The value statements are almost all nothing to do with Catholicism. Some are ambiguous platitudes, but where it's specific there's nothing every major religion, plus countless moral philosophers, haven't produced independently. And worst of all, anything that would make the list uniquely Catholic is conveniently omitted - there's nothing about contraception, abortion, treatment of women, or treatment of gay people. The statements are instead mostly shared human values that fall out of thinking and caring about the world around you, and it's massively dishonest to posit that widespread agreement means 'the public rather likes the Pope’s social teaching'. It's transparent cherry-picking, and Theos should know better.

The statements were taken from the Catholic Church's Caritas in Veritate, an open letter from the Pope to the world. Here's the full list of statements the poll asked people about:

Moral evaluation and scientific research must go hand in hand

Yes. Kinda. Depending on what you mean. But I think most scientists would broadly agree with this statement, and most scientists aren't Catholic.

An overemphasis on rights leads to a disregard for duties

I think this is too vague for people to give an informed opinion. I don't know what it means - what 'duties'? I can come up with specific interpretations where I agree, but I suspect the Church's version of duty is somewhat different from mine. The CiV has some worthy statements about rights and duties (para. 43), but it's also lacking specifics.

It is irresponsible to view sexuality merely as a source of pleasure

Yes, I agree with the raw words in your sentence, but we all know what you're getting at - stop being oblique and just say it. Para. 44 of the CiV goes into more detail, assuming its own ideas on birth control as inherently correct, and saying that 'viewing sexuality merely as a source of pleasure' means 'individuals are ultimately subjected to various forms of violence'. So it all gets a bit weird.

Update: Cristina Odone thinks this is obviously a statement of Catholic doctrine, and the high agreement percentages mean people agree with the Catholic approach. I doubt that. The poll almost certainly didn't identify the statement as a Catholic declaration - it would surely have defeated the point to have done so - and there's no reason people would jump to thinking about contraception without the Catholic link.

The natural environment is more than raw material to be manipulated at our pleasure

Yep. I think most people can agree with this, unless you're an oil executive.

Investment always has moral, as well as economic significance

Yep. People have been saying this for as long as investment has been around, haven't they?

The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly

This is a circular argument both here and in the CiV - 'correctly' seems to mean 'ethically' - but ditch the last five words and it stands. I refer you to the last 300 years of British economic history.

Technologically advanced societies can and must lower their domestic energy consumption

Yes. Scientists have been saying this for decades. This is a bit odd, actually - it's not like the Catholic Church figured this out first - they've looked at the scientific evidence over the past few decades and rightly concluded that something needs to be done. Which is good. But it's as much a Catholic value as 'don't smoke'.

We must prioritise the goal of access to steady employment for everyone

Badly phrased - prioritise, how? - but the Caritas in Veritate is clear that it means steady employment is a good thing. Do many economists disagree with that?

Poverty is often produced by a rejection of God's love

This is the only statement where the vast majority of people disagreed (agreement was in single figures). Probably because it's creepy, and transparently controlling. I suggest any Catholics who genuinely (in their heart of hearts) think this is true go read something about economics. Unless you're using some weird question-begging definition of 'poverty', which is entirely possible.

The consumer has a specific social responsibility

Vague, but again the obvious meaning is the one in the CiV. And, again, every religion and non-religious moral-philosopher regularly says the same thing. Not to mention lobby groups, humanitarian organisations, newspaper commentators, NGOs, pop stars etc..

One of the deepest forms of poverty a person can experience is isolation

In the CiV (para 53) this is intrinsically linked to poverty being a rejection of god's love, and it all gets a bit tricksy, though there's plenty to agree with. I tend to think isolation isn't nice, but not being able to afford food or water is a lot worse. Plus, some people just like being alone. So I wouldn't know how to respond to this in a poll.

Food and access to water are universal rights of all human beings

Who disagrees with this?

Agreeing with much of the above no more makes you Catholic than agreeing that cats are strange makes you catbinlady.

I'm sure these values do fall out of Catholic ideology, but the ideas that make said ideology unique are missing in action. Most humanists agree with much of the above, but you couldn't suddenly claim most of the public agree with humanist ideas (you'd need a completely different kind of question to tease apart humanists. Which, incidentally, has been done. (though it's a bit contentious)).

The statistic I'd be concerned about is the reaction to 'I don't approve of the Pope's visit to Britain': 24% of people agree. That's a bit sad. I don't like the Pope's views on many things, but he gets to come here, and we get to protest. It's actually a pretty good state of affairs, with the only major source of contention - in terms of the Pope's visit in particular, rather than his views - being the state-sponsored nature of the trip.

Both sides have actually been very civil. The only problem, as ever, is the shouty elements making a nuisance of themselves. The debate on Wednesday had some problems with loud, annoying secularists shouting the Catholic speakers down. This wasn't impressive. That said, I saw exactly the same from Catholics at Protest the Pope gigs earlier in the year, by which I don't mean some vacuous 'we're as bad as each other', just that I think both sides would agree the loud fringes don't help anybody, and simply allow the media to paint a picture of us all as a bunch of loonies. Which is my biggest worry about the whole enterprise.

This Theos survery doesn't help counter that narrative. If you're going to argue the stats, you have to make an honest effort.

The cameras weren't great. The lenses were plastic, the screens on the back were barely visible, the sensors were incapable of taking sharp shots indoors¹, and battery life was about 90 minutes. But they at least tried to expose correctly (unlike disposable film cameras, which just fire the flash and hope for the best) and could store 30 pictures. They'd do.

Once over there it was clear I'd only have time for this at the school we stayed at for a week, the Isaac Newton School. So I roped in Sam and Katie, the two Swansea students saying with me, and we figured out a plan. I'd been hoping we could teach a class, spending 20 minutes on the optics of lenses before introducing the cameras and sending the kids out to take photos. But this wasn't possible as the teachers get paid per lesson and we didn't want to deprive anybody, so we figured we'd hand out the cameras during a 'break' (timetables were pretty fluid), and collect them back a bit later.

And that's basically what we did, except I made a mistake when talking to the Headmaster. I told him the plan, and explained that the school could keep the cameras at the end. Which I thought would make him happy. And it did. Except, once we handed out the cameras he and the staff promptly went around collecting them back in, because they were school property and the kids might lose them.

Hmph. But the kids had still had the cameras for 20ish minutes, so we borrowed them from the Head and took them back to the hotel to see what we'd got:

I like them! It's cool to see the expressions they pull when posing for their friends - they're quite different from the portraits I took. I also particularly liked this:

I didn't see any games the whole time I was there - there's no way we'd have known about this otherwise. And then Sam spotted a sadly-anonymous work of utter genius:

The cameras also had a (very) rudimentary video mode which some of the kids activated accidentally, so the full set has a few little clips. I kept a fair few of these back, though, as it felt a little off to upload little moments people didn't know would be shared - but some are ok.

I'd certainly do things differently next time², and it's a shame there aren't more, but I'm pleased with how it turned out nonetheless. Thanks to Sam and Katie for helping! The set is here.

1. or outdoors sometimes. Not that I managed to blur any 7D pictures taken in African sunlight. Oh no.
2. if you ask me in person I might possibly have a few more details I can't really say in public

Much as I love Flickr, I have to admit it's easier to browse the shots on Facebook. FB's new album layout makes everything look pretty, and the refresh-less Next/Previous is very pleasant. Flickr has the edge in pretty much everything - quality, information, accessibility - but FB is hard to beat for quick browsing. The albums (of selected shots) are here if you've a login. If not: Mustard Seed School, Humanist Academy, Isaac Newton School, Elsewheres.

Everything's neater on Flickr, though, and there are far more images: the collected albums are here, with just the highlights here.

I'm pleased with how the photos turned out, and hopefully the Uganda Humanist Schools Trust will find them useful. After six weeks of editing it's easy to notice the mistakes, and the shots I didn't take, but that's just all the more incentive for next time. I was hoping to go back to Uganda before the end of the year, but I don't think that's going to happen - no money, for a start, and finding the time would be tough. But I'll make sure the schools get prints of all the shots.

The plan is to have an exhibition - with the focus on raising money for the schools - early next year. With a bit of luck I've now taken all the images for my final major project, too - I just need to sell it to my tutors.

I think this is the first time I've knowingly seen the ISS. It didn't last long, and faded during the exposure - it's actually moving upwards here.

FYI twisst.nl can alert you of upcoming ISS passes for your location, via twitter. It does seem to work well.

This kid is going to be awesome.

The Dark Tower series is based on the Robert Browning poem "Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came", and follows the eponymous Roland in his quest for the Dark Tower - the universal linchpin of life, light and time. The world has moved on - the sun no longer consistently rises in the east, the landscape is littered with the remnants of long forgotten civilisations, their incomprehensible atomic technologies slowly degrading into rusty death, and the last hope, the Dark Tower, is tottering, tottering under the forces of darkness. And into the desert steps Roland, the last gunslinger - a man lacking imagination, friends, and any kind of sense of humour, but stubborn as shit and battle-hardened after hundreds of years in pursuit of his one, simple goal: reaching the Tower, and climbing to the room at the top. The series defies standard categorisation, and the best description I've heard came from @backoffman, who called it a scifi fantasy western. There are more than a few touches of horror, too, and it all swirls into something quite different from anything I've read before. And I enjoyed it greatly.

I can't recommend it to everyone. Stephen King's writing style is to make up the story as he goes along - he says as such in the introductions - which means his plots often turn upon dreams, intuition and psychic powers, and so the Dark Tower series, like many of his books, are straight stories rather than mysteries for the reader to solve. Some people don't like that, and I can sympathise. That said, he only weaves tales in which dreams, intuition and psychic powers are allowable plot devices, so it kinda works itself out. I am one of those people who generally rolls his eyes when magic makes a book unpredictable, but I've read enough King to know awesomeness will follow, and I'm happy to set aside the occasional happy coincidence. It's worth it. The story is excellent, but here, as ever, his major strength is his characterisation.  He somehow manages to take flawed, not-always-likeable people and slowly, darkly, have them befriend me - and then one of them will die horribly and it's bloody awful. I hate him.

Stephen King calls the series as the overarching story of his career, to the extent that many of his non-Dark-Tower books actually link in in some way - some overtly, some just subtly, and some I undoubtedly didn't pick up on - so it's a feast of nostalgia for King fans. There's a moment towards...well, I won't say where...but I expect many people have reached it, realised what's about to be revealed, and said something along the lines of "Not that bastard again." With properly vitriolic emphasis on bastard. The series took three decades to write, and finishing was it King's first duty after recovering from a near fatal car accident in 1999 - he didn't want the series to be his Edwin Drood, he says, so he got the final three books written. Such was his relief at finishing that for a while he spoke of retiring, believing his biggest, most important tale was done. Happily he seems to have gotten over that.

I think the final three Dark Tower books are a tour de force, but reaching them obviously requires getting through the first. Which, unfortunately, I didn't find easy. It drops you in at the deep end, and you have to spend 240 pages in a baffling world with an obsessed cowboy who doesn't actually seem very nice. But if you force your way through - and thanks to @grimsb and @backoffman for keeping me going at this point - the second is far more readable, and everything's fine from then on. But that is a barrier, and I suspect it's why the series isn't as widely read as the rest of his catalogue. But but but: read The Gunslinger again at the end of the series and it's a completely different, much more enjoyable book - knowing the characters as you do, you see their actions in a completely different light. Quite an odd experience.

I deliberately haven't said much about the plot, as I think it's best to go in blind. I'd say don't even read the blurbs - they're always a bit spoilerful. If the above tempts you, try to get through the first even if you're not enjoying it, then see what you think of the second. I'm happy to lend them out.

• Protest the Pope debate on the topic of "The Papal Visit should not be a State Visit". AC Grayling and Peter Tatchell vs. Austen Ivereigh and Christopher Jamison.
  Wednesday 1st September. London. Conway Hall.
  
• Come along to the Department of Health and become a registered practitioner of Old Wives’ Traditional Medicine. Sense about Science are highlighting the Department of Health's proposed regulatory scheme for traditional medicine practitioners that doesn't check whether the practitioner has any medical training, nor whether the medicine works.
  Wednesday 8th September. London. Department of Health, Whitehall.
  
• Relief-o-matic comedy show, raising money for AIDS prevention and relief projects. Robin Ince, Ed Byrne, Natalie Haynes, Ben Goldacre, plus special guests.
  Monday 13th September. London. Bloomsbury Theatre.
  
• Nope Pope: The Party. This is going to be an interesting one. Live music, dancing, deity-free weddings from 'Pope Steve', and fancy dress prizes.
  Friday 17th September. London. Conway Hall.
  
• The big Protest the Pope march / rally. Starts Hyde Park at 1pm, then marches through Picadilly and Trafalgar Square to Downing Street.
  Saturday 18th September. London. Hyde Park.
  
• BHA Liberal Democrat Conference Fringe Event. Discussion on 'What role, if any, does faith have in the 'Big Society'?'.
  Sunday 19th September. Liverpool. Liverpool Hilton.
  
• BHA Labour Party Conference 'No-prayer' breakfast. Tea. Coffee. Secular pastries.
  Tuesday 28th September. Manchester. Manchester Central.
  
• BHA Conservative Party Conference Event. A panel discussion on faith, multiculturalism and the 'Big Society', with Q&A.
  Tuesday 5th October. Birmingham. Hyatt Regency.
  
• BHA Holyoake Lecture. Professor John Harris speaks on 'Taking the "human" out of Humanism'.
  Thursday 21st October. Manchester. St Peter's House, Precinct Centre.

I hadn't been camping for years, which is no kind of excuse for forgetting my sleeping bag. The one damn thing I had to remember for our tent, and it didn't even cross my mind until late evening, when I was able to sheepishly borrow one. I began to doubt my competence at this point, a concern not helped by then only getting an hour's sleep on the first night. I'm fairly practised at not sleeping, and knew I'd be fine for a day, if not at my sharpest. Which was slightly annoying, as there was lots to do.

Round-table discussions on atheism, humanism and skepticism (I missed these due to buying food, so will skilfully and imperceptibly gloss over them) were followed by rounders, which our team won by approx. a billion to six, because we a) rocked b) changed the rules halfway through. Then came my skeptical quiz, which went over pretty well despite being a bit too formal. It was only 90mins, but felt long - in hindsight I should have made it much more relaxed, and probably had it in the bar. Still, it's got to be one of the few times in history Immanuel Kant has been mentioned in the same context as a giant penis painted on a roof, so that's something for the CV. People seemed to enjoy it, happily - I'll put it online soon.

Our guest speakers were Skepchick founder Rebecca Watson and comedian Iszi Lawrence, and I was asked to introduce Rebecca. I'm generally comfortable speaking in front of people, and had already run the aforementioned quiz, but Ms Watson is a skeptical hero of mine and I got weirdly nervous - I was actually shaking a little and had to read my intro (I usually memorise these things). Anyway, she and Iszi Lawrence were hilarious and easily had the room of 20 people enthralled - at one point during their joint Q&A they and we completely lost it over something to do with whale shit. You had to be there. I didn't even think to take a photo of said moment, which is a rare state for me.

Unlike the wet and cold Friday night, Saturday was clear for Perseid-gazing, and a few people stayed up until 3ish, apparently getting quite a decent display. I skipped this in favour of a blessedly solid night's sleep. Next morning we headed out to climb and picnic at Malham Cove, one of those places where you wish you knew a bit more about geology - the cracked limestone 'pavement' at the top is pretty bizarre - before realising you don't have to as there are signs which explain it all. We left just as the approaching storm began to make itself known, and on the way back drove past the Morecock Inn, then later the Ye Olde Naked Man Cafe, situated upsettingly close to the Singing Kettle Restaurant. We didn't laugh at any of these, though, because we are adults.

I had a good time, and feedback has been positive. Everybody got on, and the whole thing was nicely relaxed. Overall, really pleasant - we're planning to do it again next year.

The obvious replacement is the iPhone4. It's undeniably a lovely thing, but I'm not terribly inclined towards a phone which might, in 2 years, degrade to the point of uselessness because Apple don't care / want me to upgrade. That said, the iPhone4 camera is gorgeous - and this is no small feature for me. And the phone is (right now) stupid fast. And the screen is great. And I'm already invested in the app store. And I actually quite like the iTunes integration, despite the myriad flaws. But, there's Android.

I used an Android phone recently and it was lovely - all the cool stuff I'm missing out on suddenly seemed very important. Google satnav, proper-not-crippled-by-Apple-for-no-apparent-reason Google Latitude; Swype keyboard inputs; being able to customise most of the phone. But it's much buggier than iOS, by all accounts, and the current cameras (and hardware generally) are a generation behind the iPhone. Sure I can wait for the next awesomephone that's always just around the corner, but you can always do that.

I would have happily moved to an iPhone4 had Apple not treated their 3G customers so shoddily. Hmph. Will pop into a phone store and have a play with everything on offer, or maybe just get an iPad and a massive retro handset.

1. this seems a little good to be true, and I'm concerned someone somewhere poor is getting ripped off - anyone know?

Quite excited as I'm off to Questival this morning - a camping trip for skeptics / atheists / humanists / freethinkers / rationalists / anybody who fancies it. I'm on the organising committee, and it's been good fun getting everything ready - even if the last couple of days have been a bit manic. Iszi Lawrence and Rebecca Watson are coming along to provide skeptical awesomeness, and there are lots of activities planned, including games, Perseid viewing, attempting to cook on the BBQ, plenty of socialising, and the Invisible Unicorn Challenge. Weather looks erm, tricksy. Right, off to pick up provisions.