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Fidel's Phenomenal Economic Fiascoes: the Top Ten
Posted on September 17, 2010 by Arch Ritter
Fidel Castro recently clarified an allegedly erroneous quotation and stated something to the effect that "Yes the Cuban Model does indeed work". It would have been difficult for Fidel to do a "Mea Culpa" and agree that half a century of his own management of the Cuban economy had been erroneous and counter-productive.
However, as the grand economic "strategizer" as well as the micro-manager of many issues that captured his attention President Fidel Castro was responsible for a long list of economic blunders. Here is my listing of Fidel's most serious fiascoes.
Next week I will try and produce a listing of Cuba's Greatest Achievements under President Castro. Unfortunately I find this more difficult than to identify the failures.
Top Ten Economic Fiascoes
Fiasco # 10 The Instant Industrialization Strategy, 1961-1963:
Fiasco #9 The 10 Million Ton Sugar Harvest Strategy, 1964-1970
Fiasco #8 The "New Man"
Fiasco #7 The "Budgetary System of Finance"
Fiasco #6 The "Revolutionary Offensive" and the Nationalization of Almost Everything
Fiasco #5 Revolucion Energetica
Fiasco #4 Shutting Down Half the Sugar Sector
Fiasvco #3 A Half Century of Monetary Controls and Non-Convertibility
Fiasco #2 Suppression of Workers' Rights
Fiasco #1 Abolition of Freedom of Expression
Cuba's first development strategy, installed by the Castro Government in 1961, called for "Instant Industrialization", the rapid installation of a wide range of import-substituting industries, such as metallurgy, heavy engineering and machinery, chemical products, transport equipment and even automobile assembly.
The program proved unviable as it was import-intensive, requiring imported machinery and equipment, raw materials, intermediate goods, managerial personnel, and repair and maintenance equipment. Because the sugar sector was ignored, the harvest fell from 6.7 million tons in 1961 to 3.8 in 1963 generating a balance of payments crisis. The end result was that Cuba became more dependent than ever on sugar exports, on imported inputs of many kinds and on a new hegemonic partner, the Soviet Union.
The strategy was aborted in 1964.
Fiasco #9 The 10 Million Ton Sugar Harvest Strategy
The failure of the "Instant Industrialization" strategy led to an emphasis on sugar production for export with a guaranteed Socialist Bloc market for 5 million tons per year at a price well above the world price – from 1965 to 1970. The over-riding preoccupation became the 10 million ton goal, which according to President Castro was necessary for "defending the honor, the prestige, the safety and self-confidence of the country" (February 9, 1970.)
Fidel seemed happiest when conducting a campaign military style as he did during the effort to produce 10 million tons of sugar.
If it had been implemented in a measured way, a strategy to increase export earnings from sugar would have been reasonable. However, as 1970 approached, the implementation of the 10 million ton target became increasingly forced. Other sectors of the economy were sacrificed as labor, transport capacity, industrial inputs, energy, raw materials and national attention all focused on sugar.
This strategy was aborted in 1970.
In order to mobilize human energies for the 10 million ton harvest a radical "Guevaraist" approach was adopted involving the construction of the so- called "New Man." The idea behind this was a vision of the Cuban Nation as a guerrilla column marching behind Fidel – somewhat like his marches down the Malecon in 2000-2006 – single-mindedly pursuing a common objective, willingly sacrificing individual interests for the common good and with the esprit de corps, discipline and dedication of an idealized guerrilla band. To promote this revolutionary altruism, the government used public exhortation and political education, "moral incentives" instead of material incentives and proselytizing and enforcement by the Party and other "mass organs" of society.
By 1970, it was apparent that people could not be expected to sacrifice their own and their family's material well-being and survival for some objective decreed and enforced by the Party. The approach was dropped in 1970.
In a simultaneous experiment, a so-called "budgetary system of finance" was installed under which enterprises were to operate without financial autonomy and without accounting, neither receiving the revenues from sales of their output nor paying for their inputs with such revenues – somewhat like University Departments.
Without a rational structure of prices, and without knowledge of their true costs or the value of their output, neither enterprises nor the planning authorities could have an idea of the genuine efficiencies of enterprises, of sectors of the economy, or of resource-use anywhere. The result of this was disastrous inefficiency. In President Castro's words:
"..What is this bottomless pit that swallows up this country's human resources, the country's wealth, the material goods that we need so badly? It's nothing but inefficiency, non-productivity and low productivity." (Castro, December 7, 1970)
This system was also terminated in 1970.
In the "Revolutionary Offensive" of 1968, Fidel Castro's government expropriated most of the remaining small enterprise sector on the grounds that it was capitalistic, exploitative, and deformed people's characters, making them individualistic instead of altruistic "New Men". The result was true living standards were impaired, product quality, quantity and diversity deteriorated, enterprises were pushed into the underground economy, theft from state sector and illegalities become the norm and citizen's entrepreneurship was suppressed. This policy was changed in 1993, then contained by tight regulation, licensing and taxation after 1985,.
Again in September 2010, the government of Raul Castro appears ready to expand the small enterprise sector in hopes that it will absorb most of the 500,000 workers to be laid off from the state sector.
President Castro's "Revolucion Energetica" included some valuable elements such as conservation measures, re-investment in the power grid and the installation of back-up generators for important facilities such as health centres. A questionable feature of the plan is the replacement of large-scale thermal-electric plants with numerous small generators dispersed around the island. But the use of the small-scale generators likely constitutes a major error for the following reasons:
The economies of large scale electricity generation are lost;
Synchronizing the supply of electricity generated from numerous locations to meet the minute-by-minute changes in electricity demand is complicated and costly;
Problems and costs of maintaining the numerous dispersed generators are high;
Logistical control and management costs escalate as the national grid is replaced with regional systems.
Expensive diesel fuel is used rather than lower cost heavy oil:
Diesel fuel has to be transported by truck to the generators around the island;
Investments for the storage of diesel fuel in numerous supply depots are necessary;
Problems of pilferage of diesel fuel may be significant, and costs of security and protection may be high.
No other country in the world has adopted this method of generating electricity, suggesting that it does not make sense economically.
The energy master-plan also ignores a possible role of the sugar sector in producing ethanol and contributing to energy supplies. The experience of Brazil indicates that at higher petroleum prices, ethanol from sugar cane becomes economically viable. The shut-down of some 70 out of Cuba's 156 sugar mills in 2003, the moth-balling of another 40 and the contraction of the whole sugar agro-industrial service cluster is also a major loss for electricity generation.
Fiasco #4 Shutting Down Half of the Sugar Sector
In 2002, Castro decided that there was no future in sugar production, a decision prompted by low sugar prices at the time and undoubtedly the continuing difficulties in the sector. He decreed the shut-down of 71 of 156 sugar mills, taking some 33% of areas under sugar cane out of production and displacing about 100,000 workers. It was hoped that land-use would shift to non-sugar crops, that remaining mills would become more productive, and that displaced labour would be reabsorbed elsewhere.
In any case, sugar production has continued to decline which is unfortunate given high prices in recent years. There has not been a shift into ethanol production. The physical plant has continued to deteriorate. The cluster of activities surrounding sugar must be near collapse. The sugar communities are left without an economic base and some face the prospect of becoming ghost towns.
Fiasco #3 A Half Century of Monetary Controls and Non-Convertibility
Responsibility for Fiasco #3 is shared in part with Che Guevara, who as President of the Banco Nacianal de Cuba, presided over imposition of monetary controls and implementation of the policies that made Cuba's peso non-convertible for half a century.
Cuba's monetary system has been and is a serious obstacle to the freedom of Cuban citizens. Citizens' incomes have had purchasing power outside the country only when permitted to be exchanged for a foreign convertible currency and then only at a discount for some decades. As is well known, the official exchange rate for Cuban citizens has been in the area of 22 pesos (Moneda Nacional) to US $1.00, so that the purchasing power of the average monthly salary – 415 pesos in 2008 (Oficina Nacional de Estadisticas, 2009, Table 7.4) is about US$20.00.
Thanks to the regime implanted by President Castro, Cuban workers do not have the right to undertake independent collective bargaining or to strike. Unions are not independent organizations representing worker interests but are official government unions. Independent unions and any attempts to establish them are illegal.
Cuba has signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is a member of the International Labor Organization. The basic United Nations Declarations support freedom of association for labor. The International Labor Organization's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work includes, as the first fundamental right of labor, "freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining"
The central function of independent labor unions is to provide countervailing power to oligopolistic or monopolistic employers in wage determination and in the setting of the terms and conditions of work. Unions have been successful in western countries in raising wages, improving the equity of income distribution and improving work conditions.
In the Cuban case, workers have confronted a monopolistic employer – the state – that also controls their unions which are in effect "company unions." By controlling the unions and containing their wage demands, wages have been held down. The absence of independent unions has permitted the government to implement counterproductive economic policies year after year and has muted the urgency of undertaking economic reforms.
An important requirement for the sustained effectiveness of an economic system is the ability to freely, openly and continuously analyze and criticize its functioning. Open analysis and criticism in a context of free generation and diffusion of information provide a necessary spur for self-correction, exposing illegalities, flawed policies and errors. Free analysis and criticism is vital in order to bring illicit actions to light, to correct errors on the part of all institutions and enterprises as well as policy makers and to help generate improved policy design and implementation. This in turn requires freedom of expression and freedom of association, embedded in an independent press, publications systems and media, independent universities and research institutes, and freely-functioning opposition political parties.
Unfortunately this has been lacking, thanks to the Castro regime. The media and the politicians have largely performed a cheerleader role, unless issues have been opened up for discussion by the President and the Party.
The near-absence of checks and balances on the policy-making machinery of the state also contributes to obscuring over-riding real priorities and to prolonging and amplifying error. The National Assembly is dominated by the Communist Party, meets for very short periods of time – four to six days a year – and has a large work load, so that it is unable to serve as a mechanism for undertaking serious analysis and debate of economic or other matters. The cost for Cuba of this situation over the years has been enormous. It is unfortunate that Cuba lacks the concept and reality of a "Loyal Opposition" within –the electoral system and in civil society. These are vital for economic efficiency, not to mention, of course, for authentic participatory democracy.
NOTE: For additional articles on various aspects of Fidel Castro's presidency, see:
Fidel Castro: The Cowardice of Autocracy
Cuba's Achievements under the Presidency of Fidel Castro: The Top Ten
Fidel's No-Good Very Bad Day
The "FIDEL" Models Never Worked; Soviet and Venezuelan Subsidization Did
This entry was posted in Blog, Featured and tagged Agriculture, Che Guevara, Economic Growth, Fidel Castro, Foreign Exchange Earninigs, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights, Infrastructure, Labor Rights, Monetary System, Self-Employment, Small Enterprise, Sugar Sector. Bookmark the permalink.
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Q: Automatic dialog height I've subclassed YUI dialog (aka Overlay) such that it contains a title, an optional tool bar, a body and an optional footer. The dialog can also be re-sized by the user.
Here is a fiddle that demonstrates this but the guts of it is as follows:

The rules I'm after are:

*

*outer minimum height is same as hd.height

*hd height is fixed

*tb, bd and ft are of variable height

*tb and ft should wrap

*tb and ft should be fully visible if possible at the expense of bd

*if there isn't enough space to show tb and ft fully, assign the remaining space evenly between the two and hide bd

*if bd is larger than the div that contains it, x/y overflow should be scroll

I've done this programmatically but there are some issues in IE 7 and 8 (all is a bit more complex than described here with padding, margins and borders further complicating matters) and only ever got this working cleanly in the latest versions of Chrome, FF and IE.
But somehow I feel like I'm missing something: browsers have powerful layout engines, so I probably just don't know enough about CSS and HTML to write my code such that the layout engine can do its job.
Can this be done using some CSS/HTML wizardry?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


In the past month or so I have gone on multiple runs which resulted in Robert saying, "You have to take me there!" After thinking about it for a bit I realized that my schedule and current training plan are allowing me to step off MY beaten path and try someone else's much more often then I used to do. Oftentimes Robert and I will run one of the same five routes that we cycle through although there are countless options of different places around us to run. However as I have recently been trying lots of new places I have come home excited about a four mile run simply because I get to tell him about the new place I traversed as we check the elevation profile, comparing it to other routes of similar distances in the area. I realized how monotonous running becomes and how quickly that can happen for people who then lose sight of the joy running can bring. However exploring new places on foot is one of the amazing benefits of running and breaking out of the normal routine is a great way to spice up your workout, bring some enjoyment/excitement back to it, and help you explore where you live.
No matter how long you live in a place I think you can always find something new to see. My goal for the summer is to try at least one new spot each week to explore the beauty of my city and all the places I will be visiting throughout the next two months. Now I know that there are some reasons why people have to run specific routes. One might be their schedule. Robert runs in the morning before work. At 4:30 AM it is not feasible for him to drive to a trail, run with a headlamp, drive home and then get ready for work. He stays in the subdivisions around our house both out of necessity and safety. He could try other subdivisions by taking the major roads as part of his route, but those roads lack street lights so I am HAPPY he is in a routine. He also tends to run his long runs on one of about five major trail systems around Chattanooga. This is because these are the longest routes and it prevents him from having to make 5 or 6 loops of the same 3 or 4 mile trail. He also likes training on routes he knows have good elevation profiles ahead of time and that are a good technical trail so he will be ready come race day.
Normal morning routine for this guy. Always keeping me motivated and making me proud.
Another reason I know that I have gotten stuck running in specific places is for safety. Obviously I like well-lit areas that have people on them when I am running on my own which is why the Tennessee Riverwalk is a a great after school option for me. However the Riverwalk is 13 miles (and hopefully still growing). On a post work run I am usually between 3-5 miles. I have recently started parking in the various parking lots throughout the Riverwalk so that I can actually see different parts of the 13 miles instead of simply running on the same 3-5 mile section each time. I also do get wary about trying out a new trail on my own even if I do look up the distance, elevation profile, and difficulty rating ahead of time. As a trail runner I know how quickly a new trail can turn on me. Especially now that I am pregnant I have to be extra cautious with my decisions because I do not have the ability to simply push myself to extreme exertion and just get through it. However in order to not deter myself from trying out somewhere new I come prepared. I bring my hydraquiver with a full bottle and a few gels even if it is just a four mile loop. I take a picture of the map at the trailhead to be prepared and have something to quickly reference as I go. I take my phone with me- and make sure it is charged just in case. I wear my Road ID in case something ever did happen so people would know my medical history and who to call. I have my Strava recording where I am, and I always tell Robert where I am, when I start my run, and the distance I am trying to achieve. This way if he does not hear from me in a reasonable time he at least knows where to start looking for me if something ever happened. In all the years I have been running there has been ONE time that I needed to take advantage of the "safety features" I prepare myself with. That entailed me getting lost at the Chickamauga Battlefield on the main road and simply having to look at my route on my Strava to ensure I was going in the right direction to get back to my car. Robert and I also talk about actually paying for Strava Premium simply so that we can live track each other when we are running independently… we're still debating but I would not be against being able to see that he was still moving on a long training run up on a mountain by himself.
Now please do not take this as encouragement to stop in a questionable area of town at 11 at night by yourself and go for a jog. However find some encouragement to step out of your comfort zone and stop by that park you have to drive by anyway on your way home from work to go for your run instead of the one next door to your house. You may just find a new restaurant or store you really want to try out (after you've showered of course), a piece of artwork that you would have never noticed while driving by in traffic, or a sign that makes you laugh. Bring some joy and excitement back to your workout by trying somewhere new.
Some street/building art I discovered one day.
Here are some of the places I have explored as of late. If you are ever in the Chattanooga area and are looking for a place to run this will give you a basic overview of some of my new (and old) favorites.
April 20th: Booker T. Washington State Park Trail System (Highway 58 on the way home)- I ran a four mile loop, but there are multiple single track trails here that range from beginner to intermediate and total 7.3 miles if you do them all. Elevation gain was 299 ft. with a max elevation of 799 ft. Love that this is only a 15 minute drive from home.
April 25th: Stringer's Ridge Trail System (Northshore of Chattanooga, right by school)- It's about a .25 mile run to and from the car and about 3.5 on trails. The trail directions switch for bikers and runners throughout the week to keep the trails in good shape so be aware. There is definitely a HARDER direction to have to run in (and I have heard it is the same experience from my mountain bike friends) . This run was the more difficult direction and I ended up with 626 ft. of elevation gain with a max elevation of 1,000 ft.
April 28th & 29th: Monte Sano State Park (Huntsville, Alabama- really close to downtown)- This was for the stage race we completed. Stage 1 was 12.5 miles on the beautiful trails with 1,256 ft of elevation gain and a max elevation of 1,4442 ft. Stage 2 was 15 miles with 1,191 ft. of elevation gain and a max elevation of 1,627 ft.
May 14th: Enterprise South Nature Park (Exit 9, next to the Volkswagen Plant)- I did a five mile route while Robert completed 12 miles that day on the same trails. There are numerous trails throughout this park which was preserved (we are not sure who pays to maintain it) by Volkswagen when they built the plant in Chattanooga. There are numerous picnic areas throughout the park for families and a whole mountain bike section. This is also a ten minute drive from our house which makes it great. We did have to run across a HUGE snake on this run though which scared us like no other so be careful!! In my 5 miles I accumulated 527 ft. of elevation gain and a max elevation of 992 ft.
May 20th: Cumberland Trail System Mushroom Rock to Edward's Point (Signal Mountain)- The Cumberland Trail system is supposedly 210 miles long however not all of it is currently connected. The part that is on Signal is around 15 miles point to point. From Mushroom Rock being the high school to Edward's Point (arguably one of my favorite views in Chattanooga) it is about 4.25 miles so it equates to an 8.5 miles out and back. This is a technical single track trail for sure, but is runnable most of the time. When we ran it the other day though the overgrowth was somewhat bad (Robert had a tick on him by the halfway point) and the amount of fallen trees across the trail made it pretty difficulty to traverse. If you come at it from Signal Point (another gorgeous place to look at the River from the mountain) you have to descend a ridiculous set of stairs (if you can call them that) which I am not a huge fan of. Elevation gain was 2,040 ft. with a max elevation of 1,775 ft.
I was being serious about the amount of fallen trees.
May 24th: Wolftover Greenway (Collegedale / Ooltewah Area) Found this awesome path that was right behind Wolftover Elementary School and literally ran me right into the Collegedale Veteran's Memorial Park on my way home from school last week. It was a four mile paved loop that was really well kept and trafficked. Someone did warn me (thanks Nicole!) that there was a bear recently around there so definitely going to have to keep an extra eye out if I head back there anytime soon. With only 38 ft. of elevation gain and a max elevation of 791 ft. about ten minutes from the house I think this will be a good place for me to go with the running stroller in a few months!
May 27th: Bay Point Loop Trail (Harrison Bay State Park) About ten minutes from the house is this four mile run right along the water but yet still on trail. Only 23 ft. of elevation gain with a max elevation of 727 ft. but a great trail system that had multiple hikers and a few mountain bikers on it with me.
May 30th: McCoy Farm Tail (Signal Mountain) This is a one mile gravel loop right on the mountain between Anderson and Taft if you take the W road. I walked three laps with Mamma Kitty and we got up to 189 ft. of elevation gain with a max elevation of 1,975 ft. It would definitely be a great place to do trail mile repeats if you are looking to improve trail speed specifically.
As you can see I have been exploring new places as much as I can lately. I hope you will too! Let me know if you have found a gem recently. Stay safe out there on your next adventure. Happy running!


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Danny Vranes
(1958-10-29) October 29, 1958 (age 61)
Listed height
Listed weight
210 lb (95 kg)
Skyline (Salt Lake City, Utah)
Utah (1977–1981)
1981 / Round: 1 / Pick: 5th overall
Selected by the Seattle SuperSonics
Aresium Milan
Cagiva Varese
NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1985)
Consensus second-team All-American (1981)
3× First-team All-WAC (1979–1981)
Second-team All-WAC (1978)
No. 23 retired by Utah Utes
Career NBA statistics
2,613 (5.1 ppg)
1,998 (3.9 rpg)
594 (1.2 apg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Representing United States
1979 San Juan Team competition
Daniel LaDrew Vranes (born October 29, 1958) is an American retired professional basketball player.
Vranes led Skyline High School, in Salt Lake City, to the state basketball championship in his senior year (1977). A 6'7" small forward from the University of Utah, he was selected by the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1st round (5th overall) of the 1981 NBA draft. Vranes played in 7 NBA seasons with the SuperSonics and Philadelphia 76ers from 1981 to 1988.
In his NBA career, Vranes played in 510 games and scored a total of 2,613 points. His best year as a professional came during the 1983–84 season as a member of the SuperSonics, appearing in 80 games and averaging 8.4 ppg. In the 1984–85 season, he was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team.
He played in Europe for AEK BC, Teorematour Arese and Breeze Milano.
His ancestors emigrated to the United States from Croatia in the early 1900s.[1] Vranes is a member of the LDS Church.[2]
^ Shelly Gledhill: Colby Vranes, awaiting his mission in life Archived July 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
^ LDS Church Almanac, 2009 Edition, p. 326
Sports portal
Career statistics and player information from Basketball-Reference.com
nba.com historical playerfile
United States men's basketball squad – 1979 Pan American Games – Gold medal
4 Miller
5 O'Koren
6 Clancy
7 Tolbert
8 Duren
9 Vranes
10 Macy
11 McHale
13 Sampson
14 Lester
15 Woodson
16 Brooks
Coach: Knight
Mark Aguirre
Buck Williams
Al Wood
Rolando Blackman
Kelly Tripucka
Danny Schayes
Herb Williams
Jeff Lamp
Darnell Valentine
Kevin Loder
Ray Tolbert
Mike McGee
Larry Nance
Alton Lister
Franklin Edwards
Jay Vincent
Tracy Jackson
Howard Wood
Gene Banks
Ed Rains
Mike Olliver
Ray Blume
Al Leslie
Clyde Bradshaw
Harvey Knuckles
Greg Cook
Claude Gregory
Elston Turner
Steve Lingenfelter
1981 NCAA Men's Basketball Consensus All-Americans
Ralph Sampson
Sam Bowie
Durand Macklin
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Danny_Vranes&oldid=929902497"
AEK B.C. players
All-American college men's basketball players
American expatriate basketball people in Greece
American expatriate basketball people in Italy
American Latter Day Saints
American men's basketball players
American people of Croatian descent
Basketball players at the 1979 Pan American Games
Basketball players from Utah
Greek Basket League players
McDonald's High School All-Americans
Pallacanestro Varese players
Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States
Pan American Games medalists in basketball
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
Philadelphia 76ers players
Seattle SuperSonics draft picks
Seattle SuperSonics players
Small forwards
Sportspeople from Salt Lake City
Utah Utes men's basketball players
This page was last edited on 9 December 2019, at 00:15 (UTC).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The popularity and the daily uses of Free Tarot Readings Online Now have increased a lot. People who wish to know their future upcoming or matters of ongoing life can easily opt for the free tarot spread available online. Everybody wishes to about their life and this prevailed even among the people of earlier times. Previously they had to move outside of the house. They did so by taking out some of their important time, whenever they felt the need. They went to consult any psychic or tarot readers.
Psychics or tarot readers had to be visited in person by travelling to their house. In order to, get their advices or suggestions about life. There were no free fortune telling services like now which the people of the modern times enjoy. At present maximum number of people do not travel distant places to connect the psychics or tarot readers. In fact they sit at home and opt for these online services. There are numerous psychics or tarot readers are available online for every time to help people whenever they need. Such a glorious scope has been gifted by the internet. So, people no longer had to worry about their future or life to lead it in a proper way.
Free tarot card readings of love provide various advices and suggestions regarding love aspects of one's life.
Free tarot readings of career are helpful for the people eager to have a successful career.
People can even opt for free psychic readings online to know future.
Previous article: Does anyone know where I can get my totally free psychic reading?
Next article: What Does My Future Hold Psychic Readings?


Motivation for tagging is one of the topics in the research of social tagging systems. Most studies on motivations have focused on tag creators without consideration of tag consumers. In this study, we tried to address this issue with a survey. The survey was conducted through several tagging sites aiming to study the usage of tags on the internet, including why and how people use tags, as well as their perspectives of the existing tagging websites. The results revealed that most frequent tag creators use the tags very often. However, there are users who use others' tags frequently without bothering creating tags by their own. The results also indicate that search is the primary motivation of creating tags as well as using tags. Besides searching, more than half of the respondents selected other types of motivations like "organizing" and "navigation".


In addition to tempo travellers, Gozo provides various services in Nabarangapur including one way taxi drops or short roundtrips to nearby cities. You can also book cabs for your vacation or business trips for single or multiple days within or around Nabarangapur or to nearby cities and towns.
With Gozo you can book a one way cab from Nabarangapur to Borigumma, Tentulikhunti, Kodinga, Khatiguda, Jaipatna . Gozo provides well maintained air-conditioned (AC) cars, courteous drivers and our services are available 24x7x365. Gozo uses local taxi operators in Nabarangapur who maintain highest level of service quality and have a very good knowledge of the local roads and highway driving. We also provide local sightseeing trips and tours in or around the city. Our cars and drivers serve tourists, large event groups and business people for outstation trips and also for local taxi requirements in Nabarangapur.


Cream Puffs are a tradition in my family, which was started by my grandmother. The holidays are not complete without the cream puffs for dessert! I wanted to share this simple recipe with you that will sure to please everyone this holiday season like it does for my family!
I got creative with the filling for this recipe. I use the pistachio flavor for Christmas for the green coloring and pumpkin flavor for Thanksgiving. You can use vanilla or chocolate instead. Just get creative with your filling. There is no wrong way of doing it!
1) Mix together pistachio or any flavored instant pudding mix of your choice with one tub of cool whip and 2 cups of milk. Cover and refrigerate.
2) Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
3) In a large pot, bring water, sugar, vanilla and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. Let the dough cool before adding eggs, otherwise the eggs will start 'cooking' in the dough and not mix in. It is important to beat in as much air as possible when mixing the eggs until the dough is a sticky, and chewy consistency. Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet.
4) Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Centers should be dry.
5) When the shells are cool, either split and fill them with the mousse mixture, or use a pastry bag to pipe the mousse into the shells. Then top with some powdered sugar or a bit of mousse, whichever you prefer!


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Q: Transferring certain colored cells to other excel sheets I was wondering if it is possible to transfer certain colored cells to other excel sheets. I have colored the approved cells green and the non approved cells red. There are two different spreadsheets I want distribute this data to, one is called the approved sheet and the other is called the non approved sheet. The reason I would like to make this automatic because there are around 80k rows of data and doing that manually would take forever.
Thank you for the help and all the information provided.

A: If you don't mind doing two copy/pasting, you can insert a filter

then filter on the specific colours. After that, copy the relevant cells and paste into the required sheet.

And then repeat for the other colour.

A: Since I guess that you color the cells according to certain condition, than you can copy to other sheet according to this condition.
You can use the filter like suggested above , or sort and then copy.
If you in to code , than you can write some VB script to do that
I think it should something like this (I'm not VBA Expert)
Set mrNames = Sheets("MyDataSheet").Range("C2:C100")

For Each cell In mrNames

If cell.Value = "Approved" Then
cell.EntireRow.Copy
Sheets("Approved").Range("C" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Offset(1, -2).PasteSpecial
    End If


The Earth's climate has always changed, and temperatures have risen and fallen over thousands of years. However, the term climate change is usually used to refer to the much faster rate of change which has been occurring over the past century as a result of human activity.
Reducing the carbon emissions from the council's own activities and services and contributing to the organisation being able to lead other partner organisations and businesses within West Lothian to achieve similar reductions.
The only way we're going to reduce carbon emissions, minimise the adverse effects of climate change and achieve a better quality of life is if we all take action.
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Scotland is a global leader in addressing this challenge and West Lothian Council is playing its part by taking measures to help mitigate and adapt to it.


It was about three years ago that I met Chrissy Padilla at the Sheriff Station here in town at a meeting I was having with a deputy in charge of homeless issues. She was there to find others in Bellflower who had a heart for the community. It wasn't long before she was serving as a volunteer and eventually became a board member for Kingdom Causes Bellflower. In 2006, Chrissy left her well-paying job in Orange County to move into the Eucalyptus Ave. neighborhood (a place notorious for drug dealing and violence) to become an Americorps member. Volunteering full-time for two years now, Chrissy has been a catalytic influence in this neighborhood. She has worked hard to organize neighbors and other community members; identifying THEIR dreams and THEIR plans for the neighborhood. After listening, she then went to work helping to make them a reality.
While her time with Americorps comes to an end, she remains committed to her neighborhood and will continue to live there as her role with Kingdom Causes changes. This fall she will become our Operations Director helping with a variety of tasks including directing a Reciprocal Language Class that will teach English and Spanish to community members who want to expand their language competency. I bless God for bringing Chrissy to Bellflower and for her partnership in seeking first the Kingdom here. Special thanks to Chrissy for her servant's heart, may God move many more in his church to serve as she does.


Dark Knights watch! Lego batman comes to London!
This little Batman is no JOKER – he is here to save the capital.
But he also took the time out from traversing the concrete jungle to enjoy his celebrity with a red carpet shoot.
'Legographer' Andrew Whyte set out with the Dark Knight to take a series of photos from the character's perspective.
He pictured Gotham's saviour hailing cabs, grappling up steps, and confronting giant pigeons with his sidekick Robin.
Andrew, 41, was also joined by the voice of LEGO Batman in the upcoming movie Will Arnett, who also had a go at capturing his character's adventures.
Whyte said: "Photographing LEGO has been a passion for five years and has enabled me to see the world from a very different perspective.
"Working with LEGO Batman has been a fascinating creative challenge. His role as a protector and watcher over the city lends itself perfectly to this nature of photography, as the mini figure interacts with the city of London and all its quirks.
"My shoot is a mixture of brooding intensity as Batman watches over London like he would Gotham, with humour as he struggles with the pitfalls of life in the Big Smoke, from pigeons to public transport.
"I was honoured to be able to offer some advice to The LEGO Batman Movie star Will Arnett, teaching him a few tricks of the trade using his smart phone to photograph the character he so brilliantly voices.
The LEGO Batman Movie is released on February 10 and previews this weekend.


text:
\section{Introduction}
Spin foam models \cite{daniele, ale} represent a purely
combinatorial and algebraic implementation of the
sum-over-histories approach to quantum gravity, in any signature
and spacetime dimension, with an abstract 2-complex playing the
role of a discrete spacetime, and algebraic data from the
representation theory of the Lorentz group playing the role of
geometric data assigned to it. Indeed, the first model of quantum
gravity to be ever proposed, the Ponzano-Regge model, was a
spin foam model for Euclidean quantum gravity without cosmological
constant \cite{PR0}. This approach has recently
been developed to a great extent in the 3-dimensional case.
 It is now clear that it provides a full quantisation of pure
gravity \cite{PR1}, whose relation with the one obtained by other
approaches is well understood \cite{PR2,lec}.
 Moreover, matter can be consistently included in the picture \cite{PR1,barrettfeynman}, providing
  a link between spin foam models and effective field theory
\cite{PR3} living on a non-commutative geometry. This picture
allows us to naturally address the semi-classical limit of spin foam
models and shows that quantum gravity in dimension $3$ effectively
follows the principle of the so-called deformed (or doubly)
special relativity \cite{dsr}.

The group field theory formalism \cite{laurentgft} represents a
generalisation of matrix models of 2-dimensional quantum gravity
\cite{mmreview}. It is a universal structure lying behind any spin
foam model for quantum gravity \cite{DP-F-K-R,carlomike}, providing a third
quantisation point of view on gravity \cite{laurentgft} and allowing
us to sum over
pure quantum gravity amplitudes associated with different topologies \cite{NPsum}. In this
picture, spin foams, and thus spacetime itself, appear as
(higher-dimensional analogues of) Feynman diagrams of a field
theory defined on a group manifold and spin foam amplitudes are
simply the Feynman amplitudes weighting the different graphs in
the perturbative expansion of the quantum field theory.
On the other hand, we can construct a non commutative field theory
whose Feynman diagram amplitudes reproduce the coupling of matter fields
 to 3d quantum gravity for a trivial topology of spacetime \cite{PR3}.
Remarkably, the momenta of the fields are labelled also by group
elements. Moreover, in three dimensions there is a duality between
matter and geometry, and the insertion of matter can be understood
as the insertion of a topological defect charged under the
Poincar\'e group \cite{PR1}. This suggests that one should be able
to treat the third quantisation of gravity and the second
quantisation of matter fields in one stroke (see \cite{mikovic}
for an early attempt). The purpose of this paper is to study how
the coupling of matter to quantum gravity is realised in the group
field theory, and whether it is possible to write down a group
field theory for gravity and particles that reproduces the
amplitudes derived in \cite{PR1} coupling quantum matter to
quantum geometry.

This is what we achieve in the present work. The way the correct
amplitudes are generated as Feynman amplitudes of the group field
theory is highly non-trivial. It requires an extension of the
usual group field theory (gft) formalism  to a higher number of
field variables, and produces an interesting intertwining of
gravity and matter degrees of freedom, as we are going to discuss
in the following. The formalism we present is still based on the
classical $SU(2)$, it bears strong similarity with a recent work
of Krasnov \cite{Kirill} who considered gft based on the quantum
group $DSU(2)$. This should not be a surprise since it is well
understood that the particle spin foam amplitudes have a quantum
group structure hidden in them
 \cite{PR1, PR2}.
The gft model we propose here is, however, very different from the
ones considered in Krasnov's work since our Feynman graphs reproduce
 explicitly the insertion of particles coupled to gravity.
\section{The Ponzano-Regge spin foam model coupled to point particles}
The general form of Feynman graph amplitudes for spinning
particles coupled to 3 dimensional quantum gravity -eg the
Ponzano-Regge model- has been written in \cite{PR1}. In this paper
we focus on the case of spinless particles and we recall in this
section the definition of these amplitudes before deriving them
from a gft.
We start from a triangulation $\Delta$ of our spacetime $M$ and
consider also the dual $\Delta^*$: dual vertices, edges and  faces
correspond  respectively to tetrahedra, faces and edges of
$\Delta$. We choose our Feynman graph, $\daleth$, to be embedded in the
triangulation $\Delta$ such that edges of $\daleth$ are edges of
the triangulation. Each edge of $\daleth$ is labelled by an angle
$\theta \in [0,\pi]$
$$ \theta= \kappa m , \qquad \kappa= 4\pi G_N \label{kappa}, $$
where $G_N$ is Newton's constant, $\kappa$ is the inverse Planck
mass and $m$ is the mass of the particle. To each angle $\theta$
we associate an element of the Cartan subgroup $H$ of $\mathrm{SU}(2)$
     $$ h_\theta=\left(
     \begin{array}{cc}
     e^{i\theta} & 0 \\ 0 & e^{-i\theta}
     \end{array}
     \right), $$
which corresponds to a rotation of angle $2\theta$ around a given
axis.
Given a group $G$, here $\mathrm{SU}(2)$, we assign group elements
$g_{e^*}$ to all dual edges $e^*$ of the triangulation. We
constrain the holonomies around dual faces $f^*\sim e$ to be flat
if there is no particle and we constrain it to be in the
conjugacy class $\theta$ if $e$ is an edge of $\daleth$. More
precisely, let us denote by $G_{e} \;(=G_{f^*})$ the product of the group
elements around a dual face (or plaquette) $f^*\sim e$:
$$G_e=G_{f^*}=\prod_{e^*\in\partial
f^*}g_{e^*}^{\epsilon_{f^*}(e^*)},$$
where $\epsilon_{f^*}(e^*)=\pm 1$ records the orientation of the
edge $e^*$ in the boundary of the (dual) face $f^*$. The amplitude
is given by
     \begin{equation} \label{PRamp1}
     {\cal Z}_M(\daleth_\theta)= \Delta(\theta)^{|E_\daleth|}
     \int\prod_{e^* }dg_{e^*}\int \prod_{e\in \daleth}du_e \,
     \prod_{e\notin \daleth}\delta(G_{e}) \prod_{e\in \daleth}
     \delta(G_{e}u_e h_\theta u_e^{-1}),
     \end{equation}
where $dg$ is the normalised Haar measure and $\delta(g)$ the
corresponding delta function on $G$,  $\Delta(\theta)\equiv
\sin(\theta)$ and $|E_{\daleth}|$ is the number of edges in the
particle graph $\daleth$. We see that two types of group elements
arise in the construction of this amplitude, the $g_{e^*}$
describe pure gravity excitations and the $u_e$ variables are
associated with the particle degrees of freedom. They arise
because the insertion of a particle locally breaks the Lorentz and
translational symmetries of the gravity model and the former gauge
transformation becomes dynamical at the location of the particle
\cite{PR1}. The $u_e$ are then interpreted as giving the direction
of the particle momenta propagating along the edge $e$. The fact
that we are talking about spinless particles implies that $u_e$
should not be thought of as an element of $G$ but as an element of
$G/H$ (with $H=U(1)$), that is momentum space. The insertion of
spinning particles can be achieved by taking into account a non
trivial dependence under the $H$ part of $u_e$. The main lesson
which we learn from this amplitude, and which gives the key idea
leading to a gft construction of such an amplitude, is the fact
that we need both $G$ variables  describing the gravity excitation
and $G/H$ variables describing the propagation of particles. We
can expand the $\delta$ functions in terms of characters
     $$
     \delta(g)=\sum_j d_j \chi_j(g),
     $$ $d_j =2j+1$
being the dimension of the spin $j$ representation and perform the
integration over $g_{e^*}$, $u_e$ in order to obtain a state sum
model
\begin{equation}\label{PRamp} {\cal Z}_M(\daleth_\theta)=\Delta(\theta)^{|E_\daleth|}
\sum_{\{j_e\}}
\prod_{e\notin \daleth} d_{j_e} \prod_{e\in
\daleth}\chi_{j_e}(h_{\theta_e})
\prod_t \left\{
\begin{array}{ccc}
    j_{e_{t_{1}}} &  j_{e_{t_{2}}} &  j_{e_{t_{3}}} \\
    j_{e_{t_{4}}} &  j_{e_{t_{5}}} &  j_{e_{t_{6}}}
    \end{array}
    \right\},
\end{equation}
where the summation is over all edges of $\Delta$ and the product
of normalised 6j symbols is over all tetrahedra $t$. For each
tetrahedron, the admissible triples of edges, e.g.
$(j_{e_{t_{1}}},j_{e_{t_{2}}},j_{e_{t_{3}}})$, corresponds to
faces of this tetrahedra. Boulatov \cite{Boul} was the first to
show that the amplitude (\ref{PRamp1}) can be obtained as a
Feynman graph evaluation of a group field theory. It is important
to note however that this amplitude is generically divergent. It
is now understood \cite{diffeo} that this divergence is due to a
translational gauge symmetry (equivalent on-shell to
diffeomorphism symmetry) acting on the Ponzano-Regge model. This
symmetry should be gauge-fixed in order to obtain well defined and
triangulation independent amplitudes. The gauge-fixing is easily
implemented by choosing a maximal tree\footnotemark
\footnotetext{A connected set of edges of $\Delta \backslash
\daleth$ passing through every vertex of $\Delta\backslash
\daleth$} $T$ of $\Delta\backslash \daleth$. The gauge-fixed
amplitude can be obtained from (\ref{PRamp1}) by replacing the
product $ \prod_{e\notin \daleth}\delta(G_{e})$ by a product over
delta functions with $e \notin T\cup \daleth$. In terms of the
state sum model (\ref{PRamp1}) the gauge-fixing inserts in the
summation a factor $\prod_{e\in T} \delta_{j_e,0}$ which
eliminates the sum over $j_e$, $e\in T$. The overall amplitude
does not depend on the choice of $T$.
\section{A gft model for 3d quantum gravity coupled to scalar
matter}\label{sec:model}
\subsection{Action and Feynman rules}
We shall now define a field theory on a group manifold, whose
Feynman expansion gives the above modified Ponzano-Regge model. We
consider a generic real field $\phi$, over the Cartesian product
of six copies of $\mathrm{SU}(2)$
     \begin{equation}\label{f6}
     \fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}:\underbrace{\mathrm{SU}(2)\times\dots\times
     \mathrm{SU}(2)}_{6}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}.
     \end{equation}
This is the basic object of the theory and, just as in the other
group field formulations of spin foam models, it has the
interpretation of a \lq 3rd quantised' chunk of quantum geometry
\cite{DP-F-K-R,laurentgft}. However, in this extended formulation
based on a 6-argument field, this chunk of quantum geometry
carries also additional degrees of freedom, labelled by the extra
$u$ variables, that acquire the physical meaning of particle
degrees of freedom (more precisely particle momenta) when a mass
parameter is inserted in a suitable way, as we are going to show
in the following. Let us now list the symmetries that this field
is required to satisfy.
\begin{itemize}
\item We require that $\phi$ is invariant under (even) elements
  $\sigma$ of the permutation group of three elements $S_3$, acting on
  {\it pairs} of field variables $(g_i,u_i)$:
     \begin{equation}\label{f6perm}
     \fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}=\fs{g}{u}{\sigma(1)}{\sigma(2)}{\sigma(3)}.
     \end{equation}\\
 If we require the field to be
invariant under {\it even} permutations of the three pairs of
arguments, then this is equivalent to dealing with a complex field
instead, with the odd permutations mapping the field to its
complex conjugate \cite{DP-P}, and the Feynman amplitudes produced
by the corresponding group field theory are in one-to-one
correspondence with {\it orientable} 2-complexes, as explained in
\cite{DP-F-K-R,DP-P}. We can more generally require the field to
transform under an arbitrary representation (not necessarily
reducible) of $S_3$. This will affect the type of 2-complexes
generated by the perturbative expansion of the theory. We
stress, however, that this would not imply any change for the amplitudes of
the Feynman diagrams.
\item Furthermore, we pick a $\mathrm{U}(1)$ subgroup $H$, of $\mathrm{SU}(2)$, with
  the interpretation of the
  invariance subgroup for the particle momenta, and
  project three of the arguments into $\mathrm{SU}(2)/\mathrm{U}(1)$ equivalence
  classes
     \begin{equation}\label{f6eq}
     P_b\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}\equiv\fseq,
     \end{equation}
so that the field becomes in fact a function over three copies
each of $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ and $\mathrm{SU}(2)/\mathrm{U}(1)$.
\item Finally, we project the first half of the field, i.e. the part
  dependent on the first three arguments, into its $SU(2)$
  invariant part, by imposing invariance under simultaneous right
  action of $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ on the first three arguments:
     \begin{equation}\label{f6gauge}
     P_{\alpha}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3} \equiv \fsg.
     \end{equation}
This last symmetry has a geometric interpretation, as in the
usual Boulatov model. It imposes the closure of the triangle of
which the field $\phi$ represents the 2nd quantisation, by constraining the spin variables
dual to the $g_i$ variables associated to its three edges.
\end{itemize}
Given such a field, we can write down a Boulatov-like action, with
the extra $u$ variables simply mimicking the relations among the
gravity degrees of freedom $g$:
     \begin{equation}\label{a6pure}
     \begin{split}
     S[\phi]=

     &\frac{1}{2}\int \prod_{i=1}^{3} dg_i du_i
     [P_{\alpha}P_{b}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}][P_{\bar{\alpha}}P_{\bar{b}}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}]\\

     &+\frac{\lambda}{4!}\int\prod_{i=1}^{6}dg_i du_i
[P_{\alpha_1}P_{b_1}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}]
     [P_{\alpha_2}P_{b_2}\fs{g}{u}{4}{5}{3}]\\
&\hphantom{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}\times[P_{\alpha_3}P_{b_3}\fs{g}{u}{4}{2}{6}]
[P_{\alpha_4}P_{b_4}\fs{g}{u}{1}{5}{6}].
     \end{split}
     \end{equation}
As we will see the Feynman amplitudes obtained from this model  are
proportional to those obtained by the Boulatov model, i.e. the
usual Ponzano-Regge spin foam amplitudes describing pure 3d
Riemannian quantum gravity.
 This shows that the $u$ variables are completely
redundant at this stage and do not have any real physical meaning.
They are going to acquire it soon, however.
Now we introduce a mass parameter in the theory, turning this
redundant description of pure quantum gravity into a model for
gravity coupled to scalar matter. We define a mass insertion
operator $P_\theta$, acting on the field $\phi$ as follows:
     \begin{equation}
     P_{\theta}\,\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3} \equiv  \;\phi(u_1h_{\theta}u_1^{-1}g_1,g_2,g_3;u_1\epsilon,u_2,u_3),
     \end{equation}
where $h_{\theta}=exp(\theta J_0)\in H$; $\theta$ is half the
deficit angle created by the presence of a mass $m$, $\theta=4\pi
Gm$, $\frac{1}{4\pi G}$ being the Planck mass; $J_0$ is the
generator of the $\mathrm{U}(1)$ subgroup $H$, the same subgroup under
which the $u_i$ variables of the field are invariant and
$\epsilon$ is the non-trivial Weyl group element, given in the
fundamental representation by:
\begin{displaymath}
\epsilon=\left(\begin{array}{cc} 0 & -1\\ 1 & 0
\end{array}\right).
\end{displaymath}
We define then a new group field theory model, representing 3d
Riemannian quantum gravity coupled to scalar matter, whose
dynamics are given by the action:
     \begin{equation}\label{a6}
     \begin{split}
     S[\phi]=

     &\frac{1}{2}\int \prod_{i=1}^{3} dg_i du_i
     \bigl([P_{\alpha}P_{b}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}][P_{\bar{\alpha}}P_{\bar{b}}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}]\\
     &\hphantom{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}-\mathfrak{a} [P_{\alpha}P_{b}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}][P_{\theta}P_{\bar{\alpha}}P_{\bar{b}}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}]\bigr)\\

     &+\frac{\lambda}{4!}\int\prod_{i=1}^{6}dg_i du_i
     [P_{\alpha_1}P_{b_1}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}]
     [P_{\alpha_2}P_{b_2}\fs{g}{u}{4}{5}{3}]\\
     &\hphantom{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}\times[P_{\alpha_3}P_{b_3}\fs{g}{u}{4}{2}{6}]
     [P_{\alpha_4}P_{b_4}\fs{g}{u}{1}{5}{6}],
     \end{split}
     \end{equation}
where $\mathfrak{a}$ is a free parameter and all integrals are with
respect to the normalised Haar measure.
Let us write the Feynman rules of the theory in coordinate space.
We have to identify kinetic and vertex operators. For this
purpose, we write the action as
     \begin{equation}\label{a6op}
     \begin{split}
     S[\phi]=

     &\frac{1}{2}\int\prod_{i=1}^{3}dg_i du_i \prod_{j=1}^{3} d\bar{g}_j
     d\bar{u}_j \; \fsim{g_i}{u_i} {\cal K}(g_i,\bar{g}_j,u_i,\bar{u}_j)
     \fsim{\bar{g}_j}{\bar{u}_j}\\

     & +\int\prod_{i,j}dg_{ij} du_{ij} \; {\cal V}(g_{ij},u_{ij})
     \fsim{g_{1j}}{u_{2j}}\fsim{g_{2j}}{u_{2j}}\fsim{g_{3j}}{u_{3j}}\fsim{g_{4j}}{u_{4j}}.
     \end{split}
     \end{equation}
where in this integral, $i\ne j$, and
$\fsim{g_{1j}}{u_{1j}}=\fs{g}{u}{11}{12}{13}$, and so forth.
The kinetic and vertex operators are
     \begin{equation}\label{k6op}

     {\cal K}(g_i,\bar{g}_j,u_i,\bar{u}_j) = \int\prod_{i=1}^{3}
     db_i \; \dk{g}{i}{\bar{g}}{i}
     \dku{u}{i}{b}{i}{\bar{u}}{i}

     -\mathfrak{a}\, \int\prod_{i=1}^{3}
     db_i \;  \dkm{u}{1}{g}{1}{\bar{g}}{1}
     \dkue{u}{1}{b}{1}{\bar{u}}{1}\prod_{j=2}^{3} \dk{g}{j}{\bar{g}}{j}
     \dku{u}{j}{b}{j}{\bar{u}}{j},
     \end{equation}
     \begin{equation}\label{v6op}

     {\cal V}(g_{ij},u_{ij}) = \frac{\lambda}{4!}\int \prod_{i=1}^{4}d\alpha_i
     \prod_{j>i} db_{ij}\;
     \dv{\alpha}{j}{g}{ji}{g}{ij}{\alpha}{i}
     \dv{b}{ji}{u}{ji}{u}{ij}{b}{ij}.
     \end{equation}
We have purposefully discarded the $\alpha$ variables in the
$\delta$-functions of the kinetic term. This does not change, up
to an overall factor, the computation of the amplitudes  since
$P_\theta$ commutes with $P_\alpha$. We have also sidelined the
sum over permutations, for ease of notation. Care should be taken
in inverting the kinetic term, however, on the subspace of
symmetric fields only. On this subspace, the kinetic term is
indeed diagonal and we can proceed as follows.
We now define the operators $I$ and $K_{\theta}$:
     \begin{equation}\label{k6def}
     {\cal K}(g_i,\bar{g}_j,u_i,\bar{u}_j)\equiv
     I-\mathfrak{a}\;K_{\theta}.
     \end{equation}
The propagator is the inverse of the kinetic operator.
Furthermore, the operator $K_{\theta}$ satisfies
$(K_{\theta})^2=I$, as laid out below:
\begin{equation}
\begin{split}
     (K_{\theta})^2 &= \int d^3\tilde{g}\,d^3\tilde{u}\;
     K_{\theta}(g,\tilde{g},u,\tilde{u})
     K_{\theta}(\tilde{g},\bar{g},\tilde{u},\bar{u})\\
     %
     &= \int
     d^3\tilde{g}\,d^3\tilde{u}\,d^3b\,d^3\tilde{b}\;\dkm{u}{1}{g}{1}{\tilde{g}}{1}
     \dk{g}{2}{\tilde{g}}{2}\dk{g}{3}{\tilde{g}}{3}
     \dkue{u}{1}{b}{1}{\tilde{u}}{1}\dku{u}{2}{b}{2}{\tilde{u}}{2}\dku{u}{3}{b}{3}{\tilde{u}}{3}\\
     &\hphantom{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}\times\dkm{\tilde{u}}{1}{\tilde{g}}{1}{\bar{g}}{1}
     \dk{\tilde{g}}{2}{\bar{g}}{2}\dk{\tilde{g}}{3}{\bar{g}}{3}
     \dkue{\tilde{u}}{1}{\tilde{b}}{1}{\bar{u}}{1}\dku{\tilde{u}}{2}{\tilde{b}}{2}{\bar{u}}{2}\dku{\tilde{u}}{3}{\tilde{b}}{3}{\bar{u}}{3}.
\end{split}
\end{equation}
We integrate with respect to the $\tilde{g}$ variables
\begin{equation}
\begin{split}
(K_{\theta})^2=\int d^3\tilde{u}\,d^3b\,d^3\tilde{b}\;
  \delta(\tilde{u}_1h_\theta &
\tilde{u}_1^{-1} u_1 h_\theta  u_1^{-1}g_1\bar{g}_1^{-1})
\dk{g}{2}{\bar{g}}{2}\dk{g}{3}{\bar{g}}{3}\\
&\times\dkue{u}{1}{b}{1}{\tilde{u}}{1}
\dku{u}{2}{b}{2}{\tilde{u}}{2}\dku{u}{3}{b}{3}{\tilde{u}}{3}\dkue{\tilde{u}}{1}{\tilde{b}}{1}{\bar{u}}{1}
\dku{\tilde{u}}{2}{\tilde{b}}{2}{\bar{u}}{2}\dku{\tilde{u}}{3}{\tilde{b}}{3}{\bar{u}}{3},
\end{split}
\end{equation}
and then the $\tilde{u}$ variables
\begin{equation}
\begin{split}
(K_{\theta})^2=\int d^3b\,d^3\tilde{b}\; \delta(u_1b_1\epsilon h_\theta
\epsilon^{-1} &  b_1^{-1}u_1^{-1} u_1 h_\theta u_1^{-1}g_1\bar{g}_1^{-1})
\dk{g}{2}{\bar{g}}{2}\dk{g}{3}{\bar{g}}{3}\\ &\times\delta(u_1b_1\epsilon
\tilde{b}_1 \epsilon \bar{u}_1^{-1})
\delta(u_2b_2\tilde{b}_2\bar{u}_2^{-1})\delta(u_3b_3\tilde{b}_3\bar{u}_3^{-1}).
\end{split}
\end{equation}
But $b_1\epsilon h_\theta \epsilon^{-1}b_1^{-1} =
b_1h_\theta^{-1}b_1^{-1} = h_\theta^{-1}$ since $\epsilon
h_{\theta}\epsilon^{-1}= h_\theta^{-1}$ and since  $b_1$ and $h_\theta^{-1}$ are in
the same commutative $U(1)$ subgroup. Furthermore $\epsilon \tilde{b}_1 \epsilon =
-\tilde{b}_1^{-1}$. Finally, redefining $(-b_1\tilde{b}_1^{-1})\rightarrow
b_1$, $b_2\tilde{b}_2\rightarrow b_2$ and
$b_3\tilde{b}_3\rightarrow b_3$ gives us
\begin{equation}
(K_{\theta})^2=\int d^3b\;
\dk{g}{1}{\bar{g}}{1}\dk{g}{2}{\bar{g}}{2}\dk{g}{3}{\bar{g}}{3}
\dku{u}{1}{b}{1}{\bar{u}}{1}\dku{u}{2}{b}{2}{\bar{u}}{2}\dku{u}{3}{b}{3}{\bar{u}}{3}=I.
\end{equation}
This leads to a nice closed form for the propagator
     \begin{equation}\label{p6}
     {\cal P}(g_i,\bar{g}_j,u_i,\bar{u}_j) =
     \frac{I+\mathfrak{a} K_{\theta}}{1-\mathfrak{a}^2}.
     \end{equation}

\subsection{Feynman amplitudes and spin foam formulation}
To construct a generic Feynman amplitude, we will analyse the
structure and gluing properties of the propagator and vertex
operator:
\subsubsection{Vertex Operator}
We scrutinise (\ref{v6op}) in two parts:
     \begin{equation}\nonumber

     {\cal V}(g_{ij},u_{ij}) = \frac{\lambda}{4!}\int \prod_{i=1}^{4}d\alpha_i
     \prod_{j>i} db_{ij}\;
     \underbrace{\dv{\alpha}{j}{g}{ji}{g}{ij}{\alpha}{i}}_{\text{g variable part}}
     \underbrace{\dv{b}{ji}{u}{ji}{u}{ij}{b}{ij}}_{\text{u variable part}}.
     \end{equation}
The $\delta$-functions over the $g$ variables are the usual holonomies
around the six wedges dual to the edges $e$, of a tetrahedron. So
the model already has the structure of a 2-complex dual to a
triangulation.
The $u$ variables represent the momenta of the particles and as such
are identified with the edges of the tetrahedron. Each edge of the
tetrahedron is shared by two triangles.   The $\delta$-functions
above ensure that the momentum associated to an edge is the same
when viewed from either of these triangles.  This extra
structure is not present in the Boulatov model.

\subsubsection{Propagator}
The operator (\ref{p6}) glues two tetrahedra at a triangular
interface.  From the analysis of the vertex operator above, we
know that each triangle of a tetrahedron has three wedges (dual to each of its three edges) and three
momenta associated to it. The propagator has two terms with
different gluing properties.
     \begin{equation}\nonumber
     {\cal P}(g_i,\bar{g}_j,u_i,\bar{u}_j) =
     \underbrace{\frac{1}{1-\mathfrak{a}^2}I}_{{\cal P}_{massless}}
     +\underbrace{\frac{\mathfrak{a}}{1-\mathfrak{a}^2}K_{\theta}}_{{\cal P}_{massive}}.
     \end{equation}
For ${\cal P}_{massless}$, the $\delta$-functions over the $g$ variables
glue three wedges of one tetrahedron to three wedges of another
tetrahedron pairwise, giving the holonomies around three composite
wedges. The $\delta$-functions over the $u$ variables ensure that the
momenta on the edges of the two triangles match.
For ${\cal P}_{massive}$, two of the $\delta$-functions over the
$g$-variables act as for ${\cal P}_{massless}$,  similarly for the $u$
variables.  One of the $\delta$-functions, however, couples the $g_1$
and $u_1$ variables, effectively placing a massive particle at the point where the edge of the
tetrahedron intersects the composite wedge.  The final
$\delta$-function to consider, $\dkue{u}{1}{b}{1}{\bar{u}}{1}$,
places a tag on the edge $e$, of the tetrahedron with the mass
insertion. The tag ensures that if another propagator further
around the sequence of Feynman graph edges $e^*$, forming the
boundary of a (dual) face $f^*$, inserts a mass along the edge e,
it will cancel with the first according to the property $(K_\theta)^2 = I$.
We find in general that we can
only have two possibilities when a face is fully assembled: no
particle on the edge $e$, or one particle on the edge, according
to whether there have been an even or an odd number of insertions
of $K_{\theta}$ on the boundary of the face.
To be clearer, we will calculate more explicitly the amplitude
for a generic dual face in the next subsection.
In the end the partition function for the field theory, when
expanded in Feynman graphs (i.e. in a power series for $\lambda$)
takes the form:
     \begin{equation}
     {\cal Z}=\int{\cal D}\phi \; e^{-S[\phi]} =
     \sum_{\Gamma}\frac{\lambda^{v[\Gamma]}}{sym[\Gamma]}{\cal Z}[\Gamma],
     \end{equation}
where $v[\Gamma]$ is the number of vertices in the Feynman graph;
$sym[\Gamma]$ is its symmetry factor; and $Z[\Gamma]$ is the amplitude for each Feynman graph, being
given explicitly by:
     \begin{equation}\label{partfun}
     {\cal Z}[\Gamma]={\cal N}[\Gamma] \int \prod_{e^*}d\alpha_{e^*} \prod_e du_e \prod_{e\notin
     \daleth}\delta(G_e)
     \prod_{e\in \daleth} \delta(G_e u_e h_\theta u_e^{-1}),
     \end{equation}
where ${\cal N}[\Gamma]$ is a normalisation factor, discussed later, arising
from the (partial) redundancy of the $u$ variables in each
diagram and the $\mathfrak{a}$ dependence; $\alpha_{e^*}$ is the holonomy along an edge of the Feynman
graph; $G_e =\prod_{e^*\subset \partial f^*} \alpha_{e^*}^{\pm 1}$ is
the holonomy around a face $f^*$ of the Feynman graph, which is dual to the edge of $e$ of the triangulation;
and $\daleth$ is the set of edges of the triangulation that have a
particle present.
We recognise in (\ref{partfun}) the Ponzano-Regge amplitude (\ref{PRamp1}).
We see that the group field theory we have defined gives, in
addition to a sum over all possible quantum gravity spin foams
arising as usual as Feynman graphs of the theory, a sum over all
possible massive spinless particle insertions in the spin foam,
interpreted as a sum over all possible Feynman diagrams for a
scalar field theory. Each gravity + particle configuration is
weighted exactly by the amplitude of the Ponzano-Regge model
coupled with massive spinless particles given in \cite{PR1}, and
provides us also with a definite normalisation factor for each of
these amplitudes.
\subsection{Amplitude for a generic face of the Feynman graph}
Consider a face $f^*$ of  a Feynman graph, the boundary of which
is formed by $N$ contiguous edges, $e^*$, labelled
$e_1^*,\dots,e_N^*$.
The amplitude for this face is
\begin{equation}
A(f^*)=\int(d\dots){\cal P}_1^{f^*}{\cal V}_{12}^{f^*}\dots{\cal P}_N^{f^*}{\cal V}_{N1}^{f^*},
\end{equation}
where ${\cal P}_i^{f^*}$ are the $\delta$-functions from the propagator
along $e_i^*$ relating to the face $f^*$; ${\cal V}_{ij}^{f^*}$ are the
$\delta$-functions from the vertex where $e_i^*$ and $e_j^*$ meet,
pertaining to the face $f^*$.
If we contract all the $g$ variable $\delta$-functions we get a final
$\delta$-function of the form
\begin{equation}
A(f^*)= \sum_{n=0}^N \int(d\dots)\delta(G_{f^*} u_{a_1} h_\theta
u_{a_1}^{-1}\times \dots \times u_{a_n} h_\theta u_{a_n}^{-1})
\times \bigl(\text{$\delta$-functions over the $u$ variables}\bigr),
\end{equation}
 the sum is over different combinations of mass
insertions; $n\leq N$ is the number of particle insertions in that
specific term and $G_{f^*}$ is the holonomy around the face built up from
a product of $\alpha_{e^*}$.
If there are $n$ particle insertions in the $g$ variable part then
there will be $n$ $\delta$-functions in the $u$ variable part with
$\epsilon$ inserted.  Once we contract the $u$ variables we get that
the masses cancel just as in the calculation of $(K_\theta)^2=I$.
In the end, for each term in the sum we have two possibilities:
For $n$ even we get
\begin{equation}\label{face1}
\delta(G_{f^*})\delta(b_{f^*}),
\end{equation}
where $b_{f^*}$ is a product of the $b$ variables around the face.
Therefore we get no particle insertion and a pure gravity face
modulo an extra factor which we take into the normalisation.
For $n$ odd we get
\begin{equation}\label{face2}
\delta(G_{f^*}uh_\theta u^{-1})\delta(b_{f^*}\epsilon),
\end{equation}
thus a single particle insertion and another factor which we take
into the normalisation.
\subsection{Overall normalisation of the Feynman graph}
For a kinetic term with
the structure $I - \mathfrak{a} K_\theta$, the propagator takes the form:
$$ \frac{1}{1-\mathfrak{a}^2}\left( I + \mathfrak{a} K_\theta \right), $$ as we
have shown. This produces $\mathfrak{a}$-dependent amplitudes when the
expansion in Feynman graphs is performed.  We have not specified
what this $\mathfrak{a}$ is and how it depends on the physical parameters
of gravity or matter; indeed there is quite some freedom involved
in choosing a specific expression for $\mathfrak{a}$ and only further
analysis of the model we proposed can narrow the range of
possibilities down to a restricted one\footnote{a natural possibility in view of (\ref{PRamp1}) is to
consider $\mathfrak{a} = \Delta(\theta)$} .
This parameter will enter the normalisation coefficients controlling the relative strength
of Feynman diagrams with and without particles.
The  normalisation factor will clearly contain an overall factor
$\left(1-\mathfrak{a}^2\right)^{-|e^*|}$ where $|e^*|$ denotes the number of dual edges
of the two complex.
There will be an additional factor $\mathfrak{a}$ each time $K_\theta$ is inserted
along a dual edge.
If an even number of $K_\theta$ are inserted along a face
no particle circulates along that face.
A useful formula in order to get the right normalisation factor in a given example is
\begin{equation}
(I+\mathfrak{a} K_\theta )^n = \frac{1}{2}\left((1+\mathfrak{a})^n+(1-\mathfrak{a})^n\right) I +
\frac{1}{2}\left((1+\mathfrak{a})^n-(1-\mathfrak{a})^n\right)K_\theta.
\end{equation}
Along with this numerical factor, there is a singular factor coming from a redundant $\delta$-function
for each face as shown in (\ref{face1},\ref{face2}). For each face not carrying a particle we have a factor
\begin{equation}\label{fact1}
\int_{U(1)} db \,\delta(b) =\sum_{j} (2j+1),
\end{equation}
and for each face carrying a particle we have a factor
\begin{equation}\label{fact2}
\int_{U(1)} db \,\delta(b\epsilon) =\sum_{j} (2j+1)(-1)^j,
\end{equation}
the sum, being over integer $j$, is obtained from the character expansion of the
delta function.
These expressions are unfortunately ill defined and they need a regularisation.
A proper regularisation that can preserve all the symmetries of the theory
is to replace the usual $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ group by a quantum group $U_q(\mathrm{SU}(2))$.
It is expected that with this choice the key features of the model can be preserved and
that the  corresponding normalisation coefficients are given by
\begin{equation}
\sum_{j=0}^N [2j+1]_q t^j = \frac{1+ t + (q+q^{-1})t^{N+1}}{(1-q^{-2} t ) (1-q^2 t)},
\end{equation}
with $q =\exp(i\frac{\pi}{2N+1})$, $[n]_q = (q^n-q^{-n})/(q-q^{-1})$ and $t =-1$ for a face with
particle and $t=+1$ otherwise.
Let us recall that if we consider the original Boulatov model such
factors do not arise since they come from a redundant summation over
spins dual to the $u$ variables. The Feynman graph amplitudes of the
Boulatov model are, however, not equal to the physical quantum gravity
amplitudes. In order to get the quantum gravity amplitudes one has to
divide out the infinite volume of a gauge symmetry. This is
conveniently done by restricting the summation over spins as presented
in the first section.
This gauge-fixing procedure
which is well defined at the level of the quantum gravity amplitudes is,
however, not fully understood  at the level of the gft.
When we extend the gft to include the momenta variables $u$, we
also extend in a trivial way  the gauge symmetry of the quantum gravity
amplitude. This is where the additional factors
(\ref{fact1}, \ref{fact2}) come from.
The gauge-fixing is trivially realised by fixing to $0$  the
spin dual to the variables $u_{e}$.
This is, we feel, one of the main open challenges in this domain: to understand if such a
gauge fixing can be understood already at the gft level both for the
Boulatov model and for our extension including particles;
that is, whether we can already for the Boulatov model identify at the
level of the gft the translational (or diffeomorphism) symmetry responsible
for the divergences of the na\"ive gravity amplitude. A similar
identification should also be implemented for our particle model.
We do not resolve this issue in the present work.
\section{Discussion}
\subsection{Features of the model}
We have seen that the model correctly generates spin foam
configurations with some dual faces carrying particle data, i.e. a
mass label, indicating that a particle of the given mass is
propagating along the edge of the triangulation dual to that face.
This means that the group field theory produces all possible
Feynman graphs for a scalar field embedded in the triangulation
dual to the quantum gravity 2-complex, specifying the field
propagator on each line of the Feynman graph, and this only.
Interestingly, this is enough, in this 3-dimensional setting, for
specifying fully the dynamics of the particles, i.e. their
interaction. In fact, this is dictated by the Bianchi identity
constraining the sum of curvatures in the boundary of any 3-cell
of the dual complex around any given vertex of the triangulation.
When one or more particles are meeting at that vertex, thus
interacting there, this implies momentum conservation for their
interaction, which is the only content of any $\phi^n$ theory.
Because any number of particles can be incident to any given
vertex of the triangulation in the model we propose, this means
that this corresponds to a scalar field theory with a potential
given by a sum over any power of the field operators: $\phi^3(x) +
\phi^4(x) +....$.

We have seen that the crucial property of the modified kinetic
term we propose for producing mass insertions in the spin foam
amplitudes is, besides the extension of the field to 6 arguments,
the property $(K_\theta)^2=I$ for the operator $K_\theta$ inserting
the mass of the particles in the group field theory action.
It is interesting to note that the presence of this operator which
inserts particles also breaks a symmetry that the pure gravity model possesses.
This bears some similarity with the fact that particles in 3d can be
understood as defects breaking the translational symmetry of the theory
without matter \cite{PR1}.
The symmetry is the following:  Let's consider the transformation
\begin{equation}
\phi(g_1,g_2,g_3;u_1,u_2,u_3)
\rightarrow
\phi({\mathbf v_1}g_1,g_2,g_3;{\mathbf w_1}u_1,u_2,u_3),
\end{equation}
where ${\mathbf v_1},{\mathbf w_1}$ are arbitrary fixed group elements.
This transformation is clearly a symmetry of the pure gravity action
(\ref{a6pure}).
This symmetry is, however, broken by the insertion of a mass term and only the
transformation
\begin{equation}
\phi(g_1,g_2,g_3;u_1,u_2,u_3)
\rightarrow
\phi({\mathbf v_1}g_1,g_2,g_3;{\mathbf v_1}u_1,u_2,u_3),
\end{equation}
preserves the action (\ref{a6}).
\subsection{A direct generalisation}
The model we presented in section \ref{sec:model} produces mass
insertions in different faces of the spin foam 2-complex by
application of the operator $K_\theta$ in the 1st argument of the
field, carrying the gravity variable $g_1$. Because of permutation
symmetry, the fact that one has chosen the 1st argument of the
field for inserting a mass parameter and not, say, the 2nd is
irrelevant, as one can easily convince oneself. Still, one may
find the fact that a mass parameter is inserted in only -one- of
the arguments of the field a bit unsatisfactory, for symmetry
reasons. Here we want to discuss briefly what happens when one
relaxes this condition. The result is that one can write down a
generalised version of the model presented above, that is, however,
basically equivalent to it, and leads to the same type of graphs
being generated.
One can consider defining a generalised kinetic term with matter
insertions, defined using a sum of operators
$K_\theta(1)$, $K_\theta(2)$, $K_\theta(3)$, each $K_\theta(i)$
inserting a mass parameter in the i-th argument of field, thus
having as kinetic term an operator with the structure $I
-\mathfrak{a}(K_\theta(1) + K_\theta(2) +K_\theta(3))$. It is obvious that
a model like this would generate exactly the same type of graphs
and amplitudes as the one we have defined above. It is also easy
to realise that, once such an operator is introduced, there will
be graphs in which the insertion of a $K_\theta(1)$ and a
$K_\theta(2)$, say, in different propagators would produce the
same amplitude that would have been generated by the use in the
kinetic term of an operator of the form $K_\theta(1,2)$, i.e. an
operator inserting a mass parameter in both the 1st and 2nd
arguments of the field at once; and indeed one could generalise
further the kinetic term to an operator of the form: $I - \mathfrak{a} (
K_\theta(1) + K_\theta(2) +K_\theta(3)) - \mathfrak{b} (  K_\theta(1,2) +
K_\theta(2,3) +K_\theta(1,3))$. Carrying this line of reasoning
even further, one is led to the kinetic term:
     \begin{equation}\label{genk}
     {\cal K} = I- \mathfrak{a}(K_\theta(1) + K_\theta(2) + K_\theta(3)) -
     \mathfrak{b}(K_\theta(1,2) + K_\theta(2,3) + K_\theta(1,3)) -
     \mathfrak{c} K_\theta(1,2,3) \equiv I-K_{total},
     \end{equation}
where the $K_\theta(1,2,3)$ is defined as the operator
inserting a mass parameter in all the first three arguments of the
field. Again, this generalised kinetic term leads to the same kind of Feynman graphs
 and amplitudes, as it is easy to verify.
 In fact the structure of the amplitudes is determined by the property $K_\theta(i)^2=1$,
 as we have explained, so it is enough for each mass insertion produced by the
operators $K_\theta(i,j)$ and $K_\theta(i,j,k)$ to satisfy that
property in order for the resulting amplitude to be of the form we have
described. Of course, the normalisation factors for the amplitudes
are going to be different from those of the simpler model
presented in section \ref{sec:model} and it will depend in general
on three {\it different} coupling constants $\mathfrak{a}$,
$\mathfrak{b}$ and $\mathfrak{c}$. This gives additional freedom that may well turn out
to be useful in some situation.

It is interesting to note that there are several choices of coupling constant that lead to further
simplifications.
For example, one can show that in order for the added terms to satisfy $(K_{total})^2 \propto I$, then one needs to
choose
     \begin{equation}\label{con}
     \mathfrak{a}=0,\quad \mathfrak{b}=0,\quad \mathrm{or}\quad  \mathfrak{b}=0,\quad \mathfrak{a}+\mathfrak{c}=0,
     \end{equation}
that is
     \begin{equation}\label{kin}
     {\cal K}  =  I - \mathfrak{c} K_\theta(1,2,3),\quad \mathrm{or}\quad  {\cal K}  =  I - \mathfrak{a}\left(
     K_\theta(1) + K_\theta(2) + K_\theta(3)- K_\theta(1,2,3)\right).
     \end{equation}
Finally, a  simple and highly symmetrical choice is
     \begin{equation}\label{symk}
\begin{split}
     {\cal K} &= (I - \mathfrak{a} K_\theta(1))(I - \mathfrak{a} K_\theta(2))(I - \mathfrak{a} K_\theta(3))\\
&= I- \mathfrak{a}(K_\theta(1) + K_\theta(2) + K_\theta(3)) +
     \mathfrak{a}^2(K_\theta(1,2) + K_\theta(2,3) + K_\theta(1,3)) -
     \mathfrak{a}^3K_\theta(1,2,3).
\end{split}
     \end{equation}
Since the $(I - \mathfrak{a} K_\theta(i))$  commute, we can easily compute
the propagator
\begin{equation}
{\cal P} = \frac{(I + \mathfrak{a} K_\theta(1))(I + \mathfrak{a} K_\theta(2))(I + \mathfrak{a} K_\theta(3))}{(1-\mathfrak{a}^2)^3}.
\end{equation}
It is not clear at the present stage, however, which specific properties one should ask the gft propagator to
fulfill.
\subsection{Alternatives}
After having discussed some possible generalisations of the
proposed model leading to very similar structures, we would like
to discuss two genuine alternatives to it. One based on a much
simpler action constructed inserting a mass parameter in the
simplest way in the usual 3-argument field, leading however to a
problematic structure for the Feynman amplitudes, and thus showing
the need for the 6-argument extension on which we have based our model.
The other keeps the same structure of the model presented in
section \ref{sec:model}, but inserts the mass parameter by means
of a modification of the interaction term in the gft action,
instead of the kinetic one. As we will show, this modification is
completely harmless.
Consider first a three argument field, the same on which the
Boulatov model is based, and insert the mass parameter $h_{\theta}$ and the
velocities for the relevant particles $u_i$ in the 1st argument of
the field. The model we obtain is therefore realised by
forgetting about the presence of the $u_i$ variables in the extra
slots of the generalised field used in the model presented in
section \ref{sec:model}. The action is then:
\begin{equation}\label{a3}
\begin{split}
S[\phi]=
\frac{1}{2}\int \prod_{i=1}^{3}dg_i du_1\;
\bigl(\ft{g}{1}{2}{3}&\ft{g}{1}{2}{3} -\mathfrak{a}
\;\ft{g}{1}{2}{3}\phi(u_1h_\theta u_1^{-1}g_1,g_2,g_3)\bigr)\\
&+\frac{\lambda}{4!}\int \prod_{i=1}^{6}dg_i \;
\ft{g}{1}{2}{3}\ft{g}{4}{5}{3}\ft{g}{4}{2}{6}\ft{g}{1}{5}{6}.
\end{split}
\end{equation}
The Feynman rules for this action can be read out easily, and the
amplitudes constructed in the usual way. The kinetic operator is:
     \begin{equation}\label{k3op}

     {\cal K}(g_i,\bar{g}_j) = \prod_{i=1}^{3}
\dk{g}{i}{\bar{g}}{i}

     -\mathfrak{a} \, \int du_1\;\dkm{u}{1}{g}{1}{\bar{g}}{1}
\prod_{i=2}^{3} \dk{g}{i}{\bar{g}}{i}
     \equiv I-\mathfrak{a} K_\theta,
     \end{equation}
while the interaction operator is the usual Boulatov one. It is
easy to see from the expression for the kinetic operator, that the
mass-inserting operator does not satisfy any property like
$(K_\theta)^2=I$ anymore. Instead, its square gives:
\begin{equation}
(K_\theta)^2= \int du_1\,d\tilde{u}_1 \delta(\tilde{u}_1 h_\theta
     \tilde{u}_1^{-1}u_1 h_\theta u_1^{-1} g_1\bar{g}_1^{-1} )
\prod_{i=2}^{3} \dk{g}{i}{\bar{g}}{i}.
\end{equation}
This makes the propagator much more complicated, being
given by:
\begin{equation}
{\cal P}(g_i,\bar{g}_j)= I +\sum_{n> 0}(\mathfrak{a} K_\theta)^n,
\end{equation}
resulting in considerably more arduous Feynman diagrammatics. An
example of an amplitude of this model, for a typical dual face
is:
\begin{equation}
A(f^*)= \delta(G_{f^*} u_{a_1} h_\theta u_{a_1}^{-1}\times \dots
\times u_{a_n} h_\theta u_{a_n}^{-1}),
\end{equation}
for $n$ less than the number of edges bounding the dual face
$f^*$.
We see that  there is no \lq multiple mass cancellation'
anymore, and we end up having multiple mass insertions on each
face, in the typical Feynman diagram, each of which is associated
to a different $SU(2)/U(1)$ velocity element. There is a possible
physical interpretation of the resulting configuration, which is
in terms of multi-particle states. In other words, we would have
more than one particle with a given mass associated to a dual face
and so to an edge of the triangulation. We are not in the position
of being able to exclude  this interpretation, or definitely
reject the model that generates these configurations altogether;
however, we feel that such an interpretation is problematic for at
least two reasons: 1) it would imply that more than one particle
is propagating along the same link of the triangulation, so they
would be located at the same point in the manifold and interact
together with other (multi-)particles at the vertices of the
triangulation; most important, 2) interpreting the particle
configurations in the triangulation as Feynman graphs of some
effective field theory would become much less straightforward than
for the model proposed in section \ref{sec:model}, and applying
any procedure to extract this effective field theory, like that
used in \cite{PR3}, to the amplitudes generated by this \lq
simplified' model would be quite cumbersome, if at all possible.
We note that the same problem of \lq multiple mass insertions' is
generated by most other modifications of the structure of the
model presented in section \ref{sec:model}, affecting the 3 extra
arguments of the field, i.e. the $u_i$ variables.  Such
modifications lead to losing the property $(K_\theta)^2=I$ which is
responsible for \lq mass cancellation' in the dual faces when the
operator is inserted more than once, and that leads to the
presence of only one mass in each dual face, and furthermore, to consistency with the
interpretation of the mass-labelled graphs in the triangulation as
Feynman graphs of a field theory.

We conclude by mentioning instead a harmless modification of the
model, that may even turn out to be useful in
future studies. One can keep the structure of the field to be a
function of 6 arguments, and one can keep the same form for the pure
gravity action based on this 6 argument field, but choose to
insert a mass parameter not in the kinetic term but in the
interaction term of the group field theory action. The group field
theory action would then be:
     \begin{equation}
     \begin{split}
     S[\phi]=

     &\frac{1}{2}\int \prod_{i=1}^{3} dg_i\,du_i
     [P_{\alpha}P_{b}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}][P_{\bar{\alpha}}P_{\bar{b}}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}]\\

     &+\frac{\lambda}{4!}\int\prod_{i=1}^{6}dg_i\,du_i
[P_{\alpha_1}P_{b_1}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}]
     [P_{\alpha_2}P_{b_2}\fs{g}{u}{4}{5}{3}]\\
     &\hphantom{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}\times[P_{\alpha_3}P_{b_3}\fs{g}{u}{4}{2}{6}]
     [P_{\alpha_4}P_{b_4}\fs{g}{u}{1}{5}{6}]\\
     &+\frac{\lambda}{4!}\int\prod_{i=1}^{6}dg_i\,du_i\;\mathfrak{a}
[P_{\theta}P_{\alpha_1}P_{b_1}\fs{g}{u}{1}{2}{3}]
     [P_{\alpha_2}P_{b_2}\fs{g}{u}{4}{5}{3}]\\
     &\hphantom{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}\times[P_{\alpha_3}P_{b_3}\fs{g}{u}{4}{2}{6}]
     [P_{\alpha_4}P_{b_4}\fs{g}{u}{1}{5}{6}].
     \end{split}
     \end{equation}
As we have anticipated, however, it is straightforward to verify
that this action leads to the same type of Feynman graphs and
amplitudes that one gets instead by modifying the kinetic term,
the only difference being that one would get a different
normalisation factor, in front of each amplitude.

\section{Conclusions}
We have defined a new group field theory for 3-dimensional
Riemannian quantum gravity, and constructed its perturbative
expansion in Feynman diagrams. These diagrams correspond to spin
foam 2-complexes describing quantum gravitational degrees of
freedom dual to 3d triangulations, as in the Boulatov model,
but they also carry additional labels which describe massive spinless
particles propagating in the spacetime one reconstructs from the
gravity degrees of freedom.
They have  the interpretation of
Feynman graphs for a scalar field theory embedded in the
triangulation representing spacetime. The amplitudes for these
diagrams have exactly the form obtained in \cite{PR1} from
classical considerations, i.e. are given by the Ponzano-Regge model
coupled to massive spinless particles, and are shown in \cite{PR3} to
admit an effective (non-commutative) scalar field theory
description, confirming the above physical interpretation.

The model presented possesses some quite non-trivial and interesting
features, that we highlighted in the paper, and that deserve
further analysis.
This represents a first step in a program of analysing the
coupling of matter and gauge fields to quantum gravity in the
group field theory approach. The next steps would be first of all
the inclusion of spin degrees of freedom and the construction of a
group field theory reproducing the amplitudes given in \cite{PR1}
for massive spinning particles. Second, one should develop the study of the
gft observables in the presence of particles and its relation with spin networks with open ends.
Next, one would like to show how
the effective field theory picture for the particle degrees of
freedom can be obtained directly, and possibly in a simpler way,
from the group field theory formulation. Finally, the problem of the
coupling of gauge fields and the description of their interaction
with both gravity and matter fields, again in the group field
theory formalism, should be tackled.

To conclude, as we mention in the text, one of the most pressing issues for our model and the Boulatov model is
 to understand whether there are symmetries at the gft level that justify the gauge fixing
needed at the level of the Feynman graphs to reproduce physical 3d gravity amplitudes.
This is necessary in order to promote this type of gft to a fundamental model of three dimensional gravity
coupled to matter.

{\bf Acknowledgments:} We would like to thank K. Krasnov for keeping us informed of his progress and PI
for an invitation which initiated this collaboration. J.R. would like to
thank the occupants of room B0.10 for correcting innumerable typos.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


It is beyond the capability of this aging wordsmith to come up with a simple summary of the eventful and productive life of a brilliant but complex man, who was also a good friend to so many and accomplished so much in the mountains of North America. Hans was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria (the same place where Adolf Hitler had been born a long generation earlier), and moved to Canada in 1951. After a few rocky years, Hans started guiding, following somewhat in the footsteps of his fellow countryman, Conrad Kain, another long generation earlier. In concert with fellow Austrian expatriate, Leo Grillmair, he developed the idea of using helicopters to gain access to the better skiing above timberline. This was the beginning of a whole industry that now features a great number of competitive off-shoots and mountain chalets, while providing gainful employment to hundreds of guides in the mountains of Western Canada.
It was Brookie Dodge, son of the White Mountains' legendary Joe Dodge, who first brought moneyed American skiers to the Bugaboos, thus giving credence to this novel approach to better skiing. As time went on, Hans found he also needed further employment for his guides and arranged for summer activities, culminating in the 1970s with the formal establishment of heli-hiking, a program that now uses most of the seven Canadian Mountain Holidays backcountry lodges as bases for bringing hundreds of new people to see and enjoy the beauty of alpine regions every summer. To some purists, who may think the world's mountains are personal property, this process was anathema, but to the many thousands who were thus enabled to appreciate the beauty—and the need for the protection—of the world's mountains, Hans's most famous lifework has thus been an enormous service to the cause of mountain protection and conservation.
Besides his work as founder of Canadian Mountain Holidays, Hans led numerous great ascents, from the Yamnuska of the Frontal Rockies to the Wickersham Wall of Denali. He was also one of the very few non-native-borns to be elected to the Order of Canada and honored during his lifetime with honorary membership in the Alpine Club of Canada, the honorary presidency of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides, and honorary membership in the UIAGM; and—in death—with a full-page obituary in Canada's national newspaper.
I first met Hans when he visited Fairy Meadow in 1957 with some friends, who have also now crossed the final divide. It was a difficult introduction for two "Type A" persons, but we both survived it. He then visited us in his promotional travels, and was interviewed on television several times by my wife, Kitty. In due course, I was tabbed as an "arm's-length" investor to meet a requirement of Canadian revenue rules. This turned out to be the best use of $5,000 I ever made. At about that time, he asked me if I could conjure up a few first ascents that he could offer to summertime clients. So, I did that for 10 years—mostly in the Frontal Ranges of the Canadian Rockies. With various accompanying personages—often malamutes—I would visit the Gmoser home in Harvie Heights, either coming or going to the hills, and was always welcomed, generally with some fine Scotch, which Hans kept around for my pleasure. I sort of grew up with his two boys, Conrad and Robson (the fruit of his marriage in 1966 to Margaret MacGougan), who all visited with me at Battle Abbey (our "home for geriatric alpinists," which they helped build) on many occasions, in summer and winter.
Hans's most notable trait was his invariable custom of standing back from the limelight and giving credit to others, some of whom deserved it. Besides all that, Hans Gmoser was the finest gentleman this writer has ever met.


Global markets are in midst of a severe sell off. We are in a terrible bear market, and the question we need to ask – Is this the repeat of bear market of 2000-2002?
The answer is may be YES.
o It then took 8 months for the market to slide to 200 week moving average. The price correction was 36% and it happened between Feb 2000 and October 2000.
o The market then tumbled below 200 week moving average in March 2001.
o The market sharply tumbled 30% on break below 200 week moving average.
o Time Correction – It took 29 months for market to recover once market slipped below 200 week ma. It was a painful slow recovery.
o Every rally below 200 week ma got arrested at 200 week ma during those 29 months of recovery.
o The bull market resumed when market finally broke out above 200 week ma in August 2003.
Ironically now, a similar story is getting played out in 2008. FYI – 200 week moving average = 3648. This level also coincides with 50% retracement of bull run from 920 to 6300.


How do you relate to the meaning of mindfulness in your daily life?
For me, mindfulness is almost a constant. Through thorough introspection and many years of self-enquiry, I have come to learn that the only way one can achieve happiness, health and success is through mindful awareness of where we are, what we're doing and generally what's going on within us at any given time. I have developed a kind of quiet observer that watches over all of the happenings within my body/mind and the rise and fall of thoughts, emotions and physical sensations.
This quote basically sums up how I relate to mindfulness and its importance on a daily basis and is the optimum place of full conscious awareness that I wish to be in as much as possible.
What are the challenges of becoming more mindful?
Desire, the attachment and aversion to any given place, circumstance, person or experience is the challenge of becoming more mindful. When we either try to escape or cling to anything that is not actually happening right now then we create a split in our body/mind and this then takes us out of the present moment. This then instigates numerous physiological, psychological and emotional responses which can easily flood our awareness and cause us (pure consciousness) to become lost and overrun, thus becoming partly unconscious and losing mindfulness.
For many years this situation posed a real challenge for me. I have always loved spiritual/energy practices that increase one's wellbeing, removes stress and creates inner peace etc. Yet from the standpoint of pure consciousness, to engage in these practices is to wish that the present moment was different than it actually was!
For a long time, I oscillated between practice and following the path of Zen or Advaita, from what seemed like a linear to a circular way of being. One way said that everything that we need is already here and that all we need do is to realize our own true nature and all will be well. The other said that there is a path to becoming fully conscious or enlightened and practices would allow one to walk this path eventually arrive at the goal. Yet neither of these ways brought me any lasting peace or gave me what I sought and it wasn't until I learned the combination of these two seemingly opposing paths that I began to see the way open for me.
What I eventually found as I grew was that if I stopped attaching specific desires to the outcome of my practices and understood that no matter how much I practice or what practices I do I can never change or affect my true nature and that I was already free, then the benefits of the practices started to become much easier to reach. Basically, I realised that practices were never going to 'save me' and indeed nothing I could ever do was going to either - because I don't need saving!
So there's the true me, the pure consciousness that is completely open and unaffected by anything that happens within it and then there is me that enjoys the things I enjoy. From this standpoint even the most advanced and esoteric 'achievements' possible such as living 500 years, levitating, growing the foetus of the Soul and travelling to other dimensions (advanced Taoist practices) could all be seen even as temporary and fleeting themselves even if they lasted for a million years because that which is observing it all is beyond it completely… Anyway, I digress slightly but this is what mindfulness has done for me.
What is the influence of mindfulness on physical or psychological health?
Because mindfulness allows us to see clearly and to detach from desired or specific outcomes it has a huge potential for positively influencing our physical or psychological health. Mindfulness allows us to begin to 'See Clearly'.
It is this clear seeing alone that would enable people to realize that much of their suffering from physical or psychological problems are brought about by their own actions or destructive thought patterns. Then with the help of mindfulness, and by applying new behaviors and thought patterns without attachment to desired outcomes, they would then start to enable true and lasting change in their life experiences.
How might the challenges to developing more mindfulness be met?
The simplest way to remind ourselves to be mindful is to practice daily some form of mediation which involves just observation of the breath or similar. A friend of mine once went on a mindfulness retreat with Thich Naht Hahn at Plum Village in France and they taught to use everyday things to bring us back into the present moment and into mindfulness such as the sound of a text message, the doorbell etc.
There is definitely some work to do here also because we must learn to face what is here, for in order for us to dwell happily in the present moment we need to clear it out of clutter. Like a garden that has been allowed to become overgrown due to neglect, our own body/mind has accumulated knots, blocks and suffering that can gradually be removed and undone through the application of the pure light of consciousness.
Along the way, this process can be made easier and infinitely more enjoyable if we introduce some form of moving mindfulness such as Qigong or Tai Chi or other body/mind work.
Without a doubt, the single most powerful benefit of developing mindfulness is the freedom and development that will naturally arise... You will begin to release the various illusions and misunderstandings that have accumulated over the years and your true inner potential will start to unfold.
Dan has spent the last 20 years of his life travelling the world and studying the principles of happiness, health, prosperity and freedom within many different cultures and had the opportunity to learn from many masters. He has delved deep into what makes us tick and has now made it his life's work to bring his knowledge and experience to the world with one mission: To inspire others and lead them onto their true life path - creating a better world for all!
Dan is a certified Wellness coach, a master practitioner of NLP, teacher of Qigong and Taoist meditation, and practices Reiki at master level, along with other energy healing techniques.