Have any of you noticed that President Bush is campaigning with adulterers and rascists?

Anyone?

The writer, a former "hacker," wrote code that ran through MySpace, searching for known sexual predators. Turns out, many actually use their real name. The work was done with a local police department in NY:

MySpace busts are rare in this unit. About half the work done by the eight detectives here is aimed at online predators, but the networking site poses challenges that open chat rooms -- a dying social scene among today's youth -- never did. "It's a dangerous place for kids," says Frank Giardina, a good-natured, 49-year-old detective with salt-and-pepper hair and a matching mustache. "It's also difficult for law enforcement."

That's because much of what happens on MySpace unfolds outside public view. The computer crime unit has erected bait profiles registered to fake underage teens, but so far the tactic has netted only one arrest. Proactively scouring MySpace pages is futile: The smarter sexual predators stick to private messages, and diligently prune their public comment boards of any posts from young friends that hint at what's happening behind the scenes.

Wired says the code will be made open source and posted. Fascinating article.

The struggle for Muslim cultural identity:

The city’s openness, limited corruption and stability have helped spur economic growth and development, with wide swaths under construction and more projects in the works. The boom has brought big-city problems like inflation, a rise in crime and divorce rates and snarled traffic.

But beyond that, it has taken a toll on local culture as many young Emiratis have begun looking abroad, abandoning many traditions and even marrying foreigners. With only about 250,000 citizens, out of a total 1.2 million residents, the demographics are daunting, said Abdulkhaliq Abdallah, a professor of political science at United Arab Emirates University.

“Usually minorities assimilate into the majority,” Mr. Abdallah said. “But we don’t want to assimilate into the majority. We want to preserve the localness, the Emiratiness of this city.”

Interesting discussion within the article, which was touched off by an article commenting on the growing disrespect for local culture exhibited by Westerners.