The number of surveys about the cost and livability of various cities have increased significantly over the past decade, and many of them are as heatedly argued over as are the yearly rankings of colleges and universities across the United States. This week the Mercer Human Resource Consulting group released its list of the 144 most expensive urban areas around the world. Not surprisingly, Asian cities took five of the top ten places in the survey, which compared the cost of close to 200 items, such as housing transportation, entertainment, and food. The three most expensive cities this year were Tokyo, Moscow, and Osaka, followed by Hong Kong, Beijing, and Geneva, Switzerland. Several cities made large leaps up the list from their 2002 rank, including Dublin, which rose from 73 spots to 21 on the list, and Paris, which moved from 74 to 23 on the list. The cheapest cities in which to live were Bogota, Columbia; Harare, Zimbabwe; and Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. The first link leads to a new article about the recent rankings from the Chicago Tribune. The second link leads to a news story from the _Australian_ (Australia’s daily newspaper), and deals with the rising cost of living in urban areas around Australia. The third link leads to an interesting press release from the Mercer Consulting Group about the world’s most expensive places for business travelers, which (not surprisingly) finds New York City at the top of the list. The fourth link will take visitors to an interesting story from Buildings.com that names the world’s priciest retail locales, topped again by New York City (specifically the corner of 57th Street and 5th Avenue), followed by the Champs Elysees. The fifth link will be helpful to those persons looking to compare varying costs around the United States, as it leads to the Consumer Price Index home page, provided by the Bureau of Labor. The final link leads to the Best Places to Live index, where visitors can find statistics on their hometown and view a number of lists organized around themes such as Desert Living or Let it Snow, that may help those in search of a new place to hang their hat.