Janet Jackson’s doing itJeff Goldblum’s doing it. Now Cardi B has purred her way into ASMR. 

In a tingly new interview with W Magazine, the rapper kicks your autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) into overdrive by stroking and whispering into the microphones, and playing with a fluffy rug and toddler toy. 

It is alarmingly stimulating, but also a genuine interview that delves into the success of her commercial debut single “Bodak Yellow,” her debut album Invasion of Privacy, and the difficulties of working during her pregnancy.

But the real highlight? You’ve never heard Cardi B deliver her signature “okurr” like this.  Like what you hear? Check out the rest of W Magazine’s ASMR interviews with celebrities like Aubrey Plaza and Melissa Benoist. Read more…

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Get ready for the Alexa headphone explosion.

Up till now, there haven’t been too many headphones that integrate Amazon Alexa. There are certainly some you can buy — from high-end noise-canceling cans that fit over the ears to true-wireless models — but even when Alexa is present, its abilities are limited to a subset of what it can do on an Echo smart speaker.

That’s about to change in a big wayQualcomm has developed an audio chipset specifically for headphones to integrate digital assistants like Alexa, and a reference design that incorporates the technology: a neckband-style pair of headphones lets you call up Amazon’s digital assistant at the touch of a button. Read more…

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Sarah Silverman used to let Louis C.K. masturbate in front of her, she told Howard Stern in an interview on Monday.

While C.K. has been somewhat eviscerated for doing the same thing to other women, as per a New York Times story last year which he later admitted to, Silverman said she let the comic masturbate in her presence consensually when they were in the early part of their careers.

“Listen, I don’t know if I’m going to regret saying this, but I’ve known Louis forever. I’m not making excuses for him — please don’t take this that way,” Silverman told Stern, according to a transcript from Vulture. Read more…

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This is You Won’t Regret It, a new weekly column featuring recommendations, tips, and unsolicited advice from the Mashable culture team.

Making my bed was the one chore I hated the most, but I’ve learned that it’s one of the best tools to tackle my depression. 

Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to leave the house until I made my bed. My mother would inevitably catch me at the front door, one shoe on, and ask whether or not my bed was made. When I mumbled out a reluctant “no,” she would march me back to my unkempt bedroom and wait at in the doorway until I haphazardly tossed the comforter and pillows in place. I was perpetually late to study groups, slumber parties, and even the train because I always had to make my bed last minute.  Read more…

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YouTube wants its creators to know that the company hears them loud and clear.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki published her latest letter to creators on Monday, discussing the company’s priorities for the rest of the year. While the bulk of the letter covered the threat Article 13 in the EU poses on the YouTube community, Wojcicki also snuck in a slew of major updates for its content creators.

Going forward, YouTube will be improving its communications with creators, according to Wojcicki. YouTube has a bit of a reputation for not always being transparent, often leaving many in the dark when it comes to platform upgrades. The company says it will provide regular updates through its Twitter account and Creator Insider YouTube channel, as well as through the new YouTube Studio.  Read more…

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The crooks definitely haven’t forgotten. 

Despite a rash of publicity last year warning Tesla owners of the risk, yet another unlucky individual appears to have fallen victim to a so-called relay attack — losing his pricey electric car in the process. In surveillance video published to YouTube (embedded below), it seems thieves can be seen amplifying the signal from the car owner’s key fob (located inside his home) in order to trick the vehicle into thinking the fob was present. 

And, after initially struggling but finally succeeding to unplug the charging vehicle, the two car thieves manage to drive away.  Read more…

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YouTube is sounding the alarms at the highest level over new controversial copyright legislation in the EU.

In a new blog post updating YouTube creators on the company’s priorities for the remainder of the year, CEO Susan Wojcicki focused on Article 13 of the European Union Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. 

While there are a number of problematic parts to this new legislation, such as Article 11 — which the EFF described as akin to a “link tax,” requiring internet platforms “to obtain a license before linking to news stories” — YouTube is putting the spotlight on Article 13, which has been widely referred to as a “meme ban.” Read more…

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In the deep, dark Southern Ocean encircling Antarctica lies a creature so bewildering and elusive, it hasn’t been filmed for a year. 

Behold, the ‘headless chicken monster,’ which has been filmed casually swimming near East Antarctica, the first time it’s been filmed in the region. 

Except that it’s not headless, a chicken, or a monster. It’s a sea cucumber.

Deep-sea resident Enypniastes eximia, also known as the ‘headless chicken monster’ to undeniably hilarious scientists, has been filmed in the Southern Ocean. Read more…

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Hollywood has a long history of straight actors playing LGBTQ roles, and it’s something Cate Blanchett has defended.

The Australian actress played a lesbian woman in 2015 film Carol, and according to the Hollywood Reporter, she had never been asked about her sexuality until she played an LGBTQ character. 

Blanchett disagrees with the notion that an actor should have lived the experience of the character they play, saying that it defies the whole point of acting.

“It also speaks to something that I’m quite passionate about in storytelling generally, but in film specifically, is that film can be quite a literal medium,” she said at the Rome Film Festival. Read more…

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The Super Nintendo really was far ahead of its time.

Bertrand Fan, a senior engineer for the messaging and chat application Slack, recently came across an interesting find. During the mid-’90s in Japan, Nintendo released a satellite modem peripheral for its SNES game console (called the Super Famicom over there).

Known as the Satellaview, Nintendo would beam daily broadcasts to gamers’ consoles. According to Fan, Nintendo actually did this for years, broadcasting content over Satellaview every day from April 1995 to June 2000. 

This gave Fan an idea. “If you can beam satellite signals to a SNES, you can probably run Slack on it,” the engineer said in a post. So, that’s what Fan set out to do. Read more…

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