text:
Carrie and I hit the mean streets of downtown Toronto for a shopping trip on Sunday. She needed a new dress for the wedding she is attending in North Carolina (no, not Kelly's :-) next month and her favourite store at the Eaton's Centre was having a store-wide sale.
Its so good to get downtown again after not having been there for a couple of months. The Eaton's Centre is always so spectacular when you first walk in. Its celebrating its 30th anniversary which is hard for me to imagine, as I remember when it was being built and when different sections of it started opening. Of course I used to spend every weekend there.
Carrie found a gorgeous dress, she's actually holding it here, its brown and white, and it fits her beautifully. She is eagerly anticipating where she is going to be spending her first pay cheque when her job starts at the Cancer Centre.
Carrie had to take this picture....her favourite actor, Wentworth Miller from Prison Break, modelling for The Gap. It took a few minutes to drag her away from this oversized image of her honey.
And here's me looking a little windblown - those downtown streets will do that to you. Of course what's a shopping trip without a Tim Horton's coffee?
No stitching to show.....all surprises going on here ;-D
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Carrie and I hit the mean streets of downtown Toronto for a shopping trip on Sunday. She needed a new dress for the wedding she is attending in North Carolina (no, not Kelly's :-) next month and her favourite store at the Eaton's Centre was having a store-wide sale.
Posted by Wendy at 1:10 pm 18 comments
Labels: Shopping
Friday, March 23, 2007
Pillow Finishing
Thank you for all the great comments! Its really so wonderful to read these and know that other stitchers are looking at my work. Blackbird Designs are so much fun to work on, now that Gift of Life is finished, I'm wondering which one the SAL group will want to work on next.
Not a lot to show on the stitching front otherwise this week. And since I do love to have pictures of something, here are 2 pillows that I finished last weekend from last year's Shepherd's Bush series.
I am happy dancing though - Spring has sprung!!! Even though we are having showers on and off today, yesterday was gloriously warm and an amazing 11 degrees! It felt wonderful! Of course hubby and I had to enjoy it with a walk along the lake with the doggies. I am so glad the clocks went back early this year so we can get out and enjoy the evenings. The sunset at the lake was gorgeous and the colour of the water beautiful. Why didn't I think to take the camera!?!
This weekend is the Christmas Ornament SAL but I think I'll have to beg off this one. The fibre I was waiting on for my last PIF giftie finally arrived and I want to get started on it.
Oh and one more thing to show, I bought this magazine last week and have had it sitting on my desk all week so I can admire the cover quilt. Its called Spice Island Beauty and is shown made with batiks. I'm in love with this one, but its listed as 'challenging' and I don't know if I 'm quite up to that. But one can dream.....
Have a wonderful weekend!!
Posted by Wendy at 7:56 am 19 comments
Labels: Quilting, Shepherd's Bush
Monday, March 19, 2007
Blackbird Designs Garden of Life
Its finished, as of last night!
I couldn't resist going ahead with the stitching on this, especially since Marido from the Blackbird SAL so kindly sent along the French translation already charted. Originally it read "Friends ~ flowers in the garden of life" but I much preferred the translation as it sounds so much prettier. I even broke down and gave this fabric an iron before I took a picture. I am really not impressed with the fabric, I think its R&R 30 ct Natural, but its so stiff and creases so easily. Its definitely not one of the nicer ones I have used nor is the colour.
I have a couple more pictures to post of what I did on the weekend, but Blogger is not cooperating at all today. I think I'm lucky to have gotten these 2 pictures up, but its not letting me place them where I want.
We have such a dull, dull day here today, and more snow flurries. Where is spring?
Posted by Wendy at 1:18 pm 29 comments
Labels: Blackbird Designs
Friday, March 16, 2007
Chatelaine Mystery X
An update, finally! Its coming although I hate to admit this is still February's section I'm working. Whew, talk about labour intensive and I'm not even adding any of the beads. Tempting though that might be, as you can see from the number of gaps, there are a lot of beads to be added and I'm starting to rethink having to add all these at the end.
I'm still working...slowly too...at my PIF gifts. I'm hoping this weekend to start working on some of the finishing of these projects so I can finally get a couple in the mail.
I went to a local scrapbook shop last night with Carrie and Kristy and totally fell in love with a new paper pack from DCWV called Once Upon a Time. Its absolutely gorgeous and of course it just had to come home with me! I have no idea yet what I'm going to do with it, I'm tempted to just put it in an album on its own and just admire the beautiful papers. But I might try to get a little more creative and as it says on the cover sheet, create my own fairy tale.
If anyone ever thought they might like to try their hand at scrapbooking, this is the paper for you! Its so pretty that you don't even have to add anything other than the pictures themselves, and not too many, because you don't want to cover up too much of the paper.
Posted by Wendy at 8:14 am 21 comments
Labels: Chateline Mystery X, Scrapbooking
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Computer woes
It died ... sometime late Friday night. And just wouldn't turn on Saturday morning at all. No warning, no strange noises (as happened the last time), just wouldn't start up. Its pretty scary how attached I have become to my faithful ol' computer and the internet. I felt lost for a full day while hubby scrambled, purchasing a new computer and reloading software, and transferred what data he could from the old system. Thank heaven for my little IT hubby, what would I have done without him? But then Sunday night, after spending a good part of the day, resetting my word processing programs with all my stuff and trying to re-access my favourite message boards and blogs, the new one died, again suddenly without any warning. Hubby managed to get some life back into her and get her running again, so at least come Monday morning I could get some work done, which luckily needed Word as it was the only thing running, until that afternoon when the keyboard froze and there you have it. A brand new beautiful system went downhill, never to be revived again.
Hubby very luckily brought home a new hard drive and spent the best part of the next 5 hours re-doing my system yet again.
Which brings me to the point of all this - how necessary this computer has become to my life, not only for work but for my sanity ~ blog reading, message board surfing, OLNS surfing. Watching the TV for hours just doesn't cut it. While I have to admit, I did get out for several nice long walks (and puddle jumping, Berta!) and enjoyed this gorgeous spring-like air, I missed my computer! Its back up and running, though very noisy, however I lost a lot of my old work, links, and even e-mails which were not backed up.
And I did get in a fair bit of stitching while watching all the operations going on about the computer desk. Now to find that cable for the camera, since my scanner has been decomissioned. Pictures are coming!
My latest update on Blackbird Design's Gift of Life. I think I am caught up with the SAL group?!?
Posted by Wendy at 8:11 am 11 comments
Labels: Computer
Friday, March 09, 2007
More blocks from Leanne's House
I finished up the embroidery on my mini blocks from Leanne's House. I did my first applique piece (the heart) using freezer paper and it actually turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. And how cool that Michelle (Cozy Egg) and Sonya (Silver Thistle) have signed up for these lovely monthly blocks too! We will have to do a quilt-along.
Finally I feel some satisfaction to my craving for colour. Of course not when I look outside. We still have snow and although we have had day after day of sunshine, this terrible cold snap is doing nothing to get rid of the snow. Today the forecasters have started to call for temperatures about 0 degrees C, and then warming up for the weekend to a nice balmy 6-7 C ( high 40's F?). I can't wait ......
Nick has started his March break and he and girlfriend Kristy are off to the Toronto Zoo today. I miss the days when I used to take the kiddies, it was always a March break day trip for us. I don't day infringe on his special day planned for Kristy but I would so love to go! I guess I'm just a big kid too :-D
Posted by Wendy at 8:05 am 18 comments
Labels: Leanne's House
Thursday, March 08, 2007
PIF from Sonya
Look what Sonya (Silver Thistle) sent to me in the mail! This is her PIF - a stunning little cushion stitched in gorgeous shades of blue, and she sent some wonderful goodies, a sweet smelling sachet, a skein of Weeks Dye Works, a chart called Wee Hearts by Heart in Hand and embroidery scissors! Ohmigosh! I'm absolutely thrilled with the wonderful piece she stitched for me and to have sent all these lovely presents along with it! Thank you, thank you, Sonya!
I'm sorry that I couldn't seem to get a better picture of the detailing on this lovely cushion -Sonya's stitching is lovely and her finishing is wonderful! And I just realized I neglected to take a picture of the back where she sewed on a lovely charm.
I feel incredibly guilty as I have yet to get one of my PIF's finished and into the mail! I do have 2 1/2 done (yes, only 1/2 because I ran out of just 2 of those threads and have yet to run down to Michael's to find them) but that's only the stitching. They are still waiting for finishing. Where does the time go?
Thank you all so much for the suggestions for dinner the other night! I'm sure to use all your ideas up over the next couple of weeks when my dinner-turn rolls around again.
Posted by Wendy at 8:14 am 7 comments
Labels: PIF
Monday, March 05, 2007
Leanne's House 1st mini block
I finished sewing all my mini-blocks together for Block 9 and last night worked on the embroidery. Here is my first mini block done! Isn't it pretty? Interesting combinations of fabrics too, I doubt I would have ever put this colour combination together, I'm far too staid in my own choices, so I really like how this project is forcing me outside 'the box'.
I have my other mini blocks ready to embroider too, but I really wanted to get back to some stitching on Chatelaine's Mystery X. I realized as I was printing out March's patterns, that I hadn't finished February's. I think I spent about 10 hours stitching and was only 1/4 into the February's chart. This was certainly a labour intensive one. Luckily she has lightened up for March so as to let us all catch up! A pic of that will be coming. I've almost reached the 1/2 mark and I love it!
Jean-Francois (the chef wannabe) cooked dinner for us last night Japanese-style and it was scrumptious. Pics for that will be on Carrie's blog I'm sure! Tonight is my turn for dinner ~ we started assigning each other specific nights for cooking so that it didn't fall always on one person (mine) and so far its worked out great and we are eating like kings. But I'm stumped for tonight's meal.....any thoughts?
Posted by Wendy at 7:46 am 11 comments
Labels: Leanne's House
Friday, March 02, 2007
Leanne's House
Finally! I ordered Leanne's House about 6 weeks ago from a quilt shop in Australia. I had started seeing this pattern everywhere, in quilt magazines, and bloggers (Nicki, for one :-D) who were working on it. Its offered as a 10 month block of the month club and I always seem to get pulled into monthly things like this (well, I think sucker is the proper word). I really like the fact too that this design combines patchwork with surface embroidery.
So after waiting and waiting and stalking my mailbox, the other day I finally had an envelope arrive from Australia. It was marked 'Checkerboard Strips' and that was it, about 20 strips of fabric, no pattern, no instructions. Very, very odd. I hoped the rest of it was just being shipped separately and it finally arrived yesterday, in an envelope stamped 'Delayed for compliance with Aviation Security Regulations, Australia Post'. How on earth could an envelope stuffed with fabric pieces and patterns be a security risk?
Oh well, never mind that, its here and guess what I'll be doing this weekend! I'm super-impressed with how everything has been packed up and sorted according to mini-blocks. The fabrics are just gorgeous and I can't wait to dig in. I'll be sure to get a picture up of my blocks as they get done.
Here is a picture of the finished quilt from an Australian Country Threads magazine:
And here is a picture I have to include, of Nick with his cute little girlfriend Kristy. She's such a sweetie, and so petite, he just towers over her!
We had a freezing rain storm last night and some of my shrubs in the back don't look like they have fared too well. Poor Jean-Francois was 3 1/2 hours getting home from work last night! But it seems like a lot of people have decided to stay home this morning, and hubby says it only took him 30 minutes to get into work. They are calling for rain all day today, and then more snow tonight. Crazy weather, its March, we're supposed to have spring soon!
Posted by Wendy at 8:03 am 15 comments
Labels: Leanne's House


text:
Clever Acoustics MA 260 100V 60W Mixer Amplifier
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Experience the same adrenaline rush as freefall skydiving with safe and realistic Indoor Skydiving! Includes 4 x flights for one person (flown as 2 x double-length flights)
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text:
fixed asset(redirected from Noncurrent assets)
Also found in: Dictionary, Legal.
Fixed asset
Long-lived property owned by a firm that is used by a firm in the production of its income. Tangible fixed assets include real estate, plant, and equipment. Intangible fixed assets include patents, trademarks, and customer recognition.
Fixed Asset
An asset with a long-term useful life that a company uses to make its products or provide its services. Strictly speaking, a fixed asset is any asset that the company does not expect to sell for at least a year, but the term often refers to assets a company expects to have indefinitely. Common examples of fixed assets are real estate and factories, which a company holds for long periods of time.
fixed asset
An asset not readily convertible to cash that is used in the normal course of business. Examples of fixed assets include machinery, buildings, and fixtures. A firm whose total assets are made up primarily of fixed assets is in a less liquid financial position, thus entailing greater risk of a big tumble in profits if its revenues fall.


text:
Just after President Barack Obama appeared on "The Tonight Show" and had a candid conversation with Jay Leno on a range of topics, "Late Night" with Jimmy Fallon began with a sketch of a conversation between the president and the late night host.
Fallon is seen in his dressing room when his cell phone suddenly rings. To his surprise, an actor impersonating President Obama is on the other line saying he just finished his appearance on Leno.
"And let me just say you have some pretty big shoes to fill," the fake Obama says in reference to news that Fallon will take over for Leno when "The Tonight Show" host's contract ends at the end of this year.
U.S. & World
The day's top national and international news.
The fake Obama goes on to praise Leno and says he doesn't understand his replacement.
"I just don't get it. Why would NBC do this? Jay's still No. 1 in the ratings. I mean Jimmy Fallon taking over for Jay Leno – that's like Biden taking over for me," the fake Obama says.
Fallon responds saying that he has about seven more months on his show, "Late Night," and asks the fake president if he'd like to make an appearance.
But the fake Obama has no interest appearing on the show and pretends he's losing cell phone service.
Watch the full sketch:


text:
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I had a member who would not accept their AR Disclosure, would not lay hands on it.... the process still carried on, 15 days after the fact and there was still no written representation.... again, the process proceeded and DMCA made their decision based on what they had.
But how is this relevant when grievances can take up to two years to be dealt with and the member already set a new life out there ? How grievance that has been submitted 6 months prior to the first of two admin reviews has still not being answered ?
I know all this. But am I the only one to think when grievances have been going on over a year, the system is possibly failing to avoid an admin burden on their side in the case the member should have not been released in the first place because grievance system do not talk to admin review system ? Its still some admin to bring a guy in. We are sorry, we've been too impetuous to kick out because we have a dysfunctional system that's working at many different speeds and do not communicate between each other and after some wondering why we struggle to enroll people...
All interesting answers but the CAF prefer releasing a member rather to know the bottom of the story. For the member's story, there have been already two grievances, second one is for unfair PRB that led to an admin review (grievance has been submitted in early 2017). The CAF had the time to conduct two full admin reviews while none of the grievances have been answered and are the causes of the AR, that is simply an administrative failure on their side.
I appreciate the effort you're trying to put in by attempting to speak generally, or suggesting that your questions are referring to another member's situation. But it's fairly easy to assume, by your previous posts, that you're referring to yourself. For the sake of clarity and for those who are trying their best to answer your questions, please just say I or me.
Given the speed of some releases I've seen over the years, the paperwork would not only be done for you, it would in fact be expedited. If you/your firend/comrade/subordinate think there is an issue with their AR, then a formal redress would need to be written. There is usually a timeline and the person concerned usually has an assisting officer member appointed for such things. MM
Just for accuracy...AMs are for grievances (AOs are another function) and can be NCMs (Sgt/PO2 and above) or Officers; there is an actual qual for AM now.
It seems what you want is to be able to drag out a release indefinitely by submitting grievances. How is that fair to the CAF and its members?
I have a Mbr in my CoC doing this exact thing right now, we're probably up to 5 or 6 grievances this year... double digits of them last year.... IA came back with their decision on a few of them and s/he would not accept them...If the CO misses getting the grievance submitted and the official grievance number to him even by a couple of hours.... another grievance goes in.... there's a grievance about a grievance for another grievance. About the initial grievance... if that makes sense.


text:
WYSIWYG Web Builder 12.0.1 fixes known problems and includes other improvements.
What's new in 12.0.1?
- Fixed: Error in PHP form script: missing ')'
- Fixed: Issue with fade events when target is the object itself.
- Fixed: Issue with Global Replace.
- Fixed: 'Use jQuery UI theme' in Date Picker should be 'true' for existing project.
- Fixed: Open Graph image needs absolute path.
- Fixed: Crash when publishing non-visible CMS View.
- Fixed: Missing ReplaceVariables function in form processor.
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How to update from previous 12.x versions?
1. Download the latest version here:
2. If you already have version 12.x you can install it in the same location as the previous version.
Advanced users can also download the updated files only here (no installer):
http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/wb12update.zip (build date: April 7, 2017)
WYSIWYG Web Builder 12.0.1 update
All the latest news about WYSIWYG Web Builder can be read in this section
*** Current version: WYSIWYG Web Builder 15.4.4 ***
*** Current version: WYSIWYG Web Builder 15.4.4 ***
1 post • Page 1 of 1
1 post • Page 1 of 1


text:
Have you ever used emacs buttons? If you've used
M-x grep then you have used similar functionality. When you click on one of the links it opens the file and goes to the appropriate line. If your mouse is hovering over the link then it highlights it.
How can you make your own button? First of all, you make a function that is called when you click the button.
(defun myfun (button) (message (format "Button [%s]" (button-label button))))
Then you make a button template. Buttons are actually made with an overlay that overrides the current keymap. By default, buttons run their action on button 2. I prefer left click so I set follow-link to true. You can make a hierarchy of button types using
(define-button-type 'my-button
'action 'myfun
'follow-link t
'help-echo "Click button")
Then insert the button using your template. These automatically highlight when your mouse is hovering over it.
(insert-text-button "xyz" :type 'my-button)


text:
A key Browns veteran makes a pitch for Josh Campbell or Brian Hoyer to get a shot at the starting quarterback job next year. Campbell talks about his future with the team.
Jason Campbell walked away from the Windy City.
The extent to which he has his career back up and running is a focal point of Sunday's Bears-at-Browns game.
Having spent 2012 with Chicago on a one-year contract, Campbell says the Bears made him an offer to return, but he didn't want to be buried behind Jay Cutler.
"I wanted to put myself in position to play," Campbell said, "to go somewhere I had a chance to get back on the field."
When he signed with the Browns on March 26, Brandon Weeden and Colt McCoy were the competition. The Bears signed Josh McCown three days later. The Browns didn't sign Brian Hoyer until May 17.
All of them were in for some surprises.
As for Campbell, he is preparing for his sixth start as a Brown, against the Bears, perhaps against McCown.
"I had a good time with those guys," Campbell said of his year as a Bear. "It was the total opposite of this team. This team is young. That team was a veteran team."
After throwing for a career-high 391 yards in a 27-26 loss at New England, Campbell is in the hunt to be Cleveland's starter for 2014.
"I have a two-year contract here," Campbell said after Wednesday's practice. "There's an option in February on whether to bring me back or not."
Campbell's base salary for this year was $1.5 million, but he will have pocketed a bit more because of clauses tied to playing time.
He is due a $250,000 roster bonus in February. His base pay for 2014 calls for $2 million, which would double if he reaches certain incentives.
Even if he made $5 million, he would be a dirt-cheap starting quarterback if he led the Browns to the playoffs. That's a stretch, obviously, given the Browns' 4-9 record.
The early guess is that the team will bring back Campbell and Hoyer, part ways with Weeden, and draft a quarterback.
Campbell isn't assuming that, but he said, "I see a lot of upside here."
Left tackle Joe Thomas is intrigued by the thought of Campbell or Hoyer as next year's starter.
"I think both Jason and Brian have done an excellent job making a case for themselves," Thomas said. "They've both played extremely well when called upon.
"We got both of those guys in free agency for less than a king's ransom, which is usually what it takes to get a quality quarterback in this league.
"It's going to be a very tough decision in this offseason, whatever the organization decides to do at that position."
Hoyer played only two full games before blowing out a knee. Campbell's 2013 playing time is beginning to approximate Weeden's.
Weeden has thrown more passes than Campbell, 267-197, and has more yards, 1,731-1,324. Campbell leads Weeden 58.9-52.8 in completion percentage, 6.72-6.48 in yards per pass, and 88.0-70.3 in passer rating.
The Browns' quarterback plans are tied to emerging star Josh Gordon.
Gordon had a 10-catch, 146-yard game with Hoyer in the Browns' first 2013 win. He had a 10-catch, 261-yard game with Weeden in a recent loss to Jacksonville. He had a seven-catch, 151-yard game with Campbell at New England.
Looking ahead, Gordon isn't campaigning for or against any of them.
"There's no telling ... I'm not really sure what will happen," Gordon said. "What they want to do next year ... that's totally up to them."
Gordon did say this about Campbell:
"He's just a real smart veteran. He's got a lot of confidence. He's really tough. He takes a lot of big hits.
"Until the very last seconds of the New England game, as you saw, he kept making the right reads. He kept fighting."
Campbell is soft-spoken in the locker room, but ...
"I definitely wouldn't call him quiet," Gordon said. "He's a grown man. Real mature. He's been in the league a long time.
"He's not going to get too excited about the little things. He attacks the game as a professional. That's what I'd call him. A professional."
Brandon Marshall, a star wideout in Chicago, says he was "not surprised at all" to see that Campbell gave Tom Brady quite a duel.
"Jason is a a starter ... a starting quarterback in the NFL," Marshall said. "He was a great teammate, and he's a great guy.
"I really enjoyed playing with him. We still talk. He's a guy I'll probably stay in contact with the rest of my life."
The NFL's top three in receiving yards are:
• Josh Gordon, who cost the Browns a No. 38 overall pick in the 2013 draft, 1,400 yards.
• Calvin Johnson, the No. 2 overall pick of the 2007 draft, 1,348 yards.
• Andre Johnson, the No. 3 overall pick of the 2003 draft, 1,277 yards.
Browns cornerback Joe Haden marvels at how far his 22-year-old teammate has come.
"There's not too much you need to coach J.G. on," Haden said. "He's catching the ball. He's running his routes well. Everything J.G. does is impressive.
"He catches it in traffic. He runs across the middle. He runs deep routes, post routes, comebacks. He runs the whole tree."
HERBSTREIT ON QBs
ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said he knows Browns fans are keeping a close watch on Johnny Manziel.
Herbstreit cautions against judging Manziel to be too limited to make it in the pros:
"I think he'll have a better NFL career than most people seem to believe," the former Ohio State quarterback said.
Herbstreit is reluctant to project pro potential before the draft process heats up, but of possible No. 1 overall pick Teddy Bridgewater, he said, "He has all the intangibles to be outstanding."
Herbstreit said he doesn't know enough about prospect of interest Derek Carr, calling him "a bit of a wild card."
• Weeden returned to practice Wednesday but has yet to emerge from "concussion protocol" to be cleared for action in the Chicago game. If he is cleared, he will back up Campbell on Sunday against Chicago. If not, the backup will be Alex Tanney.
• The Bears aren't saying whether Cutler or McCown will be their quarterback against the Browns. The best guess is that they will stick with the hot hand, McCown, even though Cutler has returned to practice after recovering from an ankle injury.
• Bears linebacker Lance Briggs (shoulder) missed practice Wednesday and has been missed recently.
"He is the catalyst of their defense," said Campbell, who was Briggs' teammate last year. "When (Brian) Urlacher was out last year, Briggs ran everything."
• The price for the cheapest Browns-Bears tickets on StubHub dropped from $16 just before kickoff at New England to $9.99 on Tuesday to $5.99 on Wednesday.
By Sunday, the price might be $2.99 with a free ride to the game.


text:
2962.0 - Census Working Paper 93/3 - Posted-in Forms, 1991
Latest ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 06/01/1994
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Census Working Paper 93/3
Dietmar Kahles, Catriona Bate , Julie Evans
Population Census Evaluation August 1993
Form return rates
The sample
Mailback and Non-contact rates of return
Comparison with overseas experiences
Incidence of posted-in forms
1986 and 1991 Censuses
State/Territory counts
Smaller area counts
Early/late counts
Not stated rates
Comparison of posted-in and collected forms
Comparison of posted-in forms received early and posted-in forms received late
Comparison of forms resulting from Mailback and Non-contact situations
Response to Name (Question 2)
PES records
135 CD sample
The link to general data quality
Problems associated with the large number of posted-in forms received as identified by DPC and Census Field Organisation staff
Back of Census form
'Request to Return' Card
Posted-in form counts (1986/1991 Censuses) - Sources
Occupied private dwellings, 1986 and 1991 Censuses, by State
Comparison of not stated rates for posted-in and collected forms
Comparison of not stated rates for posted-in forms received early and posted-in forms received late
Comparison of not stated rates for Mailback and Non-contact posted-in forms
1 Distribution of Census forms, 135 CD sample
2 Proportion of Mailback/Non-contact dummies raised, 135 CD sample
3 Rates of return for Mailback/Non-contact situations, 135 CD sample
4 Rates of return for Mailback/Non-contact situations, 135 CD sample vs Australia
5 Insertion rate of posted-in forms, 1986 and 1991 Censuses, Australia
6 Inserted posted-in forms by State, 1986 and 1991 Censuses
7 Inserted posted-in forms by State as a proportion of occupied private dwellings, 1986 and 1991 Censuses
8 Inserted posted-in forms by State, Capital city Statistical Divisions and 'Other' Statistical Divisions, as a proportion of occupied private dwellings, 1991 Census
9 Proportion of forms received late
10 Variables where not stated rates were higher for posted-in forms
11 Variables where not stated rates were lower for posted-in forms
12 Response to 'Name' for posted-in and collected forms according to the 1991 PES
13 Response to 'Name' for Mailback and Non-contact forms, 135 CD sample
14 1991 Census not stated rates by response to 'Name' according to the 1991 PES
In the first few weeks of processing staff at the DPC were confronted with the arrival of an unprecedented number of Census forms by mail. The sheer volume of forms arriving every day greatly exceeded all expectations and posed a variety of logistical problems for management. The main concern expressed was about the impact on overall data quality as mailed forms were felt to generally include poorer quality data. This experience also showed the need to analyse the issue of posted-in forms in detail to enable the development of strategies for future Censuses.
One can only speculate about the exact reasons for the large increase in posted-in forms for the 1991 Census. It seems that privacy concerns were of greater importance to people in the 1991 Census than they were in 1986. This observation is backed up by the contents of notes attached to Census forms received at the DPC and by comments written on Census forms. Most of these comments expressed concerns about invasion of privacy, confidentiality or 'big brother' government. To what extent the public was influenced by some ill founded negative publicity in the media before Census night cannot be ascertained. Some people simply used the mailback facility to voice general comments about Government, Public Service, 'big business', religious beliefs etc.
Some problems associated with the large number of posted-in forms received which were identified by DPC and Census Field Organisation staff are discussed in Appendix 1. This report does not attempt to give solutions for these problems, but focuses on the data quality implications. Both return rates (how many forms were actually returned for every dummy form raised in the field) and variable not stated rates are used as indicators of data quality.
Before addressing these aspects in detail, it is necessary to give a definition of posted-in forms. Posted-in forms are defined as any Census form (household or personal) returned by mail rather than collected by a Census collector. A Census form was identified as posted-in by DPC staff OMR-marking one of the three categories (posted-in early - complete, posted-in early - blank, posted-in late) of the 'MF' (mailed form) box on the back of the Census form. The distinction between 'early' and 'late' was made for the purposes of the Post Enumeration Survey (PES) and was determined by the commencement date of the PES (about three weeks after Census night). Only forms identified this way were able to be recognised as posted-in when interrogating the IFURF (Interim Final Unit Record File). Indications are that only very few posted-in forms were not marked correctly. Also, approximately 2% of posted-in forms received (about 4,000 forms) were deliberately not inserted in CD packs (and were thus not recorded on the IFURF) for reasons explained in Incidence of posted-in forms.
One of the aims of this study was to determine how many people who told their collector they would mail their form (mailback) actually did so, in contrast to those who could not be contacted by collectors. Rates of return give an indication of how much data might be missing as a result of mailback procedures.
There are two situations which may lead to a Census form being posted-in:
The sample
Initially, 139 CDs from around Australia were randomly selected by Statistical Support for this study. Four of the CDs selected (three RAIF area CDs, and one CD for which a Collector Record Book could not be found) were excluded from analysis, leaving 135 CDs for the study. Within these CDs, a further selection of records was made in the interests of efficiency and to ensure that sufficient numbers of posted-in forms were included. Every posted-in form from these 135 CDs was included to ensure the number was large enough for analysis. 10% of collected forms were selected at random for inclusion in this study as a control group (as in the Contact at Delivery study).
This selection procedure will need to be kept in mind when in the remainder of the report reference is made to the '135 CD sample'. The result was a selection of 4,353 forms. 17% of these (724 forms) were posted-in forms, higher than the incidence of posted-in forms in the general population (about 3%) due to the way forms were selected. Table 1 shows the distribution of records resulting from this selection. Posted-in forms are the focus of this analysis.
Table 1: Distribution of Census forms, 135 CD sample
To determine the number of mailback and non-contact dummies raised in the field the Remarks column of each Collector Record Book for all 135 CDs was examined and the incidence of mailback and non-contact was tallied. A total of 1,047 mailback and non-contact dummies were identified this way. About three quarters of these dummies were recorded as mailback, and this means the collector was able to contact the householder in the majority of cases.
Table 2: Proportion of Mailback/Non-contact dummies raised, 135 CD sample
Mailback and Non-contact return rates
Table 3: Rates of return for Mailback/Non-contact situations, 135 CD sample
Table 3 shows the number of dummy forms replaced by posted-in forms received at the DPC. Forms were far more likely to be posted when the collector was able to contact the householder on collection (four returns for every five dummies) than in cases of non-contact (one return for every three dummies). Overall, about 70% of forms that were not collected (but could not be classed as Refusals) were posted by householders. If the fact that not all posted-in forms were used (they were not inserted if they were blank or arrived too late or contained obviously untrue or unidentifiable information) is taken into account, the proportion of forms received by mail would be slightly higher.
An overall return rate which combines mailback and non-contact dummies can also be calculated for Australia. A comparison of these rates for the 135 CD sample and Australia reveal that the estimate for the sample is very close to the rate for Australia. However, the fact that the rate for Australia is even lower than the already low return rate for the sample is disappointing.
Table 4: Rates of return for Mailback/Non-contact situations, 135 CD sample/Australia
Comparison with overseas experiences
Interestingly, the return rate achieved for posted-in forms in Australia (about 70%) is approximately in line with return rates for overseas (mailback) Censuses. This overall return rate is likely to be similar to the situation after first follow-up in these Censuses, given that households for which mailback or non-contact dummies are raised are reminded in person (mailback) or by card (non-contact) to complete and return Census forms. Although direct comparison is difficult, it is interesting to note that in Canada in 1986 intensive follow-up was needed to achieve an 87% return rate. The return rate before follow-up (but after an initial request) in the US in 1990 was only 65%.
1986 and 1991 Censuses
Table 5 shows the total number of posted-in forms received for the 1986 and 1991 Censuses, and the number of forms inserted in CD packs at the DPC. Forms returned by post were not inserted if they were blank or contained no useful information.
Table 5: Insertion rate of posted-in forms, 1986 and 1991 Censuses, Australia
To derive the figures in Table 5 it was necessary to access different sources for the 1986 and 1991 Censuses. 1986 data originated from tally forms used by Special Projects at the DPC, whereas 1991 data originated from running a SAS program against the posted-in form field on the IFURF. Additional evidence was provided by ex-DPC staff. The problems experienced in deriving the data are discussed in detail in Appendix 4.
In 1986, about 57,000 posted-in forms were received by the DPC. Of these 57,000 forms about 3,250 are known to have been blank and were thus not inserted in CD packs to be processed. This represents a proportion of about 5.7% not inserted in CD packs. The 'Unknown' category represents forms originally thought to be refusals which were later found to be posted-in forms. It is not known how many of these forms were blank and were therefore not inserted. The proportion of forms not inserted is therefore likely to have been even greater than 5.7%.
In 1991, about 175,000 posted-in forms were received by the DPC. About 4,000 forms are estimated to not have been inserted in CD packs. The large majority of these 4,000 forms were blank. A much smaller number were not inserted because they either contained obviously untrue and/or incomprehensible information, or had arrived too late at the DPC to be inserted at any stage of processing. This means about 2.3% of posted-in forms were not inserted in CD packs. Table 5 shows that the number of posted-in forms has tripled between the 1986 and 1991 Censuses. Assuming most of the forms not inserted were blank, it can also be seen that the proportion of blank forms decreased between 1986 and 1991.
State/Territory counts
Table 6 shows the number of inserted posted-in forms by State for the 1986 and 1991 Censuses, and the proportion of inserted posted-in forms. New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia increased their share of posted-in forms, while all other States and Territories showed decreases. The Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania and the Northern Territory all decreased by between 30% and 70%. The lower intercensal increase in the number of posted-in forms for the smaller States and Territories may have been partly a result of the effect of the absence of 4,000 posted-in forms which were not inserted in CD packs, as anecdotal evidence suggests that they mainly originated from the smaller States and Territories.
Table 6: Inserted posted-in forms by State, 1986 and 1991 Censuses
Disregarding the potential effect of the 4,000 posted-in forms which were not inserted there seems to be a difference in the size of the intercensal increase in the number of posted-in forms between the five biggest States and the three smallest States or Territories. While the number of mailed forms in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia tripled or more than tripled, it increased to a lesser extent in the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania, and remained stable in the Northern Territory. This cannot be explained by differences in intercensal population growth rates between the States and Territories, as the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory experienced amongst the biggest growth rates, but showed a comparatively smaller increase or even a small decrease in the number of posted-in forms.
Table 7 shows the proportion of posted-in forms by State as a percentage of occupied private dwellings (see Appendix 5 for data on the number of occupied private dwellings by State). This indicates differences in the distribution of posted-in forms between the States and Territories. Again, a difference between the bigger and smaller States and Territories is noticeable. In Tasmania, only about one in hundred households (1.1%) posted their form, whereas in Victoria about one in thirty households (3.5%) decided to do so. Intercensal increases in the proportion of posted-in forms range from 0.4% (Tasmania) to 2.3% (Victoria). The Northern Territory was the only State or Territory not showing an increase in the proportion of posted-in forms. Because the number of posted-in personal forms is not known, it is not possible to say exactly how many occupied private dwellings were represented by posted-in forms. However, mailback of personal forms can only arise in very unusual circumstances and the number is thought sufficiently small in both Censuses for proportional changes as shown in Table 7 not to be affected.
Table 7: Inserted posted-in forms by State as a proportion of occupied private dwellings, 1986 and 1991 Censuses
Smaller area counts
Within States and Territories there tended to be differences in the incidence of posted-in forms between Statistical Divisions and Subdivisions in the 1991 Census. Capital City Statistical Divisions showed higher proportions of posted-in forms than Statistical Divisions representing the remainder of a State or Territory.
The incidence of posted-in forms was calculated as the number of posted-in forms over the number of occupied private dwellings for each Statistical Subdivision. The resulting data were then aggregated to Statistical Divisions and further to Statistical Divisions representing Capital Cities and 'Other' State areas. These two groups were identified by their ASGC codes (05 for Capital City Statistical Divisions).
This analysis concentrated on the comparison of Capital City and 'Other' SDs as estimates for smaller areas were thought to be subject to an unacceptably high level of sampling error due to the small sample sizes of posted-in forms involved.
Table 8 compares the incidence of posted-in forms in Capital City Statistical Divisions with the incidence of posted-in forms in 'Other' Statistical Divisions.
Table 8: Inserted posted-in forms by State, Capital City Statistical Divisions and 'Other' Statistical Divisions, as a proportion of occupied private dwellings, 1991 Census
* The Canberra Statistical Division incorporates all Canberra town centres. 'Other' Statistical Divisions include the rest of the ACT and Jervis Bay.
For all States and Territories the incidence of posted-in forms seemed to be higher in Capital Cities than in the rest of the State or Territory. The figure below illustrates those differences in detail. The more populous States showed generally larger differences in the incidence of posted-in forms. Differences tended to be greatest in Victoria (2.3%), Western Australia (1.5%) and New South Wales (1.4%), and smallest in Tasmania (0.1%) and South Australia (0.3%).
Capital City versus 'Other' Statistical Divisions
Note: The incidence of posted-in forms is shown as a proportion of occupied private dwellings
In Victoria the incidence of posted-in forms was more than two times greater for the Melbourne Statistical Division than for the State's other Statistical Divisions. Melbourne also showed the highest incidence of posted-in forms (4.2%) of any Capital City Statistical Division in Australia.
The proportion of posted-in forms within Statistical Subdivisions (SSDs) varied little in Capital City SDs but varied greatly in 'Other' SDs. The level of posted-in forms for Capital City SSDs was consistently high but there was little variation (Perth showed the least variation, from 2.3% to 3.2%). In contrast, there was larger variation in 'Other' SDs, with the greatest variation for SSDs recorded in South Australia (from 0.7% to 5.3%). It should be remembered, however, that these results are subject to substantial sampling error due to the small sample sizes involved.
Early/Late counts
The number of forms received early (in the first three weeks after Census night) versus the number of forms received late is shown in Table 9 below. About one fifth of all posted-in forms, for both the 1986 and 1991 Censuses, arrived late.
This could be an indication of the relatively minor importance of deliberately delaying to return the Census form as a form of protest. It appears more likely that people who wanted to register their protest against the Census (for whatever reason) either did not return their form at all (disguised refusals) or decided not to answer certain questions. Supporting evidence for this assumption together with the effect of mailing the Census form late on data quality will be discussed in Not Stated Rates.
Other problems associated with late forms were that a proportion of these forms could not be inserted in CD packs (especially forms from States processed early in the cycle) and that they needed to be excluded from the Post Enumeration Survey which commenced about three weeks after Census night.
Table 9: Proportion of forms received late
Note: 1991 data excludes forms which were not inserted.
Not stated rates for specific variables or questions are a basic indicator of data quality. This analysis will make three comparisons between not stated rates by variable using different sets of data in order to draw some conclusions about data quality for posted-in forms. First, not stated rates for variables for records from posted-in forms will be compared to those from collected forms. Posted-in forms will then be analysed in more detail to determine whether there was a difference in not stated rates between:
Although the not stated rates quoted here do resemble non-response rates (as they appear in Fact Sheet 11.0) they should not be treated as equivalent. All not stated rates in this analysis originate from IFURF data and there are some conceptual differences as well as the potential for differences due to additional editing and reformatting taken account of in FURF data (the source of Fact Sheets). Changes in the definition of the applicable population affect a number of variables, particularly Year of Arrival, Proficiency in English, Type of educational institution and the Qualification variables. However, these differences are not expected to affect the comparisons made.
There are also some differences in the list of variables used in this analysis. Most of the variables taken off the IFURF relate directly to questions as they appear on the Census form. A few variables (for example, Work destination zone or Occupation) were derived from more than one question. Other derived variables, such as Labour force status, were not available from the IFURF used. However, the labour force questions Full/Part-time job, Looked for work and Job last week were available and are included in this analysis. Some other variables were not available or were excluded due to doubts about the quality of the data at that stage. These include Qualification (highest field), Rent (weekly) and Marital Status (imputation rate).
While IFURF data for Australia were the source for most of the analysis, IFURF data corresponding to records used in the 135 CD sample (see 2.2 for sample details) were separately analysed in order to compare the two posted-in form situations 'mailback' and 'non-contact'. In addition, it was necessary to clerically examine forms used in the 135 CD sample before interrogating the IFURF to derive not stated rates from the corresponding records.
Records from dummy forms were excluded from analysis. Apart from inflating not stated rates because most of the data are missing, the main problem with dummy forms is that they represent forms which were not received at the DPC, and which therefore could not be classified as either collected or posted-in forms.
The absence of the 4,000 or so posted-in forms which were not inserted during any stage of processing will have the effect of slightly underestimating not stated rates for posted in-forms in part 1 of the analysis, and slightly reducing the size of the sample of posted-in forms used in part 2 of the analysis. Part 3 is unlikely to be affected very much because it relies on a random sample of only 135 CDs from all over Australia.
Comparison of posted-in and collected forms
Not stated rates tended to be higher for posted-in forms for most variables. See Appendix 6 for not stated rates by variable separately for posted-in and collected forms. The overall pattern of not stated rates is very similar for both sets of data and also quite similar to that found in FURF data.
The differences in not stated rates range from 0.1 percentage points for Birthplace to 6.7 percentage points for Religion. Tests of statistical significance (comparison of means at a 95% confidence interval) indicated that the difference between not stated rates for posted-in and collected forms was significant for all variables except Occupation. The large number of records made the test more powerful, enabling the detection of small differences as significant.
The overall percentage point differences in not stated rates between records for collected and posted-in forms are not great. In this situation, the absence of records from posted-in forms which were received but not inserted in CD packs may be important because this means that not stated rates calculated for posted-in forms are slightly understated. Although the absent posted-in forms represent only about 2% of all posted-in forms (as shown in Table 5), if these forms were able to be included in the data not stated rates for posted-in forms would have been higher because of the high proportion of the missing forms that were blank or nearly so.
Not stated rates for posted-in forms would increase by up to two percentage points if the absent posted-in forms were able to be included. The impact would be greatest for variables which are applicable to the whole population, and the percentage points differences between not stated rates for collected and posted-in forms would be affected. In most cases the extent of the differences would be increased.
The variables in Table 10 below are cases where not-stated rates for posted-in forms were higher than not stated rates for collected forms. They represent about two thirds of the variables studied. Only five show a percentage points difference of more than 1%. While the differences shown do reach statistical significance, in all cases this difference would be significantly increased were the absent forms to be included due to the relatively small size of the differences shown below.
Table 10: Variables where not stated rates were higher for posted-in forms
For other variables, the impact of the additional 4,000 posted-in forms would perhaps change the direction of the percentage points difference in not stated rates. Variables appearing in Table 11 below have lower not stated rates for posted-in forms than collected forms. The addition of the absent forms would probably result in slightly higher or nearly equal not stated rates for posted-in forms compared to collected forms for these variables. The only variables for which collected forms might continue to show a higher not stated rate are Year of qualification and possibly Job last week.
Table 11: Variables where not stated rates were lower for posted-in forms
The most remarkable difference in not stated rates was for the Structure of dwelling variable where the not stated rate (5.4%) was more than nine times higher for posted-in forms than for collected forms. In comparison, the not stated rate for the Structure of dwelling variable derived from final data is 0.8% for Australia (Fact Sheet 11.0). This appears to be a strong indication of collector practice departing from correct procedure. It seems that in many cases collectors may not have completed this question before delivery as instructed in the Collectors Manual, but instead have completed it only after collection of the form.
Higher not stated rates for posted-in forms could, for some variables, be interpreted as a registration of protest against a perceived invasion of privacy. Some support for this argument may be seen in the fact that the two largest differences in not stated rates, apart from Structure of dwelling, were for the traditionally contentious variables Religion and Income. It seems that a significant number of people who chose to post their form registered their concern about privacy issues by not responding to sensitive questions.
Comparison of posted-in forms received early and posted-in forms received late
Appendix 7 shows the not stated rates for posted-in forms received early and posted-in forms received late. Comparing these two categories of posted-in forms should reveal any link that might exist between time taken to return a Census form by post and not stated rates (data quality). Forms received in the first three weeks after Census night are referred to as received early, forms received thereafter are referred to as received late. This reflects the requirements of the PES which commenced three weeks after Census night and included only posted-in forms received before its commencement. As noted earlier, about 80% of all posted-in forms were received early.
The data was again derived from the IFURF (Australia) by tallying the number of not stated codes for the posted-in form categories 'received early' and 'received late', the number of applicable records for each variable, and calculating the not stated rate as a proportion of not stated codes over total applicable records. Although the 'received late' category might be expected to be affected more than the 'received early' category by the absence of the 4,000 posted-in forms, the fact that forms were inserted relatively late in processing and were not selected for insertion on this basis means that this comparison is unlikely to be affected by this factor.
Tests of statistical significance (comparison of means at a 95% confidence interval) indicated that the difference between not-stated rates for posted-in forms received early and posted-in forms received late was significant for all but three variables (Income, Landlord, Furnished/Unfurnished). Due to the large number of records small differences were able to be detected as significant.
The pattern of not stated rates is very similar for posted-in forms received early and posted-in forms received late. For those variables where there was a significant difference all except Religion showed higher not stated rates for posted-in forms received late. Differences range from -1.0 percentage points (Religion) to 3.4 percentage points (Type of educational institution).
That not stated rates for almost all variables are significantly higher for posted-in forms received late may indicate that the commitment to answer Census questions decreases slightly over time, although the overall response rates are still relatively high. There is no particular group of variables showing higher not stated rates than other groups.
Two interesting results for posted-in forms received late are apparent for Religion and Income (which showed the highest not stated rates after Structure of dwelling in the posted/collected forms comparison). Religion was the only variable with a lower not stated rate and Income was the only variable for which there was no significant difference from the rate for posted-in forms received early. That these sensitive variables did not show higher not stated rates might suggest that privacy may not be such an issue for the group of people posting their form late.
Comparison of forms resulting from Mailback and Non-contact situations
In order to determine possible differences in not stated rates for mailback and non-contact, posted-in forms from the sample of 135 CDs were analysed. They were classified as mailback or non-contact by examining Collector Record Books, and the corresponding records on the IFURF were interrogated to obtain not stated rates for variables according to posted-in form type.
Appendix 8 contains not stated rates for mailback and non-contact forms. The very low incidence of non-contact posted-in forms presented a major problem for this analysis. Only variables with a tally of more than three not stated codes per variable (mailback or non-contact forms) were included to present more meaningful results. However, the numbers involved are still very small (especially for non-contact forms), and results should only be regarded as indicative of possible differences.
It seems that for the majority of variables not stated rates for posted-in forms were higher in situations where there was contact with a collector at collection (mailback). This is a somewhat surprising result and could possibly add weight to the opinion voiced by some that a proportion of posted-in forms should be regarded as disguised refusals. The result is also reminiscent of the conclusion in the Contact at Delivery study that higher not stated rates were found where there was contact at delivery than where there was none. In both cases there needs to be an examination of the characteristics of the household, and characteristics of persons contacted to evaluate this phenomenon.
Response to 'Name' can be regarded as an important supplementary indicator of overall data quality. Anecdotal evidence has previously been claimed to show that persons who include their name on the Census form also tend to complete the remainder of the form more thoroughly. Not giving a name may also highlight possible concerns about privacy and confidentiality issues. The following questions were targeted in this study:
The level of response to Question 2 (Name) on the Census form could only be directly measured by clerical analysis since it is not captured during Census data processing and is therefore not recorded on Unit Record Files. However, it is possible to get an indication of the quality of response to 'Name' from the sample of forms used in the PES (Post Enumeration Survey) as the presence or absence of 'Name' is recorded on the PES file. The main source for this investigation was the 1991 Census PES file. To separately identify non-response for posted-in form mailback and non-contact cases the 135 CD sample was analysed.
PES records
The following table was constructed using all persons on the PES file who were matched to the Census form corresponding to the PES address. A separate match code identified cases where 'Name' was missing on either the PES or the Census record. If the PES record was complete for that person then this match code would indicate that 'Name' was missing from the Census record. If the PES record was not complete, it could not be determined if 'Name' was omitted from the PES or the Census record. The latter cases are shown in the table as 'Unresolved'.
Table 12: Response to 'Name' for posted-in and collected Census forms according to the 1991 PES
Indications are that the proportion of people mailing their Census form who did not give their name was about four times higher (3.2%) than that of people whose forms were collected (0.7%). This difference was found to be statistically significant. Evidence from staff involved in the conduct of the PES suggests there were very few PES records with 'Name' missing, thus most of the 'Unresolved' cases in the above table would involve Census records with 'Name' missing. The proportion of records with no response to 'Name' could therefore be as great as 5.6% for posted-in forms and 0.9% for collected forms (ie. about six times higher for the former).
While non-response to Question 2 ('Name') is apparently higher for posted-in forms, 95% or more of records on these forms still contain names. This may indicate that privacy concerns of people mailing their Census form were not as important an issue as previously thought.
135 CD Sample
Table 13, derived from a clerical examination of posted-in forms in the 135 CD sample (coincidentally the total number of records on posted-in forms corresponds closely to that shown in Table 12), indicates possible differences in non-response between the two posted-in form situations, mailback and non-contact. However, the low incidence of non-contact forms and of records where names were missing means that tests of significance are invalid, and the results shown below should therefore be treated with caution.
Table 13: Response to 'Name' for mailback/non-contact forms, 135 CD sample
Overall non-response to 'Name' (4.1%) again appears to be quite low. The data are fairly consistent with the results from the PES file analysis. The figures suggest slightly higher non-response to the 'Name' question for people requesting a mailback envelope compared to people where there was no contact at collection. Perhaps people who actively requested to make use of the mailback facility had a greater reluctance to include their name on the Census form (possibly another way of expressing concern about a perceived invasion of privacy). People who posted their form because no contact was made at collection seemed to have a similar response rate to 'Name' as people whose forms were collected (98.3% of the former as compared to 99.1% of the latter - see also Table 12).
The link to general data quality
Table 14 compares the data quality of Census records without names to that of records with names. Anecdotal evidence from many sources suggests that where a respondent writes their name, responses to subsequent questions on the Census form tend to be more accurate. It was therefore suspected that the absence of names would be linked to generally higher non-response rates for other questions.
PES data were used for analysis. The same assumptions apply here as in Table 12 where PES data were also used. The variables analysed were Age, Birthplace, Marital Status and Aboriginal Origin, as these are the only variables for which Census responses were recorded on the PES file.
Table 14: 1991 Census not stated rates by response to 'Name' according to the 1991 PES
Although absolute numbers for the categories 'Name missing' and 'Unresolved' are small compared to numbers for the category 'Name given' it can be concluded that for all variables, the not stated rate was higher for persons who did not include their name on the Census form than for those who did. As mentioned before, it is likely that most of the persons classed as 'Unresolved' omitted their name from the Census form. If this category is combined with those for whom it is known that name was missing, then the not stated rates are 1.9% (Age), 4.6% (Birthplace), 8.8% (Marital status), and 7.0% (Aboriginal origin). This means the not stated rates still remain higher for those who did not include their name on the form.
The results indicate that higher question response rates are linked to the inclusion of a person's name on the Census form. Given that people who post their form have a slightly higher tendency to omit their name from the Census form, this may have affected, albeit to a very small extent, overall Census data quality.
In the 1991 Census, only about 3% of forms were posted-in and 95% or more of these records contained names. Although the above analysis indicates the quality of response in records without names is likely to be worse than for other Census records, the number of such records is too small to have much effect on overall data quality.
About three times as many posted-in forms were received for the 1991 Census as for the 1986 Census. They represented about 3% of all occupied private dwellings. There was a higher incidence in the more populous States and, within States and Territories, in Capital city Statistical Divisions.
The two main problems associated with posted-in forms in the 1991 Census were a low overall return rate and higher not stated rates for the majority of variables for records from posted-in forms.
Only about 70% of all Census forms that should have been returned by mail were actually received at the DPC. This includes households requesting to mail the Census form at collection (Mailback) as well as households that were not able to be contacted at collection (Non-contact). More than three quarters of posted-in form situations were Mailback cases. The rate of return was higher for households contacted at collection (80%) than for households where there was no contact at collection (33%). Overall, this low rate of return resulted in the complete loss of almost one third of potential data from posted-in forms.
For the majority of variables not stated rates were higher on posted-in forms than on collected forms. Differences in not stated rates between posted-in and collected forms were generally not large, but all except one variable reached statistical significance. The most noteworthy results were:
It seems that in cases where forms were not collected (excluding outright refusals) a distinction can be made between households which were generally willing to participate in the Census and others which were not.
Households returning Census forms by mail were largely co-operative. Although these households appeared to be generally willing to participate in the Census, they may have been more concerned about a perceived invasion of privacy or possible breaches of confidentiality than people whose forms were collected. The traditionally sensitive variables Religion and Income showed significantly higher not stated rates on posted-in forms than collected forms, whereas other variables showed only slightly higher not stated rates on posted-in forms. Interestingly, 95% of persons in households posting their Census form still put a name on the form. This might be an indication that they were quite willing to identify themselves knowing the collector would not see their name.
Only about 2% of all posted-in forms received at the DPC were blank or contained useless information. It appears that the majority of people who were not willing to participate in the Census chose to express that by not returning the Census form at all rather than by returning it blank or containing useless information. As mentioned before, only about seven out of ten Census forms that should have been returned by mail were actually returned. This was despite either direct contact with a Census collector at collection (Mailback) or indirect through a reminder card to return the Census form (Non-contact).
This report shows that posted-in forms can be linked to lower data quality when compared to collected forms. The only real impact on non-response rates is likely to be apparent for the Religion, Income, and Structure of dwelling variables although lower data quality may be a problem at the small area level in capital cities.
The greatest impact of the mailback option, however, is due to the low return rate of forms left for posting back. On dummy forms (representing forms which were not posted-in) almost all responses are missing whereas the majority of responses appear to be intact on posted-in forms. The number of dummy records in the data has more than doubled between the 1986 and 1991 Censuses. Further, mailback (MB) and non-contact (NC) dummy forms represent over 90% of all dummies. In 1991 dummy records appear to have contributed about 0.9 percentage points more of the recorded non-response than in 1986 for variables requiring an answer from all persons. The impact on question non-response due to dummy forms varies according to the overall level of non-response and whether missing responses for specific variables are imputed.
From a field perspective, there are also some interesting points to note. The most important is that it appears that it is becoming slightly more difficult to collect completed forms from householders, necessitating the increased use of dummy forms. The total number of dummy forms raised, and the number remaining in the data after processing, has increased considerably since the 1986 Census. The return rate of posted-in forms is particularly low for forms resulting from non-contact situations. There may be some scope to improve the request to return card which is left when contact is not made at collection, or to introduce some type of reminder system. Finally, some collectors failed to mark the Structure of dwelling question before delivery, thereby contributing to the not stated rate. The non-response rate for final data for this variable indicates that some collectors may be failing to mark this question even after collection.
Any expanded promotion of the availability of the mailback option in future Censuses would inevitably lead to a greater use of posted-in forms. Even without this, and with the use of effective publicity campaigns aimed at increasing the level of cooperation in the Census in the community, the level of posted-in forms may continue to increase in future Censuses.
An important issue to consider is whether there would be an increase in the number of mailback dummies or non-contact dummies raised, or both, because these situations appear to have different consequences for data quality. The impact of an increase in mailback dummies on non-response rates would probably not be great (except for Income and Religion as discussed above). However any increase in the number of non-contact dummies is a concern - in the 1991 Census only about 33% of forms resulting from NC situations were posted-in.
In conclusion, there is a need to continue to monitor the impact of the mailback option on data quality, given the scope for these procedures to have a significant and detrimental impact on the data. Associated with this is a need for reliable and timely data on the rates of return, the incidence of posted-in forms, and not stated rates for posted-in forms.
Problems associated with the large number of posted-in forms received as identified by DPC and Census Field Organisation staff
Back of Census form
'Request to Return' Card
Posted-in form counts (1986/1991 Censuses) - Sources
In 1986, a tally form was used by Special Projects to count the mail being received each day. One of the categories of this form was 'form completed/blank' (completed meaning not totally blank or containing some written information). According to this tally form, a total of 54,571 posted-in forms (51,320 completed and 3,251 blank) were received. This figure does not include the number of envelopes received that were thought to be refusals which were later found to be non-refusal cases. Thus the final count of posted-in forms was revised to 57,261, an increase of 2,690. This revised figure needs to be kept in mind, especially for the comparison of inserted posted-in forms by State between 1986 and 1991 in Table 6. There are no indications how many of those additional forms were blank.
Checking the mailback codes on the Special Evaluation Flag of the 1986 FURF the total number of posted-in forms was found to be 48,748. Indications are that tally form counts were more reliable than FURF counts. Due to organisational problems towards the end of processing, not all forms had their Special Evaluation Flag recorded on the system. Also, the reliance on key-entry and the potential for clerical error must be considered in this context. For these reasons, 1986 data were based on the Special Projects tally forms.
In 1991, a tally form was again used at the DPC to record details of forms mailed in. The mail processing section used a category 'form complete/blank' similar to the 1986 Census. There appeared to be some confusion by clerical staff about the exact definition of 'blank'. Accordingly, there can only be estimates about the number of blank forms. Manual counts by mail processing staff found the number of posted-in forms received to be approximately 175,000. This figure included about 15,000 forms that were not inserted during the early stages of the process, either because they arrived too late to be inserted during Precapture (mainly forms from NSW and VIC, the States processed in the first month of DPC operation) or because they were blank or contained obviously untrue or not identifiable information. Of these 15,000 forms, 11,000 were inserted during a later processing stage, Main Processing. This means a total of around 4,000 forms were not inserted in CD packs. Indications are that the majority of these forms were blank. Some forms from the smaller States that were processed from the second month of operation (like TAS or WA) were not inserted because they arrived too late, and some forms were not inserted because they contained obviously untrue or not identifiable information.
The number of inserted posted-in forms, derived from running a SAS program against the posted-in form indicators on the IFURF, was found to be 171,199. Adding the number of forms not inserted gives a total of 175,199 posted-in forms received. This figure relates closely to the 175,000 forms tallied by mail processing staff. 1991 data were based on this IFURF data.
Occupied private dwellings Occupied private dwellings, 1986 and 1991 Censuses, by State
This table supplements Table 7 where the proportion of posted forms as a percentage of occupied private dwellings is shown. Occupied private dwellings include caravans in caravan parks for both 1986 and 1991 Censuses.
Comparison of not stated rates for posted-in and collected forms
NOTE: Not stated rates were not available for the following variables:
Comparison of not stated rates for posted-in forms received early and posted-in forms received late
Comparison of not stated rates for mailback and non-contact posted-in forms
Please note: Only variables with a tally of more than three not stated codes per variable (mailback or non-contact forms) were included due to the very low incidence of non-contact posted-in forms.
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As the "Minority Report" sees its Blu-ray release, it's time to take stock of the futuristic view presented by the groundbreaking 2002 film -- and to give us one more reason to hate spam.
The Steven Spielberg-directed movie was set in 2054. And while we haven't come close to the technology for pre-crime solving that's central in the film, the exploiting of private information that is depicted has definitely advanced, according to John Underkoffler, a futurist adviser on the film.
Underkoffler points out the scene where Tom Cruise's character John Anderton is on the run from the police and innocently enters the subway where his iris is scanned for the fare.
"Data that was collected for one purpose, to bill John Anderton to ride the subway, leaped across the divide and was in the employ of a government agency."
Indeed, the private information used by the government in the film was collected by existing systems of convenience (the subway fare) or advertisers directly marketing to an individual's need through iris scans.
Yet it ended up in the government hands.
Underkoffler says we are seeing this potential loss of privacy on websites.
"The very blunt and irritating end of that stick is spam. You subscribe to something and arguably unscrupulous website owners sell your email address to people that really shouldn't have it."
Highlighting these potential situations is just one reason Underkoffler is "thankful to the movie."
"It asked a lot of these questions out in the open as part of the story telling process in a way that we as as society should be doing, but aren't."
"A lot of that stuff is way closer than we would like."
One Sign the "Minority Report" Future is Coming: Spam
As the "Minority Report" sees its Blu-ray release, it's time to take stock of the futuristic view presented by the groundbreaking 2002 film -- and to give us one more reason to hate spam.


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WATERTOWN, Mass. - Sean Collier, the MIT police officer killed in a late-night confrontation with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, did more than protect students at the prestigious university. He danced the Lindy Hop with them, went hiking and even yodeled with them in New Hampshire's White Mountains.
Collier, 26, was making a mark as a dedicated police officer who connected with students after only 15 months on the job, MIT Police Chief John DiFava said.
"Sean was one of these guys who really looked at police work as a calling," DiFava said in a statement Friday. "He was born to be a police officer."
"In a very short period of time, it was remarkable how engaged he was with students," DiFava said.
A 2009 criminal justice graduate of Salem State University who lived in Somerville, Collier had previously worked for five years in the IT department of the Somerville Police Department. He was No. 1 on the civil service list for the next opening as a police officer, Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said Friday.
"He was a fantastic employee, a dedicated public servant," Curtatone said. "This kid was talented."
Collier, who was not married, became an MIT police officer in January 2012 but kept in touch with the Somerville department, helping to maintain its website, Curtatone said.
Outside Collier's home , officers said they cordoned off the street with yellow police tape so that his friends, family and neighbors could grieve in peace.
A handful of Somerville Police Department officers converged outside the white, three-story house, at times embracing, as a drizzle fell.
One female officer said she was too upset to talk about her fallen former colleague. "It's traumatic,"she said. "He worked with us."
"We are heartbroken by the loss of our wonderful and caring son and brother, Sean Collier," his family said in a statement published by The Boston Globe. "Our only solace is that Sean died bravely doing what he committed his life to -- serving and protecting others."
At MIT, outside of his regular duties Collier took part in the MIT Outing Club, an outdoor adventure group. He amazed some members with his rapid embrace of winter hiking in the White Mountains -- home to some of the nation's most brutal weather.
"The thing that impressed me about Sean was how enthusiastically he took the plunge into winter hiking, how quickly he mastered it, and how rapidly he made friends," MIT graduate student Matthew Gilbertson said.
MIT senior Michele Pratusevich said one hike included yodeling, and Collier was one of the first to try.
"He was eager to strut his plaid flannel, yodel off the sides of a mountain, enjoy eating his chocolate and pepperoni, and be happy and cheerful even with our exceedingly slow pace," she said.
On campus, Collier often stopped by MIT's student center while on his shift -- and sometimes danced the Lindy Hop, said Maddie Hickman, a 2011 MIT graduate.
"At first, some of the dancers were nervous at the 'police presence' in the room, but Sean made friends quickly," she said.
Another police officer was severely wounded during the confrontation. Richard H. Donohue, Jr., 33, of Woburn, underwent surgery Friday at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said. The hospital said Donohue was in critical but stable condition late Friday afternoon.
Donohue is a three-year veteran of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.


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36 Sublo
36 Sublo Pen & Ink Rubber Stamp
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Sumthings of Mine, is started as an online store in October 2016, which aims to share a curated selection of stationery, paper and lifestyle accessory that focusing on journaling and collecting moments. We aim to make here a great place especially for those who care for designs and quality as well as uniqueness. We collect unique and quality stationeries that could serve to collect and create your moments.
Every order is packed with good care and thoughts and shipped directly from Malaysia to all over the world, as long as postal service is available.
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Size: 12mm × 20mm x 60mm
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