Last night, I was browsing Ripley's Believe It or Not comic series and saw That's a stretched and romanticized view of a singing robot. Because the robot sang only once. Fact: In August 2013, NASA decided to use the sample-analysis unit’s vibrations for something a little different. To celebrate the mission’s first successful year on Mars, engineers programmed the unit to vibrate to a musical tune. From inside a Martian crater, millions of miles away from home, Curiosity sang “Happy Birthday” to itself. Video: Amidst the exaggerated claims circulated in the Internet, the humbly and trundly Curiosity Rover had to step in and clarify for once and for all here. Trivia books have capsules bursting with short-range facts. Mostly, the facts are who is the longest, shortest, tallest, fastest. When the information is on discovery and knowledge, should the editors attenuate or romanticise the facts to appeal to kids? Y/N.
To be fair, they do say believe it or not! : ) I visited one of the Ripley's museums once. Got the impression that the 'facts' they presented were cherry picked for entertainment/shock value. No pretense was made about sources and factual accuracy. Children do respond better to stories than to cold facts. In that sense, I'm okay with modifications and attenuations as long as they don't turn the trivia into 'alternate facts.' The rover singing happy birthday every year is a stretch too far. It's not a romanticized fact; it is plain wrong.
