Latest news with #Manson
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Matt Bellamy channels his inner Meshuggah with a wild new 8-string Manson model
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Matt Bellamy has tapped into his inner Meshuggah and delved deep into the world of extended range electric guitars by showing off his crazy new 8-string electric guitar – which takes center stage in a monstrous new Muse single. 'It's time,' Bellamy wrote in a new Instagram post that shows him clutching an all-new custom-built Manson Oryx, which recently experienced some on-stage action when Muse debuted their as-yet-unreleased new single, Unravelling. The Muse maestro and Manson Guitars owner is no stranger to experimentation – from building fuzz pedals and Koas pads into his signature guitars, to the mesmerizing mirror mask guitar that dropped last year – and now he's wading into unchartered waters again... for him, at least. The band have already dabbled with extended-range guitars. 2001 proto-prog banger Citizen Erased saw Bellamy dishing out drop A riffs. The song's sequel, The Globalist, found him churning through gritted low riffs, and 2022's Kill or be Killed had gung-ho riffwork in drop B. This time, he's going even lower. Unraveling had been teased on socials prior to the performance, with Bellamy hammering into the 8-string Manson while Chris Wolstenholme dons his LED-inlay-infused Status signature bass for the outing. Now, the track has received its visceral live debut. It's certainly no sugary pop ditty – and the new axe is largely to thank for that. Playing in Helsinki, Finland, the band gave fans a taste of the new era of Muse ahead of European headline slots at Hellfest, Pinkpop, Open'er, and Mad Cool later this summer. Even from a fan-filmed live clip, there's an unmistakable snarl to Bellamy's guitar tone and oodles of groove to the riff that merges a Tom Morello stomp with a Meshuggah-like grunt. The song tactfully plays off light and shade, the riff preluding its seismic chorus before finally giving way for djenty bridge and a stank face-inducing halftime outro that really makes use of the lower octaves. Unravelling will officially drop on June 20 but it's not yet clear whether the song is stand-alone or part of an upcoming album release. It has been three years since Will of the People, so a landmark 10th studio album from the stadium rockers is expected. Posting about the guitar itself, Manson reveals the Oryx has a bolt-on neck with a gloss finish to match the body, with its headstock sporting asymmetrical tuners with a 5-3 layout. It's also a shiny purple color, and has no inlays for a sleek look. Away from Muse, Bellamy has been sharpening his guitar design skills since becoming a majority shareholder of Manson Guitar Works in 2019. Outlining his vision for the firm, co-owner Adrian Ashton once told Total Guitar that he looks to harmonize innovation with playability. 'I find with a lot of wild guitars, it's the guitar itself that lets the show down,' he says. 'We always keep that as our core philosophy – whatever we do, no matter how wild it gets, it's still got to be a great guitar underneath it all.' That's led to Fuzz Factory-laced production models, with Sustainiac pickups and some dazzling finishes all populating Manon's latest M-Series models. The freshly launched Verona dropped after an exhaustive pickup design process, too. 'It had to capture that vintage clarity,' Bellamy said of the guitar's all-important neck pickup, 'and the clean, expressive tone that lives in Ry Cooder's slide work.' Knowing Bellamy, his flirtation with 8-strings won't be the only guitar-fuelled weirdisms to be devoured if a new album is happening.
Gulf Insider
7 days ago
- Health
- Gulf Insider
Vitamin D May Help Slow Cellular Aging, Study Finds
vitamin D supplementThe Reality Of Vitamin D SupplementationEvery morning, millions of people take a vitamin D supplement, thinking mostly about stronger bones and a healthier immune system. However, quietly, at the cellular level, something else may be happening—something that could change how we think about aging. A long-running study recently found that people who took daily vitamin D supplements for four years had slightly less shortening of their telomeres—a marker linked to cellular aging—than those who didn't. While experts caution that the real-world health benefits remain unclear, the findings could shed light on the protective effects of vitamin D on specific aging-related diseases, the study authors noted. The study, known as the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL), showed that people taking 2,000 IUs of vitamin D lost about 140 fewer base pairs from their telomeres than those taking a placebo—a small but statistically significant difference. Telomeres are regions of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that naturally shorten with age. Shorter telomeres have been linked to health risks like heart disease and Alzheimer's disease. The study findings suggest a promising role for vitamin D in slowing a pathway for biological aging and age-related chronic disease, Dr. JoAnn Manson, the study's coauthor and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in an email to The Epoch Times. Although the results are encouraging, Manson says more research is needed. 'Replication of these results in another randomized trial will be important before changing general guidelines for vitamin D intake.' Participants in the study started out with an average of 8,700 base pairs. Independent experts say the difference in loss of base pairs observed in the study is very small and falls within the range of normal fluctuation, meaning it may not translate into measurable real-world benefits. 'This 140-base-pair difference is like saying your hemoglobin went from 13.0 to 13.1,' said Dr. Mary Armanios, a professor of oncology and director of the Telomere Center at Johns Hopkins University. 'It trends in the right direction, but it doesn't carry clinical meaning.' 'It is only at the extremes that telomere length matters in aging,' she added. More broadly, Armanios cautioned against thinking of telomeres as a simple aging clock. While very short telomeres can signal aging-related disease, unusually long ones are not always better and have been linked to higher cancer risk, according to 2023 research from her group published in the New England Journal of Medicine. 'Most people fall in a healthy middle range, and that's exactly where we want to be,' she said. She also noted that the method used to measure telomere length—quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)—can be affected by lab factors like temperature and sample handling. These variables can make small differences unreliable. Among telomere testing methods, qPCR is the least reproducible. While some experts urge caution in interpreting the telomere data, Manson said the new findings align with earlier VITAL results. Those results showed that vitamin D reduced inflammatory markers and lowered the risk of advanced cancers and autoimmune diseases by improving immune function. Previous studies on vitamin D and telomere length have shown mixed results, including some that found no effect—or even a correlation between higher vitamin D levels and shorter telomeres. Guidelines from the National Academy of Medicine recommend 600 IU per day for most adults and 800 IU for those over 70. The Endocrine Society also recommends supplements for older adults, people with prediabetes, and others at higher risk of deficiency. 'Most professional societies do not recommend routine vitamin D screening or supplementation for the general population,' said Manson. However, certain groups—older adults, those with limited sun exposure or absorption issues such as Crohn's disease or celiac disease—may benefit from modest supplementation. Other studies have suggested that vitamin D may promote healthy aging in older people. The DO-HEALTH trial, a large European study in adults age 70 and older, found that daily 2,000 IU of vitamin D led to modest improvements in bone strength and infection rates—but not a reduction in new chronic diseases. Longer-term observational research, like Germany's ESTHER study, linked higher vitamin D levels with lower rates of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. However, as a nonrandomized study, it couldn't rule out confounding lifestyle factors. More large, diverse, and long-term trials are needed to determine who benefits most, at what dose, and for which outcomes. Vitamin D metabolism is tightly regulated by the body, so only small to moderate amounts are needed to support health. A 2,000 IU daily dose is safe, as demonstrated in the five-year VITAL trial, with no increased risk of side effects. Very large doses—over 10,000 IU per day—may lead to elevated calcium levels and potential toxicity, Manson noted. For now, experts agree that this latest analysis does not mean everyone should start taking vitamin D supplements to slow aging. 'Vitamin D has known benefits, like for bone health,' Armanios said, 'but telomere length shouldn't be the main reason to start taking supplements.' However, for those already taking vitamin D for bone, muscle, or immune support, the findings may offer one more reason to continue. Vitamin D is found in fortified foods such as milk, cereal, and orange juice, and in fatty fish like salmon and sardines. Moderate sun exposure also helps the body make its own supply. 'Although it's easier to pop a pill,' said Armanios, 'being active outdoors and eating a healthy diet will do far more to support long-term health.' Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition and public health at New York University, said the findings are intriguing but still require further confirmation and clarity on their clinical significance. In the meantime, she encouraged people to spend time outdoors when possible, noting that 'sunlight on skin is the best source of vitamin D, far superior to supplements—even if just for a few minutes a day.'
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Music reviews: Miley Cyrus, Garbage, and Keith Jarrett
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. ★★★ Something Beautiful is "another Miley Cyrus grab bag," veering from dream-pop balladry to clubby R&B to goth rock and more, said Mark Richardson in The Wall Street Journal. "That sounds like a criticism, but it's really not." With guest appearances that include Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes and Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cyrus' ninth album "goes places you would never expect." And despite a second half dominated by electronic dance tracks that waste Cyrus' vocal talents, her "willingness to confound" is welcome when so many other pop acts are content to be predictable. The "very grand claims" Cyrus has made about Something Beautiful ask us to consider it as a grand statement, said Alexis Petridis in The Guardian. She has called it an attempt to medicate a sick culture and has spun off a film billed as a pop opera that's actually "just a load of pop videos." The music itself, however, is "all very well written and well made," including that club-ready second half. Though a couple of tracks will chart, what this Miley venture lacks is "the kind of obvious smash-hit single by which her albums stand or fall commercially." ★★★ Garbage is "alt-rock royalty," and the band's eighth album reaffirms as much, said Neil Z. Yeung in AllMusic. "Confident and driven," it's "a potent rallying cry" for the fight against impending darkness, whether that's mortality or the erosion of American democracy. The songs were created when singer Shirley Manson, 58, was recovering from a second hip-replacement surgery, adding lyrics to her bandmates' instrumental tracks. The result is an album fueled by the quartet's "signature" blend of "jagged guitar riffs, elastic bass, precision drumming, and electronic-kissed atmospherics," all held together by "Manson's inimitable vocals." Since reuniting in 2010, this band born in the 1990s has issued "one rock-solid album after the next," said Andrew Sacher in Brooklyn Vegan. This one's "certainly fresh enough" to be mistaken for the work of the younger artists Manson has inspired, including Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo. While the record mines Garbage's "darker industrial side," Manson has made a point of moving on from 2021's No Gods No Masters by lacing her lyrics with more hope. "We could all use a little more of that energy right now." ★★★★ Is a fourth album harvested from a single 2016 European concert tour "too much of a good thing?" asked Mike Gates in UK Vibe. "Not when it's Keith Jarrett." New Vienna arrives as the celebrated pianist, who ceased performing after suffering strokes in 2018, turns 80 and observes the 50th anniversary of his landmark Köln Concert album. The performance recorded in an 1870 Vienna concert hall finds him "in spirited mood, shaping new music in the moment," music that's meaningfully different from what he played at other stops on the tour. This is Jarrett "in his perfect element: simply improvising the moment he takes the bench," said Michael Toland in The Big Takeover. Stringing together nine short pieces, he "hits onevery aspect of his multifaceted playing," opening with a blitz of staggering notes, then paying tribute to Viennese composers Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg with the "lush chords" of Part II. Part VIII's "bluesy runs and finger-snapping rhythm" take us "from the concert hall to the bawdy house." He closes with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," showing an inspiring ability to "draw new feeling out of familiar notes."
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
GP's 'unnecessary' genital exams on male patients
A former GP conducted "unnecessary" genital examinations on nine male patients, including young teenagers, a court has heard. Gregory Manson, 56, is alleged to have carried out the exams for complaints including coughs, headaches and knee sprains. His accusers said they did not recall him wearing gloves, offering a chaperone or giving "proper explanations" for the examinations before they took place. Appearing at Canterbury Crown Court on Monday, Dr Manson, of Tower Way, Canterbury, denied 18 offences of sexual assault and six of indecent assault. The court heard that he worked as a GP between 1994 and 2017, along with working as a GP trainer and programme director of GP training, and as a GP appraiser for the General Medical Council. The first complaint of sexual assault against him was filed to Canterbury Police in 2017, followed by an NHS England exercise which saw more alleged victims come forward. In a police interview, he said he had never touched a patient for improper or sexual purposes and said every examination was conducted for justified medical reasons, the court was told. Prosecuting, Jennifer Knight KC told jurors Manson also failed to document in patients' notes any potential findings or the fact such examinations had taken place at all. The first two alleged victims were brothers and both saw Manson before and after they were 16, the court heard. Both said they were told to pull down their trousers and boxer shorts during a number of examinations. Ms Knight said that the elder brother initially "assumed" this was necessary but had gradually become "uncomfortable". Their mother told investigators she never met Dr Manson when her sons were young teenagers as she would always stay in the waiting room, the court heard. Another alleged victim saw Dr Manson twice in 1999 when he was 35 and then 12 years later in 2011, each time with abdominal pain. On all three occasions, a genital examination was undertaken and, on both occasions in 1999, his underwear was removed without consent, the court heard. Dr Manson told police this had been necessary to check lymph nodes and femoral pulses in the victim's groin area. However, Ian Wall, a forensic medicine professor and GP, noted there would be no reason to do this, especially without permission. The trial continues. Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@ or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250. HM Courts & Tribunals Service
Edinburgh Live
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh's Shirley Manson backs Kneecap in free speech row as fans call for TRNSMT boycott
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Edinburgh-born singer Shirley Manson has backed Northern Irish hip hop trio Kneecap and called for free speech over Gaza after they were removed from the TRNSMT festival. Manson, 58, says she supports the band after they were ditched by the TRNSMT line-up due to safety concerns, reports The Daily Record. Describing the trio as 'decent young artists', the Garbage singer insisted they had a right to criticise an Israeli government which is accused of carrying out a genocide in Gaza. She said: 'Did Kneecap exercise the best judgment in their choice of words? 'I see why some people freaked out, but we all know deep down that they're decent young artists trying to affect change in some way and get us all to at least recognise that these people exist. 'While I sympathise with the fear and the historical suffering, the ancestral pain, I still don't understand how anyone can see what's going on in Gaza and not be crying out for it to stop.' She admitted that she could face a backlash for her support of the Belfast group. Manson said: 'I find it perplexing. I understand that's just a tactic to shut people up. 'Everyone's entitled to their opinion. If you're not physically hurting anyone, you're entitled to express it. 'What everyone is begging for is for the slaughter to stop and I don't see how anyone could argue against that, but they accuse us of being terrorist supporters. 'None of us are. 'If you cancel me, you cancel me… If you cancel us, I'll feel guilty that I've messed sh** up for my band, but I'd much rather be true to who I am as a human being, how I was raised by a family I'm very proud of.' Kneecap's removal from this summer's TRNSMT bill has led to calls from hundreds of music fans to boycott the festival. One fan, Laura, posted on X: 'Just sold my TRNSMT ticket. No Kneecap, no attendance. Not going to a festival that silences people for calling out a genocide.' Another, Rosanna Tarsiero, posted: 'Let's all just pull out of TRNSMT - forever.' Fearghas Kelly said: 'love the concept of boycotting TRNSMT. It's like boycotting ready salted crisps in a meal deal.' The Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee backed the boycott in a statement that said: 'TRNSMT say they are acting on 'police concerns' over 'public safety'. This is a spurious claim and a cowardly evasion by TRNSMT in seeking to remove the band and avoid responsibility for their own decision. Boycott TRNSMT.'
