Life & Culture | Blog.OneRiot.com - Blogging the Pulse of the Web

Oxford Gets Unfriend-ly

11/17/09 - Posted by Evan Kessler under Life & Culture

The Story: The Oxford American Dictionary has chosen “unfriending” as its word of the year. OneRiot gives our pick for other 2009 candidates.

The Search: Oxford Dictionary

Having 825 Facebook friends can often be a burden. The constant string of unwarranted and obnoxious status updates can drive a social networker absolutely batty. Treading lightly and keeping a finger on the “remove connection” button has become such a necessity in our digital society that the act of eliminating said connection a.k.a. “unfriending” has now emerged as a predominant daily quandary for the net set. Though this writer prefers to refer to it as de-friending, the Oxford American dictionary has chosen to recognize the former term as its “word of the year.” In celebration of the emergence of such popular new verbiage, we here at OneRiot thought it a good idea to proclaim our favorite words that have recently worked their way into the lexicon.

1. DVR- We know it’s only three letters, but along with Tivo these letters have managed to save our television viewing lives from an onslaught of car commercials, because who buys a car based on a commercial anyway?

2. Sexting- There’s no word that sounds like what it means more…and it means good times or getting expelled from high school. (more…)

Tags: Dictionary, Facebook, Language, Words

A Rehab Guide for Gamers

11/13/09 - Posted by Abdullah Saeed under Because We Feel Like it, Life & Culture

The Story: Approximately one million Xbox live users were banned after illegally downloading a game. OneRiot helps them cope with life after gaming.

The Search: Xbox Ban

Some one million Xbox users got a shock when they found they were banned from the console’s Live component, which allows for interactive online play, game purchasing, and various other features that users have become dependent upon, the confiscation of which could result in mental breakdowns worldwide. Microsoft decided to enact the ban after a large number of gamers with modified consoles downloaded pirated versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, leaving the users with a bad-ass game and no one to play it with. It is predicted that after a few hundred hours of desperate solitary game playing, jumping in on consoles of unbanned friends, crying alone, and throwing up from withdrawal symptoms, each of these individuals will emerge from their dens with a thirst for a new hobby and all the time in the world to seek it out. We’ve got a few suggestions to expedite their journey.

Sports!
Actual sports are a lot like games such as FIFA World Cup, Madden, and that new sensation Tecmo Super Bowl, except they are played outside with actual equipment. And guess who handles the ball; you! Not your favorite star or some totally random avatar you unlocked with cheat codes, but your actual self. Because most of your limb muscles are likely atrophied from the long years of inactivity, we recommend starting off with something a little milder. (more…)

Happy (or not so Happy) Friday the 13th!

11/13/09 - Posted by Christopher Reinhard under Because We Feel Like it, Life & Culture

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In celebration of quirky occult holidays (like today), we thought it would be interesting to get down to the bottom of what makes Friday the 13th significant. To be honest, we always thought it was just a great movie premise.

Friday the 13th is a day of superstition in countries worldwide, and the actual Greek terminology for a fear of the day is paraskavedekatriaphobia. It’s a bit of a mouthful, but it breaks down to Paraskeví (Παρασκευή) (meaning Friday), anddekatreís (δεκατρείς) (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (φοβία) (meaning fear). Strange…we always expected there to be a bigger reason for people being afraid of this particular day, like a pagan sacrificial ritual or a Babylonian massacre or something cool like that. But unfortunately, it turns out there’s really not much to it as far as history is concerned. There are some notable births (Margaret Thatcher) and some notable deaths (Tupac Shakur), but that’s really about it. (more…)

Tags: Holiday, TGI Fridays

Happy Birthday to Us (It’s Fun to be 1!)

11/12/09 - Posted by Courtney Walsh under Life & Culture, OneRiot News

picture-3218 Today OneRiot officially turned one year old (or shall we say young?).

On Nov. 12, 2008, our realtime search engine burst onto the internets, and a year later we have a lot to celebrate. From getting bundled into IE8, to predicting American Idol winners, to distributing our search results to lots of partners, to launching the first ad network for the realtime web, to partnering with Taptu to release the first realtime search engine for mobile, it’s been quite a ride!

Check out our birthday cake after the jump! (more…)

Meg, You’re Not Trending. You’re Not Even Popular.

9/30/09 - Posted by Abdullah Saeed under Life & Culture

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Early this morning, Meg Griffin made an appearance on our Trending Topics list. We tried to find out why internet surfers would have led such a placement, but alas - nothing. Here, Abdullah attempts to solve the mystery.

Just as each individual mind wanders into randomness, so does the collective unconscious. It can’t just be a coincidence that this many people were led to think of any single trait of one thing and Tweet about it. Today we revisit Meg Griffin, the daughter of Family Guy’s Peter Griffin and the least liked character on the show. (more…)

Good Things Come from Skipping Naptime

9/18/09 - Posted by Abdullah Saeed under Life & Culture, Sports, US

In the midst of all the madness going on in the news, we the viewing public deserve a little heartwarming story. The clip of a Phillies fan catching a foul ball and triumphantly handing it to his three-year-old daughter only to have her toss it right back has been all over the TV and the internets, giving us all an ‘awwww’ moment the likes of which we haven’t experienced since early Full House seasons. (more…)

Open the Floods of KanyeGate

9/15/09 - Posted by Christopher Reinhard under Gossip, Life & Culture

In the ultimate act of jumping the shark since Fonzie actually jumped the shark, Kanye West all but buried his career in a pile of agonizing egotism after A) publicly humiliating sweet little Taylor Swift at the VMAs, B) issuing a half-hearted apology on his all-caps blog, and C) issuing a second apology in which he acted much like a whiny 14-year-old on Jay Leno. And while this may mark the slow and painful career demise for one of hip-hop’s most important producers, with death comes birth—in this case, the birth of 2009’s most perfect meme.

It started with Swayze. His unfortunate and untimely succumbing to cancer opened the floodgates for Twitter-based memes:

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Next, reports of President Obama’s own disdain for the self-important pop starlet (he called him a jackass on tape) led to the next wave of image-based memes: (more…)

Patrick Swayze Dead at 57

9/15/09 - Posted by Evan Kessler under Life & Culture, US

picture-278 The rumors had been swirling around the internet over the last year and a half or so. They said, “Patrick Swayze is on his deathbed,” or “Patrick Swayze has left us.” Yet with each viciously unfounded rumor, Mr. Swayze would emerge from the shadows of doubt as if to defiantly proclaim, “Nobody puts Swayze in a corner. Not even this damned pancreatic cancer.”

Unfortunately, that statement couldn’t stay true forever, as last night the world lost a fine talent in Patrick Swayze. While Swayze was known best for the filthy way he could cut a rug, he was much more than the star of the 1987 smash hit Dirty Dancing. The Hollywood heartthrob was best known for portraying lovers, fighters, and the occasional bank robber/surfer, but he also had a knack for comedy as evidenced by his memorable Chippendales romp on SNL with the late Chris Farley, as well as his portrayal of a drag queen in the movie with the longest title ever.

Swayze was a true triple threat in every sense of the phrase and now he is gone, and not even Oda Mae Brown can bring him back. In an affectionate tribute to his memory, we offer up a small sampling of his tremendous talent in the form of his hit single off of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, “She’s Like The Wind.” Patrick Swayze - you will be missed.

Kick Palm Pre Users Aces Free of Charge

9/09/09 - Posted by Evan Kessler under Because We Feel Like it, Life & Culture

picture-736 Killing a few hours on a long commute is an easy thing to do in the era of the iPhone, but the intellectual stimulation and thrill of solitaire, snood, and brick breaker can often be easily matched by a bout of intense fingernail chewing. Well take heed, gloomy touchpad touchers - a more discerning set of smartphone users has discovered Word Ace.

This portable gaming experience pairs intellect with a dash of competition and a sprinkle of gambler’s flair, resulting in victorious thrill or agonizing defeat. Word Ace, the latest addition to Self Aware Games, combines the alphabet-savvy of the scrabble minded with the all-in, bluff-master mentality of a Texas Hold’em tournament. Intrigued? Ante up, ’cause not only is this new game app a sweet new wrinkle on two of our favorite pastimes, but it’s also the the first game that owners of the Pre, iPhone and iPod Touch can play together. Can we get a hallelujah!? And… can we get it free!?!

Merciful kittens… WE CAN!!

Cypher13 is CMYOK!

8/25/09 - Posted by Carmel Hagen under Because We Feel Like it, Life & Culture, Life at OneRiot

Our friends at Cypher13 have been doing some really exciting stuff. A huge mural, a very wise, very long-titled responsibility in design manifesto, some magical Twittery thing called RiotFeeds - we couldn’t be prouder of the guys that brought hot pink (ahem - magenta) to OneRiot. Take a look!

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