This story in The New York Times reports that the quantity of spam e-mail has spiked in the last three months.

Critics say the deluge of junk e- mail threatens to undermine the utility of the Internet at precisely the time when anthrax fears and cost- cutting efforts have prompted more businesses to use it as a substitute for postal mail.

(My guess? The Arab street’s behind this. What else has it to do these days — now that stomping around and burning straw effigies of Dubya seems really, really silly, that is…?)

—–