The blue-chip benchmark retreated in previous sessions amid weak job-market and manufacturing data, closing at a current-year low on Monday.

WSJ: U.S. Stocks Rise on Service-Sector Data

The mouse could have been a little weightier, and looks a little chinsey and boring against the benchmark TiVo remote, but it did its job well enough.

ENGADGET: Gear Eye: MSN TV 2

After completing its benchmark revisions, the BLS now estimates that job growth in 2006 was 2.26 million jobs, which is 49% higher than what it originally estimated.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Although a stock-picker who underperforms benchmark share-price indices will find himself out of a job, there are no benchmarks for investment consultants themselves.

ECONOMIST: Fund management

And the SPEC J Enterprise benchmark showing the SPARC T5 is the fastest processor in the world for its job in middleware.

FORBES: Oracle's Larry Ellison Loses More Than $3 Billion In A Day

For instance, if in the same field of endeavor, Charity A has better efficiencies than Charity B, ask Charity B why that is so or how it thinks it does a better job than Charity A. You even can use the ratios here as a benchmark for similar nonprofits not on the list (of which were are more than 1.2 million in the U.S.).

FORBES: Largest-Charities Methodology: Size, Then Financial Efficiency