Hijra (South Asia)

Hijra (for translations, see ) is a term used in South Asia – in particular, in India – to refer to transwomen (male-to-female transsexual or transgender individuals). In other areas of India, transgender people are also known as Aravani, Aruvani or Jagappa.

In Pakistan and Bangladesh, the hijras are officially recognized as third gender by the government, being neither completely male nor female. In India also, transgenders have been given the status of Third gender and are protected as per the law despite the social ostracism. The term more commonly advocated by social workers and transgender community members themselves is khwaaja sira (Urdu: خواجه سرا‎) and can identify the individual as a transsexual person, transgender person (khusras), cross-dresser (zenanas) or eunuch (narnbans).

Hijras have a recorded history in the Indian subcontinent from antiquity onwards as suggested by the Kama Sutra period. This history features a number of well-known roles within subcontinental cultures, part gender-liminal, part spiritual and part survival.

South Asia

South Asia or Southern Asia is a term used to represent the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan SAARC countries and, for some authorities, adjoining countries to the west and east. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as Nepal and northern parts of India situated south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land (clockwise, from west) by West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. The terms "Indian subcontinent" and "South Asia" are sometimes used interchangeably.

The current territories of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka form the countries of South Asia. In addition, with deviating definitions based on often substantially different reasons, the British Indian Ocean Territory, Mauritius, and the Tibet Autonomous Region are included as well. South Asia is home to well over one fifth of the world's population, making it both the most populous and the most densely populated geographical region in the world. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC) is an economic cooperation organisation in the region which was established in 1985 and includes all eight nations comprising South Asia.

.asia

.asia is the official designated regional domain extension for Asia and the Pacific. It is a sponsored generic top-level-domain (gTLD) operated by the DotAsia Organisation Ltd. .asia is open to companies, individuals and organisations who have connection to the region. .Asia domains can be seen and used by international and Asian businesses; regional conferences and symposiums; as well as Asian artists and celebrities.

The .Asia web address was introduced to the public through a comprehensive launch involving a multiphased Sunrise and Landrush process from October 9, 2007 to March 12, 2008. It became available on a first-come-first-served registration basis on March 26, 2008. In 2013, there are more than 455,000 .asia domains registered across 155 countries.

Roll-out/response

.asia founded the first Pioneer Domains Program on July 20, 2007, more than two months prior to the opening of its Sunrise launch. It offered businesses and individuals an opportunity to own and build on any .Asia domain before the TLD opened its doors to mass public registration. Applicants were asked to submit a brief business plan for the domain of choice and make a marketing deposit of US$10,000. The full deposit was returned to successful applicants against proof of marketing attributed to the promotion of the built out .Asia website.

Asia

Asia (ⁱ/ˈeɪʒə/ or /ˈeɪʃə/) is the Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. Asia covers an area of 44,579,000 square kilometers, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area. It has historically been home to the world's first modern civilizations and has always hosted the bulk of the planet's human population. Asia is notable for not only overall large size and population, but unusually dense and large settlements as well as vast barely populated regions within the continent of 4.4 billion people. The boundaries of Asia are traditionally determined as that of Eurasia, as there is no significant geographical separation between Asia and Europe. The most commonly accepted boundaries place Asia to the east of the Suez Canal, the Ural River, and the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black Seas. It is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean and on the north by the Arctic Ocean.

Asia (Asia album)

Asia is the self-titled debut studio album by British rock supergroup Asia, released in 1982. It contains their biggest hit and signature song, "Heat of the Moment", which reached #4 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Commercial success

Upon its release in March 1982, Asia enjoyed massive commercial success, reaching #1 in the US and spending nine weeks at the top of the Billboard album chart. According to both Billboard and Cash Box, it was the #1 album in the United States for the year 1982.Asia was certified 4x-platinum in the US by the RIAA on 10 February 1995.

In the band's native UK, Asia did not perform as well as in the US, peaking only at #11. At the same time, it spent a total of 38 weeks in the UK Albums Chart. The record received a gold status in Britain on 18 October 1982. "Heat of the Moment" climbed to No. 46.

Asia's total worldwide sales are estimated at over ten million copies.

Critical reception

Asia's debut album was met with mixed reviews. Robert Christgau panned the record and gave it a rating of "C–". In his Consumer Guide Review the critic stated that "rare that a big new group is bad enough to sink your teeth into any more" and called Asia "pompous – schlock in the grand manner". On the other side, Tom Demalon of AllMusic, in a four-and-a-half-star review, praised the album saying that "there's no denying the epic grandeur of the music, which provided some much-needed muscle to radio at the time, and did so with style".

South (Martian crater)

South Crater is an impact crater in the Mare Australe quadrangle of Mars, located at 77.1°S latitude and 338.0°W longitude. It is 107.1  km in diameter and was named after Sir James South, and the name was approved in 1973 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN).

Very close to the crater there is what has been named "Swiss cheese" features. Swiss cheese features (SCFs) are pits so named because they look like the holes in Swiss cheese. They were first seen in 2000 using Mars Orbiter Camera imagery. They are usually a few hundred meters across and 8 metres deep, with a flat base and steep sides. They tend to have similar bean-like shapes with a cusp pointing towards the south pole. The angle of the sun probably contributes to their roundness. Near the Martian summer solstice, the sun can remain continuously just above the horizon; as a result the walls of a round depression will receive more intense sunlight, and sublimate much more rapidly than the floor. The walls sublimate and recede, while the floor remains the same. As the seasonal frost disappears, the pit walls appear to darken considerably relative to the surrounding terrain. The SCFs have been observed to grow in size, year by year, at an average rate of 1 to 3 meters, suggesting that they are formed in a thin layer (8m) of carbon dioxide ice lying on top of water ice.

Wings (magazine)

Wings (ウィングス, Uingusu) is a shōjo manga magazine published by Shinshokan. The magazine is aimed at a female audience in the 16- to 20-year-old age range and tend to be action- or fantasy-oriented stories. Wings previously had a number of special editions such as Shinshokan South, or simply South, Phantom Club, Huckleberry, Un Poco, and Wings: Story. Currently, only Un Poco, and Wings: Story are still being published.

Manga artists and series featured in Wings