Guelphism
Random word list:
spermatozoic
paranitrosophenol
Guelphism
Slovintzi
masque
Word chosen: Guelphism
Definitions:
1. a member of the political party in medieval Italy and Germany that supported the sovereignty of the papacy against the German emperors: opposed to the Ghibellines.
2. a member of a secret society in Italy in the early 19th century that opposed foreign rulers and reactionary ideas.
Free association word list:
Pope Bennedict
Modern Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
torture
waterboarding
interrogation
General Attorney
nomination
Senate
vote
approval
balance of power
unbalanced
spying
telecom industry
EFF
Steve Jackson Games
Secret Service
Word chosen: EFF
Writing:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation was started when Steve Jackson Games was erroneously raided by the Secret Service for things that they had nothing to do with. One of SJG’s authors was working on a role-playing supplement called “Cyberpunk” for the GURPS RPG. During the course of the author’s investigation, he came across plenty of information on hacking, phreaking, cracking software, and the people that do such things. Most of this went into the game as rules on running these situations. Turns out that the Secret Service thought it was a how-to manual, and raided SJG’s office.
SJG lost all of their computers, all of their in-process work, lots of equipment, and Steve Jackson damn near lost the company. He had to cut back so severely that he had to lay off half of his staff! In the end, SJG persevered, and is thriving quite well.
The EFF was the organization that helped bail SJG out of their legal troubles, and went after the Secret Service to get justice for SJG. Ever since those days in 1990-1991, the EFF has fought the battle to keep our electronic communication mediums open, honest, secure, and private from the prying eyes of the government.
I’ve been a moral supporter of their efforts for years and years, but I only recently joined the ranks of the monetary supporters since it was only recently that I was able to do so. I hope to be able to continue my membership with them for quite some time.
If you have any fears about privacy in our digital age, and what people are doing to protect that privacy, please check out the EFF. They’re a great group of people doing great things for this nation and its citizens.
Their web site is located at: http://www.eff.org/
