TKB I was not taking a shot at you. I am glad you posted that as an example of how short traders use/manipulate information to  their advantage. 

If a stock had 1k short and increased to 10k short that would represent a 1000% increase in the short. Sounds like a lot but that 10k could represent 1/10000 of the O/S shares.

It is meaningless but can grab lots attention which is exactly what it is designed to do.