Sadomasochism has always had a disastrous image in the media, and generally when a scandal associated with BDSM appears in the press it’s normally the result of a misunderstanding. However, the case with Mood Pictures productions of Budapest seems to be different and more sinister, if it is confirmed that they in fact did not respect the safe word of their models … This two-part article describes the event and its controversial implications

Sadomasochism has always been cast in a frim light in the mass media: an old proverb says, “people fear what they do not understand and destroy the thing they fear” … Thus, in many movies (eg the infamous ” 8 mm” starring Nicholas Cage) consensual BDSM fans have to swallow a bitter pill as sadomasochism is presented as something sick, something only psychopathic murderers like.

However, the fact is that there is very little crime associated with sadomasochism: just sporadic cases of complaints where someone has been masquerading as BDSM fan when in reality they were just pathological abuser, the proverbial wolf among lambs … But in general the world of BDSM is fairly quiet: word of mouth is key and if someone is considered dangerous, it´s not long before they become a persona non grata in the community.

There is a basic rule must always be fulfilled to the letter in any sadomasochistic relationship, whether personal or professional (eg shooting a porn movie). Violating it not only involves committing a crime but also commiting a terrible betrayal of trust… That rule is to respect the “safe word” agreed to in advance that the submissive part of a sadomasochistic scene can say to stop the session. And then the session stops.

Unfortunately, a few months ago in Budapest, an event which, if true (the case has still not gone to court), would be extremely serious and could do much damage to the BDSM community in Hungary. Hungarian police launched a series of dramatic arrests at the headquarters of the producer of sadomasochistic pornography “Mood pictures”, producer of the video series “ElitePain” and “Mood Castings”, because of a serious charge that they failed to honor the security wordof one of the actreses. BDSM makes headlines again for the worst reasons possible …

Soon we will give more details of the case: for now, knowing that it is already being investigated can rent apartments in Budapest and visit the porn capital of Europe with more peace of mind …

As any writer knows, the pain that comes from constantly typing is pretty intense, and hard to get rid of.
This is because of where the letters on a normal keyboard are positioned. They are basically structured in the most awkward way possible, and force hands to work in unnatural positions. So why are they still set up this way?

The answer lies in the invention of the typewriter. The arms of each letter needed to be thrown forwards hard enough to leave an ink print on the paper, and these arms had a nasty habit of getting tangled in each other when someone was typing fast. The letters on a standard QWERTY keyboard were designed to minimise arm-tangling, and our modern keyboards stick with this design purely out of habit.

Dvorak was a guy who realised that machines need to serve humans, rather than the other way around.

He developed a keyboard where the most commonly used letters are all on one line (the centre line) and eliminated the need to hit two keys in a row with the same hand, eliminating hand and wrist strain. The design takes a little getting used to, but once you have mastered the Dvorak keyboard, your typing speed usually increases by 100 to 200 per cent.

The crazy thing about the Dvorak keyboard is that it was invented all the way back in 1936.

Why don’t we all use it? In short, we are lazy. There is a good reason that Microsoft’s inferior products keep being used over the user-friendly Apple products: We use what we are given, get used to it, and call it good. Forever.

There’s no need to buy a new keyboard if you switch to Dvorak. You can install it in much the same way as you install/switch to a new language on your current keyboard. And it’s free. All modern operating systems (yes, including the good old Dancing Bears XP and Vista) include Dvorak and you can fiddle with the settings for about 60 seconds to change your keyboard. It takes a little longer to make tiny stickers for all your keys though!

You can even buy overlays (for a couple of bucks online) to place over your current keyboard to help you get used to it.

The bonus giggle comes when people help themselves to your computer. Watch them try to write anything that makes sense when you have made the switch to a new letter system.

Getting rid of carpal tunnel syndrome or increasing your typing speed probably doesn’t sound that exciting until your living depends on how many words you can crank out per hour. Freelance writing, anyone?

Interestingly, although Dvorak was born in the United States, his family is originally from the former Czechoslovakia. He, like so many brilliant scientists, has a strong musical talent and is even distantly related to the composer Antonin Dvorak. Renting apartments in Budapest may not help you learn the (infinitely better) Dvorak keyboard but it’s a great excuse to take a break in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.