(There is also a PR angle: the use of such classic luxury materials sounds extravagant to taxpayers...)
There is precedent: Daguerrotype and the French governement. From wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerreotype)
Instead of Daguerre obtaining a French patent, the French government provided a pension for him.[6] In Britain, Miles Berry, acting on Daguerre's behalf, obtained a patent for the daguerreotype process on August 14, 1839. Almost simultaneously, on August 19, 1839, the French government announced the invention as a gift “Free to the World.”
Am I missing something? Sony cannot be that stupid? Do they really want Blu-ray to be authored by serious professionals only?
But just barely for 2 centuries. Up to the beginning of the 19th century, Chinese technology and culture was way ahead of Europe. This is why there still is mystique about Eastern wisdom. Civilizations rise and fall, then rise again, it is not a linear progression upwards.
I wonder how they manage that? Isn't it equivalent to carrying a very large electric charge and somehow keeping it from getting neutralized? Same problem as in large capacitors. If they have tech to do that, wouldn't it be a wonderful electricity storage system!
Wonder if this, combined with rising fuel costs and carbon footprint concerns, will result in a world where civilian passenger flights are an expensive rarity. Would transatlantic passenger ships come back?
With your bare hands?!?