Meryl Rothstein

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Combine one part Project Runway, one part Skull and Bones, and subtract all vowels, and you'll have a rough approximation of LVHRD. A semisecretive society, LVHRD (pronounced "Live Hard") is a social network that attracts 20-something New Yorkers through creative competitions. Hours before an event, members receive a text message with the address of one of LVHRD's "Master Disaster Duels," where, say, teams of architects have to create models out of cheese, or, as in its most recent event, color-coordinated groups went head-to-head in a dance-off. LVHRD's founder, Doug Jaeger, launched the events in 2004 as a way to connect people from often insular worlds, "I feel like most online social networks don't really give you a community. They're glorified address books," he says. "I wanted to create something where people could actually meet up."

Other events in the Master Disaster Duel series:

VENDING MACHINE CHALLENGETwo teams competing to eat the contents of an entire vending machine