SMH story – who owns what in Kings Cross

As part of a recent string of stories about Kings Cross, the SMH recently published a story listing property owners, business owners and licensees of Kings Cross clubs and businesses.

It also published an interactive map giving the same information.

Enjoy the links.

Sydney Morning Herald comments on a DA by the Trademark Hotel / Piano Room in Kings Cross

The Sydney Morning Herald ran a story last Monday (19/01/09) Heiress’s playground offers more cheek on the strip about the recent development application by the Trademark Hotel and Piano Room in Kings Cross to obtain extended trading hours for a longer period of time than they might otherwise obtain.

The Herald writes:

Greg Magree, who owns the Piano Room and the adjoining Trademark Hotel on Bayswater Road, had been able to keep his venues open until 3am and 5am respectively for the past year as part of a one-year trial.

But instead of applying to the City of Sydney for the standard two-year trial extension, Mr Magree sought approval to keep his existing late night trading hours for a further five years.

“It’s cheeky,” said Dr Sacha Blumen, president of the 2011 Residents’ Association. “It goes against the development control plan, which says that at most they should only get two years. And there’s been huge numbers of community complaints on an ongoing basis about noise.”

The story is absolutely true. And it’s nice to be quoted in the SMH – that’s twice in two weeks.

Proposed 300 patron German wine restaurant in Kings Cross

The Sydney Morning Herald today published a story on a proposed 300 patron German wine restaurant in Kings Cross under the Elan building, featuring quotes from yours truly.

An excerpt:

A PROPOSAL for a German-themed restaurant above the Kings Cross tunnel that would privatise a public forecourt in front of the Elan apartment tower and move the controversial “poo on sticks” sculpture is a Trojan horse for a giant beer barn, residents charge.

The proposal, put forward by a German restaurant chain believed to be linked to a Sydney family smitten with Munich’s beer halls, would significantly expand the existing restaurant and enclose the forecourt with a cement and glass wall, plans lodged with City of Sydney Council show. 

Enjoy the story.

Taleb’s “Black Swan”

I’ve just finished reading Taleb’s Black Swan. It’s very easy and engaging as it’s written in a personal style and directed towards a general audience.

The ideas in it are quite interesting - for me, the most interesting idea was about the limits to knowledge. E.g. how can one use induction to go from the particular to the general in non-narrowly-defined circumstances (e.g. not in mathematics)? There is brief discussion about this in the context of patterns of numbers or dots on a page, with the old exercise of not assuming a linear trend is the method behind the observed data.

This reminds me of multiple choice “IQ” and general ability tests in which there are often questions specifying three or four geometric or numerical patterns and asking for the next shape / number in the pattern. Of course, there are usually non-unique answers to these questions they way they are usually presented, and this is a simple example of the difficulty of using induction even in relatively well-defined circumstances.

The idea of the black swan is interesting and appears to be consistent with reality. It is interesting to think about the use of this idea in the world of public policy. Perhaps it’s more personally interesting to think about it in the context of personal life.

On the $U_{q}(osp(1|2n))$ and $U_{-q}(so(2n+1))$ uncoloured quantum link invariants

I’ve resubmitted my paper on the $U_{q}(osp(1|2n))$ AND $U_{-q}(so(2n+1))$ uncoloured link invariants to the Journal of Knot Theory and its Ramifications. Its abstract is below (in latex).

Update: (3/1/09) the paper has been accepted for publication.

Update: (7/1/09) a preprint of the paper has been published on the website of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney.

On the $U_{q}(osp(1|2n))$ and $U_{-q}(so(2n+1))$ uncoloured quantum link invariants

\begin{abstract}
Let $L$ be a link and $\Phi^{A}_{L}(q)$ its link invariant associated with the vector representation of the quantum (super)algebra $U_{q}(A)$. Let $F_{L}(r,s)$ be the Kauffman link invariant for $L$ associated with the Birman–Wenzl–Murakami algebra $BWM_{f}(r,s)$ for complex parameters $r$ and $s$ and a sufficiently large rank $f$.

For an arbitrary link $L$, we show that $\Phi^{osp(1|2n)}_{L}(q) = F_{L}(-q^{2n},q)$ and $\Phi^{so({2n+1})}_{L}(-q) = F_{L}(q^{2n},-q)$ for each positive integer $n$ and all sufficiently large $f$, and that $\Phi^{osp(1|2n)}_{L}(q)$ and $\Phi^{so({2n+1})}_{L}(-q)$ are identical up to a substitution of variables.

For at least one class of links $F_{L}(-r,-s) = F_{L}(r,s)$ implying $\Phi^{osp(1|2n)}_{L}(q) = \Phi^{so({2n+1})}_{L}(-q)$ for these links.
\end{abstract}