The Teapot

Hi, my name is Steph and I’m a 22yr old theatre electrician (hence the gold shirt) based in the West End. I’m a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London with aspirations to be inducted in the Baker Street Irregulars, Cloud Appreciation Society Member #12946 and a member of Starfleet International.

I have an adopted Great White Shark through the Shark Trust called ‘Cut Tail’.

Besides the obvious facts that I’m a Trekkie and a Holmesian, I enjoy other forms of science fiction as well as history (interested in British social and economic history, Jack the Ripper and ‘home front’ during WW2) and photography (I own an Olympus OM10 SLR, a Canon PowerShot A80 and a Canon PowerShot A580).

Why ‘celestial teapot’?

Bertrand Russell used the concept of a ‘celestial teapot’ (usually called ‘Russell’s Teapot’) to refute the claim that the burden of proof is on the sceptic to disprove the claims of a believer -

“If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.”

I like the idea of a microscopic teapot orbiting around us, particularly as I’m hugely addicted to tea and agrees with Douglas Adams’s assertion that a proper cup of tea will restore normality.

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