The ray of hope will break through if Morgan Stanley Capital International's popular international stock index is altered, perhaps in early December, to place more weight on the percentage of a firm's shares that are publicly traded.

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Of course from those stratospheric heights, the pace of further spending increases may seem slower, just like if Jack in the Beanstalk and the Jolly Green Giant both eat the same feast, the percentage weight gain for the Giant will be so much smaller than for Jack.

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Hitters were measured by six major offensive categories: batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, home runs, runs batted in and extra base hits (homers and extra base hits, since they're largely absorbed by slugging percentage, were given less weight).

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Sorger took a page from his days as a pilot and applied a weight and balance equation to the design, shifting a larger percentage of the load toward the rear wheel, which improved both handling and stability dramatically.

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Pitchers were primarily rated on winning percentage, earned run average (ERA) and innings, with limited weight given to strikeouts and (inversely) walks and hits allowed per nine innings.

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