Notes

1. Priest straps himself to 1,000 balloons, floats away and disappears.

2. I received a spam email this morning with the subject line 'free craps'. Well, Charley Blackburn (if that's your real name), thanks for the offer but I grow my own.

3. The Guardian ran a leader column this morning 'In praise of... cash'. Contained within was the interesting and counter-intuitive statistic from the British Retail Consortium that cash was used for 60% of transactions in 2007, as opposed to 54% in 2006. It seems cash is growing in popularity. The BRC suggests this is down to people being reluctant to spend money that don't have in their hands because of the credit squeeze, but I have an additional idea.

I remember growing up, when card popularity was increasing, that we were always being told that credit (and latterly, debit cards) would be a faster way to pay for everything. The truth is, however, that it takes about four times longer to pay for anything with a card. There are few things in life more dispiriting than standing behind someone in a queue who decides they want to pay by card. When I pay by card, I feel the eyes of those behind me boring into the back of my head with barely repressed rage. Also, with the proliferation of cards, it's becoming an increasing pain in the ass to remember all the PIN numbers. It's no wonder that people are choosing to take cash with them more often. Sometimes, technology just isn't the answer.