10:10 spin til it hurts

After the marketing disaster of the century,  10:10 desperately needed to save some face. They had accidentally showed us their totalitarian desires and lost at least 20,000 members in a week. How embarrassing.

How do you hide that? In true PR form, you frame your membership numbers and “save” the members you lost: keep the thousands of people (or fakers) who have joined and then left your group on your tally. (Just don’t call it “current members”.)

On their new redesigned home page they say they have 110,340 worldwide …wait for it…”sign ups”.

1010 claim fakes and members who left.

But as far as the UK members go, what was once 94,910, is now still just 74,190.

Anthony Watts saved this image:

94k

74 k

(Curiously the “people on board” tally is visible in Explorer, but only subliminally flickers in mozilla. If you can be bothered — and I’m not sure why you would — you can do a search to find a member and keep your eyes peeled on the tally point. Yep. It’s trivial bugs-in-browser games.)

Does “sign up’s” mean they count all who have ever joined, even the ones who left in protest?

We know that fake names appeared so does that 110k tally include Watts and Dellers, and Gobbels…?

It’s a PR War.

They will stoop to counting the people who pulled their names off the list as if they still support the cause, and who knows, maybe they count people who don’t even exist? They have no shame. It’s not about the data, it’s about the appearance of the data… (if the numbers don’t work for you, just use different numbers). More than anything, 10:10 don’t want to look like a sinking ship. Which they are.

They ought to be disbanded, and their last major sponsor (O2) ought to be ashamed.

PS: And what kind of carefully thought out major event makes for a 10:10:10 action? If you host a party in a giant bath in Budapest, that counts (and it’s presumably a cold bath right? Mmmmm) or how about a “zero carbon music festival” — I’m imagining the novel thrill of acoustic guitars and tamborines with no amps, no food, and a “crowd” of twelve people and no lighting.

UPDATE: From Comments

#5 Rereke Whaakaro

… if the numbers don’t work for you, just use different numbers …

They are merely “using a trick” to “hide the decline”. This is standard practice, and quite within the mandate of the IPCC guidelines which have been well established since four o’clock this morning. Whereas Anthony Watts’ observations are no more than internet images that have not been properly peer reviewed and published in a credible publication, and are therefore voodoo science that deserves to be thrown in the dust bin.

5.5 out of 10 based on 2 ratings

39 comments to 10:10 spin til it hurts

  • #
    Athlete

    It’s not about the data, it’s about the appearance of the data… (if the numbers don’t work for you, just use different numbers).

    Maybe they’ve got Phil Jones or Michael Mann doing the number crunching for them.

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  • #
    TinyCO2

    I’m not sure that 110,340 could be called a PR war when you measure it out of a world population of 6.7 billion and after over 12 months trying to get signups (it started Sept 2009). More like a PR pout, or PR frown.

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  • #
    Todd

    Isn’t that just the same approach used by the IPCC to claim “2500 scientists” are on board??? What else would we expect from this crowd?

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  • #
    pattoh

    Hide the decline…..

    or perhaps the 10:10 group is a training ground for political spin doctors ( who writes Bob Brown’s stand-up material anyway?)

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  • #
    Rereke Whaakaro

    … if the numbers don’t work for you, just use different numbers …

    They are merely “using a trick” to “hide the decline”. This is standard practice, and quite within the mandate of the IPCC guidelines which have been well established since four o’clock this morning. Whereas Anthony Watts’ observations are no more than internet images that have not been properly peer reviewed and published in a credible publication, and are therefore voodoo science that deserves to be thrown in the dust bin.

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  • #
    MadJak

    I wonder if Pol Pot signed up?

    Pol Pot even found a more environmentally friendly method than franny (plastic bags).

    No pressure.

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  • #
    Roy Hogue

    I started to make a list of all the major dishonesties that have come to light. But my head started spinning round and round. It seems like I can’t stand all the spin. Do I suffer from some sort of spin aversion syndrome?

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  • #
    Binny

    This started with a small group of scientists ‘marketing’ a particular theory in order to get funding.
    Initially this marketing proved to be wildly successful and it has grown from there.

    In the way of all markets it took on a life of its own and displayed the inherent tendency of markets to overshoot. The smart money has already bailed out and is looking to the next big thing. The bulk of the sheep are just starting to wake up and move towards the exit. However there will always be a few who deny the reality, cling desperately to the hope of a turnaround and lose everything.

    Actual science always was, and still is purely secondary. It is merely the vector for the market.

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  • #
    Orange

    SUBJECT: Why you may soon need a warmist’s permission to eat!!

    EVERYBODY SHOULD READ THIS AND THEN PROTEST LOUDLY AND WIDELY IF YOU VALUE YOUR FREEDOM!!!!!

    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_why_you_may_soon_need_a_warmists_permission_to_eat/

    “….SO you think I exaggerate when I say global warming is just the latest cause of the closet totalitarian?

    Then pay close attention to an experiment the warmists are about to inflict on the people of Norfolk Island.

    Be warned. What’s being trialled there with $390,000 of Gillard Government money may, if it works, be spread to the mainland, say the researchers.

    Which means it’s coming for you!!……….”

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  • #
    val majkus

    Jo do you think we could get a petition going like this one opposing
    restrictive energy policies
    http://allpainnogain.cfact.org/
    The petition reads:
    “We, the undersigned, urge our political leaders to strongly oppose policies and mandates that would recklessly impair our economies and freedoms based on unproven fears of man-made global warming or exaggerated claims about the potential for “Green energy” and “Green jobs.” We also urge them to support policies that keep energy reliable and affordable, protect real jobs, fully develop all of our energy resources, and promote genuine environmental progress.”

    I’m sure a number of your readers would agree with me that Australia’s RET has and is going to cost a huge amount of money and jobs and do the world no good whatsoever

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  • #
    pat

    more spin – thanx to bulldust who posted the “West Australian’s” positive SPIN on Red Redemption’s “Fate of the World” video game on the 2m pageviews thread. some background:

    kill all humans, everyone over 30, connections!

    29 Oct: gamasutra: Tom Curtis: Interview: Red Redemption Divines The Fate Of The World
    The game asks players to accomplish a variety of goals, from beneficial tasks such as saving the Amazon or building Africa into the world’s most advanced region, to malicious tasks such as strategically exterminating all human life from the planet…
    Gobion Rowlands: We are partnered with Oxford University, the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, a whole bunch of them. We’ve had a lot of support. We raised our own money to make the game through sale of shares, so we are self financed with no publisher money…
    There are also options in the game to kill everyone over the age of 30, like in Logan’s Run. In real life, hopefully that’s not a good idea, but in a game, you should be able to try it; it’s fun…
    http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/31158/Interview_Red_Redemption_Divines_The_Fate_Of_The_World.php

    Red Redemption’s earlier “climate control” video game!

    Operation Climate Control Press Release
    Oxford UK. 5 July 2007. Climate change affects all faiths, communities and countries and Alif-Aleph UK joined with The Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs [Defra] and indie games developer Red Redemption to host the launch of Operation Climate Control at the House of Commons on 3 July in a packed Committee Room 10…
    Operation: Climate Control, developed by Red Redemption and funded by Defra, is an innovative and exciting multi-player game aimed at GCSE school children aged 15-16 to educate them about the elements and impacts of climate policy and help stimulate a change in their attitudes and behaviour towards environmental sustainability…
    The Operation: Climate Control game is developed by Red Redemption and the Stone Ashdown Trust and is funded by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Climate Challenge Fund – “Tomorrow’s Climate – Today’s Challenge”.
    *Climate Challenge was developed for the BBC Science and Nature website and invited users to take the hot seat to guide Europe through the 21st century while all the time making choices that could make or break the future of the planet…
    Red Redemption is partnered with the Environmental Change Institute of Oxford University and the UK Department of the Environment and is fortunate enough to have Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientists as games advisors, and to further ensure scientific rigor, Red Redemption has a fulltime in-house climate scientist….
    http://www.operationclimatecontrol.co.uk/content/press/press-releases

    10 Oct: Gobion Rowlands: As part of the trip to the USA to meet distributors (more on that soon!) and promote the upcoming beta of Fate of the World I was invited to visit the lovely city of Asheville in North Carolina by NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (www.climate.gov). My trip was sponsored by Mack Pearsall, who in many ways is the patron of the town of Asheville and committed to creating a sustainable community there.So why was I there? Well Marjorie from the National Climatic Data Center at NOAA learned of our work on BBC Climate Challenge and Fate of the World, and in particular our scientific collaborations and research based on the games…
    http://www.red-redemption.com/node/16

    to be continued…

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  • #
    pat

    the MSM love it:

    31 Oct: Guardian: Jack Arnott: Fate of the World – review
    If a regime is refusing to bow to demands, why not sponsor an insurgency force to take them out? Better yet, if a country has an unforgivably high population to emissions ratio (I’m looking at you, North America), why not covertly sterilise the population?
    Though the variables on offer can be a little bewildering,, by using real data models the game provides a fascinating simulation of what the next 200 years have in store for Earth…
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/oct/31/fate-of-the-world-review

    (with trailer) 2 Nov: NYT: John Collins Rudolf: Global Warming for Gamers
    “While ‘Fate of the World’ arms you with environmental data and renewable energy policies rather than grenades and rocket launchers, the result is still compelling,” Jack Arnott wrote in a review for The Guardian newspaper.
    http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/global-warming-for-gamers/?partner=rss&emc=rss

    (with trailer)1 Nov: BBC: Video games come of age – Tom Chatfield
    Video games expert Tom Chatfield tells the BBC World Service that the release of a British game about cutting carbon emissions shows the power of the medium to convey serious issues.
    Fate of the World, which is being released on Tuesday, is a dramatic global strategy game that allows the player to decide how to respond to rising temperatures, populations and dwindling resources.
    “I think we are seeing an enormous maturing of this medium,” Chatfield said.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11669879

    (with polar bears pic) 1 Nov: UK Telegraph: Climate change game launched
    An educational computer game in which users have to save the world from climate change offers an interesting solution – decide the problem is overpopulation and design a virus to kill millions.
    Fate of the World goes on sale on Tuesday and has been praised by gaming experts and climate campaigners as a way of reaching new audiences in the fight against carbon emissions.
    However, climate change sceptics may be surprised and angered by some of the strategies on offer in the game which is being released on PCs and Apple Macs…
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8101281/Climate-change-game-launched.html

    last nite i turned on the radio and passed 3 stations simultaneously pushing CAGW one way or another. switched off and went to sleep.

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  • #
    MadJak

    Just signed up Pol Pot – just in case he wasn’t already there. Categories are as follows:

    Type : Faith Group
    Organisation : Khmer Rouge
    Address : The killing fields
    Phone Number : Phones are for enemies of the state. Please provide a list of members with phone numbers.

    He might lodge a complaint about the phone number being a mandatory field, I mean Telecommunications involves C02 emissions, doesn’t it?

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  • #
    Rereke Whaakaro

    Roy Hogue: #7

    Do I suffer from some sort of spin aversion syndrome?

    Could be.

    Professionally, I and my colleagues need go through thousands of press releases, magazine articles, trade literature, technical reports, transcripts, et cetera, with a view to identifying all the little nuggets of information that collectively indicate the possible future intentions of the subject of our research. This means excluding 98% of the nothing phrases, and weasel words, and barefaced lies that have been put there to generate a “feel good” about the subject matter.

    One of my colleagues – a very able researcher – has had to give up working in this field because she has developed a syndrome where she feels “dirty” and “unclean” all of the time, and feels the need to be constantly washing her hands.

    The doctor had a name for it (that I have forgotten – it was a long series of words starting with Acute and ending with Syndrome).

    Apparently Howard Hughes (the man who created TWA) suffered from a similar condition and went around naked for several years. Our colleague did not go that far — which was probably a good thing, now I come to think about it.

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  • #
    Another Ian

    Re 9Orange:
    November 3rd, 2010 at 7:12 am

    Check this one out – This doesn’t look too good if true!

    “Andrew, NIA (National Inflation Association) have just released a movie called ‘End of Liberty’ which will not only cause plenty of controversy, it will also educate many people to what rules and laws the US Government is enforcing upon it residents.
    Senator Richard Durbin has just had this bill passed the ‘S:510, the Food Safety Modernization Act’, may be the most dangerous bill in the history of the US.
    The [S:510] preclude the public’s right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature makes.
    It will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade and consumption of food and agricultural products of one’s choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary to natural law or, if you like, the will of God, you just hope we never see anything like this here in Australia.

    Rick of Sydney (Reply)
    Wed 03 Nov 10 (05:25am)

    From http://blogs.news.com.au/couriermail/andrewbolt/index.php/couriermail/comments/tips_for_wednesday_november_3/#commentsmore

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  • #
    Another Ian

    Off thread, but one look at how the US elections are going is

    http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/15195

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  • #
    Brian G Valentine

    They are posting the number of enraged emails they received the day after their ghastly foray into “humour.” At 10:10, they simply counted these as new memberships.

    10

  • #
    Joe Lalonde

    Never watched 10:10.
    Heard much about it.

    I did not have the urge to stick my head in the microwave oven.

    10

  • #
    Mark D.

    Rereke @ 5
    A simple but elegant summary.

    Roy @ 7
    YES it is called SAS syndrome. Of course if it progresses it becomes SASSY.

    10

  • #

    This deserves its own post:

    http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827840.100-professional-climate-change-deniers-crusade-continues.html

    [Sorry for the O/T, but it’s just too juicy a target to wait…

    10

  • #
    Orange

    S 510 is hissing in the grass…..

    http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/s-510-is-hissing-in-the-grass/

    Yet another example of how this Obama is the enemy of freedom and democracy!

    10

  • #
    val majkus

    I thought you guys might be interested in this comment I made today at http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/40652.html#comments commenting on an opinion piece by Stephan Lewandowsky Climate change: are you willing to take the risk?
    Corrupted science is evidenced by the Climategate e mails and in my view the IPCC has been totally discredited by its reliance on that and on the voluminous non scientific material stated as fact in its last report. As Professor Carter says … “there is a degradation, mainly by political interference, of research conditions and practices within modern government-funded research groups pushed by the power and financial clout of the modern, ecoevangelistic Green movement, egged on by crusading media reporters and editors. The world has probably never before seen a propaganda and political machine that is as well oiled, well funded and well organized as this modern army of apocalyptics and their media flag-wavers.

    But voters who respond to the siren song of the Greens imperil both our standard of living and, ironically, the state of our natural environment. For every dollar that is spent on a false environmental issue such as dangerous human-caused global warming is a dollar that is not available to be spent on a real environmental or social problem.”

    And where’s the warming?

    If you have time please visit the site and make a comment; this is a good way of spreading the word amongst the true believers

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  • #
    MadJak

    val@22,

    Yep, I’ve broken my promise and couldn’t help but get over there and stick my oar in over on their ABC. I must stop, I feel like the big kid picking on the little ones. They’re only spitting out what they’ve been indoctrinated in.

    As a sidenote, it’s good to see the tea party get some leverage in the US. It’s inspiring….

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  • #
    val majkus

    thanks Madjac; appreciate the support; the majority of the Drum readers truly are the true believers

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  • #
    manalive

    Orange (9),

    Norfolk Island sounds like an ideal tryout venue for the future Green/Red society, after all it was a most wretched penal colony.

    I’m wondering how one of its more celebrated residents will cope with the carbon and “fatty food” rationing.

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  • #
    Orange

    Indeed “manalive” (26), individuals of such demeanor as “Colleen McCullough” would be the target of the COMMUNIST SCHEME!!

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  • #
    Orange

    GULAGS FOR AMERICANS WHO DON’T GET WITH OBAMA’S LEFTIST PLANS………..

    http://www.campfema.com/

    NO DOUBT THE COMMUNIST GILLARD IS PLANNING THESE IN AUSTRALIA ALSO!!

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  • #
    Orange

    Talking of SPINNING.

    Here is the latest DESPERATE act from the NSW Labor Government…..

    http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/nsw-opposition-fears-coal-subsidy-plan-20101103-17ckv.html

    PATHETIC LIERS!!!

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  • #
    Orange

    The NSW ALP(Australian Lier’s Party) is history!

    They will be GONE in March!

    Have a look at today’s CORRUPTION story…..

    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/solar_powered_trough/

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  • #
    Tim

    Why do the AGW alarmist-warmists propaganda campaigns succeed? Because, at the extreme, only about 4% of the population has enough brainpower to perform complex cognitive tasks such as making high-level inferences using specialized background knowledge.

    http://www.useit.com/alertbox/short-term-memory.html

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  • #
    UK Sceptic

    Lies, damn lies and 10:10 statistics…

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  • #
    Roy Hogue

    Mark D.,

    Roy @ 7
    YES it is called SAS syndrome. Of course if it progresses it becomes SASSY.

    Thank you! I will immediately inform my physician who will probably want to perform a brain transplant to alleviate the condition.

    Your medical advice is most appreciated.

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  • #
    Roy Hogue

    Gee! I wonder whose brain they’ll give me. Maybe Al Gore’s!? He seems to be the most able to tolerate spin.

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  • #
    Mark D.

    Roy @ 33:

    Thank you! I will immediately inform my physician who will probably want to perform a brain transplant to alleviate the condition.

    You are welcome! More free advice: don’t have that transplant done anywhere on the “Left Coast” or you are liable to become one of “them”….. 🙂

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  • #
    Barry Woods

    It was a 150,000 a little while ago,worldwide…..

    I wonder if Exploding Mr Creosote is still signed up?

    I’ve a screen capture somewhere (no I didn’t so it!)

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  • #
    Orange

    I signed up some “special” leftist politicians……

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  • #
    Craig Goodrich

    “… the novel thrill of acoustic guitars and tamborines with no amps, no food, and a “crowd” of twelve people and no lighting.”

    Geez, Jo, that sounds like the great folk music scare of the early ’60s, when I as a soph in college learned to play the guitar because all the hot chicks went for folk music.

    So I’d show up at these parties with my guitar and a sixpack. Then the chicks went home with a brainless hippie who pretended to play bongos and had drunk all my beer…

    Maybe that’s why I’m a skeptic by nature.

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  • #
    jaytee

    “zero carbon music festival” — I’m imagining the novel thrill of acoustic guitars and tamborines with no amps, no food, and a “crowd” of twelve people and no lighting.

    No vocals or wind instruments, presumably.

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