Sunday 12 May 2013

Weekend news and updates

As always at the weekend I try and offer a little something different for my blog post.

Today let's go for a smorgasbord of content :

1) Lets start with some business updates - had nearly 1,000 visitors to the blog in May to date and still hoping to get over 3,000 readers this month - please tell anyone you think might be interested to check it out - there's a new business post everyday with stuff like this over the weekend. 

As you might see from a previous post one of my articles on Talk Health (www.talkhealthpartnership.com/blog/author/phil-knight/) is trending as one of their most popular blogposts. Given that Talk Health is one of the most popular health websites in the UK this is a real coup and hopefully positions both Talk Health and this site as 'go to' destinations for up to the minute comment on medical insurance, health and so forth. Please take time to check out the content and let me know what you think. 

Lastly on business matters there is a new episode of PMICast now available for download - Ep 9 covers more important information for anyone interested in buying or selling medical insurance. We have around 2,000 people visiting the site to listen (www.pmicast.podbean.com) and around 1,000 downloading via iTunes. With over 3,000 listeners we've needed to upgrade the podcast hosting to offer enhanced bandwidth and so forth - again, please check out the podcast - we receive good feedback and the content should be of interest if you like this blog !

2) Film Review - In the old days, before the re-launch of Localventure as a more focused business blog I sometimes used it for lighter topics and so I'm going to include a quick review of Star Trek Into Darkness. WARNING - SPOILERS - do not read if you don't want an idea of the movie plot !

Great movie very exciting. Interesting pre-titles sequence - reminiscent of an episode of the original series and in fact I'd probably have enjoyed seeing more of the same to be honest in preference to the actual movie plot. 

The main plot, an amalgam of the original series episode Space Seed and Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan fairly buzzes along for the first two thirds of the films length and whilst fairly predictable there is so much going on that frankly you don't care. There are problems with some character motivations - god knows why John Harrison is used as he is by Star Fleet and some of the phaser fire sequences are so intense they're difficult to follow. But there is plenty going on and we see some great character interplay between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Again, Simon Peg fairly steals the show as the Grampian Engineer Montgomery Scott.

The problems with the film lay in the denouement - part homage to Wrath of Khan and part lazy re-imagining, life long fans of the franchise (like me) should all groan at the gratuitous re-shooting of the reactor room scene at the end of Star Trek II - surely some new plot twist could have been employed ? This was only redeemed (partly) by a swapping of Kirks famous communicator shout at the end of Wrath of Khan to another lead character.

The end of the movie uses a well know SF maguffin to save the life of a character and was again lazy but slightly fun (use of a Tribble to herald the 'plot twist').

In summary, enjoyed (it's Star Trek for gods sake) but would ask JJ Abrams to rethink plot/originality in some more detail for the next movie and hope that he'll be more original and less homage for the forthcoming Star Wars re-imaginings too.

There is also a new episode of Where's Wilson - my SF podcast due to go live which includes fun reviews of both Star Trek and also Iron Man 3 - watch out for it next week on iTunes or at www.whereswilson.podbean.com

3) Lastly, here's a reposting of an article from the news page of Premier Choice Healthcare (www.pch.uk.com) this one covers protection insurance for your family. Please make sure you check out this site regularly - I post on PCH usually twice a month.

Family Protection - why life and health insurance for your family is vital



We all know that it is important to 'cover' the life and health of our family. But whilst it is very easy to talk about this subject, many people find taking practical action far more of a challenge. There always seems to be other priorities on our time and finances.
In this article I am going to cover three scenarios that demonstrate the importance of some key insurance policies that can protect you and your loved ones.
What if the worst happens and your partner dies?
No one wants to imagine that the very worst can happen to a loved one. However, illness and accidents do happen and unforeseen elements are a key consideration of any financial planning process. Putting aside the emotional trauma for a moment there are obvious implications of losing an income coming into the home. Money clearly cannot replace a loved one but it might alleviate some the more immediate problems. A lump sum payment can help around issues like childcare, replacing a company car, taking time off work during the grieving process and so on.
Many people will already have some life cover attached to their mortgage but is that going to be enough ? It is surprisingly easy to purchase additional life cover on either a single or joint life basis and simple level term life assurance is very commoditized, cheap to buy and offers a straight forward solution to the above problem.
You have a serious but non life threatening medical condition
We all rely on the National Health Service (NHS) to a greater or lesser degree and it is a wonderful institution but has some important shortcomings. It is still likely that for non life threatening conditions you will wait for some weeks to see a specialist or surgeon and longer again to have the treatment and clinical follow ups or recuperative care you could require.
With busy home lives and careers it can be both painful and frustrating to sit on an extended NHS waiting list. The answer could be a private medical insurance (PMI) policy. No longer to be considered a 'luxury' purchase, modern medical insurance is available on a modular basis that provides as much or as little benefit as you need and of course planning your exact requirements means that you no longer need to pay for benefits you don't want. Plans begin from a few pounds a month and with good advice from us in this complex product area it is possible to put in place a product giving enormous peace of mind.
For most people with busy family and work lives PMI is an essential purchase that assures your health and well-being is looked after on your terms and that the very best treatment, if required, fits around your needs.
If I'm unable to work through illness, my company will look after me, won't it ?


So there you go, hopefully something for everyone.

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