Funding scientific research

The New York Times has a nice article on how a Dartmouth physics professor has built a supercomputer using PlayStation consoles, to do research 

"focused on finding and studying gravitational waves, vibrations that ripple through space-time. The waves, first predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, form after a particularly violent astrophysical event, like two black holes smashing together. Because black holes cannot be observed through telescopes, Dr. Khanna uses supercomputers to create simulations of these collisions."

What I find most interesting is how he financed his research. 

"Because the National Science Foundation, which funds much of Dr. Khanna’s research, might not have viewed the bulk buying of video game consoles as a responsible use of grant money, he reached out to Sony Computer Entertainment America, the company behind the PlayStation 3. Sony donated four consoles to the experiment; Dr. Khanna’s university paid for eight more, and Dr. Khanna bought another four. "

(He then publishes his research results obtained with this 16-Playstation supercomputer)

"Dr. Khanna’s observations caught the attention of the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, N.Y., whose scientists were investigating PlayStation 3 processors. In 2010, the lab built its ownPlayStation 3 supercomputer using 1,716 consoles to conduct radar image processing for urban surveillance. “Our PS3 supercomputer is capable of processing the complex computations required to create a detailed image of an entire city from radar data,” said Mark Barnell, the director of high performance computing at the Air Force Research Laboratory. The lab later entered into a cooperative research-and-development agreement with Dr. Khanna’s team, donating 176 PlayStation 3 consoles."

So, for a total of 176+16=192 consoles, the financing is 

0% by publicly funded research funds,

4.2% by the University

2.1% by the private sector

2.1% by himself

91.7% by the military

This tally looks a bit scary to me ...