Name of Gym: Gold's Gym at the Durham Imperial Center

Address: 4700 Emperor Blvd., Research Triangle Park, Durham, N.C., 27709

Phone number: (919) 941-9010

Web site: http://www.goldsgym.com/gyms/index.php?gymID=808

Amenities:
Basketball court
Cardio equipment
Free weights
Group exercise classes (Additional charge)
Hot tub
Locker rooms
Nutrition counseling (Additional charge)
Personal training (Additional charge)
Racquetball courts
Resistance machines
Sauna
Spinning room
Swimming pool
Tennis courts
Yoga/Pilates studio

Monthly Fee/Contract Information: Gold's Gym offers two enrollment plans. The first has a $99 enrollment fee and a $29.99 per month. Using the second option, members pay a $1 enrollment fee and $49.99 per month. Both plans involve a year-long contract. If you would like to join without a contract, it is an additional $5 a month.

Review:
Gold's Gym at the Durham Imperial Center is a large, modern gym with a wide array of workout equipment available. In addition to rows of free weights and weight machines, there is also state-of-the-art cardio equipment including treadmills, stationary bikes and ellipticals.

This Gold's Gym has a full-size swimming pool as well as tennis, racquetball and basketball courts.

The staff, known as "Fitness Consultants," is helpful and eager to offer advice and help you meet your personal fitness goals. They are particularly interested in establishing clients needs so that they can recommend appropriate add-on services such as personal training, nutrition counseling and group exercise classes.

Given its proximity to the Research Triangle Park (RTP) and the corporate discounts offered, Gold's Gym is very busy during lunchtime and again before dinnertime as many local professionals squeeze in workouts. While these can be busy times, Gold's Gym has enough equipment so that even during these peak hours the wait time for popular equipment is brief to nonexistent.

This Gold's Gym is especially clean and organized. The locker rooms are spacious and functional with plenty of lockers, towels, and personal hygiene products. The staff will provide locks if one is needed at no charge. One problem with the locker rooms is that they are not very well ventilated. During times when many people are using showers, the locker room area tends to fog up with mositure dripping down the walls.

Check out how to pick the best gym for you.

In May 09 when we first used Tweepsearch to count of the Twitter bios of self-proclaimed social media gurus, experts, superstars and ninjas there were 4,487. A mere seven months later, we were shocked to see that there are now nearly 16.000. They are multiplying like rabbits.

Here's a breakout of the 15,740 self-proclaimed social media gurus we discovered in our most recent search:

As your company or agency scrambles to get up to speed on social media, it is wise to remember that "guru" is something someone else calls you. The consultants others are likely to call gurus:

• bring experience to the table;

sell solutions, not formulas;

don't promise that social media will provide a quick fix for your bottom line.

Bonus links
YouTube - The social media guru

The market research revelation that only 5% of UK web users would pay for online news doesn't surprise me in the least. But I doubt that it will stop Rupert Murdoch in his tracks.

According to the survey, by Harris Interactive, if people are confronted by their favourite news site charging for content, then 74% of them will find another free site.

That's just as I would expect. I am convinced that paywalls will fail. Say, however, there is no other free site available? By which I mean a site with similar values to the one people currently choose.

In Britain, there will always be the BBC - unless the Murdoch-inspired anti-BBC propaganda forces it to close or to reduce its online service. I don't see how any paper will circumnavigate that problem.

In the US, there is no equivalent to our public service broadcaster. So let's imagine that Murdoch's attempt by his own News Corporation to stitch together a digital news cartel comes off.

He may persuade all the leading newspapers and publishing companies - from the New York Times and the Washington Post, for example, to the sites owned by Gannett (such as USA Today) and Tribune - to erect paywalls at the same time.

Would that work? Well, there are still the TV news sites, such as ABC News (which managed to attract 16.3m uniques in July, edging it into the top five US news destinations). So he would need to persuade them too.

Then there is the Associated Press to think about. It is owned by the major publishers, but would have to cease its current deal with Google.

Of course, news is only one part of the websites' offerings. Each carries commentary, analysis and opinion by bylined contributors who are often sought by users. These could prove more of a lure in specific instances.

But what about being able to access a range of columnists? Would people be happy to pay subscriptions to, say, three sites in order to be able to read contributions by commentators? That's very doubtful.

Murdoch has confronted and overcome orthodoxy throughout his career. In so doing, he has always stressed that he has defeated "the establishment" on behalf of "the people" (the audience, the readers, the viewers). His mantra: I am giving the people what they want.

This time, by contrast, he appears to be flying in the face of peoples' wishes. He is taking away from them what they want.

It is his first major strategic error and I am convinced that charging for content - no matter how justified it might appear - will not work.

Sources: PaidContent/Media Guardian

Several VC funds have banded together and offered funding for this very problem. What does the future of news look like? With some estimates putting overall AD revenue off by as much as 25% this quarter and similar dismal previous quarters, change is coming.