EXPERTS ARE VERY MUCH MISTAKEN. Experts in all fields of knowledge are guardians of the status-quo. Anything that differs with their beliefs is immediately dismissed by them as untrue. Their reasoning goes as follows: "I do not even have to waste my time looking into anything that differs with my knowledge and beliefs, because I know absolutely everything there is to be known about my field of knowledge, therefore anything that conflicts with my beliefs must be false." That sort of reasoning of course is dumb circular reasoning and it automatically precludes any new insights because NEW means different, if it would not be different it would not be new. The few "experts" who have dared to think outside the box and have tried the MEATROM just once for 4 minutes have become instant converts and believers in a 4 minute workout for cardio, muscle strength and flexibility.

All it takes is a LEAP OF FAITH and $14,615

Paying dividends has nothing to do with being economical, whatever you mean by that.

MSFT has been paying dividends for a while now. It's exactly what companies do when they can't grow much more. You'll be hard pressed to find a company that has opportunities for growth that pays a dividend. The shareholders wouldn't even want it because the potential returns from reinvesting in the company and increasing stock value are larger than the dividends. MSFT has plateaued, it's a mature company with massive market share. There's not a lot it can do with it's money so it pays (and shareholders demand) dividends. Look at their stock price up to about 2000, that's when they stopped growing. A couple years later they had one last split and started paying dividends. Growth has been flat.

GOOG still has avenues for growth. Buying companies is perfectly normal. Paying dividends wouldn't make sense.

Whether paying dividends is better than growing stock values is debatable but I think it has little to do with short term price fluctuations. Investors that are into GOOG for the long haul wouldn't want dividends now if they want to maximize the return on their investment. They'd wait until GOOG hit a price plateau then sell or demand dividends.

There's no bile there. The man has proven himself a shill who will take any position on any given subject if it gets him enough attention. He doesn't have any special information or well-reasoned arguments in this or most anything else he writes. The positive contribution here is raising awareness of the writer's scruples when it comes to tech reporting. I'm no 'GNU/drone', whatever that is. This piece attacks Microsoft/Ballmer because that is what will get the attention of some readers. It hardly has any basis in fact (see I'm defending MS here).

Daniel Lyons is a disingenuous shill-or-hire and attention whore. I contend that he contributes nothing positive to the discussion of technology issues and should be ignored. Now, where was your positive contribution to the discussion?

First, as others have stated this research is questionable based on many published, properly blinded studies.

Second, the point of the flu vaccine is not only to decrease mortality due to the flu. It also, surprise, keeps you from getting the flu. So, you don't spend a week or two in bed missing work, vacation, your kid's birthday or whatever. And, it keeps you from spreading the flu. It's a public health issue more than anything else. If you're vaccinated and come in contact with the flu, it dies and you don't spread it. This spares other people from coming in contact with it including people who aren't vaccinated and might die from it.

Thanks, kdawson, for popularizing this woo-woo riddled crap. This place is start to look the nerd version of the Huffington Post.

You bastard. Now I have to go watch another MST3K on Netflix (no plug intended). I was rationing them.