Re: http://docs.python.org/lib/module-timeit.html
Where the documentation says "In a typical case, the lowest value gives
a lower bound for how fast your machine can run the given code snippet",
it should read instead,
"In a typical case, the lowest value gives an upper bound for how fast
your machine can run the given code snippet".

Clearly, if a machine can run a code snippet in x seconds with
background processes, then the fastest the machine can run the code
snippet (without background processes) should be <= x seconds. Therefore
x is an upper bound rather than a lower bound.