There's no furnitures or softwares!

I've mentioned this before in my blog and see it time and time again (esp. by Chinese people) and it's getting more and more irritating. There is no plural for words such as furniture or software. There is also no plural for sleepwear, footwear.. heck probably any word that ends in ware or wear. I think the only exception may be housewares.

These words are known as 'uncountable'. There are some more listed here.

Richest cities in 2020

More stats from the stats-lover ;) Link

If you look carefully you'll see that Shanghai (16th) and Beijing (29th) have the highest percentage of growth(6.5/6.6%) which isn't surprising to anyone who knows anything about China! Mexico City being 7th though? Wow, that's quite a shocker to me.

Rank	City/Urban area	Country	Est GDP in 2020 in US$bn	Est annual growth 2005-2020
1	Tokyo	Japan	1602	2.0%
2	New York	USA	1561	2.2%
3	Los Angeles	USA	886	2.2%
4	London	UK	708	3.0%
5	Chicago	USA	645	2.3%
6	Paris	France	611	1.9%
7	Mexico City	Mexico	608	4.5%
8	Philadelphia	USA	440	2.3%
9	Osaka/Kobe	Japan	430	1.6%
10	Washington DC	USA	426	2.4%
11	Buenos Aires	Argentina	416	3.6%
12	Boston	USA	413	2.4%
13	Sao Paulo	Brazil	411	4.1%
14	Hong Kong	China	407	3.5%
15	Dallas/Fort Worth	USA	384	2.4%
16	Shanghai	China	360	6.5%
17	Seoul	South Korea	349	3.2%
18	Atlanta	USA	347	2.6%
19	San Francisco/Oakland	USA	346	2.4%
20	Houston	USA	339	2.5%
21	Miami	USA	331	2.4%
22	Toronto	Canada	327	3.0%
23	Moscow	Russia	325	4.0%
24	Mumbai	India	300	6.0%
25	Madrid	Spain	299	3.2%
26	Detroit	USA	287	2.3%
27	Istanbul	Turkey	287	5.2%
28	Seattle	USA	269	2.5%
29	Beijing	China	259	6.6%
30	Metro Manila	Philippines	257	5.9%
31	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	256	4.1%
32	Sydney	Australia	256	2.7%
33	Jakarta	Indonesia	253	6.5%
34	Delhi	India	229	6.2%
35	Phoenix	USA	228	2.5%
36	Guangzhou	China	227	6.9%
37	Minneapolis	USA	224	2.5%
38	Kolkata	India	224	5.9%
39	San Diego	USA	220	2.4%
40	Singapore	Singapore	218	3.6%
41	Cairo	Egypt	212	5.3%
42	Barcelona	Spain	201	2.4%
43	Melbourne	Australia	200	2.6%
44	Denver	USA	190	2.6%
45	Rome	Italy	187	2.9%
46	Bangkok	Thailand	180	4.8%
47	Montreal	Canada180	180	2.8%
48	Milan	Italy	174	2.8%
49	Tehran	Iran	172	4.5%
50	Riyadh	Saudi Arabia	167	5.0%
51	Pusan	South Korea	165	3.8%
52	Bogotá	Colombia	163	4.3%
53	Santiago	Chile	160	3.8%
54	Monterrey	Mexico	157	4.8%
55	Baltimore	USA	157	2.4%
56	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	153	3.5%
57	St Petersburg	Russia	151	3.9%
58	St Louis	USA	146	2.5%
59	Tampa/St Petersburg	USA	142	2.5%
60	Johannesburg	South Africa	131	3.4%
61	Lisbon	Portugal	130	3.3%
62	Cleveland	USA	129	2.4%
63	Belo Horizonte	Brazil	129	4.6%
64	Portland	USA	128	2.6%
65	Vienna	Austria	127	2.1%
66	Karachi	Pakistan	127	5.8%
67	Dhaka	Bangladesh	126	6.1%
68	Lima	Peru	123	4.2%
69	Vancouver	Canada	121	2.9%
70	Cape Town	South Africa	121	3.3%
71	Stockholm	Sweden	121	3.2%
72	Guadalajara	Mexico	119	4.6%
73	Pittsburgh	USA	115	2.4%
74	Tianjin	China	112	6.3%
75	Jiddah	Saudi Arabia	111	4.8%
76	Bangalore	India	110	6.2%
77	Dublin	Ireland	99	4.8%
78	Ho Chi Min City	Vietnam	98	6.5%
79	Birmingham	UK	96	2.0%
80	Wuhan	China	96	6.4%
81	Fukuoka	Japan	96	2.0%
82	Manchester	UK	96	2.2%
83	Hyderabad	India	92	6.1%
84	Chennai	India	91	6.0%
85	Athens	Greece	91	1.5%
86	Berlin	Germany	88	1.1%
87	Ankara	Turkey	87	5.0%
88	Chongqing	China	87	6.3%
89	Lyon	France	85	2.8%
90	Turin	Italy	84	2.5%
91	Porto Alegre	Brazil	82	4.3%
92	Brasilia	Brazil	82	5.1%
93	Warsaw	Poland	80	3.5%
94	Ahmadabad	India	78	6.2%
95	Hamburg	Germany	78	2.0%
96	Recife	Brazil	77	4.4%
97	Pune	India	76	6.3%
98	Lagos	Nigeria	76	6.2%
99	Salvador	Salvador	75	4.6%
100	Munich	Germany	73	2.6%

UBS Survey 2008 : World's most expensive cities

Link

Rank	Cities	Index (New York = 100)
1	London	120.2
2	Oslo	112.3
3	Dublin	105.2
4	Copenhagen	102.6
5	New York	100.0
6	Zurich	97.7
7	Geneva	96.0
8	Tokyo	94.4
9	Helsinki	92.8
10	Paris	92.8
11	Luxembourg	91.9
12	Stockholm	90.8
13	Vienna	88.3
14	Amsterdam	86.2
15	Munich	84.9
16	Frankfurt	82.4
17	Sydney	82.2
18	Chicago	81.8
19	Brussels	81.7
20	Milan	81.2
21	Los Angeles	80.8
22	Madrid	80.7
23	Rome	80.5
24	Toronto	80.4
25	Montreal	80.0
26	Barcelona	79.9
27	Nicosia	79.2
28	Lyon	78.5
29	Istanbul	76.6
30	Berlin	76.4
31	Seoul	76.0
32	Lisbon	74.6
33	Miami	73.1
34	Dubai	72.8
35	Hong Kong	72.3
36	Auckland	71.8
37	Moscow	71.2
38	Singapore	70.5
39	Athens	70.0
40	Caracas	68.6
41	Rio de Janeiro	66.5
42	Sao Paulo	64.9
43	Tel Aviv	64.6
44	Warsaw	63.5
45	Tallinn	63.0
46	Budapest	62.0
47	Ljubljana	60.2
48	Santiago de Chile	59.7
49	Taipei	56.4
50	Prague	55.9
51	Riga	54.8
52	Manama	54.8
53	Bucharest	53.7
54	Bratislava	53.5
55	Sofia	52.8
56	Mumbai	49.6
57	Bogota	49.4
58	Mexico City	49.1
59	Vilnius	48.3
60	Kiev	48.0
61	Bangkok	47.2
62	Nairobi	46.3
63	Jakarta	45.9
64	Johannesburg	45.5
65	Beijing	43.4
66	Manila	43.3
67	Shanghai	43.2
68	Delhi	41.4
69	Lima	39.3
70	Buenos Aires	34.4
71	Kuala Lumpur	31.0

Sick of this f***in' sh*t cr*p!

related post

I am sooooo over this dumb stupid immature juvenile crap that's going on. It really is a joke. It really is.

What does Ti-bet seeking independence have to do with the Olympics??? Yes they have China in common but so what?

OK so you have people all over the world (ok, in western countries, which might as well be the 'whole world' given their power and dominance) boycotting the Olympic Games due to China's hu-man rights issues and the thing with Ti-bet.. and OMG... Yes China is pretty bad when it comes with these issues but they are soooo hypocritical. Their countries and leaders are hardly perfect.

So you had the people in Paris and the Olympic torch relay and poor innocent torch bearers being bombarded by angry mobs, and now you have the other side. Poor innocent Westerners living in China being targeting by angry Chinese mobs and boycotting all French/foreign products! ARGH!

Juvenile! Childish! Pathetic! Racist! ignorant crap!

Article from Shanghaiist andf another article.

This makes me soooo angry. It really is a joke.

At the heart of it I just feel sad. Really really sad. The Olympic Games is supposed to bring together the people of the world and unite them in harmony for just 2 weeks every 2/4 years. I don't like watching sport on tv at all but I'll always look forward to watching the Olympics, especially the Opening Ceremony. I feel so happy and so proud that my background is composed of so many different countries and I can't even choose one country over another and in my heart I am cheering them ALL on, because in the end it doesn't matter who wins the most medals, it's that the athletes had their chance to show the world their skill, stamina, strength, endurance... and their coming together and the friendship.

I was very proud when Sydney won the Olympics and felt very fortunate to watch several events in my 'backyard'. And although I don't live in Beijing.. well just being in China is close enough to the Olympics 'action'.

I just don't see why those involved with the Olympics should be penalized and why China does not deserve the Olympics??? OK so they almost beat Sydney back in 1993 when the 2000 games winner was announced, but now that Sydney has had its turn they deserve a chance too. Surely the most populous nation on earth deserves at least ONE chance to host an Olympic Games... something that's been going for over 100 years? Surely? And all those people saying "I'm going to boycott the Olympics".. well good luck to you. Besides you couldn't go even if you wanted to because tickets (from what I read on the official site) are only available to China residents, and the accommodation price is 5x the normal rate.

I know this post isn't very coherant but when I hear of news reports and people's comments I don't know whether to laugh, cry, scream, or vomit. It really is disgusting the level of ignorance around...