BERKELEY, California, 11 February 2011 — On Tuesday, February 15th, the Berkeley City Council will vote on a resolution to call “for the immediate end to the cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of PFC Bradley Manning during his military confinement.” If passed, copies of the resolution will be sent to the Marine brig commander at Quantico, Virginia, where Bradley Manning is being held in maximum security solitary confinement, to the Quantico Base Commander, to Secretary of the Army John McHugh, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and President Barack Obama...

The resolution was written by Berkeley Peace and Justice Commissioner Bob Meola and passed by the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission on January 10th. In December, the Berkeley City Council tabled a resolution that called for freeing Manning and proclaiming him to be a hero if he did what he is accused of doing — releasing the “Collateral Murder” video and other documents to WikiLeaks. That resolution is still on the table.

Commissioner Meola said: “This is another opportunity for Berkeley to set an example by doing the right thing — standing up for the rights of Bradley Manning to be treated in a just and humane way... For now, Berkeley needs to voice its outrage at the mistreatment Bradley Manning continues to suffer. Berkeley can be a guide for other cities to follow with similar resolutions to end the un-American treatment of this soldier by the U.S. government.”

The Miami-Dade Police Department recently finalized a deal to buy a drone, which is an unmanned plane equipped with cameras. Drones have been used for years in Iraq and Afghanistan in the war against terror.

Many residents are concerned that the new technology will violate their privacy.

Residents... questioned whether or not Miami-Dade Police can afford to purchase the drone, especially since the department has recently made a lot of budget cuts. "Nothing happens quickly in the purchasing process, and that's something that really was in place, the funds for that, a couple of years ago," [the Police Director] said...

The purchase of the drone may have been made possible through a federal grant; however, this has not been confirmed.

Honeywell has applied to the FAA for clearance to fly the drone in urban areas. This has never been allowed before, but if it does happen, the Miami-Dade Police Department will be the first police agency in the US to use the technology.

In 2035, most of humanity will live in favelas. This will not be entirely wonderful, as many people will live in very poor housing, but it will have its good side. It will mean that cities will consist of series of small units organised, at best, by the people who know what is best for themselves and, at worst, by local crime bosses.

Cities will be too big and complex for any single power to understand and manage them. They already are, in fact. The word "city" will lose some of its meaning: it will make less and less sense to describe agglomerations of tens of millions of people as if they were one place, with one identity. If current dreams of urban agriculture come true, the distinction between town and country will blur. Attempts at control won't be abandoned, however, meaning that strange bubbles of luxury will appear, like shopping malls and office parks. To be optimistic, the human genius for inventing social structures will mean that new forms of settlement we can't quite imagine will begin to emerge.

All this assumes that environmental catastrophe doesn't drive us into caves. Nor does it describe what will happen in Britain, with a roughly stable population and a planning policy dedicated to preserving the status quo as much as possible. Britain in 25 years' time may look much as it does now, which is not hugely different from 25 years ago. , Observer architecture correspondent

An impressive and beautiful video for The Avett Brothers' "Head Full of Doubt / Road Full of Promise". Made from a painting gradually altered 2600 times, it shows the evolution and decay of an urban space.