Latest news about Games And Recreation and Health and more

You can keep your kids busy for hours inside your house without any need to send them outside. Design kids play room and stock it with plenty of board games, dart boards, strategy games; and nay kid will love it. You can even buy game tables which are available these days for many games. There are pool tables, air hockey tables, ping pong tables, chess, foosball tables and even multi game tables to keep your child involved with hectic activities. Multi game tables are designed such that one can play up to 13-14 games on that table. There are 3 in 1 or 4 in 1 tables also available. On these game tables, kids can play shuffleboard, dome hockey, bumper pool, poker and many more. There are many good brands which offer these combination game tables. Game tables are not only meant for young kids but even older kids and teenagers will love it.

Stores also stock home fitness equipment to build a make-shift gymnasium in your house. There are treadmills, dumbbells, and cycles, cross trainers, upright bikes, rowers and even home gym units. You can even buy kids fitness equipments from these stores. a habit of exercising should be inculcated into a child from an early age. This will help in their overall development.

I have a little box where I keep all of my cards, invites and other stationery and thought that it was about time that I had a good sort out and threw away some things form it as it will no longer shut because it is so full. The first thing, that I came across were a couple of spare baby shower invitations which were left over when I threw a small party after having my first child. I didn’t have the time or money to do one when I had my second and so my Mother kindly threw one for me! Then I came across birthday invitations for every party that I threw for my children.

I am afraid that these party invitations will be staying in my box as they are far too precious to get rid of. I did find a few oddly sized envelopes with no cards inside and some old blotting paper and yellowed writing paper so at least I got rid of a few things and the lid on my precious box nearly shuts now! I guess I should move these lovely things into a photograph album or something but it is lovely to have them hidden away in a box for me to discover in another few years and relive all those memories again.

My brother is into all things technical. His wife was complaining to me the other day that he has now been buying even more equipment and has just ordered a Taiyo DVD R. She was saying that although he has his own office where he can store all this sort of thing and play with it as much as he likes, she would never see him if it was only restricted to there. This means that she does have a series of things creeping through the rest of her otherwise beautifully pristine house. She says that she cannot believe that she has things called Blue Ray duplicators in her drawing room!

She is pretty happy about it really as he lets her spend lots of money on making her house look beautiful on condition that he can have a few of these electronic things every so often. She just is starting to wonder where it will all end as they are running out of space and electric sockets and he will be getting Tower DVD duplicators so they will have even more things and he never throws anything away even if he no longer uses it.

The bash hosted by Seema and Sandeep Jajodia and Amit and Nidhi Goel was the most talked about do of late. The who’s who of the city, right from politicians, , socialites, fashion designers and artists decided to make an appearance.

The man of the night was Director Madhur Bhandarkar, as the party was to celebrate the success of his movie Fashion. Madhur was accompanied by wife Renu who is rarely seen in the party circuit.

Chilling out at the do and mingling with friends, Madhur said, “Till date Fashion is the best movie I’ve made. However, some of my friends say, they loved Page 3 and the others say its Corporate.

” What’s his personal favourite? “Of course Satta.” What’s his next venture, we asked him? “At the moment, I am busy with scripting.

It will take me 15 to 20 days to wind up and then I will decide.” Also spotted at the do were politicians Shahnawaz Hussain, Navin Jindal and Amar Singh with glitterati including danseuse Shalu Jindal, film-maker Ashoke Pandit, designers Ritu Beri, Rohit Bal and Rohit Gandhi.

We couldn’t miss out on the charming shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore enjoying a relaxed evening sans Gayatri. He said, “Right now I am just chilling and living the moment.

I do train 6 to 7 hours a day but for the time being I am enjoying to the hilt.” Also present were Asma and Nadeem Javed, Suresh Kalmadi, Amit and Divya Burma, Jatinn Kochchar, Ambika Shukla, Alpana Gujral, Abhishek and Deepshikha Khaitan.

Action-packed “Max Payne” shot its way to the top of the North American box office, grossing $18 million during the video game adaptation’s first weekend in theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

The dark, atmospheric film, which stars Mark Wahlberg as a cop in search of the men who killed his wife and child, outshone Oliver Stone’s much-talked-about “W.,” which debuted at No. 4 with a take of $10.6 million.

“The estimates for ‘W.’ were all over the place,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. “You can’t really expect that a politically charged movie like that would take the weekend over a big video game adaptation with a movie star in the lead role.”

“Max Payne” follows in the footsteps of games turned into films including the “Tomb Raider” movies starring Angelina Jolie, which were commercial hits but critically clobbered by gamers.

Stone’s portrait of U.S. President George W. Bush was released by Lionsgate, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

Walt Disney Co’s family comedy “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” was kicked to the No. 2 spot with a take of $11.2 million, bringing its total receipts to $69.1 million.

The civil rights era movie “The Secret Life of Bees,” which is based on a best-selling novel, was a close No. 3, debuting with take of $11.1 million for the weekend.

“Max Payne” was released by 20th Century Fox and “The Secret Life of Bees” by Fox Searchlight, both units of News Corp.

The action thriller “Eagle Eye” slipped to the No. 5 spot on the list with a take of $7.3 million, bringing its total so far to $81.3 million.

“Eagle Eye” was released by DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.

Summit Entertainment’s teen comedy “Sex Drive,” debuted at No. 9 on the weekend roster with a total of $3.6 million.

It’s a well-known fact that repeated exposure to brands have a major impact on the consumer choices. Now, a new study has found that even subconscious encounters can influence choices.

The research team from University of Maryland and Duke University conducted a series of experiments using Dasani water.

They found that study participants who viewed pictures of ordinary people near bottles of Dasani were more likely to choose that brand over three other brands-even if they were unaware they had seen the logo.

“For example, on any given morning, one might pass several people with Starbucks coffee in hand. Will this repeated exposure affect an observer’s decision to select Starbucks coffee if given a choice among coffee brands?” wrote the authors.

“We show that the answer is yes, and that repeated exposure to a brand will lead to an increased likelihood of selecting that brand,” they added.

During the study, participants viewed photos of people engaged in everyday activities, such as waiting for a bus. Most of the participants were not aware of the presence of the brand.

The more pictures of Dasani they viewed, the more likely they were to choose it from a list of brands.

In subsequent studies, participants saw the same photos, but were also distracted by music on headphones and exposed to subliminal flashes of the Dasani logo.

The researchers found a backlash effect: People with a lot of subliminal exposures to the brand name and a lot of incidental exposures to it were not as likely to choose it.

In the final study, participants were more likely to choose Dasani after seeing photos of people wearing caps with their university’s logo (with Dasani nearby) than photos of people wearing a rival team’s logo.

“In essence, consumers act as their own implicit market researchers, registering information on frequency of brand exposure and its users and utilizing that information in making brand choices,” the authors added.

What sets designer Krishna Mehta’s collection apart is the fact that her designs have been created with the design team from Palak, a centre for physically-challenged and differently-abled individuals, set up by the designer herself in Palanpur, Gujarat. The team has executed all the surface texturisation, dying, hand embroideries and block printing and presents the Indian textiles and crafts in a unique yet artistic fashion.

The famous double-decker bus rode around by the Spice Girls in the flick ‘Spice World’ is up for sale.

The vehicle is being auctioned on eBay.com and the starting bid is 6,475 dollars.

Spice World bus no. 19, which was driven by MeatLoaf in the 1997 flick, has been done up with Union Jack paintwork.

“The bus was made into good running order last year and the bus was on display at the World Scout Jamboree last year,” Contactmusic quoted the owner of the bus, as stating on eBay.

The owner added: “The bus is sold with full mechanical preparation and new Ministry of Transport test certificate (class V).

“The interior is largely clear and can be readied for any kind of interior adaptation or restoration to passenger carrying format.”

opstar Mariah Carey recently organized a birthday bash for husband Nick Cannon, and partied with her man till wee hours.

Although the couple turned up late at the birthday bash, Cannon took up the DJ booth in order to spin some tunes to entertain his guests.

While Cannon continued with his DJ act, Carey seated herself at the VIP table next to the DJ booth and sipped white wine while chatting with her mother in law, reports The Sun.

Cannon also took time off from the DJ booth and appreciated his wife’s gesture and gave a “shout out to my beautiful wife in the building”.

The couple, who got married in the Bahamas in April, were in the gambling capital to shoot a video for the singer’s new single.

After roping in big Hollywood stars like Slyvester Stallone and Denise Richards for ‘Kambakkth Ishq’, producer Sajid Nadiadwala has now also cast Brandon Routh, better known as Superman, in the film.

Starring Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor, the film is being directed by Sabir Khan. And Brandon has just finished shooting an extensive action scene with Akshay.

‘Akshay and Brandon had to perform a stunt scene together. It was the most crucial scene of the film. It was dangerous too. Brandon was very impressed with Akshay after watching him perform dangerous stunts for the film. He was surprised that Bollywood actors perform the stunt scenes themselves,’ said a source.

Both the stars exchanged tips on fitness action and martial arts.

‘It was fun to see them bond. Brandon was very happy working with the team of ‘Kambakkth’. As it is, it was such a big coup to get Brandon,’ added the source.

Brandon is quite popular among kids

”Kamabkkhth Ishq’ will grab children’s interest as well, as they will get to see their Superman sharing space with Indian action king Akshay,’ said another source.