How Lasers Will Help Us Make Planes Quieter and More Fuel-Efficient

DLR

Over the past century, the airplane has revolutionized the way we travel and do business, and made enormous technological advances. But modern jetliners burn gobs of fuel and are still loud, especially if you live near an airport flight path. So plane manufacturers (with extra encouragement from government regulators) are always on the lookout for ways to make their aircraft quieter and more efficient.

One way to save fuel and reduce noise is to land at lower speeds, which calls for a more detailed understanding of how air moves over plane wings. Normally, aircraft designers model airflows in computer simulations and in wind tunnels, because it’s difficult to track air moving over a wing at 400 MPH. Now, a German research team is finally getting that detail from in-flight measurements. And it’s doing it with lasers.

During two nighttime flights this week, a team at the German Aerospace Center (the country’s NASA equivalent) shot bright green lasers from the window of their test plane out onto the wing of their specially equipped Airbus 320 Advanced Technology Research Aircraft. The lasers (which are so bright, the pilots wear goggles) illuminate the water droplets moving across the wing, enough for high-speed cameras to capture the movement of the droplets airstream in real time.

By analyzing the images captured by the two high-speed cameras, the researchers can visualize real water droplets—and thus airflow—as they move over the wing. It’s a more accurate and realistic data set than what you get from a computer simulation, and better than past in-flight systems, which were attached to the wing itself, interfering with the airflow and only allowing for a measurements at a few points. One of the most useful aspects about this approach, called Particle Image Velocimetry, is that it allows scientists to compare real-world airflow with their simulations, to ensure that the computer models are accurate.

The team is focusing on analyzing the aircraft’s flight just before landing, when all the flaps are open to maximize lift at low air speeds. Thanks to custom software, the entire airflow around the wing can be visualized in three dimensions. “We want to acquire an understanding, in hitherto unachieved precision, of how the airflow behaves around the wings and flaps, and especially around the engine” during low-speed flight, says Ralf Rudnik, the scientist in charge of the High Lift In-Flight Validation Project.

Increasing lift allows planes to throttle back more, saving fuel and allowing for a quieter approach. That’s important for quality of life concerns for those living near airports, as well as airlines that want to save on fuel bills. If the research is successful, future aircraft designs could allow for a reduction in the minimum speed required on approach for landing. French airline manufacturer Airbus is involved in this research as well, and the FAA is approaching it from another angle, improving flight paths at airports in Houston to minimize throttle use on approach.

So if you live near an airport, these green lasers could make your life a little quieter in a decade or two.

The Long Tail of Ebola: Depressing African Economic Progress

EpSos.de (CC), Flickr

It has almost completely vanished from the news in the United States, but Ebola persists in three countries in Africa: Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. The World Health Organization’s update today puts the case toll at 21,171 in those three countries, with 8,371 deaths. (Eight thousand deaths. Think about that, for a minute.)

But the uncomfortable reality is that the impact of Ebola reaches far beyond those individual cases. In reports issued today and in December — which I missed at the time, so am bumping it back up for reading now — the World Bank predicts that the disease will cripple the economies of these countries into the future.

Some examples from the current reports, on Liberia and Sierra Leone:

• Half of the heads of households in Liberia are out of work.


• 60 percent of women and 40 percent of men in Liberia are unemployed.


• 80 percent of families growing food had smaller harvests in the past growing season than the year before, because they were unable to find workers to help with the harvest.


• Two-thirds of Liberian households were not able to buy enough food.


• In Sierra Leone, 179,000 people have lost their jobs due to Ebola’s effects.

Possibly the most worrisome point in today’s reports is made about Liberia:

Households across Liberia have undertaken various mechanisms to cope with Ebola’s socio-economic effects. Eighty percent of those surveyed had either sold assets, sold or slaughtered livestock, borrowed money, sent their children to live elsewhere, spent savings, or delayed investments since the start of the Ebola crisis — all of which can have negative long-term effects on their welfare. Those in the south-easternmost counties, historically the poorest region of the country, were the most likely to undertake these coping strategies, even though they are among the least directly affected by (Ebola).

That households are cashing in assets to cope with the effects of Ebola suggests that, when the crisis reaches its hoped-for end, economic recovery won’t follow quickly. Income may start to flow, but so many people will pick up in a more disadvantaged state than where they started that there will be a lot of catching up to do.

The effects are not only being felt in households, though, but in the wider economy:

• Construction at a major hydroelectric plant in Liberia is on hold, as is a new $10 million palm-oil mill.


• Coffee production in Guinea has fallen by half and cocoa by one-third.


• Inflation in Sierra Leone is expected to rise to 10 percent..

The World Bank report from back in December predicts that the earning potential of the Ebola zone will be harmed for a while:

All three (countries) had been growing rapidly in recent years, and into the first half of 2014. But GDP growth estimates for 2014 have been revised sharply downward since pre-crisis estimates. Projected 2014 growth in Liberia is now 2.2 percent (versus 5.9 percent before the crisis and 2.5 percent in October). Projected 2014 growth in Sierra Leone is now 4.0 percent (versus 11.3 percent before the crisis and 8.0 percent in October). Projected 2014 growth in Guinea is now 0.5 percent (versus 4.5 percent before the crisis and 2.4 percent in October).

As the epidemic continues, these economies will face a difficult year in 2015, as second-round effects kick in and investor aversion takes a further toll. 2015 growth estimates are 3.0 percent in Liberia, -2.0 percent in Sierra Leone, and -0.2 percent in Guinea, down from pre-Ebola estimates of 6.8 percent, 8.9 percent, and 4.3 percent respectively…

These projections imply forgone income across the three countries in 2014–15 of well over $2 billion (over $250 million for Liberia, about $1.3 billion for Sierra Leone, about $800 million for Guinea).

When we think of epidemics, we tend to think of their costs in terms of illnesses and deaths. (At least, I do.) But it is worth considering that epidemics don’t have just that obvious impact; like a stone plunked into a pond, they ripple outward. The ripples of Ebola could be felt for some time to come — and until the disease is contained, which it is not yet, the full bill for the damage will be uncalculatable. But, the Bank observes, it could be enormous:

If the epidemic continues in the three worst- affected countries and spreads to neighboring countries, the two-year regional financial impact could range from a “low Ebola” estimate of $3.8 billion to a “high Ebola” estimate of $32.6 billion.

This Week in Trailers: Ant-Man May Not Be a Disaster After All

“Is it too late to change the name?” asks Scott Lang aka Ant-Man aka Paul Rudd. Marvel, as always, gets it. They get that Ant-Man is not historically beloved or even widely recognized by general audiences, but as with Guardians of the Galaxy before it, the Everest-sized movie studio seems poised to charm us into welcoming yet another hero into our homes and hearts. At first glance, even Mighty Mouse could trample all over the diminutive Ant-Man, but through the power of the super suit, its insect-sized wearer can shrink down to impossible dimensions while maintaining man-size strength. The tiny Ant-Man shoes have been filled by several characters over the years, but we are entering the mythology with Scott Lang (Rudd), a con man who must help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas)—the original inventor/wearer of the Ant suit—protect the secrets of his technology from a requisite new threat. Additional cast includes Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne and Corey Stoll as Darren Cross (aka Yellowjacket). Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, and Judy Greer show up as well. You had us pretty worried when Edgar Wright bailed on the project, Marvel, but we’re willing to ramp up our optimism again.

Pause at: 0:26. We hereby nominate San Francisco as Best Supporting Location for the 2015 Oscars. Now stop at 1:00. Remember when Evangeline Lilly was denying being in a Marvel movie? Nice one, Evangeline. Behold the suit at 1:11. Ant-copter at 1:36.

Essential Quote: “Second chances don’t come around all that often. I suggest you take a really close look at it.”—Dr. Hank Pym

The Sci-Fi One: Chappie

Oh, my! What a difference a trailer edit makes. The first spot for Neill Blomkamp’s upcoming Chappie made it look like a heartfelt journey through the ever-more complex conversation of what defines humanity as an age of technological sentience sits on the horizon. Apparently that was so 2014, because the new Chappie trailer looks like RoboCop meets Short Circuit. We get it. This movie looks expensive and there are a lot of different audience sensibilities that need appealing to, but it does make us wonder which movie we’ll get when we show up at the theater. Honestly, either one is exciting, and having an heir to Johnny 5 feels long overdue. We need a robo-hero!

Pause at: 0:35. Whoa! RoboCop much? The queen has arrived at 0:40. Ninja goes on the defensive at 2:00.

Essential Quote: “I think I’ve cracked it. This is a new kind of life form. A new step in evolution.”—Deon (Dev Patel)

The WTF? One: The Voices

Hi there Anna Kendrick! We hadn’t seen you in about 15 minutes and we were starting to miss you terribly! And Ryan Reynolds, well, we can just never get enough of you either. So The Voices looks pretty weird, right? Reynolds plays Jerry, an affable, very handsome, otherwise average Joe. Work is going well, and he’s even met a nice girl at the office (enter Kendrick). The thing is, Jerry is also straight crazy and apparently off his meds, because his cat and dog are telling him to kill women to make him feel alive. (Well, it’s mostly the cat telling him, and we are not surprised.) We got pretty worried when it looked like we’d lose Gemma Arterton as quickly as we found her here, but fortunately, she comes back as a severed head. Natch.

Pause at: 0:42 for the terrible trio. This fits at 1:05. Fiona (Arterton) joins Jerry at breakfast at 1:44.

Essential Quote: “In her eyes, you are a ridiculous peasant. Kill her and you will discover what it feels like to be truly alive.”—Jerry’s Cat, Mr. Whiskers (voiced by Ryan Reynolds)

The Funny One: Hits

Matt Walsh, Michael Cera, Wyatt Cenac, and Amy Sedaris in the directorial debut from David Cross? We say “Yes, please!” Hits is a satire of fame-whoring “21st century YouTube America” that takes place in the small town of Liberty, New York. Young Katelyn (Meredith Hagner) wants to be famous for any reason whatsoever, but her dad, Dave (Matt Walsh), is the one who ends up going viral after getting kicked out of a town hall meeting for being too passionate about the responsibilities of local legislatures. His voice will be heard! If this movie is just Cross and his hilarious friends making us laugh for 90 minutes, we’re ready to call it a success. If he nails the biting social messaging on top of it, all the better.

Pause at: 0:56 for the champions of free speech and liberty. What’s the point of civil disobedience if Maria Menounos and Mario Lopez aren’t talking about it on Extra at 1:45? Katelyn isn’t kidding around anymore at 1:49.

Song: Blues Saraceno, “Save My Soul”

Essential Quote: “The town of Liberty, New York has become Berlin. Under Hitler. What do we do?”—Hipster peacenik Donovan (James Adomian)

The Forgotten One: Accidental Love

Oh, man. First it was called Nailed. Then it became Politics in Love. Now it’s Accidental Love. This is the health care satire that David O. Russell left behind, like, forever ago (as in 2008!) and it’s sadly easy to see why. It’s a shame when bad movies happen to good people, and if we see Jake Gyllenhaal or Jessica Biel around the neighborhood—as you do—we’ll make sure to just let this one go. The script is by Kristen Gore, who’s probably known better as Al Gore’s daughter than as a screenwriter, and it’s about a small town waitress who gets a nail embedded in her head during a marriage proposal, but who can’t have it removed because she lacks health insurance. It’s all just too much, but closing your eyes doesn’t make something go away, so here it is.

Pause at: 0:30 for a masked Bill Hader. Welcome Beverly D’Angelo to the fold at 1:00. Then there’s Kirstie Alley at 1:28. Who was the casting agent here?!

Essential Quote: “Did you just exchange her engagement ring for a chicken foot?”—Dr. Bill Hader

The Samuel L. Jackson One: Big Game

The great thing about the heading “The Samuel L. Jackson One” is that it could mean anything, and this time, it means he’s the President. Air Force One has been downed by terrorists, and now it’s up to a 13-year-old woodsman in the Finnish countryside to save him. Carry on.

Pause at: 0:35 – Felicity Huffman?! The budget apparently necessitated cup phones at 0:43. Jim Broadbent at 1:07??

Essential Quote: “Find him. Kill the sons of bitches that are after him. Bring him home.”—Jim Broadbent, explaining the strategy to save The President (Jackson)

The Scary One: The Lazarus Effect

Mark Duplass is doing everything else, so why not throw a horror movie into the conversation? And this one has a pretty zany pedigree. It’s a Jason Blum/Blumhouse production, and it stars Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Evan Peters and, wait for it … Donald Glover. The Childish Gambino business must be in a momentary lull? It’s also directed by David Gelb, who’s taking his first crack at narrative features with this one, after gaining from documentaries like Jiro Dreams of Sushi. This is the weird funhouse stuff that should be happening in horror! Get weird and pull out all the stops! Duplass and Wilde are Frank and Zoe, a romantically involved duo in a group of med students working on a serum to revive the dead. When an experiment goes awry and Zoe dies, Frank uses the very FDA unapproved Lazarus solution to bring her back. This, as we will see, turns out to be a very, very bad idea.

Pause at: 1:25, 1:45, and 1:55 for proof that Olivia Wilde is still beautiful even as a vessel for demons.

Essential Quote: “You have no idea what you’ve done.”—Zoe (They never do, Zoe.)

The Animated One: Peanuts

It’s just … Hmmm. Can it be Peanuts without the adorably crude line drawings? At least Snoopy and Woodstock aren’t talking or anything crazy like that. But speaking of America’s favorite Beagle, the Flying Ace is setting out to take on his long-time nemesis the Red Baron in World War I era Paris, as his best pal Charlie Brown embarks on his own parallel adventure. Will the persistent light bullying and putting down of Charlie by his friends hold up for kids in 2014? Will this be a strange perversion of an American institution? Will Charlie kick the football? We’re about to find out!

Pause at: 1:01. Oh, Snoopy. Same old Charlie at 1:27.

Song: Vince Guaraldi Trio, “Linus and Lucy” and Flo Rida feat. Fitz, “What I Like About You”

Essential Quote: “Charlie Brown! You blockhead!”—Lucy, obviously

The Small Screen Standout: Cyberbully

We love a good Game of Thrones star side project here at the round up, and this time around we have Maisie Williams following in the footsteps of her on-screen sister, Sophie Turner, by wading into the thriller genre. But instead of her ghostly replicant harassing her a la Another Me, Williams’ character is a teen with a much scarier monkey on her back: an anonymous cyber stalker. We recommend a feel-bad weekend marathon of this, the ABC Family movie of the same name, Jason Reitman’s recent Men, Women and Children, and then all of Black Mirror on Netflix. Then throw your phone in the garbage and move deep into the Appalachian Mountains, because we’re all screwed.

Pause at: 0:20. Seeing Williams in modern clothes is weird.

Essential Quote: “I help victims of cyber bullying.”—said the cyber bully

The Liam Neeson One: Run All Night

If you’re sad that the Taken franchise is coming to a close, dry your eyes, because Liam Neeson isn’t done killing people in the name of his family just yet! Except this time, it’s his son that’s in hot water. Neeson is Jimmy Conlon, an aging hitman—in the movie, not real life—whose son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), has run afoul of some bad, bad men lead by Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). See, Shawn’s son, Boyd, was going to kill Mike, so Jimmy killed Boyd first. That means Shawn has to kill Mike (and most likely, everyone related to him) in order to even the score. This is the third partnership between Neeson and director Jaume Collet-Serra, who previously worked together on Unknown and Non-Stop. Hopefully, their fourth collaboration will be called Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, and since Liam Neeson can do no wrong, we’ll be there with bells on. Ready. Set. FIGHT.

Pause at: 1:13 for the Neeson glare. Stop at 2:08 to see men, on fire, swinging flaming boards at each other. 2:20 tells the whole story.

Essential Quote: “I’m coming after your boy with everything I got.”—Shawn Maguire to Jimmy Conlon (Sadly, Shawn, we don’t think it will be enough.)

Watch: Ross Ulbricht’s Mom Goes on the Record in Silk Road Doc Deep Web

Barring a last-minute plea deal, the trail of Ross Ulbricht—the man accused of running the online drug market Silk Road—begins tomorrow. For those interested in crime and privacy on the Internet, it could be one of the most important cases ever to go before a jury.

It’s also the subject of the upcoming film Deep Web, a crowdfunded documentary from Alex Winter, who previously chronicled the rise and fall of Napster in Downloaded. Like Ulbricht’s case, Deep Web has the potential to shine a light into the shadows of the Internet to show exactly what our rights could or should be in the largely anonymous and shrouded parts of the web.

“Some may argue that this is an exceptional case, involving drugs and dark corners of the Internet and is not relevant to the rights of the average citizen,” Winter says. “But the Silk Road case cannot be so easily dismissed.”

One of the major issues of the case against Ulbricht has been how, exactly, the FBI found the server that hosted the web site itself. The defense contended in pre-trial that if the government hacked into the Silk Road without a warrant to find it, Ulbricht’s Fourth Amendment rights could’ve been violated. The judge in the case threw out that argument—ruling that even if the FBI did hack the server, Ulbricht hadn’t proven the server was his in the first place. The Fourth Amendment issue, however, could come up again during the trial or in an appeal.

“The question of how the Feds found the Silk Road servers is a core issue at the heart of this case and any future cases involving the Dark Net, Tor, and beyond into all of our rights online,” Winter says. “As for the rest of us, the dismissal of the discussion around this search and seizure of private data has huge implications; setting a dangerous precedent moving forward in the digital age.”

Check out a Deep Web clip of Ulbricht’s mother, Lyn Ulbricht, and others—including WIRED’s Andy Greenberg—discussing the importance of the Fourth Amendment issue to the Silk Road case above. The documentary will air on Epix later this year.

How Virtual-Reality Sharks Influenced the Dystopian World of Near Enemy

Sharks in the virtual reality Cube at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Hank Kaczmarski/Beckman Institute

Wonders, being wonders, are best experienced first hand. And the story of the future—the actual, here-it-comes, hold-it-in-your-hands future, as opposed to the far-off, hazy, wouldn’t-it-be-great-to-have-hoverboards future—is often a story molded from first-hand experience. I am by no means an Early Adopter (I’m somewhere between Late Majority and Laggard), so every technological leap of faith I’ve made has come as a result of trying something out. Why do I need a tiny box that carries every single album I own? I once thought, until I listened to someone else’s iPod. Why do I care if my phone can also direct me with GPS? seemed like a perfectly logical line of reasoning until someone else’s phone did just that. Right now, I feel no visceral need to, say, enjoy a ride in a driverless car, but I can also imagine that might change dramatically once I ride in a driverless car. And even as someone who’s since written a pair of novels about a future jam-packed with virtual reality, I never truly believed that virtual reality was coming until I stepped inside the Cube.

The Cube, or The ISL CUBE, as it’s more accurately called, is “an immersive, stereo-capable (true 3-D) visualization chamber manufactured by TAN Projektionstechnologie of Dusseldorf, Germany.” This according to the website for the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where one such Cube laboratory is in operation—one of just five in use in universities across America. In 2009, I traveled to the Beckman Institute on assignment for New York magazine, researching a story about brain cognition. The story had nothing to do with virtual reality and, really, nothing to do with the Cube—I was more interested in an experiment they’d run using a different 3-D simulator (called the Cave) in which they’d studied how distracted people are while using cellphones and trying to cross the street. (Short version: Very.) But my host, a professor at the Beckman, pulled me aside at one point and asked, “Want to see something cool?” In my experience as a writer, that’s a question you never say “no” to.

In Adam Sternbergh’s new book, the Limnosphere—a VR evolution of the Internet—becomes the site of a terrorist conspiracy. courtesy Crown

So he took me inside the Cube—an enclosed room (here’s a schematic) consisting of projection screens on all sides, and which, once you enter wearing a goggle-like contraption (specifically, “a Stereographics LCD shutter-glasses system”), can create an immersive 3-D environment. The first such environment he showed me was—no joke—the flight deck of the starship Enterprise. The Cube, he explained, was mostly used for studies on cognition and spatial awareness, but also had a few cool bells and whistles, like the Enterprise simulation.

I should say here: The flight deck was not at all convincing as a simulation, but that made it no less mind-blowing as an experience. Everything was rendered in blocky, obviously computer-generated shapes, like a very crude cartoon or early AutoCAD rendering. Still—it felt real, like this was a space we could actually move through. Then, with the flick of an unseen switch, my host was able to transport us to a different environ—this time, we were underwater. A blocky computer-generated shark swam by. Again, the shark was very obviously not an actual shark, yet even now, years later, it’s hard to convey how crazy and exhilarating this all felt. Something I’d seen depicted in movies and TV as far-off fantasy was happening all around me. The objects seemed like objects. The shark seemed like a shark. I reached my hand out to touch it. It wasn’t there—yet it was. Which is when I knew: This is coming. This is no longer if, but when.

I was familiar, of course, with the concept of virtual reality, mostly from pop-culture: the Holodeck from Star Trek, the world of The Matrix, the novels of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. I remembered, too, the late ’90s VR-boom, exemplified by magazines like Future Sex, that never seemed to actually go boom. Yet here, in front of my very eyes (or, in front of my shutter-glasses), the future was made manifest. Sure, it looked like the Pong version of VR (or maybe Donkey Kong) but it was clear, even to my laggard’s mind, that with enough time, money, and computing power, Pong inevitably gives rise to Avatar.

So when, years later, I sat down to write a novel, Shovel Ready, that takes place in a near-future New York that’s been devastated by a terrorist attack, and asked myself, “OK, but what about technology?” I naturally recalled the Cube. That primitive, herky-jerky, animated shark swam through my mind once again. The result, in the novel, is the Limnosphere, an entirely immersive VR evolution of the Internet, which serves as an escapist playground for the rich in Shovel Ready and, in the sequel Near Enemy, becomes the site of a terrorist conspiracy.

At first glance, this notion of a virtual world seemed, in some ways, familiar; as I said, I’d also seen the Holodeck and read Neuromancer and heard about Second Life. But familiarity is partly the point: In my experience, the future seems outlandish until it suddenly seems inevitable. I was both reassured and unnerved to learn, months after my book came out, that Facebook had bought Oculus, thus promising to one day turn every living room into a version of the Cube. And that’s exactly the experience I had that day on the plains of Illinois. The Cube, in hindsight, feels less like a simulator than a miraculous time machine—vaulting me forward to a not-so-distant place, where we’re all inevitably headed.

Adam Sternbergh is the author of the Spademan novels. The second installment—Near Enemy—comes out tomorrow.

Easy-to-Install Bike Handlebars That Buzz to Give You Directions

Maps are great, unless you're on a bike. Then they're not so great. These smrtGRiPS handlebar grips use haptic signals to help cyclists navigate around town. Boréal Bikes

Maps are great, unless you're on a bike. Then they're not so great. These smrtGRiPS handlebar grips use haptic signals to help cyclists navigate around town.

Boréal Bikes

The 3.5 ounce smrtGRiPS sync with the rider’s smartphone over Bluetooth. Plug in your destination, and the handlebars take it from there. Boréal Bikes

The 3.5 ounce smrtGRiPS sync with the rider’s smartphone over Bluetooth. Plug in your destination, and the handlebars take it from there.

Boréal Bikes

The tactile language consists of vibrations so as you approach a turn, for instance, the handlebars will buzz to prevent you from missing it. Boréal Bikes

The tactile language consists of vibrations so as you approach a turn, for instance, the handlebars will buzz to prevent you from missing it.

Boréal Bikes

Unless you’re on your daily commute, in which case you can probably navigate the streets and necessary turns blindfolded, odds are you’re using a map. Probably the Google Maps app on your phone. That’s a big problem for urban cyclists weaving through traffic: glance down for a moment, and your life is on the line.

It’d be best to ignore phones altogether, which is why new company Boréal Bikes’s inaugural product is smrtGRiPS, an eyes-free, hands-on pair of handlebar grips that use haptic communication signals to help cyclists get around town. Boréal CEO Louis Huard figures that by launching a swap in, swap out bike accessory rather than an entire smart bike—like Industry and Ti Cycle’s entry design for this year’s Bike Design Project—he and his company can reach more cyclists, and improve more rides. “It’s the lowest denominator,” he says. “We can be on any bike and make any bike connected.”

Boréal Bikes

The 3.5 ounce smrtGRiPS (“really stealthy,” Huard says) sync with the rider’s smartphone over Bluetooth. Cyclists plug in their route in the navigation system in the Boréal app (Huard says they’ll have an open API, so down the line other mapping services might be available too), and the grips can take it from there. “After that the app sends the notifications to the smrtGRiPS, which turns those notifications on as haptic feedback,” Huard says of the tactile language he created for the grips. As you approach a turn, for instance, the vibrations in the handlebars grow stronger to prevent you from missing it. The communication signals work both ways: later, you can access your bike’s parked location through the app.

Like any good tech company CEO these days, Huard is just as excited about the data Boréal can rack up as he is about the product. By tracking rides, he has the ability to see which streets and pathways work best for bikes. Without enough crowdsourced input, he imagines creating a new layer of maps tailored to a community of city cyclists.

SmrtGRiPS will cost $68. Check out the Indiegogo campaign here.

The Golden Globes’ Social Team Is as Stressed About Meme-ing Celebs as You

When Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the Golden Globes for the first time two years ago, their opening monologue featured many an LOL moment, but it wasn’t a joke that immortalized their gig. It was a high-five. “Ang Lee’s been nominated for Best Director for the Life of Pi…,” Poehler said, “…which is what I’m gonna call the six weeks after I take this dress off!” Then, with a perfect blend of irony and genuine glee, the two slapped hands, and it almost immediately became the enduring memory of the 2013 show—not who was nominated, not who won (like Jennifer Lawrence beating out Meryl Streep for Best Actress), but rather this one little gesture. The next day, few remembered who wore what, but the high-five GIF lived on in social feeds forevermore.

This likely happened for two reasons: First, people will make GIFs of almost anything and post them ad infinitum. Second, Fey and Poehler are two of the Internet’s most beloved broads, and when you pair them with the bloodsport that is live-reacting to event television, it’s only natural that their high-five would go viral (along with tweeted quotes, Lawrence’s “I beat Meryl” acceptance speech, and other oddities). “I worked on 30 Rock for many years and then worked on Parks and Rec, so I know how popular these two are with this [online] audience,” says Jared Goldsmith, NBC Entertainment’s head of digital marketing. “They’re able to convey a sensibility that’s in line with how people at home are watching.” But regardless of hosting brilliance, this kind of social potential exists any time average folk—armed with laptops, smartphones, and opinions—watch rich beautiful people get awards. Like the Oscars or the Olympics or the World Cup, many millions of people watch the Golden Globes, and many of them are simultaneously snarking about it on Twitter and posting the highlights on Tumblr.

The Globes went on to peak at 19,886 tweets per minute that night, up from a high of nearly 7,472 TPM the year before. During last year’s telecast—also hosted, just like tomorrow night’s installment, by Poehler and Fey—that number went up again, to 28,117 tweets per minute (the TPM peaked when Breaking Bad won the award for best drama on TV). There were 2.4 million tweets total about the Globes telecast in 2014—a 39 percent increase over the year prior—and the volume of tweets (not to mention Facebook posts, Tumblr’d GIFs, and Instagram “likes”) will likely be even higher this weekend. Goldsmith anticipates it will be the “most social Golden Globes ever.”

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the nonprofit organization that hands out the Globes, knows this well. Five years ago the HFPA asked Michael Carter, then the chief information officer at the California Institute of the Arts (he’s now COO), to help with social media. In 2010, he covered the Globes by himself, armed only with a smartphone and a laptop; “it was quite a task,” he says. This year he has a team of five helping him. And in addition to their constant output from the event, the HFPA has forged partnerships with Instagram (to have fashion photographer Ellen von Unwerth post pics of winners), Facebook (for a “Facebook Lounge” where celebs can answer online questions), and Twitter, which will host a “GIF Mirror” among other things. (They’re also bringing a “Kick Cam” to capture celeb shoes—a move that prevents Elisabeth Moss flipping Twitter the bird like she did E! on their red carpet “Mani Cam” last year.)

The goal for the Globes’ social media endeavors, Carter says, is to show the audience things they can’t see on TV—but this year he’s also making sure those watching on their second screen will have video content as well. “We’ll be sharing live video from the actual show as it happens,” he says. “So, if there’s a cool moment during the show, you’ll be able to watch it online as well.” In other words, if Tina and Amy do something hysterical, you no longer have to wait for some friendly netizen to rip the clip and put it on YouTube.

But at the same time, waiting to see what the Internet will seize on is part of the fun. Does being hand-fed the night’s memes by companies—whose sole aim is, as Goldsmith says, to “extend the couch”—take away their luster? Things go viral organically, after all, not because they came from any official feed. Tweeting and Facebooking during televised live events became the new hotness because those things served as backchannels, a way to talk about the gowns and glamor without being a correspondent from E! Will there come a time when @GoldenGlobes tweeting the most popular Vine of the night make it feel like that moment your mom friended you on Facebook?

Perhaps, but not if Carter and his team have anything to do with it. For one, he acknowledges that they’re just trying to keep up with the online conversation like everyone else. (There’s a monitor in the social team’s “war room” just for this purpose.) And, like the best friend of a celeb who gets a last-minute invite to the ceremony, they’re also just happy to be there. “The chatter online about the Golden Globes is amazing,” he says. “It would happen without us—but it’s fun to be a part of it.”