Here is a news article: Family: Nightmare Nanny Agrees to Leave

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 It was the story that made every parent wince. Ralph and Marcella Bracamonte hired Diane Stretton as a live-in nanny to watch their children, ages 11, 4 and 16 months. When things didn't work out, they let her go. But, according to the Bracamontes, the 64-year-old nanny refused to leave their home in Upland, California.Since the story became national news on Friday, Stretton, who has refused to speak to media, hasn't returned to the house. She has been spotted driving past the house by the assembled media and her belongings remain in her room.But now, the Bracamontes say that Stretton has agreed to move out by July 4, under certain conditions. "She wrote a [email] stating what she wants to do," Marcella Bracamonte tells PEOPLE. "She would like to move out but because of the hot weather that's going to happen soon." The only hitch: the Bracamontes were scheduled to go out of town for a family wedding on July 2. "I feel like it's a trap," says Bracamonte, adding that the couple will have other family members house-sitting while they're out of town. "I feel like she knows that I'm going to be gone and that she wants to lock me out of my home."While Stretton and the Bracamontes come up with a solution, the case raises some burning questions. Speaking to PEOPLE inside their home, the Bracamontes answered some of them.The family had posted an ad on Craigslist, and Stretton seemed like a promising candidate. But did they do a criminal background check before hiring her? "Of course I did," Marcella Bracamonte tells PEOPLE. "I'm a mom. My family is the most important thing, so of course I did. I called references. I didn't do a credit check, because I wasn't accepting money from her. I just didn't think it was necessary. I was too trusting."According to the Bracamontes, they were initially pleased with Stretton's work – until the third week. "She began slowing down," says Bracamonte. "I thought maybe it was because she was a little older, but then things got worse the next week. And the next week." Adds Ralph Bracamonte: "She didn't want to pick up anything anymore. She didn't want to help out."Because the employment agreement included a place to live, the family must go through the proper legal channels to evict her. "The eviction process is a civil action and, in some cases, can take months to complete," says Cindy Bachman, a spokesperson for the San Bernardino County Sheriff. "Once the process is complete, a deputy will remove the tenant and lock them out. If the tenant refuses to leave, they could face arrest for trespassing and/or violation of a court order."If they interfere with the nanny's room, the Bracamontes could face legal repercussions. "She came in as a nanny in exchange for services," says the Bracamontes' attorney, Marc Cohen. (The laws regarding the housing agreement are different than those governing the employment arrangement.) "She was given a room. She has a legal right to that room. I don't think there is a legal obligation to feed her. There would be a legal obligation to ensure that she has lights, running water, things like that."Under landlord/tenant laws, the Bracamontes cannot become the roommates from hell. When Stretton felt that the Bracamontes had their television up too loud, she called police. "We could be fined up to $1,000 for disrupting our tenant," says Marcella. Adds Ralph, "My TV doesn't even have surround sound. It wasn't too loud."Although there is no record of a similar case involving employment as a nanny, PEOPLE has found Stretton's name attached to more than a dozen cases in three Southern California counties ranging from nonpayment to property damage to negligence. Of the 13 cases found by PEOPLE dating back to 2002, she is a plaintiff in 7 cases and a defendant in 6 more. ABC News reports that she is listed by California Courts as a vexatious litigant for abusing the legal system. ||||| UPLAND (CBSLA.com) — The 64-year-old live-in nanny who has come under national fire for refusing to leave an Upland family’s home is speaking out for the first time.

 Ralph and Marcella Bracamonte hired Diane Stretton via Craigslist, offering her room and board for taking care of their three children.

 After the first few months, the Bracamontes said Stretton stopped working and refused to leave her room.

 The family said they fired Stretton on June 6, but she told them she wasn’t going to budge.

 Stretton told KNX 1070’s Charles Feldman, however, that she was never terminated by the couple. ||||| The fired California nanny who wouldn't leave is blaming the weather, the media and physical disabilities as the reasons she hasn't moved out of her former employers' home, but said she will be out by July 4 - under certain conditions, according to an email she sent to her employer's lawyer.

 But Marcella Bracamonte, who fired Diane Stretton earlier this month, thinks Stretton's demands are a ploy.

 “I don’t believe her. She is going to show up when I am not here with a bunch of food and water and she will barricade herself in her room,” Bracamonte said.

 “I want her to leave by tomorrow, Tuesday 4 p.m. I am not going to play games with this lady,” she said.

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 Stretton, 64, was hired by Marcella and Ralph Bracamonte in early March to help care for their three children in exchange for room and board. After several weeks, Stretton stopped working and said she was unable to perform her job because health problems and only came out of her room to eat, the Bracamontes claim. The family asked Stretton to sign a letter on June 6 giving her 30 days to leave, but Stretton threatened to sue the family for elder abuse and improper firing, Marcella Bracamonte said.

 In an email sent this weekend to Marc Cohen, the Bracamontes' lawyer, Stretton said she tried to move out of the house but there was "always a bunch of news vehicles right in front of the house. The media needs to be completely gone before I continue moving."

 She said her departure will now be delayed by a coming heat wave. "The temperature over the next 5 days is expected to be near 100 degrees. I can't work in that kind of heat," she wrote in her email.

 Stretton said in her email that she wants to be able to sleep in the Bracamonte home for three more nights and to be able to shower in their bathroom.

 "If the media stays away, I will be out by the 4th of July. But that depends on the circus not continuing," she wrote.

 The Bracamontes have plans to be away for July 4, but Marcella Bracamonte does not intend to leave her house unattended.

 “I have my sister-in-laws, brother-in-laws and their children, so at least seven people will be here,” she told ABC News.

 Stretton disappeared from the Bracamontes' house Thursday morning and was later discovered in her car outside of a police station on Friday. She has refused to speak to the media, hiding under window screen.

 During Stretton's standoff with the Bracamontes, her litigious past has emerged. She has a long history with litigation and is listed on California's Vexatious Litigant List, which includes people who have been found to bring legal action that is frivolous or repetitive.

 The majority of the lawsuits were directed at her own family members, particularly her two sisters. According to documents, Stretton tried to block her sisters from selling family property.

 Last year, Stretton even sued her son, Michael, according to court records, and a car rental agency for property damage and personal injury in connection with a motor vehicle accident.

 Court documents show that when Stretton's father, John Richardson, died in 2000, his will included Stretton's two sisters, Donna Tobey and Sharon Freeburn. Richardson "specifically and expressly omitted Stretton," according to court documents.Stretton has not returned calls from ABC News. |||||
A summary of this is?

– The fired nanny who has been refusing to leave her former employers' home says she is now ready to go—when conditions are just right. Diane Stretton over the weekend emailed Marcella and Ralph Bracamonte's lawyer blaming the weather and the media for her failure to depart their California home, ABC News reports. There are "always a bunch of news vehicles right in front of the house," the 64-year-old complains. "The media needs to be completely gone before I continue moving." She noted a predicted near-100-degree heat wave will make it impossible to move in the next few days because she "can't work in that kind of heat"—though "if the media stays away, I will be out by the 4th of July. But that depends on the circus not continuing." But Marcella Bracamonte, who says she fired Stretton last month after she "just stopped working," isn't convinced. "I don’t believe her. She is going to show up when I am not here with a bunch of food and water and she will barricade herself in her room," she says. Stretton, for her part, tells KNX 1070 news radio she only refused to work twice, when she had the flu and had worked 90 days straight. "I didn’t get lunch breaks, I didn’t get coffee breaks, I didn't get any holidays. Basically, I was working 24/7." Bracamonte, who tells People that she hired Stretton through a Craigslist ad and that her references checked out, says she and her family will be out of town on the day when Stretton claims she is going to move—but there will be plenty of other family members house-sitting. "I feel like she knows that I'm going to be gone and that she wants to lock me out of my home," she says.


– In what appears to have been a spelling error and not a play on words, Donald Trump slammed China's "unpresidented" seizure of a US underwater drone in a tweet Saturday morning. "China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters - rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act," he tweeted. He eventually corrected the spelling to "unprecedented." The AP, which describes the Thursday incident in the South China Sea as one of the most serious encounters between the US and Chinese militaries in years, reports that China announced earlier on Saturday that it is in talks with the US about "appropriately handling" the issue. Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters Friday that the drone was seized while collecting scientific data near the Philippines. "It is ours. It's clearly marked as ours. We would like it back, and we would like this not to happen again," Davis said. The Guardian reports that in his Friday press conference, Obama warned Trump against letting relations with China enter "full conflict" mode with a belligerent stance on Taiwan and other issues. "The idea of 'One China is at the heart of their conception as a nation," Obama said, "and so if you are going to upend this understanding, you have to have thought through what are the consequences."

Expand this summary.

BEIJING (AP) — China said Saturday that its military was in contact with its American counterparts on "appropriately handling" the Chinese navy's seizure of a U.S. Navy unmanned underwater glider, one of the most serious incidents between the two militaries in years.

 The one-sentence comment by the foreign ministry offered no details on what discussions were underway or why China on Thursday seized the drone, which, according to the Pentagon, was being operated by civilian contractors to conduct oceanic research. The U.S. said it issued a formal diplomatic complaint over the seizure and demanded the drone's return.

 "According to (our) understanding, the U.S. and Chinese sides are working on appropriately handling this matter through channels between the two militaries," the foreign ministry told The Associated Press in a faxed statement.

 China's defense ministry did not immediately respond to questions on the issue.

 The drone was seized while collecting unclassified scientific data about 92 kilometers (57 miles) northwest of Subic Bay near the Philippines in the South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Friday .

 "It is ours. It's clearly marked as ours. We would like it back, and we would like this not to happen again," Davis told reporters. He said the drone costs about $150,000 and is largely commercial, off-the-shelf technology.

 The USNS Bowditch, which is not a combat ship, was stopped in international waters Thursday afternoon and recovering two of the gliders when the Chinese ship approached, Davis said. The two vessels were within about 450 meters (500 yards) of each other. He said that the USNS Bowditch carries some small arms, but that no shots were fired.

 According to the Pentagon, as the Chinese ship left with the drone, which is about 3 meters (10 feet) long, its only radio response to the U.S. vessel was, "We are returning to normal operations."

 Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the seizure of the glider occurred inside the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, not China, and appeared to be a violation of international law.

 China delineates its South China Sea claims with a roughly drawn sea border known as the "nine-dash line" that runs along the west coast of the Philippines. However, it hasn't explicitly said whether it considers those waters as sovereign territory, and says it doesn't disrupt the passage of other nations' shipping through the area. The U.S. doesn't take a position on sovereignty claims, but insists on freedom of navigation, including the right of its naval vessels to conduct training and other operations in the sea.

 Davis said that the incident could be the first time in recent history that China has taken a U.S. naval vessel. Some observers have called it the most significant dispute between the sides' militaries since the April 2001 mid-air collision between a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft and a Chinese fighter jet about 110 kilometers (70 miles) from China's Hainan island that led to the death of a Chinese pilot.

 "It is ours. It's clearly marked as ours. We would like it back, and we would like this not to happen again," Davis told reporters. He said the drone costs about $150,000 and is largely commercial, off-the-shelf technology.

 Whatever the outcome, the incident is likely to fray the already tense relations between U.S. and China. Beijing was angered by President-elect Donald Trump's decision to talk by phone with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Dec. 2, and by his later comments that he did not feel "bound by a one-China policy" regarding the status of Taiwan, unless the U.S. could gain trade or other benefits from China. China considers the self-governing island its own territory to be recovered by force if it deems necessary.

 There also have been increased tensions over Beijing's ongoing military buildup in the South China Sea, mainly the development and militarization of man-made shoals and islands aimed at extending China's reach in the strategically vital area, through which about $5 trillion in global trade passes annually.

 In one of the few reports in state media about the drone's seizure, a newspaper published by China's ruling Communist Party cited an unidentified military official as saying that a "smooth resolution" to the matter is expected.

 A Chinese navy ship discovered an "unidentified device" Thursday and was checking on it for the sake of maritime safety, the Global Times quoted the official as saying.

 "China has received the U.S. request to return the device, communication is open between the relevant departments of the two sides and I believe this matter will obtain a smooth resolution," the official was quoted as saying.

 In a separate report, the paper quoted retired Chinese admiral Yang Yi as saying China considered itself well within its rights to seize the drone.

 "If China needs to take it, we'll take it. (America) can't block us," Yang was quoted as saying.

 Yang said he was unsure of the purpose of seizing the drone, but didn't think the matter qualified as a "military conflict." However, he added that the chances of a confrontation had risen following Trump's recent comments, which were seen as testing China's bottom line on Taiwan and other sensitive issues.

 "It's natural for us to take possession of and research for a bit these types of things that America sends to our doorstep," Yang said. "The louder they shout, the more their protests ring hollow." ||||| President-elect Donald Trump has risked further inflaming US relations with China, after he used Twitter on Saturday to accuse China of an “unpresidented [sic] act” in its seizing of an unmanned American submarine this week.

 Senior adviser on Trump's diplomacy: 'I can't keep up with the tweets' Read more

 “China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters – rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act,” Trump said, misspelling “unprecedented”.

 The tweet was later reissued with the correct spelling of “unprecedented”. The tweet containing the error was deleted.

 His message – itself without precedent given his status as a president-elect commenting on an international incident before assuming power – was likely to worsen fears of increased US-China tensions under his presidency that have grown over his rhetoric on trade and policy towards Taiwan.

 Hours later, Trump suggested the US tell China it no longer wants its property returned.

 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) We should tell China that we don't want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!

 Trump’s initial tweet was issued shortly after China’s foreign ministry said it was negotiating with the US over the vehicle, a “glider” used to collect unclassified scientific data.

 A Pentagon spokesman said it was being operated by civilian contractors when it was seized on Thursday in international waters, about 57 miles north-west of Subic Bay, near the Philippines, in the South China Sea.

 The unmanned vehicle was deployed by the USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic and surveillance ship. A diplomatic complaint was issued by the US after its seizure, and its return demanded.

 The area in which the submarine was taken is claimed by China virtually in its entirety. China has been building islands, and this week it was reported to have installed “significant” weaponry on them – including anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems.

 On Saturday, the Chinese foreign ministry said that American “hyping up” was not conducive to a smooth resolution of an incident that began when a Chinese naval vessel discovered a piece of “unidentified equipment” and checked it to prevent any navigational safety issues, before discovering it was a US drone.

 Donald Trump faces Senate backlash over ‘cabinet of billionaires’ Read more

 “China decided to return it to the US side in an appropriate manner, and China and the US have all along been in communication about it,” a statement on the ministry website said.

 “During this process, the US side’s unilateral and open hyping up is inappropriate, and is not beneficial to the smooth resolution of this issue. We express regret at this.”

 Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook later said in a statement: “Through direct engagement with Chinese authorities, we have secured an understanding that the Chinese will return the UUV [unmanned underwater vehicle] to the United States.”

 On Friday, in a press conference at the White House, Barack Obama cautioned Trump against allowing relations with China to slip into “full conflict mode”.

 Trump took a congratulatory phone call from the Taiwanese president earlier this month, breaking with nearly 40 years of US foreign policy orthodoxy, and then used a Fox News interview to question US “one China” policy on Taiwan, a breakaway island state which is not recognised by Beijing.

 “The idea of ‘one China’ is at the heart of their conception as a nation,” Obama said, “and so if you are going to upend this understanding, you have to have thought through what are the consequences.

 “Because the Chinese will not treat that the way they will treat some other issues. They won’t even treat it the way they treat issues around the South China Sea, where we have had a lot of tensions. This goes to the core of how they see themselves and their reaction on this issue could end up being very significant.”

 On Thursday, Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Guardian the seizure of the drone looked “like signalling from the Chinese in response to Trump’s Taiwan call”.

 “It is in China’s interest to send signals before Trump is inaugurated,” she said, “so that he gets the message and [will] be more restrained once he is office.”

 Observers have suggested that both during the presidential campaign – in which Trump offered belligerent rhetoric against China over trade – and after his election victory, he has used outlandish statements on Twitter as a means of distraction when under pressure from the media and opponents.

 White House faces exodus of foreign policy experts ahead of Trump's arrival Read more

 He is currently facing the belief of the White House, the CIA, the FBI and other intelligence agencies that Russia sought to influence the election in his favour – claims he has rejected and ridiculed – and questions about his business holdings and conflicts of interest that will arise when he takes office.

 Trump has also failed to stage a press conference since winning the election, instead embarking on a “thank you” tour of rallies in states which voted for him.

 The electoral college, in which Trump beat Hillary Clinton 306-232 despite losing the popular vote by more than 2.8m ballots, meets on Monday to decide the election victor.

 Some electors have indicated an intention not to vote for Trump, but not the 38 Republican electors it would take to send the decision to the House of Representatives.

 Also on Saturday morning, Trump’s transition team released a statement announcing the nomination of the South Carolina congressman Mick Mulvaney, a budget “hawk” who has advocated deep federal spending cuts, as director of the Office of Management and Budget. |||||


Here is a news article: Image caption All sea slugs have complicated mating behaviour, but Chromodoris reticulata has surprised scientists with its ability to lose and then re-grow its penis

 A sea slug that is able to detach, re-grow and then re-use its penis has surprised scientists.

 Japanese researchers observed the bizarre mating behaviour in a species called Chromodoris reticulata, which is found in the Pacific Ocean.

 They believe this is the first creature known that can repeatedly copulate with what they describe as a "disposable penis".

 The study is published in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters.

 Male and female

 The sex life of the sea slug is complicated even before detachable organs come into play.

 I haven't seen anything like this before Bernard Picton, National Museums Northern Ireland

 Almost all of these creatures, which are also known as nudibranchs, are thought to be "simultaneous hermaphrodites". This means they have both male and female sexual organs and can use them both at the same time.

 Bernard Picton, curator of marine invertebrates at the National Museums Northern Ireland, explained: "The genital apparatus is on the right hand side of the body. So two nudibranchs come together and one faces one way and one faces the other way, with the right hand side of their bodies touching.

 "The penis from one fits into the female opening of the other one, and the penis from that one fits into the female opening of the first one, if you see what I mean.

 "They are both donating sperm to the other one."

 But the finding that one species has added another layer of complexity to copulation surprised the sea slug expert.

 "I haven't seen anything like this before," he said.

 Sexual healing

 Image caption The Japanese team of scientists observed the animals as they mated

 The Japanese team observed sea slugs that they had collected from shallow coral reefs around Japan. They saw the animals mate 31 times.

 The act took between a few seconds and a few minutes, after which the creatures would push away and shed their penises, leaving them on the floor of the tank.

 However, the researchers were surprised to discover that just 24-hours later, the sea slugs had regenerated their male organs and were able to mate again.

 Closer examination of the animals' anatomy revealed that the sea slugs had a large part of their penis coiled up in a spiral inside their bodies, which they would then use to replenish their missing part.

 The scientists also noted that the penis was equipped with spines.

 At most, the animals were able to copulate three times in succession, with each bout separated by about 24 hours.

 It was not clear once the internal penis was used up after these attempts whether the animal's sex life - at least the male part of it - was effectively over or - after a few weeks or months - the organ could regrow.

 No great loss

 Sea slugs are not the only animals who abandon their penis.

 They do have very very complicated biology Bernard Picton, National Museums Northern Ireland

 Orb weaving spiders are known to lose their male organs after sex, as does a sea creature called the periwinkle and land slugs belonging to the genus Ariolimax.

 However the researchers believe that Chromodoris reticulata is the first creature known that can re-grow its appendage - and its disposable penis gives it a sexual advantage.

 The Japanese team says that in the first act of copulation the penis may be used to remove any sperm left by any competitors that its partner has mated with.

 With the first penis and the rival sperm then abandoned, the second penis can be used to inject the sea slug with another dose of its own sperm, ensuring that their genes are the ones that are passed on.

 Mr Picton said: "They do have very, very complicated biology - and a lot have awfully complicated things in terms of reproduction." ||||| Sea animal has grow-again penis

 PARIS — Scientists reported Wednesday on the bizarre sex life of a sea slug that discards its penis after copulation. Then grows a new one.

 "No other animal is known to repeatedly copulate using such 'disposable penes'," Japanese biologists wrote in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, describing the behaviour as "extremely peculiar".

 Dubbed Chromodoris reticulata in Latin, the red-and-white slug -- technically a shell-less mollusc -- inhabits warms waters in Southeast Asia.

 The critter needs 24 hours between couplings to unroll an internally coiled and compressed juvenile penis to replace the used, external bit, the scientists found.

 It can repeat this feat at least three times.

 The human thumb-sized slug is an hermaphrodite, meaning it has both male and female sexual organs.

 The animals perform dual sexual roles during copulation. They give sperm to a mating partner while simultaneously receiving sperm, which they store for later insemination.

 The team observed copulation between sea slugs that they had captured during scuba dives and held in a tank.

 After each coupling, which lasted between dozens of seconds and a few minutes, every slug discarded its penis -- a thread-like organ that it projects from its side into a partner's vagina.

 The team also examined the microscopic structure and function of the male organs -- observing an internal spiral structure they believe grows into a replacement penis.

 "We propose that the tissue at the spiral part of the penis is compressed and undifferentiated, gradually differentiating into the 'next penis'," the team wrote.

 "It may need approximately a day for the spiral structure to be ready for copulation."

 In another revelation about the sea slug's sex life, the scientists found its penis was covered with spines -- and suggested these may be used to remove the sperm of previous partners being held in store by their mate.

 The spines are backward-pointing, making it difficult to withdraw the penis after copulation. This may explain the organ's disposable nature.

 "Chromodoris reticulata may compensate for the short-term cost of decreased reproductive opportunities caused by the loss of a penis with the reproductive advantage gained by sperm displacement," wrote the study authors.

 Various animals are known to discard parts of their body, such as the gecko which sheds its tail.

 Few, though, are willing to part with their penis, the team noted with clinical understatement.

 Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » |||||
A summary of this is?

– The Chromodoris reticulata has a peculiar way of mating: After the deed is done, the sea slug sheds its penis ... and then grows a new one within 24 hours and does the whole thing again. "I haven't seen anything like this before," says one expert. A team of Japanese researchers discovered the surprising behavior in the species, which lives in the Pacific Ocean, the BBC reports. Chromodoris reticulata is the first creature known to have what they're calling a "disposable penis." Other creatures discard their sex organ post-copulation, but they don't re-grow it. The researchers called the slug's behavior "extremely peculiar." A large part of the slug's penis is actually an internal one that's coiled inside its body; this is what regenerates the detached portion after sex. The studied slugs were seen to mate three times in a row, 24 hours apart each time; it's not clear if the penis could regenerate once again, perhaps months later. The evolutionary purpose? Scientists aren't quite sure, but they say the purpose of the first sex act may be to remove any sperm left by a previous partner. The disposable penis is far from the slugs' only sexual quirk: The penises are equipped with spines that could help with the removal of prior sperm, AFP reports. The creatures are also "simultaneous hermaphrodites," which means they have male and female sexual organs that can be used simultaneously.


– Greek astronomer Hipparchus is known as the father of trigonometry. But the Guardian reports Babylonian mathematicians may have gotten there 1,000 years earlier. Ever since the real-life inspiration for Indiana Jones discovered a 3,700-year-old clay tablet called P322 in what is now Iraq, historians and mathematicians have debated the meaning of the rows and columns of numbers on it, according to Science. In 1945, mathematicians realized those numbers contained the Pythagorean theorem for deducing the sides of a right triangle a millennium before Pythagoras had coined it, ABC reports. And in a study published Thursday in Historia Mathematica, Australian researchers believe they finally know what those mysterious numbers are: a trigonometric table more accurate than any we have now. “It took me two years of looking at this and saying, ‘I’m sure it’s trig, I’m sure it’s trig, but how?’” mathematician Daniel Mansfield tells Science. One breakthrough came when Mansfield realized the Babylonians had a completely different way of looking at trigonometry than we do, one "based on ratios, not angles and circles." He calls it "fascinating" and evidence of "undoubted genius." And fellow researchers Norman Wildberger says P322 represents a "simpler, more accurate" version of trigonometry. While Mansfield and Wildberger say the Babylonians could have used the tablet to build pyramids and palaces, critics say there's no evidence for that and call the study's conclusions "highly speculative." (Those fortune cookie "lucky numbers" are definitely not unlucky.)

Expand this summary.

We trace the origins of trigonometry to the Old Babylonian era, between the 19th and 16th centuries B.C.E. This is well over a millennium before Hipparchus is said to have fathered the subject with his ‘table of chords’. The main piece of evidence comes from the most famous of Old Babylonian tablets: Plimpton 322, which we interpret in the context of the Old Babylonian approach to triangles and their preference for numerical accuracy. By examining the evidence with this mindset, and comparing Plimpton 322 with Madhava's table of sines, we demonstrate that Plimpton 322 is a powerful, exact ratio-based trigonometric table. ||||| This ancient Babylonian tablet may contain the first evidence of trigonometry

 Trigonometry, the study of the lengths and angles of triangles, sends most modern high schoolers scurrying to their cellphones to look up angles, sines, and cosines. Now, a fresh look at a 3700-year-old clay tablet suggests that Babylonian mathematicians not only developed the first trig table, beating the Greeks to the punch by more than 1000 years, but that they also figured out an entirely new way to look at the subject. However, other experts on the clay tablet, known as Plimpton 322 (P322), say the new work is speculative at best.

 Consisting of four columns and 15 rows of numbers inscribed in cuneiform, the famous P322 tablet was discovered in the early 1900s in what is now southern Iraq by archaeologist, antiquities dealer, and diplomat Edgar Banks, the inspiration for the fictional character Indiana Jones.

 Now stored at Columbia University, the tablet first garnered attention in the 1940s, when historians recognized that its cuneiform inscriptions contain a series of numbers echoing the Pythagorean theorem, which explains the relationship of the lengths of the sides of a right triangle. (The theorem: The square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the square of the other two sides.) But why ancient scribes generated and sorted these numbers in the first place has been debated for decades.

 Mathematician Daniel Mansfield of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney was developing a course for high school math teachers in Australia when he came across an image of P322. Intrigued, he teamed up with UNSW mathematician Norman Wildberger to study it. “It took me 2 years of looking at this [tablet] and saying ‘I’m sure it’s trig, I’m sure it’s trig, but how?’” Mansfield says. The familiar sines, cosines, and angles used by Greek astronomers and modern-day high schoolers were completely missing. Instead, each entry includes information on two sides of a right triangle: the ratio of the short side to the long side and the ratio of the short side to the diagonal, or hypotenuse.

 Mansfield realized that the information he needed was in missing pieces of P322 that had been reconstructed by other researchers. “Those two ratios from the reconstruction really made P322 into a clean and easy-to-use trigonometric table,” he says. He and Wildberger concluded that the Babylonians expressed trigonometry in terms of exact ratios of the lengths of the sides of right triangles, rather than by angles, using their base 60 form of mathematics, they report today in Historia Mathematica . “This is a whole different way of looking at trigonometry,” Mansfield says. “We prefer sines and cosines … but we have to really get outside our own culture to see from their perspective to be able to understand it.”

 If the new interpretation is right, P322 would not only contain the earliest evidence of trigonometry, but it would also represent an exact form of the mathematical discipline, rather than the approximations that estimated numerical values for sines and cosines provide, notes Mathieu Ossendrijver, a historian of ancient science at Humboldt University in Berlin. The table, he says, contains exact values of the sides for a range of right triangles. That means that—as for modern trigonometric tables—someone using the known ratio of two sides can use information in the tablet to find the ratios of the two other sides.

 What’s still lacking is proof that the Babylonians did in fact use this table, or others like it, for solving problems in the manner suggested in the new paper, Ossendrijver says. And science historian Jöran Friberg, retired from the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, blasts the idea. The Babylonians “knew NOTHING about ratios of sides!” he wrote in an email to Science . He maintains that P322 is “a table of parameters needed for the composition of school texts and, [only] incidentally, a table of right triangles with whole numbers as sides.” But Mansfield and Wildberger contend that the Babylonians, expert surveyors, could have used their tables to construct palaces, temples, and canals.

 Mathematical historian Christine Proust of the French National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, an expert on the tablet, calls the team’s hypothesis “a very seductive idea.” But she points out that no known Babylonian texts suggest that the tablet was used to solve or understand right triangles. The hypothesis is “mathematically robust, but for the time being, it is highly speculative,” she says. A thorough search of other Babylonian mathematical tablets may yet prove their hypothesis, Ossendrijver says. “But that is really an open question at the moment.” ||||| Babylonian tablet Plimpton 322 will make studying maths easier, mathematician says

 Updated

 A small clay tablet that is 3,700 years old may be about to make studying trigonometry much easier, thanks to the work of an Australian mathematician.

 Key points: Babylonians approach to calculating triangles using simple ratios much more straightforward than our current methods

 Discovery has the potential to make maths education easier for teachers and students

 "It's rare the ancient world teaches us something new", mathematician says

 Daniel Mansfield from University of New South Wales said the palm-sized tablet, covered in rows of tiny numbers in angular cuneiform script, simplifies the study of triangles from using angles and irrational numbers to simple ratios.

 "This gives us a different way of looking at trigonometry. One that's really just passed on ratios. And the beautiful thing about it is that it's much simpler," Dr Mansfield told AM.

 "It only involves ratios, you don't need to study trigonometry through angles: sin, cosx, tan and irrational numbers. You can do it with just ratios."

 The tablet, known as Plimpton 322, was discovered early last century.

 In 1945, mathematicians noticed it contained Pythagoras' theorem — named after the ancient Greek mathematician who actually lived more than 1,000 years after the tablet was made — which shows the square of the side opposite the right angle of a triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.

 Mathematician Patrick Owen, who has spent decades teaching trigonometry to often reluctant kids, said the discovery had the potential to open children's eyes to mathematics in a more engaging way.

 "If that could actually be someone else's perspective, a different perspective on the same knowledge base… so thinking about right-angle triangles, non-right-angle triangles, angles and sides and things like that," Mr Owen says.

 "And someone else sees it differently, that could be that they have this different insight that then others can look at and say, 'oh, that's so much clearer'."

 Why are triangles so important?

 This may all sound esoteric, but trigonometry is fundamental to engineering, architecture, oceanography, astronomy and surveying.

 In fact, our current understanding of trigonometry comes from the ancient Greek astronomers.

 Dr Mansfield said this approach overcomplicated calculations relating to Earth-bound things.

 "We're looking at them just as triangles, we're not importing any of these ideas from astronomy," he said.

 "The angle is perfect for astronomy, it's great, and it's really helped us out with understanding our triangles.

 "But it's not the only way to understand triangles. And yet in our culture we treat it as the only way."

 Today, high school students work out the angles of triangles and lengths of sides using trigonometric functions such as sine, cosine and tangent, which are ratios of sides.

 Modern trigonometry relies only on approximation.

 The Babylonians counted in the same way we count time

 We count in base 10, but the Babylonians counted in base 60. We use base 60 too, when we're talking about time.

 "Ten … only has two exact fractions: half, which is 0.5, and one fifth, which is 0.2. That's problematic if you want to divide," Dr Mansfield explained.

 "For example, one dollar divided by three is 33 cents, with one cent left over."

 The Babylonian system has many more exact fractions, meaning they could calculate for engineering projects, like their famed hanging gardens and stepped pyramids, with much greater accuracy.

 Dr Mansfield said he was not expecting to see school curriculums changing anytime soon, but maybe his discovery would improve the dim view many students have of maths.

 "I hope that teachers might take an interest in it and then pass that interest onto their students, and therefore help everyone like mathematics just that little bit more," he said.

 Based on a comparison of writing styles with other Babylonian tablets, Plimpton 322 has been dated to between 1822 to 1762 BC, which is around the time of the Babylonian King Hammurabi.

 According to UNSW, Plimpton 322 is a trigonometric table that is the world's only completely accurate one, because it only includes Pythagorean triangles with side lengths that are whole numbers.

 "This ensures that the ratios of sides and squared ratios can be represented in the table without approximation," Dr Mansfield said.

 "It's rare that the ancient world teaches us something new.

 "After 3,000 years, Babylonian mathematics might just be coming back into fashion."

 The new study has been published in Historia Mathematica, the official journal of the International Commission on the History of Mathematics.

 Topics: mathematics, science-and-technology, engineering, human-interest, university-of-new-south-wales-2052

 First posted ||||| Dating from 1,000 years before Pythagoras’s theorem, the Babylonian clay tablet is a trigonometric table more accurate than any today, say researchers

 At least 1,000 years before the Greek mathematician Pythagoras looked at a right angled triangle and worked out that the square of the longest side is always equal to the sum of the squares of the other two, an unknown Babylonian genius took a clay tablet and a reed pen and marked out not just the same theorem, but a series of trigonometry tables which scientists claim are more accurate than any available today.

 The 3,700-year-old broken clay tablet survives in the collections of Columbia University, and scientists now believe they have cracked its secrets.

 The team from the University of New South Wales in Sydney believe that the four columns and 15 rows of cuneiform – wedge shaped indentations made in the wet clay – represent the world’s oldest and most accurate working trigonometric table, a working tool which could have been used in surveying, and in calculating how to construct temples, palaces and pyramids.

 The fabled sophistication of Babylonian architecture and engineering is borne out by excavation. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, believed by some archaeologists to have been a planted step pyramid with a complex artificial watering system, was written of by Greek historians as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

 Daniel Mansfield, of the university’s school of mathematics and statistics, described the tablet which may unlock some of their methods as “a fascinating mathematical work that demonstrates undoubted genius” – with potential modern application because the base 60 used in calculations by the Babylonians permitted many more accurate fractions than the contemporary base 10.

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest The tablet could have been used in surveying, and in calculating how to construct temples, palaces and pyramids. Photograph: UNSW/Andrew Kelly

 Mathematicians have been arguing for most of a century about the interpretation of the tablet known as Plimpton 322, ever since the New York publisher George Plimpton bequeathed it to Columbia University in the 1930s as part of a major collection. He bought it from Edgar Banks, a diplomat, antiquities dealer and flamboyant amateur archaeologist said to have inspired the character of Indiana Jones – his feats included climbing Mount Ararat in an unsuccessful attempt to find Noah’s Ark – who had excavated it in southern Iraq in the early 20th century.

 Mansfield, who has published his research with his colleague Norman Wildberger in the journal Historia Mathematica, says that while mathematicians understood for decades that the tablet demonstrates that the theorem long predated Pythagoras, there had been no agreement about the intended use of the tablet.

 “The huge mystery, until now, was its purpose – why the ancient scribes carried out the complex task of generating and sorting the numbers on the tablet. Our research reveals that Plimpton 322 describes the shapes of right-angle triangles using a novel kind of trigonometry based on ratios, not angles and circles. It is a fascinating mathematical work that demonstrates undoubted genius.

 “The tablet not only contains the world’s oldest trigonometric table; it is also the only completely accurate trigonometric table, because of the very different Babylonian approach to arithmetic and geometry. This means it has great relevance for our modern world. Babylonian mathematics may have been out of fashion for more than 3,000 years, but it has possible practical applications in surveying, computer graphics and education. This is a rare example of the ancient world teaching us something new.”

 The tablet also long predates the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, traditionally regarded as the father of trigonometry.

 Wildberger said: “Plimpton 322 predates Hipparchus by more than 1,000 years. It opens up new possibilities not just for modern mathematics research, but also for mathematics education. With Plimpton 322 we see a simpler, more accurate trigonometry that has clear advantages over our own.”

 He and Mansfield believe there is more to learn of Babylonian maths, still buried in untranslated or unstudied tablets.

 “A treasure trove of Babylonian tablets exists, but only a fraction of them have been studied yet. The mathematical world is only waking up to the fact that this ancient but very sophisticated mathematical culture has much to teach us.”

 They suggest that the mathematics of Plimpton 322 indicate that it originally had six columns and 38 rows. They believe it was a working tool, not – as some have suggested – simply a teaching aid for checking calculations. “Plimpton 322 was a powerful tool that could have been used for surveying fields or making architectural calculations to build palaces, temples or step pyramids,” Mansfield said.

 As far back as 1945 the Austrian mathematician Otto Neugebauer and his associate Abraham Sachs were the first to note that Plimpton 322 has 15 pairs of numbers forming parts of Pythagorean triples: three whole numbers a, b and c such that a squared plus b squared equal c squared. The integers 3, 4 and 5 are a well-known example of a Pythagorean triple, but the values on Plimpton 322 are often considerably larger with, for example, the first row referencing the triple 119, 120 and 169. |||||


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SAPD: One dead, seven others injured in fatal jewelry robbery on Northeast Side

 Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close Image 1 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 2 of 25 Family members reunite after exiting Rolling Oaks Mall, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017 following a shooing inside the mall. Family members reunite after exiting Rolling Oaks Mall, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017 following a shooing inside the mall. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 3 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 4 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 5 of 25 Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects attempted a jewelry store robbery and two good samaritans attempted to intervene. One of the samaritans was shot dead by one of the suspects. One of the suspects got away shooting six people inside the mall. less Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 6 of 25 Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects attempted a jewelry store robbery and two good samaritans attempted to intervene. One of the samaritans was shot dead by one of the suspects. One of the suspects got away shooting six people inside the mall. less Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 7 of 25 Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects attempted a jewelry store robbery and two good samaritans attempted to intervene. One of the samaritans was shot dead by one of the suspects. One of the suspects got away shooting six people inside the mall. less Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 8 of 25 Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects attempted a jewelry store robbery and two good samaritans attempted to intervene. One of the samaritans was shot dead by one of the suspects. One of the suspects got away shooting six people inside the mall. less Employees and shoppers are released as law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. According to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, two suspects ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 9 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 10 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 11 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 12 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 13 of 25 Shoppers exit Rolling Oaks Mall after a shooting Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Shoppers exit Rolling Oaks Mall after a shooting Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 14 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 15 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 16 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 17 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 18 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 19 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 20 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 21 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 22 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 23 of 25 Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Law enforcement personnel work the scene of a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News Image 24 of 25 Police from multiple agencies respond to a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Police from multiple agencies respond to a shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Image 25 of 25 SAPD: One dead, seven others injured in fatal jewelry robbery on Northeast Side 1 / 25 Back to Gallery

 One man is dead and seven others wounded following a shooting Sunday at Rolling Oaks Mall.

 It is unclear if all those injured were by gunshots.

 San Antonio Police Chief William McManus called it "a robbery gone really, really bad."

 McManus said two men robbed a Kay Jewelers at the mall. As they were escaping they encountered two citizens who tried to intervene.

 "There was a fatality," McManus said. "One of the citizens who tried to intervene and stop the robbery, the robbers from escaping, was shot by one of the suspects."

 RELATED: SAPD: 3 armed men dressed in black rob diamond store at South Park Mall

 McManus said that is when the second citizen, who had a concealed carry license, pulled his gun and shot that suspect.

 McManus said he did not know if the two citizens who intervened were there together, or if they just happened to be there at the same time. He later called those two individuals "good Samaritans."

 The second suspect then ran away through the mall, shooting as he went. Others were injured and the suspect is still at large, though police do not think he is still in the mall.

 McManus said according to preliminary reports, six other people in addition to the suspect and "good Samaritan" who was shot and killed, were shot by the second suspect as he fled.

 @SATXPolice & Live Oak PD searching for 2nd suspect in deadly shooting @RollingOaksMall. Plz report any info u may have. @COSAGOV — Mayor Ivy R Taylor (@IvyRTaylor) January 22, 2017

 The mall has been locked down, but McManus said everyone who is still in the mall is secure and safe and detectives are questioning witnesses.

 "We've searched the mall, and we feel as confident as we can feel that, that suspect is not in there," McManus said. He said once everyone is out of the mall they would do a second sweep with K9 units.

 As of 6:40 p.m., San Antonio police started releasing groups of people from the mall.

 The San Antonio Fire Department active incidents page reported at least 28 units responded to the mall's address at 3:30 p.m.

 "We were in the mall, we heard the shots and just started running. It was chaos" said Benjamin Arsate, who was near the food court when he heard the shots.

 "I mean where do you go to have fun now? This is insane. It's like nowhere's safe anymore," he said.

 Maggie Hernandez was with her daughter Tera, 18, at the mall when they heard of the shooting. "It was scary," said Tera, who had been crying as they escaped the mall.

 "We started running out, too. You don't want to be caught inside," said Maggie Hernandez.

 They the huddled with a group of Dillard's employees behind a car outside, terrified.

 "It's a learning experience right?" said Maggie. "If you have this experience, then either hide or find a nearest exit."

 Mayor Ivy Taylor later arrived at the scene and lauded the quick and efficient coordination between law enforcement units. But also lamented violent nature of big cities.

 "I know here in San Antonio we often feel insulated because we have such a great community, but we've seen an uptick in crime in big cities across the countries and unfortunately we're not immune to that," she said.

 District 10 Councilman Mike Gallagher said this incident shouldn't be grouped with the active shooting incidences in public places that have made headlines across the country in recent years.

 "I just urge everyone to remain calm and continue their routines as usual, and to have confidence that law enforcement officials are certainly working diligently to ensure their safety," Taylor said.

 This report will be updated as more information becomes available. ||||| A robbery inside a San Antonio shopping mall Sunday ended with shots fired on Sunday, leaving one person who tried to intervene dead, three others shot and another two people taken to hospital with non-shooting injuries, police and fire officials said. (Published Monday, Jan. 23, 2017)

 What to Know Both armed robbery suspects are in custody and face preliminary charges of capital murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

 Two victims, a man and a woman, remain hospitalized in an unknown condition following the shooting and robbery.

 The names of the good Samaritan, two victims and two robbers have not yet been released.

 Two people are facing capital murder and aggravated assault charges after a robbery and fatal shooting inside a San Antonio shopping mall Sunday ended with one man dead and three others injured, including one of the robbers, police say.

 Leslie Garza, the director of communications for the San Antonio mayor, told NBC News the robbery took place at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday at a Kay Jewelers inside the Rolling Oaks Mall on the northeast side of the city.

 As two armed robbers ran the store, one of them fatally shot a "good Samaritan" who got in their way and tried to stop them, according to San Antonio Chief of Police William McManus.

 Police have not said what the good Samaritan, identified Monday as 42-year-old Jonathan Murphy, tried to do to stop the men.

 McManus said a witness to the shooting, who was carrying a licensed concealed weapon, shot and wounded the armed robber who killed Murphy.

 San Antonio police spokesman Officer Doug Greene said Monday the man who shot one of the armed robbers was within his rights to use his gun.

 "What we have here is a robbery gone really, really bad," McManus said, adding that the fatal shooting was "absolutely senseless."

 The second robber ran from the mall, firing his weapon and injuring a man and a woman.

 A witness who spoke to WOAI-TV said she heard as many as six gunshots.

 San Antonio police and Bexar County Sheriff's Deputies arrived and the mall was locked down while a store-by-store sweep was conducted to search for the second gunman and anyone else who may have been involved.

 Meanwhile, the injured man, woman and robber were all taken to area hospitals, according to San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood. Two other people not injured by gunfire — a woman who complained of chest pains and a pregnant woman who had labor pains — were also taken to local hospitals.

 San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor and San Antonio police both tweeted Sunday night that the second robbery suspect had been arrested, though no other details about the arrest were immediately available.

 "Today's deadly shooting at Rolling Oaks Mall is a tragedy for everyone involved and all of us affected," Taylor said in a statement posted on Facebook.

 The investigation into the shooting is ongoing and police have not yet released the names of the suspected robbers or the victims injured and killed in the shooting.

 Authorities said both suspects face preliminary charges of capital murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

 Copyright Associated Press / NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth ||||| SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The Latest on the shooting at a shopping mall in San Antonio (all times local):

 10:30 p.m.

 San Antonio police say a second suspect has been arrested in the deadly shooting and robbery that took place in a shopping mall.

 Police confirm the person was taken into custody Sunday night. Additional details were not immediately available.

 The shooting occurred Sunday afternoon after authorities said two men robbed a jewelry store at Rolling Oaks Mall. Police Chief William McManus previously said a “good Samaritan” who tried to stop the suspects was shot and killed.

 The other robber was shot and injured by another individual, who had a licensed concealed handgun.

 ___

 7 p.m.

 San Antonio’s police chief is describing the death of a man who was shot as he tried to stop two men after they robbed a jewelry store at a mall as “absolutely senseless.”

 Police Chief William McManus says the “good Samaritan” came upon the two robbers as they fled a jewelry store at Rolling Oaks Mall on Sunday.

 The man was shot by one of the robbers. That robber was then shot and injured by another individual, who had a licensed concealed handgun.

 The second robber fled the mall, firing his weapon and injuring two others. Two women suffered non-shooting injuries.

 Police are still searching for the second robber.

 McManus described the incident as “a robbery gone really, really bad.”

 The dead man’s name was not immediately released by authorities.

 ___

 5:55 p.m.

 Authorities in San Antonio say one person is dead and five others have been injured after two men robbed a jewelry store in a San Antonio shopping mall.

 Police Chief William McManus said that after the two suspects fled the store on Sunday, one of them fatally shot a “good Samaritan” who tried to stop them.

 Another man, who was carrying a licensed concealed weapon, then shot and wounded that robber.

 The other robber fled the mall, firing his weapon and injuring a man and a woman. Two other people were taken to the hospital suffering from non-shooting injuries.

 McManus says police are still looking for the robber who is believed to have left the mall. McManus initially said that six people were injured.

 ___

 5:20 p.m.

 Police in San Antonio say they have responded to a shooting at a large shopping mall.

 Romana Lopez, a spokeswoman for San Antonio police, confirmed that police on Sunday were at Rolling Oaks Mall.

 Lopez did not immediately provide any other details about the shooting.

 Video from local television stations showed police cars and at least two ambulances at the mall. |||||

– One person is dead and five more injured in what San Antonio's police chief calls a mall "robbery gone really, really bad." (The number of casualties was in flux.) Police say it began when two men robbed a Kay's Jewelers in the city's Rolling Oaks Mall, then were confronted by two people who tried to stop them as they left, reports MySanAntonio.com. One of the robbery suspects shot and killed one of the Good Samaritans, and the other Good Samaritan then shot and wounded that suspect, reports NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. The second suspect then took off through the mall and began shooting, say police. The AP reports that he injured a man and woman, while two others in the mall sustained non-shooting injuries. Both robbers were thought to be at large.


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– In an attempt to bury a relic of its past, Vanderbilt University announced Monday that it will pay more than $1 million to remove the word "Confederate" from one of its dorms, the Tennessean reports. Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos called the inscription on Confederate Memorial Hall "a reminder of racism, slavery and a very, very bloody Civil War." The Nashville university's efforts to change the name in 2002 were halted when the United Daughters of the Confederacy sued. The group’s $50,000 donation in 1933 helped build the dorm. A state appeals court ruled the building could be renamed Memorial Hall only after Vanderbilt gave the United Daughters back their money—$1.2 million in today’s dollars. The university has the cash, thanks to a raft of anonymous contributors who wanted the tie to America’s painful past broken for good. "It's a symbol that is, for many people, deeply offensive and painful," Zeppos told the Tennessean. "And to walk past it or to have to live in that space is really something that I just don't think is acceptable.” Yet tampering with Confederate imagery remains controversial, and a new state law makes it harder to do so, the AP reports. Efforts by Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro to remove the name of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from a building could face a tougher climb under the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act, which now requires a vote of two-thirds of the state’s Historical Commission rather than a simple majority.

CLOSE Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos discusses why the university is renaming Confederate Memorial Hall. Vanderbilt University

 Buy Photo Workers cover up the name on the exterior of Confederate Memorial Hall at Vanderbilt University on Monday, Aug. 15, 2016. Vanderbilt will repay an 83-year-old donation, allowing it to remove the Confederate name from the residence hall. (Photo: Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean)Buy Photo Story Highlights Confederate Memorial Hall opened 1935 with support from United Daughters of the Confederacy.

 Vanderbilt first sought to change the name in 2002.

 Starting in 2005, the university began referring to the building as Memorial Hall.

 To change the name, Vanderbilt raised $1.2 million to repay the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

 Vanderbilt University will repay an 83-year-old donation in order to remove from a residence hall what its leader called "a symbol and a reminder of racism, slavery and a very, very bloody Civil War."

 Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos made the announcement Monday, capping a 14-year effort to rename Confederate Memorial Hall. The building, which has had that name etched into the stone above its entrance since it opened in 1935, stands in the heart of the university's freshman commons, and has frequently spurred debate about the university's attitude toward an increasingly diverse student body.

 In an interview with The Tennessean, Zeppos — who arrived on campus as a law professor in 1987 — said he had long been in favor of changing the building's name.

 "It's a symbol that is, for many people, deeply offensive and painful," Zeppos said in the interview. "And to walk past it or to have to live in that space is really something that I just don't think is acceptable."

 The United Daughters of the Confederacy originally donated $50,000 in 1933 toward the building’s construction and naming rights in order to honor Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War.

 Vanderbilt previously attempted to rename the building Memorial Hall in 2002, but the Tennessee Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy sued to keep the original name. A Tennessee appeals court ruled in 2005 that Vanderbilt could remove “Confederate” from the inscription only after it had returned the donation at its current value.

 Anonymous donors recently gave the university the $1.2 million needed for that purpose; the Vanderbilt Board of Trust authorized the move this summer.

 Doug Jones, the Nashville attorney who represented the Daughters of the Confederacy against Vanderbilt, called the move "a real slam on the history of our country."

 “All it was was just a simple monument for the boys in Tennessee that died” in the Civil War, Jones said, adding that the name was not connected with slavery. “We think rewriting history’s just terrible. And I think it’s a very sad day for a school with that kind of reputation to be condoning that."

 Universities across the country have faced similar decisions as they re-evaluated the implications of their buildings' names. Students and officials at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro have spent months pushing to remove the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founder of the Ku Klux Klan, from a campus building. MTSU and the Tennessee Board of Regents approved the change, which now goes before a state panel.

 Zeppos flatly rebuffed the criticism that changing the name of a residence hall would compromise the university's approach to its long and complicated history.

 "We are not saying this is not part of Vanderbilt's history," he said. "I think we teach history by how we talk about these events.

 "I don't think that that (name) was really teaching anyone history."

 The longstanding effort to rename the residence hall took on renewed urgency over the past couple of years, as universities across Tennessee and the country grappled with the shadow of racism and slavery on their campuses. At Vanderbilt, founded in 1873 just eight years after the Civil War ended, the name change follows a series of changes made over the past year to address diversity, including the addition of a chief diversity officer to the university's leadership team.

 In 2005, Vanderbilt officially began referring to the building as Memorial Hall, although the word Confederate remained on its facade. Students, faculty and high-ranking administrators argued passionately to remove the word at a town hall on the subject last fall.

 Ariana Fowler, president of Vanderbilt Student Government, praised the university leadership for the decision to formally rename the residence hall.

 “This action demonstrates the administration's attentiveness to student needs and concerns, as well as sets a great precedent for advocating on behalf of those who may feel marginalized on our campus,” Fowler said in the university statement. “This is an excellent next step in the direction of becoming an institution that not only admits diverse students, but ensures their care and support — one who is eager to eliminate any barriers that may stand in the way of such a goal.”

 Zeppos said the decision to remove the mention of the Confederacy from the building spoke to the courage of students, faculty and staff who spoke out against it for years.

 "I hope that they feel as if they've made a big difference in Vanderbilt and in Vanderbilt's history themselves," he said. "It hopefully says we have listened, we have made changes. But I don't think we should assume that our work is completed in any way."

 Crews were already working Monday night to cover the name over the building’s entrance.

 Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.

 Vanderbilt University began referring to Confederate Memorial Hall as Memorial Hall in 2005. The year was wrong in an earlier version of this story.

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 Read or Share this story: http://tnne.ws/2bkJwgO ||||| FILE - This Sept. 30, 2003, file photo, shows the exterior of a dormitory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is inscribed with the name Confederate Memorial Hall. The private university announced... (Associated Press)

 FILE - This Sept. 30, 2003, file photo, shows the exterior of a dormitory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is inscribed with the name Confederate Memorial Hall. The private university announced on Monday, Aug. 15, 2016, that it has struck an agreement to pay $1.2 million to United Daughters... (Associated Press)

 FILE - This Sept. 30, 2003, file photo, shows the exterior of a dormitory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is inscribed with the name Confederate Memorial Hall. The private university announced on Monday, Aug. 15, 2016, that it has struck an agreement to pay $1.2 million to United Daughters... (Associated Press) FILE - This Sept. 30, 2003, file photo, shows the exterior of a dormitory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is inscribed with the name Confederate Memorial Hall. The private university announced... (Associated Press)

 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Vanderbilt University announced Monday that it will pay more than a million dollars to remove an inscription containing the word "Confederate" from one of its campus dorms.

 The private university has referred to the Confederate Memorial Hall simply as "Memorial Hall" since 2002, but was blocked in court from changing the name chiseled on the building because it was constructed with the help of a $50,000 gift from the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1933.

 Under the agreement, Vanderbilt will pay $1.2 million, the equivalent of the gift made 83 years ago, to the organization's Tennessee chapter. In exchange, the chapter will relinquish its naming rights to the building.

 "You can memorialize individuals without taking sides in the bloodiest war that was fought over the divisive issues of slavery and equality that we're still struggling with today for those young people coming onto campus," Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos said in a phone interview.

 The money has been pledged by anonymous donors, and Zeppos said the school chooses to focus on "moving Vanderbilt forward" rather than on what projects the Daughters of the Confederacy will spend the funds on, especially in light of a new Tennessee law that makes it more difficult to remove Confederate symbols and statues from public places.

 "The donors and I and others understand that this donation will go to another organization, but this is a very positive step for Vanderbilt," Zeppos said.

 The Daughters of the Confederacy did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

 About 30 miles to the southeast, Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro wants to remove the name of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from one of its buildings. The public higher education system overseeing the school endorsed the change last month, but the proposal faces a tougher hurdle when it reaches the Tennessee Historical Commission.

 Under the "Tennessee Heritage Protection Act" passed earlier this year, it now takes a vote of at least two-thirds of the commission to approve changing or removing historical markers. That's an increase from the previous requirement of a simple majority vote.

 Calls to remove Confederate imagery from public places multiplied across the South after last year's slaying of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. A white man espousing racist views and who posed in a photo with a Confederate flag has been charged with murder in the killings.

 Following the church shooting, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam said he supported removing the Capitol bust of Forrest, who is famous for his exploits as a Confederate cavalry general and amassed a fortune as a plantation owner and slave trader in Memphis before the Civil War.

 After the defeat of the Confederacy, the newly formed Ku Klux Klan elected Forrest its honorary grand wizard, though he publicly denied being involved. Two years later, he ordered the Klan to disband because of its members' increasing violence.

 The Forrest bust remains in the lobby between the House and Senate chambers at the state Capitol. |||||