Find the right solution

My partner finds my hairy shoulders a serious turn-off. I never used to be such a gorilla, although I’ve always had a bit of hair there. It seems to be getting worse and it’s affecting our sex life. I’ve tried shaving but it’s awkward and grows back very quickly. Russel Hoperaft, Hastings

Will King: Shaving works fine on the face but, as most men know, the stubble makes a quick comeback. It’s equally annoying on the back, but the solution is simple. Do as your partner probably does — wax, sugar, depilate or try the best laser hair removal at home. Go to the women’s “hair removal” shelves at your local Boots or Superdrug and buy one of the depilating products — Immac, Louis Marcel or the store’s own label are just fine — and then follow the instructions. For even more “enjoyment”, let your girlfriend do the business for you — she’ll no doubt find pleasure in your pain. Many professional salons also offer a discreet back-waxing service.

 

Alternatively, you can wait—Planet Of The Apes is hitting cinemas this summer, and an excess of hair is sure to become the new must-have look.

 

I’ve noticed a series of little white bumps on my penis—they don’t hurt or anything, but what the hell are they? I’m in a relationship and have always practiced safe sex, so I’m pretty sure it’s not an STD. I’m now getting a bit worried. Peter Robson, via email

Dr Alasdair Wright Bumps on the penis are a fairly common cause of anxiety but in most cases they are of no serious consequence. Any pinhead-sized, white-ish raised lumps on the scrotum and shaft are simply hair follicles and sebaceous sweat glands —though they may seem more prominent if the skin has been rubbed, such as after intercourse. White spots of about 2mm in diameter located on the head of the penis are likely to be harmless ‘pearly penile cysts’— up to ten per cent of men get these and they also cause no problems.

 

If the bumps appear in isolated crops rather than uniformly spread over the penile skin then genital warts are a possibility. They can usually be distinguished by their lumpy appearance and by the fact that they increase gradually in size and shape over many months. However, this is unlikely if you have been practicing safe sex. Get checked by your GP if you remain concerned.

Duck breast and blueberry salad

A light and antioxidant-packed summer lunch? Is it possible?

A brilliant superfood comes into season this month: blueberries are packed full of antioxidants and anthocyanins, which enhance your uptake of vitamin C and prevent free radical damage.  Similar health benefits have the raspberries which are a great source of the miracle raspberry ketone. Their tangy taste balances perfectly with the duck breast.

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 40 mins

•I’m new to running. How should I fuel up?

A Carbohydrates are your fuel: starchy foods like bread, pasta, cereal and rice, plus fruit and vegetables should make up 60 per cent of your diet. The lower the Glycaemic Index (GI), the more gradually the energy is absorbed by the body, so try a low-GI meal one to two hours before you set off. Porridge with walnuts and blueberries for breakfast, or

BIT OF A BUZZ

 

Eat honey on bread for a burst of energy

350q salad potatoes, boiled

115g mixed salad leaves

8 chopped cherry tomatoes

1/4 diced cucumber

1 thinly sliced red onion

4 duck breasts

Salt

Celery seeds For the dressing

3 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp blueberry juice

11/2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard 11115g blueberries

1/4 tsp rosemary and parsley

1 Mix salad vegetables. Rub the duck fillets with salt and celery seeds.

2 Fry duck over a moderate heat until just cooked. Remove and wrap in foil.

3 Remove most of duck fat from the pan. Add remaining dressing ingredients, except blueberries and herbs. Boil, season and stir in the blueberries and herbs.

4 Slice the duck and add to the salad. Spoon dressing over and serve.

 

CALORIES 204

FAT     11.4g

CARBS           11.9g

PROTEIN       8.9g

DISTRICT FINANCE

Automated expense system in all Finance Offices by the end of 1994Saudia’s District Finance Office Expense automated system (DFOE) was first introduced on a limited basis some three years ago. Currently DFOE is installed *functioning in 33 District Offices both in-Kingdom and abroad.

 

By the end of this year all DFOs will be equipped.

The DFOE automated system has a number of primary objectives:

They include:

•Fast processing, auditing and “journalisation” of documents

•Good control of processing

•Accuracy of data

•Availability of updated information on a daily basis

•           Improved service standard

•Positive corporate image

•Enhanced employee performance

•Elimination of manual processing

•Elimination of future need for any additional manpower in the event of an increased workload.

*Easy access to data for decision-mak­ing

•Improved communication with DFOs

•Access to ascertain overall financial status of Saudia

*Safekeeping of historical data *Quick reference guide

•Fast generation of required reports

DFOE is designed to handle only the expense side of doing business. The system does riot, for example, handle purchasing and contracts. The options of the system can be defined briefly as follows:

 

Suppliers

DFOE covers complete information about vendors. All regular vendors are maintained in the system with a vendor code through which any information about the vendor can be extracted whenever needed. Statistical reports related to vendors are also provided to monitor and control payments efficiently.

 

Budgets

The system also handles all types of budget cards, accounts and work orders used at the station. The budget received from head office is fed into the system at the beginning of the year.

While registering payments the budget is monitored automaticaily. In the event of over-payments the system displays messages like – budget: exceeding monthly/year to date/yearly budget, depending upon the case.

 

Other budget-related options – budget re-allocations, breakdowns of actual expense, inquiries of current/previous year budgets and accruals are also present in the system.

Expense Budget Performance Flash, which is prepared by every DFO, is also generated from this system.

 

Invoices

All types of expense-related invoices are registered in the system. Suppliers, bank, budget and cash book are controlled and updated automatically. Unless a cheque is issued against an invoice it remains outstanding, but the system is equipped with the facility to block the budget.

Because an invoice is an important document of payment, all possible measures are taken to avoid fraudulent cases, such as:

*Duplication of invoices

*Registering of wrong accounts

•Registering of wrong banks

•Overpayments etc *Deleting of paid invoices

Payments

Through this option all cheques are entered in the system against unpaid invoices. As these documents are also valuable and accountable in cash control, certain checks are programmed to control payment errors. such as:

•Duplication of payments to vendors

•Control payments on paid invoices

•Comparison of conversion rate, supplier and bank with the invoices

•Deletion of reconciled and reported cheques.

Payments in this system also cover bank reconciliation, lists of outstanding cheques, cheques not reported in AFRs, delivered and undelivered cheques etc.

 

Advices

This option handles all types of adjustements, whether related to budgets,  vendors, invoices or payments.

 

Banks

In the DFOE system banking transac­tions are controlled by using the system’s payment options. Every Saudia adminsitrative fund bank account is defined with a code, and figures related to an account can be extracted whenever required.

 

Security

As this system is part of the DFOs cash control, all possible security checks have been established. The user has to enter a password before accessing the system.

 

The process of developing and qualifying a divergent staff of nationals, including a large number of trainees and expatriates for maintenance assignments. This programme supplements the training programme. Both have initial and recurrent components.

 

The Rex Heflin photographs pt.2

From this point a whole new mystery blew up around the affair, for Heflin claimed that he had handed over the original prints to a man with impressive credentials who had claimed to come from North American Air Defense (NORAD). Unfortunately Heflin did not ask for a receipt for his photographs, and he claims they were never returned to him. Months later NORAD denied having had anything to do with the incident and, accord­ing to the Orlando Sentinel, a Florida news­paper, among others, Colonel George P. Freeman, the Pentagon spokesman for Pro­ject Blue Book, stated that similar ‘mystery men’ in a number of States, claiming to represent NOR AD and various other govern­ment agencies, were confronting and ‘silenc­ing’ witnesses of UFOS.

A general air of confusion and speculation surrounded the Heflin photographs. Then, in April 1969, new light was thrown on the subject when aerospace engineer John R. Gray, who had formerly worked on the Apollo space programme, published a study in Flying Saucer Review that gave consider­able support to Rex Heflin’s claims.

 

Working from an uncropped enlargement of the first photograph — which showed, on the road, the shadow of the telegraph (utility) pole 26 feet (8 metres) from the camera metres) from the camera position.

 

Mr Gray worked out that, if the object had been 6 feet (1.8 metres) wide, its altitude would have been 28.7 feet (8.7 metres). At this altitude, the object would have cast a shadow on the road that would have been visible in the photograph. Heflin himself had estimated the diameter of the object to be 3o feet (9 metres); if this were so, Mr Gray estimated the horizontal distance of the camera from the alleged UFO to be 723 feet (22o metres) and its altitude to be 134.5 feet (4o metres). These figures were fairly close to Heflin’s estimates; he thought the object was half a mile (800 metres) away, flying at an altitude of about 150 feet (45 metres).

 

While many people believe the Heflin photographs to be genuine pictures of a UFO, others have suggested that the whole affair is probably a hoax. The story has a number of curious features and some small inconsisten­cies. And it is unfortunate, and some people think suspicious, that the original photo­graphs have not survived.

 

The American UFO organisation Ground Saucer Watch has subjected Rex Heflin’s photographs to rigorous computer analyses ­and has concluded that they are probably fakes. However it is only fair to mention that GSW has been wrong in the past.

 

 

The incident was investigated by Dr W. Hartmann of the Condon Commission. He concluded that the case was of ‘little probat­ive value’: the photographs contained ‘no geometric or physical data that permit a determination of distance or size indepen­dent of the witness’s testimony.’ Dr Hart­mann also commented that he had been able to simulate the first three photographs by  suspending a model by a thread attached to a Below: photograph 4. After            rod resting on the roof of a truck and Heflin had taken photograph photographing it.’ Although, as he says him‑3, the object suddenly self, this does not prove the Heflin pictures are disappeared,  leavi ng only a fakes, it certainly detracts from their value as ring of black smoke evidence for the existence of UFOS.position — he calculated the elevation and the azimuth of the sun at the time of the sighting to be 72°46′ and 162°51′ respectively. Using these figures, he was able to establish that the true time of the sighting was 12.38 p.m., Daylight Saving Time; Heflin, who had no watch, had estimated the time at 11.3o a.m. Mr Gray also pointed out that, because the alleged UFO cast no shadow on the road, its diameter could not lie within the range of ioj inches (27 centimetres) to 6 feet (1.8 metres).

 

This statement was based upon calcula­tions of possible altitude and distance of the object from the camera. For instance, if the diameter of the object were 6 feet (1.8 metres), the distance from the camera would have been 143.1 feet (43.6 metres). For comparison, the vertical, white irrigation pipe that can be seen on the left-hand side of the road in the photograph was 245 feet (75)

 

The Rex Heflin photographs pt.1

UFO sightings are generally worth taking seriously if they satisfy two criteria: they are made by reliable witnesses and supported by some form of independent evidence. Yet here is a report that presents the serious investigator with an unsatisfactory number of loose ends — even though it was made by a responsible highway official and comes armed with what are, if they are authentic, some of the best UFO pictures ever taken.

The Heflin pictures are among the classics of the UFO dossier. But are they genuine? CHARLES BOWEN investigates

Too controversial’

 

One of the most impressive sets of photo­graphs of an alleged UFO is that taken by Mr Rex Heflin at 12.38 p.m. (Daylight Saving Time) on 3 August 1965, on the Myford Road near the Santa Ana Freeway outside Los Angeles in California, USA. Heflin, who had been a police officer for four years, was working for the Orange County Highways Department at the time when he took the photographs.

In his report of the sighting, Heflin stated that, at about 11.3o on the morning of 3 August, his truck was standing facing north-north-east at the side of Myford Road, within sight of the junction of the Santa Ana Freeway. He was attempting to make contact on his two-way radio with the road main­tenance superintendent, to report that tree limbs were obscuring the view of a railroad crossing sign, when the radio went dead.

 

All at once he caught sight of what he thought, at first, was an aircraft, approaching from the left (north-north-west) — but, sec­onds later, he realised it was a disc with a domed top.

He reached for his Polaroid Model so camera, which was standard equipment for Orange County Road Department officials, and took his first photograph, through the windscreen of his truck.

Heflin claimed that the object moved slowly in an arc over the road, and to the right of his truck. He took his second picture, again through the windscreen. He took the third picture just before the UFO, which had suddenly ‘wobbled’ once or twice, gained altitude and accelerated in a wide arc beyond the Freeway towards the north-west. When asked whether the bottom of the UFO appear­ed to have any markings, openings or evi­dence of landing gear, Heflin replied:

No! The only thing I saw on the bottom of the craft was a white beam of light emitting from the centre and sweeping in a circle to the outer edge of the craft. The movement of the beam was similar to the sweep of a radar scope beam. Suddenly the craft was gone, leaving a ring of smoke, or vapour, in the air. Heflin said he drove up the road and stopped near the ring, jumped from his cab, and photographed the ring before it disappeared.

 

The witness returned to his truck and found that his radio was working again. The same afternoon, after duty, he returned to the office and showed his colleagues his UFO photographs. During the first few days after the sighting, comments the Condon report, Heflin allowed many of his friends to make copies of his pictures; ‘time passed and apparently more copies of the pictures were made and handed out to various friends of friends, until most of Santa Ana was satu­rated with the UFO pictures.’

 

One of Heflin’s friends, having first ob­tained his permission, sent copies of the photographs to Life magazine. According to the Condon commission report they were rejected as being ‘too controversial’ — even though they were ‘the best that Life had seen so far.’

News of Heflin’s sighting came to the attention of the local newspaper, the Santa Ana Register, which tracked Heflin down and invited him to show them the photographs. These created great interest, and enlarge­ments were made — and ‘cropped’ — for printing; the first picture appeared in an article in the Santa Ana Register on 20 September 1965.

 

Needless to say, Rex Heflin came under a great deal of pressure to supply copies of his photographs to interested groups and in­vestigators, but curiously enough he was unable to supply any original prints. He claimed that the negatives from which the Register had made its prints were made from the original Polaroid prints, and that he himself had been present while the film was being processed — but the newspaper insisted that its prints were from Polaroid copies.

From Lip Liners To Buddhist Rosaries, You Are What You Put In Your Handbag

You can learn a lot about a woman by the contents of her handbag. Those must-have items she can’t possibly leave the house without can be very telling; Is it her mobile phone, address book or a favourite lip gloss she can’t bear to leave behind? Is she lost without her bottle of Evian? Does she feel naked if her sunglasses are not within arm’s reach? When asked to reveal what they have in their handbags, these women were happy to spill the goods; KS

PENELOPE TREE

ARMANI BAG

Mala (Buddhist rosary), available from The Tibet Shop (0171 405 5284) • a small piece of rock • Kiehl’s Lip Balm No.1, £4;50 • Poppy Lipstick in Amour, £10 • Issey Miyake L’eau D’Issey Eau de Toilette, £34.50 • keys to a safety deposit box • Filofax passport • Rescue Remedy, £4.75, from Planet Organic

CARRIE LOWELL

PRADA BAG

Clarins Hand and a Nail Treatment Cream, £12.50 • Mac Lip Treatment, £10 • comb argan oil hair • keys

• Nuttalls Curiously Strong Mints, £1.10

RONNIE COOKE NEWHOUSE

COMME DES GARCONS BAG

a bottle of Evian, £1 • YSL Lip Liner Pencil, £9 • Kiehl’s Lip Balm No.1, £4.50 • Peppermint Binaca (breath spray)

ANJELICA HUSTON

BLACK VALENTINO LEOPARD-LINED BAG

Nokia 8810 (silver-plated mobile phone), from £350 • Almay Stay Smooth Lip Colour in Healthy, £7 • Lorac Mascara (not available here; call 00 1 310 286 7234) • notepad • address book • packet of Marlboro cigarettes • black sunglasses

PAMELA HANSON

PRADA BAG

camera and extra roll of film • house keys • $20 • credit cards • Stila Lip Gloss, £13.50 • mobile phone • diary

KAREN MULDER

CHANEL BAG Victoria’s Secret Sheer Lipstick in Tigress (not available in this country; call 001 800 888 820 for catalogue) • Estee Lauder After Hour Compact, £25 • comb

LYNDA LA PLANTE

A SMALL BLACK CROCODILE BAG

silver cigarette case, silver lighter • car keys (for the Range Rover) • door keys • L’Artisan Parfumeur Vanilla Eau de Toilette, £34 • Shiseido Advanced Performance Lip Gloss in Multi-Brilliance, £13 • comb