If this New York Times website is to be believed, foreign governments have found the generous funding of U.S. policy institutes to be a handy way of covertly lobbying in Washington. But: Could multimillion-dollar donations, sometimes with explicit contractual stipulations, actually sway these great thinkers?

America laughed when Professor Isao Echizen unveiled his goofy-looking "privacy goggles" last year. But Isao did not get discouraged — and now allies within Japan's top eyewear firms have joined forces with Isao to develop glamorous frames that can beat facial recognition software. Google Glass, a challenger appears!

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