inspirational today as it was then.

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Space

www.geekosystem.com

Where do spaceships go when they die? The Soviet Union's laggardly attempts to keep up with the Americans during the space race spawned a series of low-budget shuttles that never got off the metaphorical ground. Check out these pictures of the decaying corpses of the Concordski and Burran craft.

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Society

www.mentalflossr.tumblr.com

"It seems the only people who would us these machines are prostitutes and gamblers who didn't want to deal with desk tellers," so said National City Bank's focus group on the newfangled ATM machines. Here, Mental Floss pulls together a list of things that focus groups hated but have since become popular. Take a look; you might be surprised.

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Film

www.movieweb.com

Skateland is a coming-of-age drama starring Ashley Greene and Shiloh Fernandez that premiered at the Sundance film festival last year. Set in the early Eighties, the film follows a group of kids and explores how their lives change when the local roller-skating rink shuts down. Watch the trailer here:

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Humour

www.psdisasters.com

If you love a good Photoshop disaster, then this is the site for you. Whether it's missing body parts, giant hands or impossibly twisted limbs, you'll be amazed at some of the stuff that gets signed off and makes its way into print advertising and on to magazine covers. Very amusing.

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Celebrity

www.gawker.com

The latest guest to grace the studio for Piers Morgan's new CNN talks show is Ricky Gervais, currently embroiled in controversy in the US over his near-the-bone jokes at the Golden Globes. Is he sorry for the fuss he caused? Not in the slightest. Watch Gervais make his case here.

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Nature

www.nationalgeographic.co.uk

Rattlesnakes are renowned for the predatory hiss of their famous tails. In this fascinating depiction of life in the wild (from National Geographic magazine), watch as a western diamondback rattlesnake ambushes its prey – a rat – and secures itself a tasty snack.

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