He's all man now: A fuzzy-faced Chaz Bono shows off his beard for the first time as he runs errands round Los Angeles

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER



All man: Chaz Bono showed off his beard for the first time as he ran errands round Los Angeles



Two years after he started his gender reassignment process, Chaz Bono appears to have completely made the transition from female to male.



He was snapped sporting a new beard as he ran errands round Los Angeles yesterday.

The 42-year-old looked all man with his facial hair and short cropped hair as he filled up his car.





Inked: Chaz also showed off some large tattoos as he filled up his car





Dressed in shorts and a vest top, Chaz teamed his look with a chunky bracelet, designer watch and aviator sunglasses.



Appearing oblivious to the cameras, he waited for his car to fill before heading off on his busy day around the city.



He then went to the gym, visited his doctor and pottered about the city before heading home.





Partners: Chaz and girlfriend Jennifer Elia at the annual Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in LA last month





Chaz, the transgender son of singer Cher and her late husband Sonny Bono, was born female, but has spent the past few years slowly becoming male.



While growing up, he says he always felt uncomfortable and, after years of feeling out of place, he realised he was not Chastity but Chaz.





Transformation: Chaz was born Chastity, seen here aged 24 before the gender reassignment



Chaz has also released a book, Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man, released in May, chronicling his journey from female to male.



He currently lives in California with his girlfriend Jenny in a six-year relationship which transformed, along with him, from a lesbian relationship to a heterosexual one.



source: dailymail

He's all man now: A fuzzy-faced Chaz Bono shows off his beard for the first time as he runs errands round Los Angeles

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER



All man: Chaz Bono showed off his beard for the first time as he ran errands round Los Angeles



Two years after he started his gender reassignment process, Chaz Bono appears to have completely made the transition from female to male.



He was snapped sporting a new beard as he ran errands round Los Angeles yesterday.

The 42-year-old looked all man with his facial hair and short cropped hair as he filled up his car.





Inked: Chaz also showed off some large tattoos as he filled up his car





Dressed in shorts and a vest top, Chaz teamed his look with a chunky bracelet, designer watch and aviator sunglasses.



Appearing oblivious to the cameras, he waited for his car to fill before heading off on his busy day around the city.



He then went to the gym, visited his doctor and pottered about the city before heading home.





Partners: Chaz and girlfriend Jennifer Elia at the annual Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in LA last month





Chaz, the transgender son of singer Cher and her late husband Sonny Bono, was born female, but has spent the past few years slowly becoming male.



While growing up, he says he always felt uncomfortable and, after years of feeling out of place, he realised he was not Chastity but Chaz.





Transformation: Chaz was born Chastity, seen here aged 24 before the gender reassignment



Chaz has also released a book, Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man, released in May, chronicling his journey from female to male.



He currently lives in California with his girlfriend Jenny in a six-year relationship which transformed, along with him, from a lesbian relationship to a heterosexual one.



source: dailymail

The marble cathedral of Chile: Are these the world's most beautiful caves?

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER


Ancient: The caves have been formed by flowing water over thousands of years

Welcome to the Marble Cathedral - a natural wonder that could be the world's most beautiful cave network.

An azure temple created by nature, the walls of this network of water-filled marble caverns show just how magnificent the precious geography of our planet can be.

Visitors to the water-sculpted blue caverns see light reflected off the turquoise waters of South America's second largest freshwater lake, General Carrera in Patagonia, Chile.



Azure temple: Lake General Carrera in Patagonia, Chile, could be the world's most beautiful cave network


Light bounces into the caverns and strikes the carved marble walls, creating this enchanting lightshow.

The incredible set of pictures has been captured by landscape photographer and environmentalist, Linde Waidehofer, 67, from Colorado, USA.

'It is the water that formed the unique shapes of the marble walls,' explained Ms Waidehofer in her book on the caverns, Blue Light.

'Originally great ice-fields blocked the western end of the lake - today its glacier-fed waters drain into the Pacific Ocean.

'Geologists have a simple explanation for the breath-taking blue of this giant lake.
'They talk of finely ground glacial silt which makes the water an unearthly blue and crystal clear.

'These waters are magic.'



Photographer's dream: Photography students have travelled the world to learn about light in what could be the world's most astonishing classroom


To reach this remote place located in the far southern tip of Chile visitors must fly from the capital, Santiago, 800 miles to the next nearest large city, Coyhaique, and then drive on challenging dirt roads 200 miles south to the lake.

Yet photography students have travelled the world to learn from Ms Waidehofer about light in what could be the world's most astonishing classroom.



Beautiful: But the unspoilt majesty of Lake Carrera is under threat from development


Since falling in love with the Marble Cathedral during her first visit in 2003 she has decided to make it a major part of her life.

'I love it so much I've visited the marble caverns dozens of times,' she said. 'I don't know anything quite like them anywhere.

'I was so crazy about visiting that I decided to buy land, build a house and spend half the year here. My new home sits above two marble caves and even the floors are cut out of pure marble.

'I am living my dream in this wondrous place.' More information about Linde's book on the marble caverns,'Blue Light', can be found at www.westoneye.com/books

source: dailymail

Home at last: Atlantis makes historic final landing as Nasa's 30-year shuttle programme comes to a glorious end

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Home, and job done: Commander Chris Ferguson, right, shakes hands with pilot Doug Hurley after Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. To their left are crew members Sandra Mangus and Rex Walheim

Atlantis made the perfect landing as dawn broke this morning, gliding down on to the tarmac at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral to bring to an end 30 years of shuttle missions.

It the 135th mission for the fleet, which has covered an astonishing 542 million miles and circled Earth 21,150 times.

And considering this accomplishment, none of the record 2,000 gathered by the landing strip to witness the historic spectacle was complaining that Atlantis was precisely one minute late.

The five shuttles have carried 355 people from 16 countries - and here were the last four astronauts safely home to cheers and tears.

As Commander Christopher Ferguson eased Atlantis on to the runway, he radioed: 'Mission complete, Houston'.

'Job well done, America,' replied Mission Control.



A final stop: Commander Ferguson checks one of Atlantis' chocks and right, addresses the crowds who gathered to watch the historic landing


Incoming: Atlantis Commander Chris Ferguson gently steers the 100-ton spaceship high overhead, then nose-dives toward the swamp-surrounded landing strip


Touchdown: Atlantis lands at Kennedy Space Center one minute behind schedule at 5.57am (10.57am BST) today, bringing to an end Nasa's 30-year shuttle programme


Ferguson added: 'After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle's earned its place in history. And it's come to a final stop,' radioed commander Christopher Ferguson.

The twilight landing, just before dawn, came exactly 30 years and three months after the very first shuttle flight in 1981.

It will be another three to five years at best before Americans are launched again from U.S. soil, with private companies gearing up to seize the Earth-to-orbit-and-back baton from Nasa.


Final farewell: Hundreds of spectators gathered near the runway to welcome Atlantis home - and to bid Nasa's space shuttle programme goodbye


The long-term future for American space exploration is just as hazy, a huge concern for many at NASA and all those losing their jobs because of the shuttle's end.

Asteroids and Mars are the destinations of choice, yet NASA has yet to settle on a rocket design to get astronauts there.

Today, though, belonged to Atlantis and its crew: Ferguson, co-pilot Douglas Hurley, Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus, who completed a successful space station resupply mission.
Atlantis' main landing gears touched down at 5:57 a.m. (0957 GMT), with 'wheels stop' less than a minute later.

'The space shuttle has changed the way we view the world and it's changed the way we view our universe,' said Ferguson. 'There's a lot of emotion today, but one thing's indisputable. America's not going to stop exploring.


Atlantis' mission was to resupply the International Space Station, ending a 12-year programme to build and service the orbital research outpost



Atlantis comes to a standstill on the runway. Private companies will now take over trips to the ISS. Nasa's next stop with astronauts will be an asteroid, then Mars


Hugs and cheers inside Johnson Space Center's mission control as staff congratulate themselves on a job well done


NASA employee Jerry Davison, center, and his wife, Maureen, right, take photos, while colleague Sean Carter, right, watches with his family


Fingers crossed: Johnson Space Center employees Jeremy Rea, right, and Shelley Stortz hold hands


Homeward bound: An image of the ISS that was taken by an Atlantis crew member shortly after the shuttle departed the station on Tuesday and, right, docked with the space station



Last lift-off: Hundred of thousands of spectators watched blast-off at Cape Canaveral and millions tuned in to watch the crew chat to President Obama during the mission


NASA - PARTE 1.mp4


source :dailymail

Let's light her up one last time! Atlantis overcomes a shaky launch to become the final Nasa shuttle to blast into space

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

One last hurrah: Atlantis blasts off for the International Space Station on Nasa's last space shuttle mission


The space shuttle Atlantis thundered into orbit today, writing the final chapter in a 30-year story of triumphs, tragedy and, ultimately, unfulfilled expectations.

A million-strong crowd crammed into Cape Canaveral surrounding towns to bid an emotional farewell to the shuttle as they watched it lift off on its 135th and final mission.

They lined causeways and beaches around the central Florida site, angling for a last glimpse of the pioneering ship that has defined the U.S. space program for the past 30 years.

While there were nervy moments as the countdown stalled for two minutes at 31 seconds while engineers fixed a problem with launch pad equipment - nothing could stop the historic lift off.

'Good luck to you and your crew on this final flight of this true American icon,' shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach radioed to the crew minutes before takeoff, adding: 'Have a little fun up there.'



Up, up and away: The shuttle almost didn't get off the ground though, as the giant countdown clock at Kennedy Space Center stuck at 0.31seconds for what seemed like



Just as the spectators at Cape Canaveral in Florida and tens of millions of television viewers around the world had given up hope, Atlantis began to rise



Off to the ISS: The shuttle was visible for 42 seconds before disappearing into the clouds



The final countdown: The shuttle lifts off as hundreds of fans watch a giant clock countdown with 13 seconds to go


Best view in the house: Some of an estimated one million spectators watch the launch


Emotional: Kennedy Space Centre employee Lisa Gorichky, right, cries as the shuttle lifts off while children watch from a nearby park


Fond farewell: The blast-off marks the beginning of the end for Nasa's shuttle programme


Soaring high: Thousands gather in the surf and on sand at Cocoa Beach, Florida to watch the shuttle pierce the clouds


Aerial view: The shuttle seen from a nearby Nasa aircraft as it lifts off. The plane subsequently flew through the remaining exhaust plume, left


One last time: The shuttle left a huge exhaust plume as it lifted off



No stopping now: A plume of smoke rises from the launch pad as Atlantis blasts into space


The final countdown: Commander Chris Ferguson gestures as he is strapped into his seat aboard Atlantis in footage screened on Nasa TV


Breakaway: Atlantis iseparates from its external fuel tank shortly after launch


Ready to roll: Atlantis crew members (from right to left) Commander Chris Ferguson, Rex Walheim, Doug Hurley and Sandra Magnus, head to shuttle Atlantis on launch pad 39-A for the final launch of the shuttle programme


Astrovan awaits: The astronauts wave to photographers before making the short journey to the launch pad





Hope: Nasa engineers fill Atlantis's tanks with rocket fuel this morning ahead of the shuttle's final flight



Lightning: A bolt struck about a third of a mile from Atlantis today. Nasa engineers didn't detect any damage


Wet: The Vehicle Assembly Building is seen through a window during a downpour at Space Center earlier today


Cover: Up to one million people are expected to try to watch the final shuttle launch live. Many are now ducking for cover in bad weather


Raincheck: A TV journalist is shielded by an umbrella as he reports from beside the launch pad


STS-135 Launch






source : dailymail