N65 : Sixty-fifth lesson S00-TITLE : To err is human (From "Young Science Magazine") S01 : Greg Wood, author of "Bits and Bytes", is renowned for his groundbreaking work on advanced information systems. S02 : Greg is not your typical techno geek, though. He started out by studying astrophysics, S03 : but soon dropped out of university in order to "get away from academia", as he puts it. S04 : His parents had already given up on him, thinking he would never amount to anything S05 : and his fiancée broke up with him because, in her words, their relationship was on the rocks. S06 : Only his brother stood up for him because he knew that Greg had it in him to be a top-notch researcher. S07 : Greg set out on a round-the-world trip, dropping in on colleagues in different universities, S08 : visiting old friends he hadn't seen for a while and catching up on their news. S09 : Everything was going smoothly until he came down with pneumonia in India. S10 : Stuck in hospital, he had nothing to do but read so he was able to check up on the latest developments in the scientific world. S11 : Greg finally decided that it was time to get back to the real world and start working again. S12 : But to do what? S13 : At the time, the government was cutting down on research spending S14 : and putting more money into areas where Britain needed to catch up with its competitors. S15 : Greg decided to go in for IT because, according to him, we need to tell the difference between information, knowledge and wisdom. S16 : He got down to work, keeping up with the latest trends and watching out for new ideas. S17 : Many of his peers looked down on him and Greg had to put up with a lot of criticism. S18 : But he finally came up with what has become known as Gregg's Law, which states: S19 : "To err is human; to really mess things up you need a computer". S20 : Now THAT's wisdom! T00-TRANSLATE : Exercise: Translate T01 : Let me put it this way: he's not the brightest guy around. T02 : Symptoms of pneumatic plague include acute pneumonia accompanied by high fever. T03 : For great family entertainment, the veteran director's latest movie is the tops. T04 : Sean and I have a lot of news to catch up on. T05 : The new software has really messed things up.