New Delhi, May 7 â?? India Inc. Monday welcomed the governments decision to defer implementation of the General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) by a year.

We are happy that the suggestions made by FICCI have been taken cognizance of and that there is a rethinking on GAAR. I hope that it is not merely a postponement but they will also relook it and more realistic GAAR will be introduced, said RV Kanoria, president, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Another industry chamber, ASSOCHAM, said the move will enhance the confidence of global investors. It appreciated the clarification that the government will remove a provision where the onus imposed on a tax payer to prove that there is no tax avoidance.

The burden of proof to show tax avoidance will now be on tax officials, said Ved Jain, chairman of the ASSOCHAM national council on direct taxes.

We are happy to note that the government has considered industry views and tax rules will not be used with retrospective amendments on cases where final assessments have been made, he added.

ASSOCHAM also welcomed that capital gains tax on private equity will be halved to 10 percent.

IANS

This article was distributed through the NewsCred Smartwire.

Original article  IANS / Daily News 2012

Its beautiful that we can still get excited by looking at the moon. It was there before humans were and has been observed and portrayed for thousands of years. It was by looking ever more closely at the moon that people realised what it actually is. Art and science meet in early astronomy.

In the middle ages, the sky was understood to be a celestial canopy above the fixed Earth, and the sun and moon were imagined as moving in the heavens over our stationary platform. This world view is sweetly represented in Raphaels painting the Mond Crucifixion, which literally shows the sun and moon as personified luminous beings in the sky above the Earth. It is a lovely childlike image of the cosmos. Yet a few years after Raphael painted his flat Earth, the theorist Copernicus would think beyond such ancient models. Copernicus in the early 16th century postulated that the Earth orbits the sun and not the other way round. His theory was abstract. To prove it would need visual evidence.

In the early 17th century, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei got his hands on one of the first telescopes and improved this Dutch invention. He turned it on the moon and made, for the first time, detailed observations of the surface of Earths nearest neighbour. As he points out in his book The Starry Messenger, the moon is covered with mountains and craters and what look like seas. In other words, it is not a light in the sky but a rocky body like our own planet. This was a fundamental piece of evidence pointing to the nature of the Earth itself, as one sphere in space among others. It helped Galileo defend the new cosmos of Copernicus – and to get his point across, he used art. Galileo recorded his observations of the moons surface in beguiling drawings that were engraved and printed in The Starry Messenger.

In centuries to come, telescopes improved and ever more accurate pictures of the moon were recorded. In the 1790s, John Russell made a drawing of the surface of the moon that is so precise and detailed it looks like a photograph taken by a spacecraft approaching Earths satellite. This amazing piece of astronomical art comes from the era of the Enlightenment when people marvelled at science, as shown in Wright of Derbys painting The Orrery. The model of the solar system, which Wright portrays people reacting to with such curiosity and awe, is a modern view in which Copernicus and Galileo are vindicated.

But the thing is – when you look at this years supermoon, it is quite easy to see geographical features of the moon with the naked eye. Since these features can be seen without a telescope, why did it take a telescope to point them out? How could the moon be imagined as an ethereal light when its physical qualities are visible to the eye? That must be because you have to know what to look for in order to see it. The evidence of eye alone is not enough.

For an art contest, teenager Sam Bauman, of San Jose, solicited an elderly stranger — an unsuspecting shopper in the Almaden Expressway Costco — to pose for him. The youngster fashioned a startling charcoal portrait of the model who simply had the look that touched the artist.

It turns out that the realistic drawing was so impressive it won Bauman, 18, the Congressional Art Competition for Californias 15th district.

Posted at 04:54 PM ET, 04/13/2012

TheWashingtonPost

Spas, getaways and Nationals Park: a recap of our Got Plans? chat
By Fritz Hahn

The Willard’s Red Door Spa is one of McLean Robbins’ suggested destinations for affordable pampering during Spa Week. (Courtesy of Red Door Spa)Spa, beauty and travel writer McLean Robbins joined the Going Out Gurus this week to discuss the area’s best massages, manicures and facials, but the dozens of questions we answered ranged from advice for wanna-be yogis to U Street bars that are perfect for groups.

Some edited exerpts of our favorite questions are below; you can read the full transcript here.

I want to surprise my boyfriend with a Spa Week outing, but he’s never been to a spa and thinks it’s “not a guy thing.” Are there any spas you recommend for first-timers, especially when they’re one-half of a couple?

McLean Robbins: Of course! I’d say that The Willard’s Red Door is classy but not intimidating if you’re looking to do something within Spa Week pricing. I’m also intrigued by the Pamper Me Please travel spa – they come to you, so you can always see if he’ll try a massage in the comfort of your home, and the 60 minute massage for $50 is a great deal.

If you’re able to splurge a bit, I convinced a very skeptical and non spa-going boyfriend to go once by getting a couple’s massage at Lansdowne’s Spa Minerale. I had to send a receptionist back to the men’s relaxation area to find him post-treatment. He was having so much fun he didn’t want to leave.

I’ve been working on personal fitness for about a year, and so have spent a decent amount of time on the treadmill. I’d like to actually participate in a 5K at some point but I’ve found that running outside is (surprise!) a totally different beast, and I have a much harder time pacing myself. So I was thinking that a club might motivate me. But it seems like all the clubs out there are either assuming that one has literally never run before and needs to start with 1/2 hour walk, or that one has already completed three 5Ks and can totally do a 10 minute mile (or faster!) for a five mile run. Any guidance from you and the chatters for a club between “brand new runner” and “setting new personal records in races?”

Stephanie Merry: Kudos on the new pastime. I’ve done the Pacers run before, which starts at the Logan Circle location on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and the group is a pretty good mix of people (including, yes, some pretty hard-core speed racers). I’ve also been wandering by when the Logan Circle Lululemon run group is congregating (Monday evenings) and the pack is usually huge, so I’m guessing abilities run the gamut. I know Lavanya tried out one of the running Meetups, which she really enjoyed.

I regularly get very cheap but very good pedicures at Red Sun Nails on Seventh St. NW at M St — directly across from the Convention Center Metro stop, and very conveniently located to my house! I’m wondering what is your favorite place for a very good but inexpensive facial… if that even exists in D.C.!?!

Robbins:Great tip for a good nail salon — they’re hard to find. I love the $99 seasonal treatments at The Spa at Sports Club\LA in Foggy Bottom. There’s almost always a 50-minute facial on the specials list. It’s not cheap, but the facials at Nectar Skin Bar in Georgetown, or Bliss at the W are my two best go-tos. I don’t like to skimp when it comes to really doing the best for my skin.

Dieting girlfriend is out of town four nights. Looking for interesting restaurants in Penn Quarter, Arlington, Cleveland Park. I like Estadio, Chef Geoff’s, Ray’s the Steaks. Will try out Pearl Dive for sure. Other ideas? I am comfortable dining solo just about anywhere.

Fritz Hahn: Restaurants where pigging out is in order: Hill Country BBQ, obviously. Fiola if she’s not a carb consumer. (I love eating at the bar there, btw. Great bartenders.) Proof, for sure. All the offal dishes I had at the new Green Pig in Arlington the other night were great.

And, of course, Medium Rare.

Where would you suggest I go for a high-end massage — one that includes all the bells and whistles?

Robbins: Bells and whistles! I love them. But what I really love is a great massage. I’d pick the custom massage at one of my favorite hotels ever, The Jefferson. Ask for the larger of the two spa rooms, and you’ll get a private shower area too.

What is your fav spa getaway outside of the DMV area? Suggestions for getaways that won’t break the bank?

Robbins: I’m partial to luxury, that’s for sure. If you’re looking to maximize fun without breaking the bank, pick a place that has lots of amenities you can enjoy for the day after a single treatment. Within driving distance, I’d suggest trying Nemacolin up in Pennsylvania, where you could also golf or do a tour of Falling Waters. Otherwise, I’m all about flying out to Las Vegas — hotel rooms are certainly cheap enough! That city has some of the best spas in the country, and you’ll find lots of bells and whistles like steam rooms and even ice chambers. Try Qua at Caesars — a girlfriend and I spent all day there once after a single treatment. We definitely got our fill!

Are there any bars in or immediately around Nats Park that will be showing the Caps game on Saturday? I’d like to catch the first hour of the Caps game on TV before watching the Nats live…

Hahn: First: A plug for this week’s Weekend cover story, which is a guide to all the cool new stuff around the stadium (and in the stadium), from Fairgrounds outside to the new food vendors.

For watching the Caps, I’d head for Justin’s Cafe, or stick to some of the bars on Barracks Row, such as the Ugly Mug or Molly Malone’s, before walking to the park.

They have TVs at the Red Loft — I remember watching the Caps there last year.

Hahn: Yeah I watched the Euro 2008 Germany/Spain final in the Red Loft. (It was the same day as an O’s-Nats game, and I didn’t want to miss either.)

Some advice for the Caps fan who doesn’t want to miss ANY hockey action during the Nats game…

By Fritz Hahn
 | 
04:54 PM ET, 04/13/2012

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ACCRA, Ghana, Apr 24, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
LeapFrog Investments today announced the largest private foreign
investment in the history of Ghana’s insurance industry, acquiring a
majority stake in the Express Life Insurance Company. LeapFrog is the
largest dedicated investor worldwide in companies that serve emerging
consumers with insurance and related financial services. Express will
draw on LeapFrog’s capital and distinctive operational expertise to
become the market leader in serving the large untapped market of
low-income consumers in Ghana with products often costing less than
US$10 per month. The investment is expected to substantially increase
financial inclusion in this pivotal African market and to mark a new
phase of inclusive growth for the sector.

Ghana’s GDP grew at 13.5% last year and its life insurance industry has
grown at 40% annually for the past five years — yet the vast majority of
the country’s 25 million people do not have access to insurance. Express
Life was launched in 2009 by Obed Danquah, a Ghanaian entrepreneur whose
businesses focus on financial services for the mass market in Ghana. The
company primarily offers hybrid savings and risk products to individuals
employed by public sector institutions.

“Creating positive social impact along with strong financial returns has
always been a focus of mine,” said Mr Danquah. “Given LeapFrog’s
profit-with-purpose approach to investing and experience in the
insurance industry, they are an ideal partner. This powerful strategic
alignment will permanently alter the insurance space in the country by
setting a new standard for ethical and inclusive provision of insurance
to the mass market.”

LeapFrog brings both capital and expertise to Express, investing USD$5.5
million into the company and providing operational support across the
organization. Key operational initiatives include strengthening
management, building and training a distinctive agency force, and
designing relevant and affordable products.

“LeapFrog is committed to driving the delivery of affordable insurance
for low-income consumers across Africa, and Express will play a leading
role in this regard for Ghana,” said Doug Lacey, the LeapFrog partner
who led the transaction. “Our portfolio now covers five African
countries and includes landmark investments in companies such as Apollo,
the leading insurance group in East Africa, and AllLife, the innovative
South African insurer for people living with HIV/AIDS.”

Dr. Andrew Kuper, LeapFrog’s Founder and President, concluded:
“Investing in Ghana underscores LeapFrog’s commitment to high-growth
emerging markets that are home to the next billion consumers. To date,
LeapFrog has made landmark investments in Africa and Asia, contributed
to robust operational and financial performance of its portfolio
companies, and currently reaches over 8.6 million people, 70% of whom
are women and children. Through Express, LeapFrog aims to empower over
500,000 Ghanaians with financial safety nets and springboards to a
better life.”

About LeapFrog Investments

LeapFrog’s $135m fund is the world’s largest investor in inclusive
insurance and related financial services. Launched with former US
President Bill Clinton, the fund invests in companies serving the next
billion, the vast untapped market of emerging consumers
in Africa and Asia. LeapFrog brings unique value-adding support and
global best practice in microinsurance to its portfolio companies. The
fund aims to generate robust investment returns while reaching 25
million vulnerable people. Investors in LeapFrog’s high impact
investment fund include global banks such as JP Morgan, Triodos, IFC,
KfW, and EIB; leading funds such as Soros EDF, TIAA-CREF, Omidyar
Network, FMO, and Calvert; global reinsurers SCOR, Haverford, and
Flagstone Re; and development financiers including Proparco and Accion
Frontier Investments Group.

www.leapfroginvest.com

About Express Life Insurance Company Limited

Express Life Insurance Company Limited (ELIC) is Ghanaian company
founded by Mr. Obed Danquah that aspires to be the company of choice for
life insurance products and services in Ghana. Express aims to support
Ghanaian consumers across the country, including low-income consumers in
both urban and rural areas. Express has a team of dedicated and
motivated staff that focuses on identifying customer needs and
developing and delivering solutions for them. The core values of the
company are Honesty, Integrity, Transparency, Ethics, and
Professionalism.

http://expresslifegh.com/

SOURCE: LeapFrog Investments

LeapFrog Investments
Tahira Dosani, +1-646-321-7105
Director of Global Engagement & Strategic Projects
tahiradosani@leapfroginvest.com

Copyright Business Wire 2012

Financial Glossary

Words used in this article:

After hinting that the capability was already in place to do so, Nintendo has announced plans to begin selling digital versions of retail games for 3DS starting with New Super Mario Bros. 2 this August. To date, the only games available through the systems eShop are smaller experiences specifically designed for release through it; larger titles like Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 are only found on game cards at retail.

The news was made official as part of a financial results briefing conducted by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. With the company officially posting its first annual loss in the three decades its been in the videogame business, Iwata was fixated on outlining how things would be turned around in the year ahead. Aside from no longer selling the 3DS at a loss (which is expected to be the case by the end of September), delivering new software, and releasing the Wii U, a digital push is beginning — one that wont rely only on selling games to those who regularly visit the eShop on their own.

In addition to selling games at retail as it always has, Nintendo will begin offering downloadable versions of its games at retail. Consumers will be able to purchase a 16-digit code than can be redeemed on the eShop for a digital version of the game. Nintendo was seeking a way not to cut retail out of the equation; back in January Iwata said, There must be a solution other than positioning digital distribution as an enemy to wholesalers and retailers. During this weeks briefing, he talked about needing to expand the digital business beyond those who are visiting the eShop. Although the connection rate of the 3DS is higher than that of the DSi and consumers are returning to the eShop more regularly, Nintendo thinks it can leverage retail as a way of introducing new consumers to the concept of digital software.

Its unclear if every Nintendo-published game will be made available in this fashion. Iwata was not specific on the subject, but Joystiq was told by Nintendo that the majority of first-party games will be. That also goes for the Wii U, which Iwata announced will have have downloadable versions of its games available at their respective launches.

Iwata specifically identified New Super Mario Bros. 2 and the new Brain Age, tentatively called Onitore, as two 3DS titles that are guaranteed to have digital versions. He also spoke about other games which 3DS owners may want to play on a daily basis, like Nintendogs and Animal Crossing, as a sort that would make sense to have easy access to right on the system without having to carry around game cards. This is one area where traditional game handhelds are lacking compared to phones and tablets — whereas every game you own on an iPhone or iPad is with the device wherever it goes, 3DS owners have to lug around their game cards. Vita solves this by having all of its games available digitally, although that is an imperfect solution as these games, sold through the PlayStation Store, rarely if ever go on sale. That means even people like myself with a desire to own digital versions of games still tend to purchase physical ones.

Nintendo believes it has found a way to resolve the pricing problem. While its suggested that the physical and digital versions be sold for the same price, thereby allowing consumers to choose which version they would prefer, retailers will be free to discount the downloadable game codes just as they do the physical games. In theory that means you wont be charged extra simply because you want to have your game collection loaded right on the system, aside the cost of SD cards needed to store the games, of course.

This all sounds like great news. Its very much a welcome option, and the sort of thing that will encourage 3DS owners to bring the system with them wherever they go. And the possibility for downloadable games to go on sale alongside their physical counterparts is one way the digital setup of the 3DS can trump the Vita.

One of the drawbacks is similar to purchasing digital games on other platforms — you wont be able to share them with others. Iwata specifically stated downloaded games will only be playable on the hardware it was purchased on. For some that may be a deal-breaker, and it continues to highlight the need for Nintendo to develop an account system similar to Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

But at least it will be an option to download games when theyre first released. Sony has embraced the practice to some extent on PlayStation 3 and entirely on Vita; Microsoft, on the other hand, remains stubborn on the subject. Speaking with MCV, Xbox Live UK product manager Pav Bhardwaj recently indicated retail games will continue to be made available through the Games on Demand service only once several months have passed since their release at retail.

It comes down to choice, he said. The customer has the choice of going to retail on day one if they really want to buy a particular title, or to wait a couple of months and buy it full price from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Hes right that it is a choice, but its hardly an optimal one. Its a choice in the same way, Would you like to eat pizza or a pile of garbage? is a choice. A real choice would be allowing consumers to decide whether they want to buy a retail or digital version of a game at launch — having to wait months hardly makes the digital route an attractive option. Bhardwaj claimed the current model is successful, and there are people willing to pay full price for a downloadable game six months after its released at retail, leading him to ask, So why change something you dont need to?

Nintendo, on the other hand, talked about providing consumers with a choice, and based on these early details, its plans appear to do a good job of that. Offering codes at retail gives even those without a credit card (or those hesitant to use one online) the opportunity to buy digital games. Assuming the prices are competitive with retail games and there isnt much of a concern about being able to redownload games if the need should arise, I could see myself buying many of my 3DS games this way. Wii U downloads will be a more complicated matter with the system not being equipped with a hard drive; downloading games that fill up a DVD onto an SD card may not be particularly ideal. But, once again, more options are certainly better than none.

Artist Daniel Clowes says Enid, the cantankerous heroine of Ghost World, would probably hate the book she stars in.

Daniel Clowes/Oakland Museum of California

Artist Daniel Clowes says Enid, the cantankerous heroine of Ghost World, would probably hate the book she stars in.

text size A A A

May 7, 2012

Comics used to be seen as cheap throwaway entertainment for children and teenagers. But over the last few decades, comics have grown up; they’re even released in longer formats, on nice paper with hard covers, as graphic novels.

Daniel Clowes is one of the artists cited for turning the form into serious art — in fact, the art has gotten so serious that his work is now in a museum. Clowes is one of the best-known comic artists working today, with two of his books made into Hollywood films: the Academy Award-nominated Ghost World and Art School Confidential.

The Art Of Daniel Clowes

Teen Tormentors Get Their Due In ‘Death-Ray’

The Life And Trials Of A Full-Tilt Cartoon Misanthrope

‘Mister Wonderful’ Pictures An Imperfect Romance

Clowes never aimed to be the kind of artist museums collect. But now, the walls of the Oakland Museum of California are covered with his drawings. It’s “quite embarrassing,” he laughs.

After a stint as an art student at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute in the 1970s, Clowes tried unsuccessfully to get work as an illustrator. Sitting around drawing comics on his own, he decided to send a strip to underground publisher Fantagraphics. He was expecting rejection.

Instead, “they called me up and offered me a monthly comic book, and I felt like I hadn’t earned anything,” he says. “You know, it’s like all of a sudden, you’re being made president after you’ve been like, you know, on the city council in Cleveland.”

Clowes rose to the occasion — or some might say sunk. In 1989, he created the comic book series Eightball, which he billed as “An Orgy of Spite, Vengeance, Hopelessness, Despair, and Sexual Perversion.” His main characters were unmotivated and cranky. His work skewered everything, from televangelists to fashionistas.

Enid Coleslaw, the reluctant heroine of Ghost World, is classic Clowes. She’s an outsider. She doesn’t like to play by the rules, she doesn’t want to get a job, she doesn’t want to go to college and she speaks her mind.

“Enid, if she knew about Ghost World, she would just hate it,” Clowes says. “She’d be like, ‘This book is, like, so horrible.’ You know, my characters are like the worst customers I could imagine.”

Original drawings of Enid and dozens more of Clowes’ eccentric characters adorn the gallery walls. David Boring is on a quest for the perfect wife. Then there’s The Death-Ray, a super hero spoof about a guy named Andy who gets special powers every time he puffs on a cigarette. And Wilson, who stars in Clowes’ most recent work, is an unemployed, divorced, grumpy loner. He talks to people in public places in a desperate attempt to make some kind of human connection.

“I certainly share a lot of the anxiety and the world views of a guy like Wilson,” Clowes says, “although he’s a much less palatable version. He’s me at my worst moment. He’s like me in my moments of road rage, when I’m safely inside my car and I can say what I feel.”

But, Clowes adds, he’s actually trying to bring out the nobility in characters like Enid and Wilson. “[Wilson] really just wants to connect with people by being his exact true self, which is something none of us ever do, and he’s not interested in changing himself to connect with people, which is what all of us do do. It made him seem much more noble when I figured that out about him.”

Hear More With Clowes On KQED

Graphic Novelist Daniel Clowes On Oakland: ‘Sad, Lonely, and Enthralling’

Curator Susan Miller discovered Clowes’ work more than a decade ago in the adult section of a comic book store in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. “There was some pornography in there,” she says, “but there was also Dan’s work, and the Hernandez brothers, and a bunch of comic artists that were making work that didn’t fit in the superhero shelf at all. And I think ‘adult’ meant ‘sophisticated.’ “

Miller was struck by the themes of loneliness and alienation, mixed with humor and empathy, that ran throughout Clowes’ work. She also noticed the quality of his designs — something that’s not immediately apparent to readers who’ve only seen the drawings reprinted in books.

“The quality of that work is lost in the reproduction,” Miller says. “So you can actually see the work as it’s originally drawn. And you just won’t get that in the printed material.”

Enlarge Courtesy of Drawn and Quarterly

Clowes is the author of Wilson and Mister Wonderful: A Love Story.

Courtesy of Drawn and Quarterly

Clowes is the author of Wilson and Mister Wonderful: A Love Story.

One of the ironies of having Clowes’ work on display in an art museum is that he often pokes fun at the world of fine art. Jerome, the main character in Art School Confidential, finds himself the underdog in art classes because he likes to draw rather than create abstractions or conceptual pieces — an experience Clowes had in real life as a student at the Pratt Institute.

Clowes says his instructors were mostly minimalists and abstract expressionists. “They were all so beyond figural drawings and all that stuff that was so buried and in the past, they couldn’t believe anybody was bringing that up again,” he says. And Clowes didn’t just want to do figure drawings, he wanted to make comics.

“They would just say, ‘Well, comics are basically inherently stupid.’ The preponderance of the evidence was such that that was possibly true. There were just years and years and years of really dumb comics.”

There are still some dumb comics around, but for the most part, the world has changed. Clowes cites the work of underground superstar Robert Crumb as one of his inspirations — and now he, Crumb, and other artists published by Fantagraphics are inspiring a new generation.

And an exhibition like this one has the power to change minds. Museum docent Jeff Cullen says that at first, he didn’t really know what to make of it, but since seeing Clowes’ work, he’s buying comics again for the first time since childhood. Cullen says he’s especially moved by the hapless Wilson.

“It was disturbing. You almost don’t like him, but then by the end of the story … I felt a sympathy for him.” Cullen says Wilson’s story does what art is supposed to do: It holds a mirror up to our own lives.

And iff you want to experience Enid, Andy, Jerome and Wilson for yourself, the show will go on the road later this year, making stops in Chicago, Columbus, Ohio and Washington, DC.

As digital distribution becomes more prominent in the game industry, there are some that believe it means physical games are doomed in the long-run. Grasshopper Manufactures Akira Yamaoka however, doesnt think thats the case, as to him, the emergence of digital platforms doesnt represent the end of retail.

Yamaoka, probably best known for his work on the Silent Hill series, told Siliconera that hes hoping to branch out to digital platforms such as Steam and Origin in the near future. When asked on his thoughts about Steam, he bluntly stated that retail games wont die out.

Grasshoppers 2011 release Shadows of the Damned sold abysmally at retail, despite being a solid action title. Its nice to hear that the team hasnt given up on retail releases, which is especially evident in their hopes to make a sequel.

I don’t think that packaged games will die out, but Steam has a lot of potential since it works with different hardware.

While Grasshopper does have another retail game out in the coming months in Lollipop Chainsaw, theyve already begun spreading out to digital services. The team recently released an XBLA exclusive titled Sine Mora, which ended up becoming a hit among our staff and the gaming community at large.

As for the eventual branch out to mobile and digital platforms, Yamaoka doesnt just want to port over old Grasshopper titles, but to make completely new games. The CCO of Grasshopper is also interested in making horror games, so who knows, maybe well get to see a PC exclusive spiritual successor to Silent Hill in the near future.

It is really refreshing to see Yamaokas attitude, as opposed to the physical media doom and gloom sentiment many analysts and developers seem to have. Digital doesnt have to kill physical, and vice versa; both mediums have their own advantages and disadvantages, and as someone who prefers a physical disc to a download code, I look forward to placing Grasshoppers games on my shelf and not in my download list.

-

Follow me on Twitter @AnthonyMole.

Source: Siliconera

I think that the disc lives for five or ten years from now, said Spector, speaking to VideoGamer.com during a recent visit to London.

I dont have a crystal ball, but thats my hunch. My hunch is that there will be another generation of consoles that will require physical media, maybe not exclusively like with Xbox LIVE, you can download old games. I think it will be more of a hybrid, digital and disc. Which is kind of where we position ourselves, to be a hybrid.

As that transition takes time some people will do both, some people will do one or the other. And we want to be able to facilitate both.

GameFly recently soft-launched in the UK, having bought Direct2Drive from IGN at the end of last year. The firm now offers digital downloads for over 230 games, and plans to offer over 1000 titles by Christmas.

At present Spector says there are no plans to emulate GameFlys US rental service, which sends out physical games in a similar manner to LoveFilm. GameFly may eventually sell game discs over here, however.

Either way, Spector maintains that it will take time for gamers to let go of hard media:

It never happens overnight. People like to think that it does, and they like to write about that its going to happen overnight but it never does. The music business in the States, when Gamefly started, was a $20bn a year business, physical CD sales. Now its and $7bn or $8bn business. So its definitely come down, but it hasnt gone away.

Certainly the technology is there to make it go away, but consumers behaviour hasnt changed 100 per cent yet. I think it takes a couple of generations to happen: My daughters are 9 and 12 theyve never bought a CD, and they probably never will. But theyre 9 and 12, right? Theyre not 25, 30, 44. So things take time.

GameFlys new client app is available here.

Hollins laughed.

You guys keep saying that, he told the reporter while presumably also referring to the rest of the media. But I dont see it. Theyve both been physical games thus far. Todays going to be a physical game too.

Maybe Hollins should have let his team know how he felt about the physicality, too. Memphis forward Rudy Gay said in his postgame press conference following the Grizzlies 87-86 loss that he and his team got out-physicaled by the Clippers at the Staples Center on Saturday.

Well, were supposed to be a physical team, Gay said in response to a question about his teams tough reputation. They took that away from us today. They pushed us. They did all the things that we usually do to teams.

What do the Grizzlies usually do to teams?

They forced a league-leading 17.1 turnovers per game in the regular season on the strength of Hollins signature stifling defense. They prevent big men from establishing themselves deep in the block by pushing out and rely on the perimeter defense of Tony Allen and Mike Conley to force teams into alternative offensive plans.

Reggie Evans said he wasnt sure if Game 3 was more physical — overall — than Game 2, because he was equally physical in each. But Blake Griffin said he thought it was, at least on the Clippers side of things.

That was kind of the plan: be the aggressive team from the jump and take it to them a little bit, Griffin said. I thought we did a good job of that early. It got messed up at spots here and there but overall I thought we did a good job of being the more aggressive team.

Thats their MO, being aggressive — that whole grind thing. So we gotta beat them with that.

Game 3 was the first time the Clippers matched that Memphis intensity in this series. In Game 2, the Clips flat-out lost, and, in Game 1, they needed a miraculous comeback to erase the damage their lack of physicality had done earlier in the game.

The Clippers shot 30 free throws Saturday afternoon, a big jump up from the 18 they took Wednesday in Memphis. Of course, the difference was minimized by the fact that they made only 13 of the attempts each night.

But they clearly bodied up a lot better this time. Now they just need to do it again Monday night in LA and as the series continues on to Memphis later this week.

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said Saturday he thought his team matched the Grizzlies physical play in Game 3.

Itd be nice if he could say in a couple days that his team exceeded its opponent in that category.