Take, for example, the legal profession, which has varying requirements for a baseline amount of pro-bono services.

FORBES: Pro-Bono Service as a Competitive Edge

They used the telescope to find the baseline brightness, then look at the data when the amount of light decreases.

FORBES: Astronomers Discover A Solar System Similar To Our Own

Economists at Citigroup reckon that a fund ought to start with a baseline of 2% of insured deposits, and then top up that amount with an additional premium to reflect the risk that peripheral countries may leave the euro and that their currencies would then depreciate.

ECONOMIST: Preventing a big European bank run