Should there be a lockout, even if everything else is somehow held constant, by how much and in which direction is the number likely to change?
One Direction's number one follows their successful debut in the singles chart with What Makes You Beautiful last month, which went to number 28 in the Hot 100.
But no matter the direction, this number floored me.
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So my prediction is not a number but a direction and the direction is up.
Welsh government policy needs an "overarching strategic direction" because of the number of challenges facing the media, it says.
Bastille's new entry Pompeii was at number two, while last week's number one, One Direction's cover of Blondie's One Way Or Another, fell to three.
We all know that there are many reasons to be pessimistic about the direction of housing prices, the number 1 reason being the lack of credit.
Pulling in one direction is America, on which a number of them depend for their economic survival and political stability.
"We are certainly moving in the right direction and this is one of a number of very encouraging signals that we have seen, " said Alan Clarke, UK economist at BNP Paribas.
"Weak economic data in a number of regions increased uncertainty regarding the direction of the global economy, " said Tom Linebarger, chairman and chief executive officer.
While charters may not be the right fit for most business travelers, they work for some because the price can be competitive when the right number of people are heading in the same direction.
There are a number of reforms that could move us in this direction, including allowing people to buy health insurance policies offered in states other than their own.
Very soon, General Musharraf may dismiss that by claiming support from a substantial number of Pakistanis who may cast their votes in his direction.
Ten tracks are up for best single, including Example's Changed The Way You Kissed Me, One Direction's What Makes You Beautiful and The Military Wives' number one, Wherever You Are.
Other data point in a similar direction: rich economies spend more than ever on research, but the number of new patents has plateaued.
There are a number of different details, but everything heads in the same direction and there is nothing, apparently, to derail this locomotive.
If 2008 resembles any recent political year, it's 1992, when roughly the same number of Americans thought the country was headed in the wrong direction --mainly because of the economic recession that year.
Though the number was higher than expected, the movements were in the right direction.
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He said "a number" of backbench MPs who back the government's general direction were "very concerned".
But in recent months a number of international airlines have started taking baby steps in the other direction, using improvements in aircraft construction to install plusher seats and cosier interiors in some of their newer planes.
Those being affected by spam and the number of spammer accounts escaping detection are "not tracking in an upward direction, " says Del Harvey, Twitter's head of trust and safety.
Now that the balance of power has shifted in Congress, politicians from both parties are vowing to work together to get things done, and with moderate to conservative Democrats picking up a number of seats in the House and many Republicans fed up with the direction of their party, there is at least a chance of bipartisan cooperation.
So this looks like --I wouldn't say a major new direction, but it is something that is a major priority for you over the next number of years, is -- am I capturing it right?
Exactly half of the voters polled, 50% say they are optimistic about the next four years ago and the number of American voters who say that the US is headed in the right direction is up to 38%, with 47% saying things are off on the wrong track.
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These technologies still face a number of significant challenges before they will be ready for prime time, but the direction seems clear.
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While nobody but the fast-money crowd enjoys a range-bound market, the fact that there is still a fair amount of uncertainty on any number of topics appears to be keeping the indices from straying too far in either direction at the present time.
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Under the direction of Chief Executive Ricardo Jacob, Jorge Jacob's nephew, the company reduced the number of suppliers from 500 to 70 and replaced the sales staff with a younger, high school-educated group who aren't reluctant to use computers, as many of the older sales force had been.
Reducing the number of servers is always a help, and many companies have made great strides in this direction by using virtualization technology for server consolidation.
Already the number of international stores and sales exceeds both measures for the U.S. Under the direction of foreign operations chief James Cantalupo, 55, 95% of all new McDonald's stores will be overseas, at least for the next five years.
Best Buy took a step in the right direction when it hired former Starbucks executive Stephen Gillett as a president and put him in charge of an increasing number of areas.
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