From
Loren Nelson, NelsonEcom
Internet Solutions | Visual Design
Web Sites & Multimedia & Usability Engineering
We May Dose, but We Never Close

July 23, 2007 – Vol. XI, No. 19

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Net
Bits
is the weekly newsletter keeping your informed
of various chatter and other tidbits of potential relevance.

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In
This Issue:

Item One: Shrinking Glaciers of Kilimanjaro
Item Two: The Best Time to Exercise
Item Three: How To Interpret Email Open-Rates
Item Four: Word of the Week
Item Five: World Statistics
Do you know…

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1. Shrinking Glaciers of Kilimanjaro
 

The Shrinking Glaciers of Kilimanjaro: Can Global Warming Be Blamed?

The Kibo ice cap, a "poster child" of global climate change, is being starved of snowfall and depleted by solar radiation

Around the globe, mighty glaciers are retreating. In the European Alps and many other mid- and high-latitude locations, evidence clearly implicates global climate change—heat fluxes from warm air feeding processes that turn mighty glaciers into rivers of meltwater. High-altitude glaciers in the tropics are melting too; the area of the ice cap atop Kilimanjaro in tropical East Africa has shrunk more than 90 percent in a century and become a global-warming poster child. But Mote and Kaser say that the Kilimanjaro glaciers are not melting but sublimating—turning straight to vapor—under the direct action of solar radiation at temperatures that remain below freezing. Whatever is happening elsewhere, Kilimanjaro’s ice seems not to be succumbing to climate change.

http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/55553

 
2. The Best Time to Exercise
 

Contrary to popular belief, women aren’t the only ones with biological clocks. We all have them, and heed their ticking on a daily basis.

If you are a regular exerciser, you may have already determined your most productive time to exercise and follow a routine that works best for you.

On the other hand, if your exercise time varies from day to day, and it’s wearing you out instead of pumping you up, you may be interested in the work of scientists who are studying the proverbial internal clock and how to best determine what time of day you should schedule your workouts.

Rhythm: It’s not just for dancing
The secret appears to lie in circadian rhythms, the daily cycles that our bodies follow. These rhythms originate in the hypothalamus and regulate everything from body temperature and metabolism to blood pressure.

The rhythms result from the firing rate of neurons. They have conformed to our 24-hour light-to-dark cycle, and may be regulated and reregulated each day according to the environment.

Warm is better
It is the influence of circadian rhythms on body temperature that seems to yield the most control over the quality of a workout. When body temperature is at its highest, your workouts will likely be more productive; when your temperature is low, chances are your exercise session may be less than optimal.

Body temperature is at its lowest about one to three hours before most of us wake up in the morning, in contrast to late afternoon when body temperature reaches its peak.

Studies have consistently shown that exercise during these late-in-the-day hours produces better performance and more power. Muscles are warm and more flexible, perceived exertion is low, reaction time is quicker, strength is at its peak, and resting heart rate and blood pressure are low.

Don’t fix it if it’s not broken
First of all, don’t change your schedule if you feel good beginning your day with exercise. Everyone agrees that exercise at any time is better than no exercise at all. In fact, people who exercise in the morning are more successful at making it a habit.

And though it has been suggested that morning exercise may put some people at higher risk for heart attack, further research indicates that there is simply a generalized increased risk of heart attacks in the morning. If your schedule favors an early workout, emphasize stretching and a good warm-up to insure that your body is ready for action.

Other considerations
If stress relief is your goal, exercise always works, all the time. And if you’re wondering when it’s best to train for an upcoming event, it all depends on what time you’ll actually be competing. If an upcoming marathon begins at 7:00 a.m., try training at that time of day.

Though training at any time of day will raise performance levels, research has shown that the ability to maintain sustained exercise is adaptive to circadian rhythms. In other words, consistently training in the morning will allow you to sustain exercise during a morning marathon longer than if you train in the evening.

 
3. How To Interpret Email Open-Rates
 

When it comes to email marketing, the favorite statistic is the open-rate. It is considered as being the perfect indicator of how their mailings are received. This metric is important in judging the success of your email campaigns and newsletters. Your task is not only to get the email there but to ensure that it is opened. If your aim is to have your recipients read your email, then you have to achieve a high open-rate. This article will help you in getting a broad understanding about open-rates, how they are determined and whether they are reliable.

How is open-rate determined?

If you use email marketing tools to send emails and newsletters to your audience, then the job of establishing the open-rate is not a major issue. The tracking feature of your email marketing solution counts the number of ‘unique opens’, which implies that list members are never calculated twice, despite of the fact that they open the email more than once. Invisible graphics written in HTML are used to track the open-rate. They are placed on the server and when a list member opens and views your email, the graphic is downloaded. All downloads are spotted and the open-rate is subsequently obtained.

Are open-rates reliable?

The open-rate gives you a good estimate of the number of people who are opening your emails. However, two attributes, namely the ‘false negative’ and ‘false positive’ are involved in the ‘open-rate’ jargon, which can cause irregularity and unreliability.

* False Negative In case the email is downloaded from the server and then viewed offline, it will not be tracked and counted as the graphic has not been downloaded. A false negative occurs as the open-rate is actually higher.
* False Positive The recipient might have used the preview feature of his email client. The invisible graphic is downloaded and the email is recorded as opened though it has not been opened and read, but has only been previewed. The open-rate calculated will therefore exceed the real value, causing a false positive.
* With the increased use of anti-spam, some images are blocked to protect the recipient from seeing unwanted images. Therefore, the invisible graphics is not loaded and consequently not downloaded when the email is being opened and read.

You therefore cannot link the success of your email campaigns to only the open-rate. Other metrics should be used in parallel.

 
4. Word of the Week
 

trenchant \TREN-chunt\, adjective:

1. Characterized by or full of force and vigor; as, "a trenchant analysis."
2. Caustic; biting; severe; as, "trenchant criticism."
3. Distinct; clear-cut; clearly or sharply defined.

His revolutionary music, abrasive personality and trenchant writings about art and life divided the city into warring factions.

 
5. World Statistics
 

World Statistics updated in real time
Uses your computer’s clock, so if you are curious to learn the number of HIV-infected in 2050 then just change your system time to 2050. It will calculate values based on current interesting statistics and demographics data. Do not use for exact calculations.

http://www.worldometers.info/

 
6. Do You Know…
 
On this day:

  • Mary Queen of Scots Is Deposed (1567)
    Mary Stuart was Queen of Scotland from 1542-1567. Though she was Roman Catholic, she accepted the establishment of the Presbyterian Church. After Mary’s husband, Lord Darnley, was murdered and she was implicated in the plot, she was forced to abdicate. Mary fled to England, where she stood trial and became a prisoner of the English government. When a Catholic conspiracy attempting to put her on the throne of England was uncovered, she was executed.
 
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NelsonEcom
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