It seems to be related to some KDE app, at least here. Perhaps KMail or Akregator, because twice already I've just closed some apps and CPU usage went down.
I'll look closer at which app fixes it next time. -- gam_server consumes lots of cpu time https://launchpad.net/bugs/36581 -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs