Moore’s Paradox is a statement of the form “p and I do not believe that p”, which can be true but is always absurd for an agent to assert. Such a statement poses a problem in that an agent is generally able to assert a true statement, but asserting Moore’s Paradox implies a contradiction of beliefs. I present an interpretation of Moore’s Paradox that preserves its absurdity while recasting it a...

The mechanism of hidden inflation in Soviet industrial growth statistics between 1928 and 1950 is described. Hidden inflation arose when new products were substituted for old ones. Substitution biases in Soviet and Western growth estimates are compared; the extent of hidden inflation in the Soviet figures is estimated. The view that all Soviet growth series were exaggerated is qualified; the pr...

The friendship paradox is a sociological phenomenon stating that most people have fewer friends than their friends do. The generalized friendship paradox refers to the same observation for attributes other than degree, and it has been observed in Twitter and scientific collaboration networks. This paper takes an analytical approach to model this phenomenon. We consider a preferential attachment...

The conventional way of explaining Gibbs paradox as due to the distinguishability of particles has been challenged recently and a new fundamental definition for the entropy has been proposed that gives the same entropy for distinguishable particles as for indistinguishable particles. In this paper arguments are presented that strongly favor the conventional definition of entropy and its resolut...

Hamilton’s method is a natural and common method to distribute seats proportionally between states (or parties) in a parliament. In USA it has been abandoned due to some drawbacks, in particular the possibility of the Alabama paradox, but it is still in use in many other countries. In this paper we give, under certain assumptions, a closed formula for the asymptotic probability, as the number o...

Based on an actor-network study of the way in which medical work in a hospital has changed after the introduction of an electronic patient record system, the paper addresses the question of organisational consequences of ICT. It describes how the introduction of electronic patient records (EPR) has occasioned redistribution of work, of organisational attention, and of risks. By comparing these ...

This paper deals with an explanation of a paradox posed by Hamel in his 1949 book on Theoretical Mechanics. The explanation deals with the foundations of mechanics and points to new insights into analytical dynamics. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This paper is an exposition of the Banach-Tarski paradox. We will first simplify the theorem by duplicating almost every point in the ball, and then extend our proof to the whole ball.