Eduard Punset
Eduard Punset i Casals is a Spanish politician, lawyer and science popularizer. He holds a degree in Law from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Master's in Economic Sciences from the University of London, he has been an economic writer for the BBC, economics director of the Latin American edition of the newsweekly The Economist, an economist for the International Monetary Fund in the United States and Haiti. As a specialist on the impact of emerging technologies, Punset has been a consultant to COTEC, Advising Professor of International Marketing at ESADE, president of the Instituto Tecnológico Bull, Professor of Innovation and Technology at the IE Business School in Madrid, President of ENHER, Deputy General Director of Economic and Financial Studies at the Banco Hispanoamericano, Coordinator of the Strategic Plan for the Information Society of the Government of Catalonia. Punset was the Minister of Finance in the Government of Catalonia from 1978 to 1980, taking part in the implementation of the State of the Autonomies in Spain.
He was a member of Adolfo Suárez's Union of the Democratic Centre, with which party he won a seat in the regional parliament in 1980 and in 1980-81 was the Minister of Relations with the European Communities in 1980-81. He was elected to the Spanish Congress in 1982 as an independent in the list of Convergence and Union for Barcelona province, but he resigned the next year; as president of the European Parliament's delegation to Poland, he supervised part of the process of economic transformation undertaken in Eastern countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall. When Spain joined the European Union, Punset was elected to the European Parliament as a member of Adolfo Suárez's Democratic and Social Centre in 1987 and 1989. Punset quit CDS in 1991, following Suárez's resignment, but remained an EP member until 1994. Punset is author of several books on social thought. At present he is Professor of Science and Society at the Faculty of Economics of the Chemical Institute of Sarrià. Since 1996, he has directed and presented Redes, a science programme based around interviews with leading scientists, aired on the TVE.
He is the president of the audiovisual production company smartplanet and Board member of Sol Meliá Hotels & Resorts. Punset was diagnosed with lung cancer in November 2007. "Honor Plaque" awarded by the Asociación Española de Científicos. Airtel Prize for Journalism awarded by the Fundación Vodafone. "José Manuel Porquet" Prize for Digital Journalism. "Galardón de la Psicología" awarded by the Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de la Región de Murcia. "Rei Jaume I" Prize for Journalism awarded by the Government of Valencia. Science and Technology Prize awarded by AEEPP, Asociación Española de Editoriales de Publicaciones Periódicas. Manel Xifra i Boada Prize awarded by the Col·legi d'Enginyers Tècnics Industrials de Girona. "Asociación Profesional Española de Informadores de prensa, radio y televisión: APEI-Catalunya" Prize. "Hombre CQ del Año" Prize for the Best Writer. "Mención de honor" by the Sociedad Española de Neurología. "Premios Zapping: Premio Humano" awarded by TVE. 2012 – "10 Most Influential Ibero American Intellectuals" of the year – Foreign Policy magazine.
El viaje a la felicidad: Las nuevas claves científicas Cara a cara con la vida, la mente y el universo Adaptarse a la marea. La selección natural en los negocios Manual para sobrevivir en el siglo XXI Information Resources and Corporate Growth La España impertinente España: sociedad cerrada, sociedad abierta La salida de la crisis RTVE official Web page for Redes Eduardo Punset's blog Eduard Punset on IMDb Skeptical commentary on Redes
Adolfo Suárez
Adolfo Suárez González, 1st Duke of Suárez, GE, KOGF, OCIII was a Spanish lawyer and politician. Suárez was Spain's first democratically elected Prime Minister since the Second Spanish Republic and a key figure in the country's transition to democracy after the military dictatorship of Francisco Franco; when Spain was still an autocratic regime, he was appointed Prime Minister by King Juan Carlos in 1976, hoping that his government could bring about democracy. At the time of his appointment, he was not a well-known figure, which made a lot of political forces sceptical about his government. However, he oversaw the end of the Francoist Cortes, the legalisation of all political parties, he won the 1977 general election. In 1981, he resigned and founded the party Centro Democrático y Social, elected to the Cortes numerous times, he retired from public life in 2003, due to Alzheimer's disease. Adolfo Suárez was the eldest son of Hipólito Suárez Guerra and Herminia González Prados, the brother of Hipólito, María del Carmen and José María.
He was born in Cebreros. He studied law at Salamanca University. Suárez held several government posts during the late Francoist State, he became the Minister Secretary General of the National Movement, a body that served as the sole political party in Spain for 38 years, a period that extended beyond the death of Franco in November 1975. At a rally just a month before Franco's death, Suárez was queried by the aging Caudillo on the political future of Spain and told him frankly that the Movement would not long survive Franco and that democratisation was inevitable. Suárez was appointed as the Prime Minister of Spain by King Juan Carlos on 3 July 1976, a move opposed by leftists and some centrists given his Francoist history; as a nationalist, he was chosen by the monarch to lead the country towards a democratic, parliamentary monarchy without annoying the powerful conservative factions in the nation. Surprising many observers and political opponents, Suárez introduced Political Reform in 1976 as a first, decisive step in the transition to democracy.
In 1977, Suárez led the Union of the Democratic Centre to victory in Spain's first free elections in 41 years, became the first democratically-elected prime minister of the post-Francoist Spain. Suárez's centrist government instituted democratic reforms, his coalition won the 1979 elections under the new constitution. Less successful as a day-to-day organiser than as a crisis manager, he resigned as Prime Minister on 29 January 1981. A month as parliament was taking a vote to confirm Suárez's replacement as Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, parliament was disrupted by the entrance of Lieutenant Colonel Tejero and his attempted coup; the 23-F coup attempt was defeated. In 1982, Suárez founded the Democratic and Social Centre party, which never achieved the success of UCD, though Suárez and its party were important elements in the Liberal International, joining it in 1988, leading to it being renamed Liberal and Progressive International, Suárez became President of the Liberal International in 1988.
He retired from active politics for personal reasons. In 1981, he was raised into the Spanish nobility by King Juan Carlos of Spain and given the hereditary title of "Duque de Suárez", together with the title Grande de España following his resignation as Prime Minister and in recognition of his role in the transition to democracy. Suárez was awarded the Príncipe de Asturias a la Concordia in September 1996 for his role in Spain's early democracy. On 8 June 2007, during the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the first democratic elections, King Juan Carlos appointed Suárez the 1,193rd Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, he was a member of the Club de Madrid, an independent organization, composed of more than 80 former democratic Prime Ministers and Presidents. The group works to strengthen democratic leadership. On 31 May 2005, Suárez's son, Adolfo Suárez Illana, announced on Spanish television that his father was suffering from Alzheimer's disease; the announcement followed speculation about Suárez's health in the Spanish media.
On 21 March 2014, his son announced. Suárez died as a result of a respiratory infection on 23 March 2014 in a clinic in Madrid. Suarez was buried in the cloister of Ávila Cathedral. Pope Francis, in an official telegram message of condolence, sent to the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Avila, Bishop Jesus Garcia Burillo, stated: "In fraternal suffrage with you all, I make fervent prayers to the Lord for the eternal rest of this esteemed and feature figure of the recent history of Spain." On 26 March 2014, the Spanish government decided to rename the Madrid-Barajas airport to Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas in honour of his service to the country. Suárez's wife, María del Amparo Illana Elórtegui, died from cancer on 17 May 2001, their elder daughter, María del Amparo Suárez Illana was the mother of two children, Alejandra Romero Suárez, herself the current holder of her grandfather's dukedom, Fernando Romero Suárez. The duke's middle daughter, was born in 1966. Suarez' youngest daughter, María Sonsoles Suárez I
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of two chambers: the Congress of Deputies and the Senate. The members of the Cortes are the representatives of the Spanish people; the Congress of Deputies meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, the Senate meets in the separate Palacio del Senado, both located in Madrid. The Cortes are elected through universal, equal and secret suffrage, with the exception of some senatorial seats, which are elected indirectly by the legislatures of the autonomous community; the Cortes Generales is composed of 616 members: 266 Senators. The members of the Cortes Generales serve four-year terms, they are representatives of the Spanish people. In both chambers, the seats are divided by constituencies that correspond with the fifty provinces of Spain, plus Ceuta and Melilla. However, the Canary and Balearic islands form different constituencies in the Senate; as a parliamentary system, the Cortes confirms and dismisses the Prime Minister of Spain and his or her government.
The Congress can dismiss the Prime Minister through a vote of no confidence. The Cortes holds the power to enact a constitutional reform; the modern Cortes Generales was created by the Constitution of Spain, but the institution has a long history. Its direct precedent were the Cortes Españolas of military dictator Francisco Franco; the system of Cortes arose in the Middle Ages as part of feudalism. A "Corte" was an advisory council made up of the most powerful feudal lords closest to the king; the Cortes of León was the first parliamentary body in Western Europe. From 1230, the Cortes of Leon and Castile were merged. Prelates and commoners remained separated in the three estates within the Cortes; the king had the ability to call and dismiss the Cortes, but, as the lords of the Cortes headed the army and controlled the purse, the King signed treaties with them to pass bills for war at the cost of concessions to the lords and the Cortes. With the reappearance of the cities near the 12th century, a new social class started to grow: people living in the cities were neither vassals nor nobles themselves.
Furthermore, the nobles were experiencing hard economic times due to the Reconquista. So the King started admitting representatives from the cities to the Cortes in order to get more money for the Reconquista; the frequent payoffs were grants of autonomy to the cities and their inhabitants. At this time the Cortes had the power to oppose the King's decisions, thus vetoing them. In addition, some representatives were permanent advisors to the King when the Cortes were not. Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Catholic Monarchs, started a specific policy to diminish the power of the bourgeoisie and nobility, they reduced the powers of the Cortes to the point where they rubberstamped the monarch's acts, brought the nobility to their side. One of the major points of friction between the Cortes and the monarchs was the power of raising and lowering taxes, it was the only matter. The role of the Cortes during the Spanish Empire was to rubberstamp the decisions of the ruling monarch. However, they had some power over economic and American affairs taxes.
The Siglo de oro, the Spanish Golden Age of arts and literature, was a dark age in Spanish politics: the Netherlands declared itself independent and started a war, while some of the last Habsburg monarchs did not rule the country, leaving this task in the hands of viceroys governing in their name, the most famous being the Count-Duke of Olivares, Philip IV's viceroy. This allowed the Cortes to become more influential when they did not directly oppose the King's decisions; some lands of the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre were self-governing entities until the Nueva Planta Decrees of 1716 abolished their autonomy and united Aragon with Castile in a centralised Spanish state. The abolition in the realms of Aragon was completed by 1716, whilst Navarre retained its autonomy until the 1833 territorial division of Spain, it is the only one of the Spanish territories whose current status in the Spanish state is linked with the old Fueros: its Statute of Autonomy cites them and recognizes their special status, while recognizing the supremacy of the Spanish Constitution.
Cortes existed in each of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre. It is thought that these legislatures exercised more real power over local affairs than the Castilian Cortes did. Executive councils existed in each of these realms, which were tasked with overseeing the implementation of decisions made by the Cortes. However, throughout the rule of the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties the Crown pressed for more centralization, enforcing a unitary position in foreign affairs and empowering Councils outside the control of the Cortes of the several Kingdoms. Thus, the Cortes in Spain did not develop towards a parliamentary system as in the British case, but towards the mentioned rubberstamping of royal decrees. Never
Provisional government of Catalonia
The Provisional government of Catalonia was the regional government of Catalonia led by President Josep Tarradellas between 1977 and 1980. It was formed in December 1977 following the restoration of the Generalitat de Catalunya, it ended in April 1980 following the regional election
OCLC
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Incorporated d/b/a OCLC is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs". It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online public access catalog in the world. OCLC is funded by the fees that libraries have to pay for its services. OCLC maintains the Dewey Decimal Classification system. OCLC began in 1967, as the Ohio College Library Center, through a collaboration of university presidents, vice presidents, library directors who wanted to create a cooperative computerized network for libraries in the state of Ohio; the group first met on July 5, 1967 on the campus of the Ohio State University to sign the articles of incorporation for the nonprofit organization, hired Frederick G. Kilgour, a former Yale University medical school librarian, to design the shared cataloging system.
Kilgour wished to merge the latest information storage and retrieval system of the time, the computer, with the oldest, the library. The plan was to merge the catalogs of Ohio libraries electronically through a computer network and database to streamline operations, control costs, increase efficiency in library management, bringing libraries together to cooperatively keep track of the world's information in order to best serve researchers and scholars; the first library to do online cataloging through OCLC was the Alden Library at Ohio University on August 26, 1971. This was the first online cataloging by any library worldwide. Membership in OCLC is based on use of services and contribution of data. Between 1967 and 1977, OCLC membership was limited to institutions in Ohio, but in 1978, a new governance structure was established that allowed institutions from other states to join. In 2002, the governance structure was again modified to accommodate participation from outside the United States.
As OCLC expanded services in the United States outside Ohio, it relied on establishing strategic partnerships with "networks", organizations that provided training and marketing services. By 2008, there were 15 independent United States regional service providers. OCLC networks played a key role in OCLC governance, with networks electing delegates to serve on the OCLC Members Council. During 2008, OCLC commissioned two studies to look at distribution channels. In early 2009, OCLC negotiated new contracts with the former networks and opened a centralized support center. OCLC provides bibliographic and full-text information to anyone. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the largest online public access catalog in the world. WorldCat has holding records from private libraries worldwide; the Open WorldCat program, launched in late 2003, exposed a subset of WorldCat records to Web users via popular Internet search and bookselling sites.
In October 2005, the OCLC technical staff began a wiki project, WikiD, allowing readers to add commentary and structured-field information associated with any WorldCat record. WikiD was phased out; the Online Computer Library Center acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System when it bought Forest Press in 1988. A browser for books with their Dewey Decimal Classifications was available until July 2013; until August 2009, when it was sold to Backstage Library Works, OCLC owned a preservation microfilm and digitization operation called the OCLC Preservation Service Center, with its principal office in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The reference management service QuestionPoint provides libraries with tools to communicate with users; this around-the-clock reference service is provided by a cooperative of participating global libraries. Starting in 1971, OCLC produced catalog cards for members alongside its shared online catalog. OCLC commercially sells software, such as CONTENTdm for managing digital collections.
It offers the bibliographic discovery system WorldCat Discovery, which allows for library patrons to use a single search interface to access an institution's catalog, database subscriptions and more. OCLC has been conducting research for the library community for more than 30 years. In accordance with its mission, OCLC makes its research outcomes known through various publications; these publications, including journal articles, reports and presentations, are available through the organization's website. OCLC Publications – Research articles from various journals including Code4Lib Journal, OCLC Research, Reference & User Services Quarterly, College & Research Libraries News, Art Libraries Journal, National Education Association Newsletter; the most recent publications are displayed first, all archived resources, starting in 1970, are available. Membership Reports – A number of significant reports on topics ranging from virtual reference in libraries to perceptions about library funding. Newsletters – Current and archived newsletters for the library and archive community.
Presentations – Presentations from both guest speakers and OCLC research from conferences and other events. The presentations are organized into five categories: Conference presentations, Dewey presentations, Distinguished Seminar Series, Guest presentations, Research staff
Marquess
A marquess is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The term is used to translate equivalent Asian styles, as in Imperial China and Imperial Japan. In the German lands, a margrave was a ruler of an immediate Imperial territory, not a nobleman like a marquess or marquis in Western and Southern Europe. German rulers did not confer the title of marquis; the word marquess entered the English language from the Old French marchis in the late 13th or early 14th century. The French word was derived from marche, itself descended from the Middle Latin marca, from which the modern English words march and mark descend; the distinction between governors of frontier territories and interior territories was made as early as the founding of the Roman Empire when some provinces were set aside for administration by the senate and more unpacified or vulnerable provinces were administered by the emperor. The titles "duke" and "count" were distinguished as ranks in the late empire, with dux being used for a provincial military governor and the rank of comes given to the leader of an active army along the frontier.
Several marquesses lived in Belgium, still today this title exists. The Marquis of Beauffort; the Marquis of la Boëssière-Thiennes the Marquis of Trazegnies d'Ittre the Marquis du Parc. the Marquis Imperiali. The Marquis of Radiguès; the Marquis of Ruffo de Bonneval de la Fare the Marquis of Spontin the Marquis of Assche the Marquis of Yve. the Marquis of Saint-Floris the Marquis of Becelaere the Marquis of Wemmel the Marquis of Bergen op Zoom the Marquis of Rode the Marquis of Lede Currently in Spain the rank of Marquess/Marchioness still exists. 142 of them are Spanish grandees. A'marqués is addressed as "Illustrious Lord", or if he/she is a grandee as "Your Excellency". Examples include 10th Marquis of Villaverde; the honorific prefix "The Most Honourable" is an honorific that precedes the name of a marquess or marchioness in the United Kingdom. In Great Britain and in Ireland, the correct spelling of the aristocratic title of this rank is marquess. In Scotland the French spelling is sometimes used.
In Great Britain and in Ireland, the title ranks below a duke and above an earl. A woman with the rank of a marquess, or the wife of a marquess, is called a marchioness in Great Britain and Ireland, or a marquise elsewhere in Europe; the dignity, rank or position of the title is referred to as a marquessate. The theoretical distinction between a marquess and other titles has, since the Middle Ages, faded into obscurity. In times past, the distinction between a count and a marquess was that the land of a marquess, called a march, was on the border of the country, while a count's land, called a county was not; as a result of this, a marquess was trusted to defend and fortify against hostile neighbours and was thus more important and ranked higher than a count. The title is ranked below that of a duke, largely restricted to the royal family; the rank of marquess was a late introduction to the British peerage: no marcher lords had the rank of marquess, though some were earls. On the evening of the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne explained to her why: I spoke to Ld M. about the numbers of Peers present at the Coronation, & he said it was quite unprecedented.
I observed that there were few Viscounts, to which he replied "There are few Viscounts," that they were an old sort of title & not English. Like other major Western noble titles, marquess is sometimes used to render certain titles in non-Western languages with their own traditions though they are, as a rule unrelated and thus hard to compare. However, they are considered "equivalent" in relative rank; this is the case with: In ancient China, 侯 was the second of five noble ranks 爵 created by King Wu of Zhou and is translated as marquess or marquis. In imperial China, 侯 is but not always, a middle-to-high ranking hereditary nobility title, its exact rank varies from dynasty to dynasty, within a dynasty. It is created with different sub-ranks. In Meiji Japan, 侯爵, a hereditary peerage rank, was introduced in 1884, granting a hereditary seat in the upper house of the imperial diet just as a British peerage did, with the ranks rendered as baron, count and duke/prince. In Korea, the title of 현후, of which the meaning is "marquess of district", existed for the hereditary nobility in the Goryeo dynasty.
It was equivalent to the upper fifth rank of nine bureaucratic orders, was in the third rank of six nobility orders. In the Joseon dynasty, there was no title equivalent to marquess. In Vietnam's Annamite realm / empire, hầu
Josep Irla
Josep Irla i Bosch was a Catalan businessman and politician. He was a deputy in the Parliament of Catalonia and the Spanish Congress in 1932, as an Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya affiliate, he was the last President of Parliament of Catalonia at the end of Republican Catalan resistance in the Spanish Civil War, before Francisco Franco abolished the Generalitat of Catalonia. He was elected President of the Parliament of Catalonia on 1 October 1938. In office, Irla pushed for cooperation with the allies, Basque nationalists and other anti-Francoist groups, though excluding the communists, he became the President-in-exile of the Generalitat. During his time as President-in-exile, he established a Government in exile, appointed Josep Tarradellas as Conseller en Cap, he resigned as President in 1954. Josep Irla i Bosch was born on 24 October 1874 in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Baix Empordà, he was the eldest of the three sons of Josep Irla i Rovira, Rita Bosch Anglada. His father was a laborer who opened a tavern known as Cas Romagué.
His younger brothers were Francesc and Nicolau with whom he always maintained a close relationship, sharing business and political activities. He worked in his father's inn, he studied at the Academy of Crafts. He did not follow any higher study, but through hard work and willpower obtained a assimilated self-education. Irla made his way into the world of business and politics. With his brothers, he began commercial activities from Sant Feliu de Guíxols, he created the company Josep Co. using the capital of the three brothers. From this base, they opened a factory of cork stoppers, extended over the years, they were consignees of boats and owned a schooner, with which they traded in wine and cork with Barcelona, acting as customs agents. In 1902, Irla married Florence Bas and Parent of Sant Feliu de Guixols and descendant of a family of workers; the couple had no children, but if they had two godchildren, daughter of peasants from a farm from Romanyà de la Selva, Lola Aimerich, a cousin, orphaned.
When Irla was young he identified with federal republicanism. He and his father were the drivers of the Catalan Republican Federal Center of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, they were members of the Masonic Lodge. His brother Francis was the leader of the weekly "The Program". Irla was a pioneer of the Catalan republicanism in the surrounding region. In 1905, in a municipal election, he was elected councilor of the Municipality of Sant Feliu de Guíxols as candidate of Republican Federal Center, he was second deputy member of the Government Commission. After several changes he became mayor and chaired the City Council from 1906 until 1910. During his term in office he highlighted creation of public services and works, social assistance, promotion of popular culture and an economically austere and portentous administration, faced to the damage suffered in the municipality during downpours suffered in 1908, he always followed all the events of the Catalan political life and defined a Catalan nationalist and progressive sense.
At the beginning of 1911, he participated in the establishment of the Republican Nationalist Federal Union, in the regions of Gerona and was president of the local branch. Following the death of his father provincial deputy, he was presented to the provincial election was called to fill the vacancy in the district of La Bisbal, he got the appointment without election for lack of opponents. In the provincial elections of 1913, he was chosen as deputy again, it happened on until 1923, with the arrival of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, provided by the District of La Bisbal. From his position as deputy, he gets involved in the government institution: the Commonwealth of Catalonia, he was a major contributor to the first president of the Commonwealth of Catalonia, Enric Prat de la Riba, after his death, he continued to occupy positions of great responsibility chaired by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. He was a member of the board of the Fund Credit Communal. With the liquidation of the institutions by the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera Irla focused on his business while maintaining some political activity.
He always maintained a certain political activity within the small scope of action of that period. After the defeat of the dictatorship, with the proclamation of the Republic he was appointed member of the Provisional Provincial Committee of Girona. After Catalan President Francesc Macià named him Commissioner Delegate of the Government of the Generalitat in Girona. In this position, he favored education and culture targeting the popular sectors, promoted the use of the Catalan language in administrations, renewed actions to the restoration of archaeological monuments, became interested in social work and developed public works, low cost but high impact on large sections of the population. In the elections for the Provincial Government of Catalonia, an organization was created to prepare and approve a draft statute for the autonomy of Catalonia. Irla and Lluís Companys were chosen vice presidents. Irla was involved in creating the draft statute of autonomy known as the Statute of Núria. On 9 September 1932, the Statute of Catalonia was approved definitively.
In early 1932, he created and directed the Federal Republican Party of the Baix Empordà, a county group created to formalize a collective commitment to the Republican Left of Catalonia, which he did in the First National Congress of this political formation. In the elections of the Par
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