Investments

Bank Of America Investment Still stinging from failed attempts to introduce radio tags to consumers, retailers and their suppliers are now adding features to the technology to make it appear essential to the safety of the nation's food supply.

Bexil Corporation intends to operate businesses directly or through companies in which it has a majority or other controlling interest and seeks approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for deregistration as an investment company. The Company is no longer an investment company. It is no longer primarily engaged in the business of investing and reinvesting in securities and no longer holds itself out as being so engaged. As of March 14, 2002, Bexil's investment securities represented only 3.1% of its total assets.

Investment Opportunity As recently as last week, retailers and consumer packaged-goods companies have had to quietly dump efforts to implant radio-frequency identification technology into products or store shelves. The tiny radio transmitters let the companies precisely track the numbers and whereabouts of their inventory and consumers' purchasing preferences, which worries many privacy advocates.

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Banc Of America Investment But many companies are now combining the tags with sensors that can detect the presence of biological and chemical agents, or signal that a perishable item has expired. By doing so, they hope to gussy up the controversial technology as an essential terrorism-fighting tool.

(AXcess News) As a result of the deadly and catastrophic events occurring in Louisiana and Mississippi, this appears to be a good time to look at what steps were taken by the Homeland Security Department prior to Hurricane Katrina. The events of September 11, 2001, resulted in a greater focus on the role of first responders in carrying out the nation's emergency management efforts. The Department of Homeland Security is the primary federal entity responsible for ensuring that first responders, such as police, fire, emergency medical and public health personnel, have the capabilities needed to provide a coordinated, scale crisis.

Banking Investment The multifunction RFID tags will track America's food supply "from birth to the bun," said one RFID tag maker. With biosensors attached to them, the tags can instantly alert suppliers and retailers to anthrax or other toxins in their products, and possibly make recalls more effective. In addition, the food companies hope the technology will protect them from lawsuits brought by victims of deliberately contaminated food.

Diversification . A larger pool of funds allows the fund manager managing the unit trust to purchase a wider range of investments. Rather than concentrating an investment portfolio into one or two investments or shares, a portfolio of market securities can be held. The wider the spread of investments, the less volatile (i.e. variable) the investment returns will be. In simple terms, not putting all your eggs in one basket.

Investment Solution Strategic "Antiterrorism designation from the Homeland Security Department will encourage the adoption of this technology by our customers," said Paul Cheek, CEO of Global Technology Resources, which has developed a supply-chain-auditing system incorporating RFID biosensors.

by Yahya Miscellaneous Articles Implementing Security Measures in Airports As soon as the issue of homeland security is brought up, usually the discussion immediately focuses on the security of airports. Maintaining security in these facilitates is a daunting challenge due to the millions of passengers, that visit the airport on ...

Investment Banking Services If Homeland Security designates GTR's system, called Safe Check, as an antiterrorism technology, it will shield Cheek and his customers from lawsuits if the system fails to work as intended.

Bank Investment The Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies ("Safety") Act of 2002 authorizes the Homeland Security Department to name as "qualified antiterrorism technologies" any devices designed to thwart or mitigate the effects of terrorism. Users of approved devices will enjoy blanket protections from liability lawsuits arising from a terrorist attack.

Alternative Investment According to one technology industry lobbyist, the Safety Act was a "backroom deal" brokered by defense contractors, tort reform lawyers and congressional leaders.

Online Investment Services But the Safety Act has recently caught the attention of the food industry, which is now funding the development of RFID biosensors and pushing for their coverage under the Safety Act.

Accompany Essential Investment Auburn University's Detection and Food Safety Center, which is partly funded by food companies, is leading much of the research into RFID biosensors. AU scientists are coating microscopic structures -- one a cantilever less than 100 microns long -- with bacteriophages, viruses that bind with anthrax and other biological and chemical agents. When an agent binds with the phage coating, the cantilever produces a signal for transmission to a handheld RFID receiver.

Investment Company AU assistant professor Barton Prorok, who is working on the biosensors, wants to combine the tiny sensor, a transducer and a computer chip on a stamp-size RFID tag, which can operate submerged inside a milk bottle, or in the juice at the bottom of a meat package.

Investment Management Solution AU is in the early stages of its research, and a bacteriophage-based RFID biosensor is likely many years away.

Investment Management Services But several food companies have already begun testing RFID biosensors. Golden State Foods, one of McDonald's largest beef patty providers and its leading sauce supplier, has been testing GTR's technology for 14 months. Golden State Foods did not respond to a request for an interview. Another company later this year will begin tagging supply containers for a retail grocery chain. FreshAlert, from RFID chipmaker Infratab, combines RFID tags with temperature sensors and timers, to signal when perishables have become unsafe to eat. Infratab is also negotiating with a brewery and a sausage maker, which are interested in investing in its technology.

Guide Investment Stock The food companies, which say they want to use RFID to make their supply chains more efficient, refused to discuss any food safety and security applications for RFID biosensors.

Investment Manual Solution They may be touchy about their industry's history of poor record keeping and inept recalls. Less than 30 percent of recalled meats and poultry are ever recovered, according to estimates from food safety experts and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "They don't want to remind people of that (NBC News) Dateline episode, either," said the CEO of one RFID tag manufacturing company. Dateline last year discovered that retail grocers nationwide were endangering their customers' health by changing the expiration dates on perishable items.

Investment Stock Infratab, GTR and other RFID biosensor companies will begin applying for Homeland Security antiterrorism technology designation as early as next month. But critics of the technology question whether the tags will ever be an effective tool for recalling contaminated goods.

Essential Investment Solution "The retailers used the same argument -- faster recalls -- as a justification for customer loyalty cards," said Liz McIntyre, a spokeswoman for the anti-RFID privacy group CASPIAN. "But we know of no product recalls that have ever been made with customer loyalty cards."

Citicorp Investment Services To make recalls based on information from RFID biosensors, food retailers will have to record the personal data of every shopper, said McIntyre, something consumers may not welcome.

Fool Guide Investment Motley "Consumers will just have to ask themselves if it's worth it to sacrifice their privacy for this technology, because it's something the industry wants."

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