On-board missile-defense system makes first cross-country flight | Top Stories | Star-Telegram.com

The EPA just reduced the price of a human life by 1million dollars.  that is, if it costs polluters more than a human life is worth, it is cost effective and legal to kill that many people.  if it costs less than a human life is worth, then it is illegal to pollute. "When drawing up regulations, government agencies put a value on human life and then weigh the costs versus the lifesaving benefits of a proposed rule. The less a life is worth to the government, the less the need for a regulation, such as tighter restrictions on pollution." if you're going to pollute it's best to do it in mid sized towns or cities.  But if you are a military contractor, apparently the value of a human life runs in the billions because here is a pork program that is so not cost effective when it comes to the value that the EPA has put on a single life.

An on-board laser-based defense system tested for commercial aircraft at Fort Worth Alliance Airport in 2005 has made its first cross-country flight.
An American Airlines 767-200s equipped with the JETEYE system flew from New York John F. Kennedy Airport to Los Angeles Airport on Wednesday.
BAE Systems, which developed JETEYE, announced the completion of the first flight.
In all, three American Airlines 767-200s equipped with the JETEYE system will fly between New York and Los Angeles and New York and San Francisco, American officials said.
The other two aircraft will be ready to start testing later this summer and early fall. The tests run through March 2009.
Integrated into the planes' bellies are electronic sensors that watch for missiles being fired from below. A dime-sized laser emitter mounted on a small turret can then rotate to a target and, if necessary, send out an invisible, infrared burst to disorient a missile's guidance system.
The system was a post-9/11 attempt to shift U.S. military technology into the commercial sector and address concerns that terrorists could use shoulder-fired missiles, also called MANPADS (Man-Portable Air Defense System), to bring down jetliners.
"We have now entered the third phase of the testing of the counter-MANPADs system on a commercial aircraft," American spokesman John Hotard said. "This is all part of a Department of Homeland Security project to determine the feasibility of equipping commercial aircraft with such a system."
This phase of testing is to determine the maintenance reliability of the system as well as whether the system is "suitable" for revenue service. An early concern was whether or not the system would be subsidized in some way by the federal government, and, if not, whether the airlines could afford the system out of pocket.
Hotard emphasized that there would not be any live testing or simulations during the phase.

On-board missile-defense system makes first cross-country flight | Top Stories | Star-Telegram.com