Spam still fills our electronic inboxes, but it doesn’t bother us as much. Newcomers to the Internet are bothered less than veteran users.
We’ve learned how to filter spam, and we’re not reading it.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project today released the results of its latest study into the unsolicited mail that sometimes clogs our computers.
Among the findings:

• 37 percent of Internet users said the volume spam in personal e-mail accounts has increased, up from 24 percent three years ago. For those with e-mail accounts at work, 29 percent say the volume has increased, versus 18 percent three years ago.
• In June 2003, 25 percent of users said spam was a big problem. Now, only 18 percent say that.
• Those who are not bothered “at all” has risen from 16 percent to 28 percent.
• 52 percent of e-mail users report having lately received pornographic spam, down from 71 percent three years ago.
• Internet users under age 50 are more likely than their elders to say that spam is annoying. Two thirds of college graduates are annoyed, compared with 45 percent of those with less education.
• 16 percent of Internet users with less then six years online say spam ins a big problem; 41 percent say it’s not a problem at all. For those who have been online more than six years, 19 percent say it’s a big problem and only 21 percent aren’t bothered.
• 68 percent of those who use e-mail say they almost never unintentionally open a message without realizing it was spam.
• 71 percent use filters offered by employers or e-mail providers, and 44 percent have taken steps to make it more difficult for others to fund their e-mail addresses.
• 51 percent say they check their spam folders “at least once in a while” and 46 percent say the almost never or never check the folder.
• 36 percent of users say they have received “phishing” requests for financial information.

(The report was embargoed for electronic release today and for use in newspapers on Thursday. For a copy of the full report, visit www.pewinternet.org.)

LAS VEGAS – The doors will open next March on a 10-screen digital movie theater at Gig Harbor's Uptown Center. The man behind the movies, Galaxy Theaters Chairman Frank Rimkus, says the stars have aligned now to make downtown Tacoma viable for a multiscreen theater.

As part of the right development project, Rimkus said he would consider adding Galaxy to the mix. He spent part of this week here at the International Council of Shopping Centers annual conference scouting location opportunities for his relatively small chain of 10 locations in Washington, Nevada, California and Texas. Galaxy owns the Galaxy 6 in Tacoma on South 23rd Street near Allenmore Golf Course. Rimkus has found a formula to that location work after two other theater chains tried and bombed.

While here in Vegas, I went to Galaxy's 1-year-old multiplex at the Cannery Hotel & Casino. If I had taken these photographs a few minutes earlier, I would have caught CEO Rimkus pushing a dust broom in the crowded lobby where a flood of families were en route to see "Shrek 3."

"We're like a big family," Rimkus said. "Everyone pitches in."

True enough. Theater Manager A.J. Witherspoon had the wipes and glass cleaner out buffing the entry doors.

In this puffed up city where glitz rules, you have to do something special to impress the locals. Witherspoon and crew must have the right formula. In the Las Vegas Review-Journal 2007 Best of Vegas listing, the paper picked this theater as the best of the bunch.

Maybe because Galaxy puts REAL butter on its popcorn.

"I'm very proud of that award," Rimkus said, "because it reflects on the quality of the staff we have."

Gig Harbor will get the benefit of it when Witherspoon transfers there to open the new theater next year.

Michael Spitzauer, CEO of Green Power, popped up in Atlanta earlier this month at the Waste Expo.

According to e-mails I received from people who met Spitzauer there, he may be looking for more investors for this trash-to-diesel business.

Spitzauer had repeatedly said he had the $82 million he needs to build the Fife plant – which he has yet to break ground on.

I wonder why he's in Atlanta...

To refresh your memory, Spitzauer is the person who proposed a multi-million garbage-to-diesel plant to be built on property inside the Puyallup Tribe of Indians reservation.

He was also convicted of fraud in Austria. He spent time in prison there.

I reported a story last winter about the many questions surrounding Green Power and the man who heads it including not paying employees, being investigated by the state's Department of Financial Institutions, disputes with the inventor over rights to the technology, etc.

About a month ago the Environmental Protection Agency fined Green Power for violating environmental regulations.

Spitzauer remains involved in numerous court cases as his previous creditors from former business ventures try to catch up to him, according to court documents.

His proposed plant here was supposed to open last fall. He has yet to start construction and most likely will never get the permits to do so, according to officials with the Puyallup Tribe.

Now he's in Atlanta pitching a new version of the waste-to-diesel technology, according sources who saw him there. And people are e-mailing me from Georgia wondering if they should invest.

Spitzauer asked me once if "Big Oil" was feeding me tips about him. For the record I've had no contact with "Big Oil."

But I have had lots of contact with "Big Court Documents" and people who've done business with Spitzauer in the past.

Sometimes doing business is about more than revenue, profit and earnings. So says Forbes in a recent story that runs down the highlights of a study ranking 600 companies on categories such as innovation, citizenship and leadership.

Microsoft hit the top for innovation. But it was IKEA, the giant, ready-to-assemble land of colorful, modernesque furniture, that pulled in a top five ranking in five of the seven categories.

The study shows that IKEA is No. 1 in governance and leadership, which spokeswoman Mona Liss explained stems from the company's equality in the workplace in lieu of a true hierarchy or caste, according to Forbes.

"We really don't have titles at IKEA," she said.

For the uber rich, not even a 747 is out of reach as a conspicuous symbol of their wealth.

Both Boeing and Airbus are increasingly relying on the shieks, moguls and corporate barons of the world to supplement the orders they get from airlines to fill their airliner production lines.

And with parts of the world awash in cash (now you know where the profits from that $50 fill-up are going) business is better than ever.

Just today Boeing announced it had sold yet another 737-sized corporate jet to a Ocean Sky, a London-based corporate aircraft charter firm. That follows the company's announcement earlier this week that it has sold six Boeing Business Jets to undisclosed buyers and two 787 Dreamliner jets to individual customers including Hong Kong real estate tycoon Joseph Lau. List price for a 787? $153 million with a fancy interior extra.

Airbus countered that its Airbus Corporate jet family has won 14 firm orders since the year's start. In addition, Airbus sold three of its A340 four-engine jets to corporate customers. In passenger configurations, the A340 seats up to 350 passengers.

Boeing also revealed a mockup interior for the latest version of the double-deck 747, the 747-8 Intercontinental. Those interiors featured a two-story dining room as part of the nearly 5,000 square feet of interior space on the new jet. An undisclosed individual bought the first passenger version of the new jet.

J.D. Power and Associates' annual North American Airport Satisfaction Study is out again, and the results are not encouraging for Sea-Tac Airport.

The study rates Sea-Tac 16th of 25 mid-sized U.S. airports in overall passenger satisfaction. The survey gave Sea-Tac a numeric rating of 680 out of 1,000 possible points. The winner in the medium-sized category, Kansas City International Airport, won 721 points. At the bottom in that category was Calgary with 656 points. The average for that segment was 688 points.

Sea-Tac was rated lowest by the travelers in its terminal facilities. The travelers surveyed gave Sea-Tac an average of two stars out of five stars for those facilities.

That below-average terminal facilities rating comes, somewhat ironically, after Sea-Tac spent more than $1 billion in rebuilding its A concourse, extending the ticketing lobby to a new arrival hall on the airport's south end and creating a showpiece central marketplace surrounded by restaurants and shops and with a vast window wall overlooking the runways. The airport has remodeled and upgraded most of its restrooms, replaced its underground shuttle trains and upgraded its security checkpoints.

In all other categories evaluated by travelers, accessibility, check-in, security check, food & beverage, retail services, baggage claim and immigration, customs control, Sea-Tac won "about average" ratings.

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