Emacs

As a long-time vim-meddler and permanent searcher for the perfect text editor, I've decided to give emacs "a journalistic try" and write-up my experiences for an intranet bulletin-board (I'll probably post them somewhere online as well).

But I have a question.

As I investigated the issue, I delved deeper into the XEmacs / GNUEmacs split and am now confused. Which one: a.) should I try? b.) is the best? and c.) could be regarded as the canonical version?

Mountain Of the Week #2

This ...

... is Nanga Parbat [SummitPost Entry] in Pakistan.

It is the 9th highest mountain in the world (8126 m) and therefore one of the "Big 14" (14 summits over 8000m [26240 ft]). It is roughly here [zoomed-in view approximately matching image].

As an opposite to Kangchenjunga in the East, Nanga Parbat is the most western of the 8000m summits. Also like Kangchenjunga, while it has many sub-peaks of its own, it is somewhat isolated and not clustered as many of the other massive peaks are (number 9 on this image). For this reason these mountains have been called the pillars of the Himalaya.

Nanga Parbat is also the 14th highest peak by topographical prominence; a feat made much more impressive when one considers that the big Baltoro-Karakoram peaks (K2, the Gasherbrums, Broad Peak etc.) lie less than a hundred and twenty miles to east-north-east. The image shows the drops clearly, with the Indus River skirting around Nanga Parbat to the north-west. When ranked by Reduced Spire Measure (a scale purporting to measure local relief and steepness), Nanga Parbat is "the Daddy", coming in at number one.

"Nanga Parbat" means 'Naked Mountain' in Hindi, although Sherpas have also referred to it as "the mountain of the devil". Along with K2, it is frequently mentioned as the most dangerous peak on the planet; its fatality rate is currently listed as 28.24%; nearly one-in-three, and over three times higher than Everest's. However, many of these rates are biased by the failures of "the early years" and tend towards equality over the modern era as routes become established and techniques for specific sections optimised. In addition, far fewer people have attempted Nanga Parbat; something like just over two-hundred successful climbs versus ten times that number for Everest.