better to err on the side of caution
なんともせちがらい世の中になったものです。日本の「よさ」が少しずつ壊れていっているのを物語る事例です。そういえば子どもの学校でも不審者情報がメールで送られてきます。
Heightened sensibilities regarding child safety get man written up for asking directions
An elementary schoolgirl in Aichi Prefecture is believed to have reported a man to the police late last week when he stopped her to ask for directions to the station.
Most elementary aged children in Japan make their way to and from school on foot, with each child’s route kept on file at the school office to ensure their safety. Children are also arranged into small groups or have walking buddies who take the same route, and local Parent Teacher Associations ensure that there is always someone manning busy intersections each morning to help the children cross the street and keep an eye open for anything suspicious.
Kids are taught the safety rules of not only the road, but also how to prevent becoming victims of crime. Of course, talking to strangers is out of the question, but they are also encouraged to report anything “out of the ordinary.” On occasions such as these, the “suspicious characters” are reported, and a letter goes out informing parents about the time and place of the sighting, as well as the physical description of the individual.
Although the details of the incident in Aichi are not yet clear, it is believed that this deeply ingrained fear of “suspicious persons” is the basis for the girl calling the police. Of course, it is necessary to take precautions and better to err on the side of caution, but it does seem a waste of police resources to be called out for a man who only asked directions to the station. Regardless of the man’s true intentions and seemingly innocent conduct, the incident was written up as one of the “Suspicious Characters Reports” anyway. The date and time of the incident along with the words the man used when asking the way to the station and his physical description were all made note of.
better to err on the side of cautionは慣用句です。「注意するのにこしたことはない」あたりの訳とともに、丸ごとおさえておいてください。（UG）
pesticide residue
ウーロン茶を常用しているわたしには恐れていたことが現実になった感があります。どうしようか...
pesticide residueはまんま「残留農薬」です。（EnDough）
Ito En recalls Chinese-grown Oolong tea over pesticide
About 400,000 packages of Oolong tea are being recalled after spot testing revealed pesticide residue
Japanese food company Ito En on Tuesday issued a huge recall of Chinese-grown tea after some of it was found to contain illegal levels of pesticide residue.
The firm said it was recalling about 400,000 packages of Oolong tea after spot testing revealed pesticide residue levels above Japanese food safety limits.
Ito En said it started testing the tea from China’s southern Fujian province after another Japanese tea maker announced last month it had found similarly high pesticide levels in its China-sourced tea.
“We found the higher levels of pesticide residue after conducting voluntary tests following another company’s announcement about Oolong teabags,” an Ito En spokesman told AFP.
offer up
財政の崖、いよいよ崖っぷちの段階に突入しました。これは即、日本経済のみならず、世界の経済に波及しますので、決して対岸の火事ではありません。USA Todayではオバマ大統領と対峙している米議会の考え方の推移がビデオ映像でまとめてあります。参考にされてください。
なお、ここで米下院のボーナー議長が用いたoffer upというPVはどのような意味合いなのでしょうか。もともとは神へのお供え物に関係する句動詞だったような気がしますが、Othelloくんの健闘を祈ります。（UG）
House Speaker John Boehner is calling on the White House to offer up a plan for spending cuts in order to avoid the fiscal cliff. Boehner says if Congress enacts the president's current plan the US would be in the red for decades to come. (Dec. 11)
http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/politics/2012/12/11/1761815/
press ahead
発射延期という情報がある中で、北朝鮮がミサイルを打ち上げることに「成功」（たぶん）しました。press aheadは「（計画など）を推し進める」という意味で、「発射を強行した」と訳せます。（UG）
South Korea Says North Korea Has Fired Long-Range Rocket
North Korea defied the likelihood of more sanctions by the United Nations Security Council to launch a rocket on Wednesday, demonstrating that the government of its new leader, Kim
Jong-un, was pressing ahead to master the technology needed to deliver a nuclear warhead on a intercontinental ballistic missile.
It was not immediately known whether the rocket had succeeded in North Korea’s stated goal of putting a rocket into orbit.
swarm around
やはり一流の選手はやることが違います。今クラブW杯の為に来日しているチェルシーの選手が横浜のスターバックスで大盤振る舞いをしました。
Chelsea players mobbed at Starbucks
Millionaire Chelsea players Petr Cech and Paulo Ferreira popped into a Starbucks for coffee after training at the Club World Cup in Japan on Tuesday and were mobbed as they waited in line.
Defender Ferreira purchased a Yokohama Starbucks coffee mug as a souvenir but goalkeeper Cech opted to save his money as dozens of fans in Chelsea shirts swarmed around them.
Picking up a small size coffee, Cech asked his teammate: “Do you want to drink here or go back (to the hotel)?”
Closely watched by team security, the players patiently signed autographs and posed for photos with fans as they waited before Ferreira nervously replied: “Go back.”
Japanese fans were thrilled at the surprise visit by their idols.
“Brilliant!” 21-year-old student Shohei Tanimura told Reuters. “That was lucky. I only came in for a quick coffee. Cech was huge. He’s even bigger than he looks on TV.”
Chelsea’s jet-lagged players had just finished training ahead of Thursday’s Club World Cup semi-final against Mexico’s Monterrey in Yokohama.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/sports/view/chelsea-players-mobbed-at-starbucks
swarmには「[しばしば複数形で]〔人・動物の〕群れ，群衆; 大勢，たくさん」という意味があり、動詞では.swarmed aroundには〔+副詞(句)〕群がる，たかる，群れをなして動き[飛び]回るという意味(『新英和中辞典』、第2版、研究社)があります。日本語で言う『野次馬』という事でしょうか。チェルシーの選手に会えるという甘い蜜に吸い寄せられたというイメージがどこか面白かったので取り上げてみました。
それとここで使われているhugeも少し気になりました。文脈的に「器の大きい」という意味も含まれているとは思いますが、器の大きいはtolerantで認識していたので意外な語彙選択でした。LDOCEには’extremely large in size, amount, or degree’とあったので、もしかしたら使われるのかもしれません。(EnDough)
detention facility
12月12日は「漢字の日」に制定され（例の漢検によって）、今年一年を表す漢字がまもなく発表されます。しかしながら、山中教授ではないけど北朝鮮のミサイル発射といい、この角田被告の自殺といい、まさに「驚」の一年だったような気がしないでもありません。detention facilityは「拘置所」ですね。（GP）
Key figure in Amagasaki murder case apparently commits suicide
KOBE, Dec. 12, Kyodo
A woman suspected in the deaths and disappearances of several people died Wednesday at a detention facility at the headquarters of the Hyogo prefectural police, the police said.
Miyoko Sumida, 64, apparently committed suicide, police sources said, noting that she was found Wednesday morning with her clothes twisted around her neck in the cell where she was being held.
The bodies of six people known to her have been found so far, and Sumida was indicted for the murder of a 66-year-old woman whose body was found in a concrete-filled drum in a warehouse in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, in November last year.
azimuth
今日のニュースは北朝鮮のミサイルと、容疑者の自殺で持ちきりでしょう。
azimuthは記事のangleがヒントの通り、「方位（角）」（『ジーニアス英和辞典 第４版』大修館）を示しています。天文学の用語で使われることが多いみたいです。
また辞書には「《電気》（テープレコーダーの）アジマス」(ibid)とありました。テープレコーダーは最近使われることが少なくなりましたが、テープの進行方向に対するヘッドの「角度」のことを表しています。日本語でもカタカナで「アジマス」と表現するそうですね。(Minnesota)
'Extremely regrettable'
The three-stage rocket was launched from a site on North Korea's west coast.
"The launch of the second version of our Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite from the Sohae Space Centre... on December 12 was successful," state news agency KCNA said. "The satellite has entered the orbit as planned."
The rocket had been scheduled to pass between the Korean peninsula and China, with a second stage coming down off the Philippines.
"The missile was tracked on a southerly azimuth [angle]. Initial indications are that the first stage fell into the Yellow Sea," a North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) statement said.
"The second stage was assessed to fall into the Philippine Sea. Initial indications are that the missile deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit."
No can do.
Long time no see.やGo for broke.のようにノンネイティブの使う英語が標準英語に入ってフレーズとしてよく用いられる例に、No can do.というフレーズがあります。
これは頼みごとをしたシンガポールの友人からの返事のメールにあったもので、「それはできないな。ダメだね。」などの意味を表します。これはおなじみのCan-do listにもある、Can do.（「できるよ」「いいよ」）の頭に否定のNoをつけたもので、中国系のPidgin Englishからと言われています。Easy, lah?（UG）
decide against
痴漢をはたらいたとされるNHKの森本アナウンサーが不起訴になりました。これにより今度はNHK内部での判断が下ることになるでしょう。
No charges for NHK anchor assault
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office has decided against filing an indictment against Takeshige Morimoto, a well-known NHK announcer arrested last month for assaulting a woman on a Tokyo train, investigative sources said.
The victim has not indicated a desire that he be punished, the sources said Monday.
Morimoto, who anchored a nationally televised morning news program on weekends, was arrested on the night of Nov. 14 after allegedly slipping his hand into the underwear of the woman and touching her breasts. He told investigators at the time he was drunk.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121212a8.html
decide against〜は検察が不起訴に決めた場合によく見かける表現です。「〜することに反対する（against~ing）ことを決める（decide）」、つまり「〜しないことに決める」という意味になります（例：I decided against attending his class.）。もってまわった感じもしますが、これが法律の言葉なのでしょうね。（UG）
work
今週のAW（12/09/12）にあったASTROLOGICAL FORECAST（星座占い）のARIES（牡羊座）からの引用です。workというと「働く」や「動かす」という意味が想起されますが，その他に「…をもたらす, 生じさせる」という意味があります（『プログレッシブ英和中辞典』小学館）。同辞書にはwork a transformation ［wonders］（変化をもたらす, 奇跡を起こす, 驚くほど効果がある）という用例が挙げられていました。（Koyamamoto）
ARIES
You have rituals for health and well-being that work wonders for you. To an observer who doesn’t know or understand you well, these practices may be slightly unusual. And though you could explain yourself brilliantly, you’ll deeply appreciate the one who doesn7 require you to do so.
