– Both Taylor Swift and Katy Perry have had difficult breakups with John Mayer, but Swift insists the story behind a vitriolic song on her upcoming 1989 album "wasn't even about a guy! It had to do with business," she says in an interview with Rolling Stone. Technically, "Bad Blood" might not even be about Katy Perry—Swift demurred from naming names when talking about the song—but by piecing together lyrical and situational clues, BuzzFeed claims "it's not hard to figure out who she's talking about." The song, which Swift tells Rolling Stone wasn't meant "to create some gossip-fest," talks about a fellow female performing artist who for years insulted and sabotaged Swift, including by "[trying] to hire a bunch of people out from under me" and "sabotage an entire arena tour," Swift says. BuzzFeed speculates she could be talking about three backup dancers who reportedly ditched Swift for Perry last year—and E! notes that Perry tweeted today, "Watch out for the Regina George in sheep's clothing...," a Mean Girls reference that could be a hint that Perry is indeed the song's subject. "For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not," Swift says in Rolling Stone of her unnamed colleague. "[Then] she did something so horrible. I was like, 'Oh, we're just straight-up enemies.'" As for why she wrote the song, Swift says, "I'm surprisingly non-confrontational—you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So now I have to avoid her. It's awkward." But, she adds, "Sometimes the lines in a song are lines you wish you could text-message somebody in real life. I would just be constantly writing all these zingers—like, 'Burn. That would really get her.'" The album is due out in October.

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So my brother comes home the other day," Taylor Swift says, "and he goes, 'Oh, my God – I just saw a guy walking down the street with a cat on his head.'"

 As an ardent fan of ready-made metaphors, as well as of cats, Swift was excited by this. "My first reaction was, 'Did you take a picture?'" she says. "And then I thought about it. Half of my brain was going, 'We should be able to take a picture if we want to. That guy is asking for it – he's got a cat on his head!' But the other half was going, 'What if he just wants to walk around with a cat on his head, and not have his picture taken all day?'"

 Related PHOTOS: The Taylor Swift Guide to 1989: Breakers Gonna Break, Fakers Gonna Fake From the Bangles to Billy Joel, the boldest, weirdest genre-crossing jams from Taylor's inspirational year

 For Swift – four-time multiplatinum-album-maker, seven-time Grammy winner and billion-time gossip-blog subject – being famous is a lot like walking around with a cat on your head. "I can have issues with it," she says. "But at the end of the day, I can't be ungrateful, because I chose this. But sometimes – sometimes – you don't want to have a camera pointed at you. Sometimes it would be nice if someone just said, 'Hey, I think it's really cool that you have that cat on your head. I think that's interesting.'"

 It's 1300 hours in the San Fernando Valley, and Project Sparrow is in full effect. In a nondescript parking lot at a soundstage in Van Nuys, California, a Blackwater-esque platoon of personal-security professionals stands at the ready. Every doorway and stairwell is guarded, and every window is blacked out. The occasion: a Taylor Swift video shoot.

 Theo Wenner

 In 2014, a Swift shoot requires the kind of operational secrecy and logistical complexity rarely seen outside of a SEAL raid. Before Project Sparrow – the code name chosen by the video's director, Mark Romanek – there was Project Cardinal, a multiweek mission where Swift's social-media team scoured the Web for a representative group of fans to appear in the video. When one girl posted a photo of her invitation, she was quickly uninvited, then presumably renditioned to whatever CIA black site holds Swift's enemies. (Jack Antonoff, of Bleachers and fun., who has recently co-written several songs with Swift, says that "just having her songs on my hard drive makes me feel like I have Russian secrets or something. It's terrifying.")

 At the moment, Swift is in a makeup chair in her dressing room, getting false eyelashes applied. She's wearing a black miniskirt, black tights and a fuzzy pink top with a cartoon drawing of a cat, and her wavy blond hair is pinned back tight. She's five feet 10, but she looks much taller, even with her lanky legs wrapped underneath her like a pretzel twist. "I need lunch like, whoa," Swift says, and an assistant tells her there's a sushi order happening. "Oooh," she purrs. "Get a boatload."

 See Taylor Swift like you never have before in behind-the-scenes footage from Theo Wenner's cover shoot here:

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 The video is for Swift's soon-to-be-Number One single, "Shake It Off," which she'll perform for the first time at the VMAs later this summer, but which at this point only a handful of people outside the room even know exists. There are worries about spies and recording devices. "Don't even get me started on wiretaps," Swift says seriously. "It's not a good thing for me to talk about socially. I freak out." As for who might bug a Van Nuys production office on the off chance that Swift is inside: "The janitor," she says, as if naming one candidate among hundreds. "The janitor who's being paid by TMZ. This is gonna sound like I'm a crazy person – but we don't even know. I have to stop myself from thinking about how many aspects of technology I don't understand."

 Swift pauses, as if weighing just how paranoid she's comfortable with sounding. Then she plows ahead. "Like speakers," she says. "Speakers put sound out . . . so can't they take sound in? Or" – she holds up her cellphone – "they can turn this on, right? I'm just saying. We don't even know."

 Swift says she never feels completely safe, especially when it comes to her privacy. "There's someone whose entire job it is to figure out things that I don't want the world to see," she says. "They look at your career, they look at what you prioritize, and they try to figure out what would be the most revealing or hurtful. Like, I don't take my clothes off in pictures or anything – I'm very private about that. So it scares me how valuable it would be to get a video of me changing. It's sad to have to look for cameras in dressing rooms and bathrooms. I don't walk around naked with my windows open, because there's a value on that."

 And yet, despite the DEFCON-3 level of security, in a lot of ways Swift has never felt more free. She has a new album out in October, 1989, that she's insanely excited about, because it signals her transition from a country star who likes pop to a straight-up pop star. She recently bought a luxe apartment in New York. And despite what you may have read in the gossip press, Swift hasn't been involved with a man in quite some time. She's not dating. She's not canoodling. She's not even sexting. Taylor Swift is single and loving it.

 "I really like my life right now," she says. "I have friends around me all the time. I've started painting more. I've been working out a lot. I've started to really take pride in being strong. I love the album I made. I love that I moved to New York. So in terms of being happy, I've never been closer to that." Which is not necessarily the same as being happy.

 There's one way into Swift's new apartment building, and much of the time it's guarded by a former NYPD officer named Jimmy, who unlocks the door for residents and visitors alike. This may be a drag for neighbors like Steven Soderbergh and Orlando Bloom, who have dropped seven figures to live at one of Tribeca's toniest addresses, but it's an unavoidable fact of life when the 24-year-old on the top floor is one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. "Most of the neighbors know what's what by now," Jimmy says, locking the door behind him. Today is a good day for Jimmy, because the elevator is working again after a brief period of being broken. "It's six floors up," he says, frowning. "And we don't travel light, if you know what I mean." I tell him I think I do know what he means, and Jimmy laughs. "The shoes alone!"

 Related PHOTOS: Teardrops on Her Guitar: Taylor Swift's 10 Countriest Songs Though she may "Shake It Off" these days, Taylor Swift's first seven years always kept a foot in Nashville

 Up in the penthouse, a barefoot Swift answers the door in a periwinkle-blue sundress: "Welcome to my apartment!" In the kitchen there's an assortment of pastries from a hip downtown spot called the Smile ("They have these banana-quinoa muffins that I'm obsessed with"), and in the refrigerator are a surprising number of varieties of sparkling water. ("I have black cherry, pomegranate, blueberry, strawberry, key lime, tangerine lime . . .")

 Swift shuts the fridge. "Do you want a tour?" She breezes into the living room, pointing out the fish tank filled with vintage baseballs ("I was like, 'That's so cool, they're so old!'") and some enormous scented candles ("I was like, 'That's so cool, they're so big!'"). "There's my piano," she says. "Here's my pool table that always has cat hair on it. That's my skylight." She bumps into a doorway. "That's a door that I walk into."

 Theo Wenner

 Swift bought this apartment about six months ago, for a reported $15 million. (Swift also bought the unit across the hall, for about $5 million; she uses it to house her security team.) It took a lot of work just to see it: It belonged to the director Peter Jackson, who had an actor friend crashing here, so the brokers didn't want to bother him much. "Sir Ian McKellen," Swift says seriously. "I think once you're Gandalf, you can always just stay in Peter Jackson's house."

 Swift leads the way into one of her four guest bedrooms. "This is where Karlie usually stays," she says – meaning supermodel Karlie Kloss, one of her new BFFs, whom she met nine months ago at the Victoria's Secret fashion show. There's a basket of Kloss's favorite Whole Foods treats next to the bed, and multiple photos of her on the walls. Against another wall, there's a rack full of white nightgowns. "This is a thing me and Lena have," says Swift – meaning Lena Dunham, another recent friend. "We wear them during the day and look like pioneer women, fresh off the Oregon Trail."

 Swift met Dunham in 2012, after she watched Girls and became obsessed. She went on Twitter to follow Dunham, and coincidentally saw that Dunham had just tweeted admiringly about Swift. "I was really scared she was being ironic, but I decided to follow her anyway, just in case. Within five minutes I had a direct message from her. Let me see if I still have it." She spends a minute scrolling through her phone. "I still have it! She said, 'I am so excited about the prospect of being friends with you that I added the adjective best in front of it.' 'The idea that you like my show is so thrilling, and I can't wait to lavish you with praise in person.'"

 As a recent New York transplant in her mid-twenties, Swift says Girls is like her Sex and the City. "I could label all my girlfriends as Shoshannas, Jessas, Marnies or Hannahs," she says. And which would she be? "I've thought about this a lot," she says. A pause. "I'm Shoshanna."

 She seems resigned to this. "Shoshanna gets excited about things, she's really girly. And when she was in a relationship that was very comfortable, she made the decision to get out and go experience new things on her own. And now she's becoming more sure of herself and taking life head-on, in a way that I can relate to. Even though I've never accidentally smoked crack at a warehouse party and run pantsless through Brooklyn." (Dunham, meanwhile, thinks Swift is more like "Hannah, minus the horrid sexual behavior. Or Marnie, if she wasn't an asshole.")

 Swift leads the way upstairs to her bedroom. Asleep on her massive four-poster bed is a tiny white ball of fur. "Olivia!" Swift says, scooping her up. It's her two-month old kitten, named after Olivia Benson, from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. "Hear how loud she's purring? She's a stage-five clinger, for sure." Downstairs somewhere is her other cat, Meredith, named after Meredith Grey from Grey's Anatomy. "Strong, complex, independent women," Swift says. "That's the theme."

 Behind the cover story: Josh Eells on what it's really like spending time with Taylor:

 She steps onto her patio and climbs the staircase up to the roof deck. "Careful," she says. "It's construction central." A forest of skyscrapers surrounds her; the Freedom Tower looks close enough to touch. Swift gestures to a set of planters: "Those are hydrangeas, and over there are the roses and basil and rosemary." Heading back downstairs, she passes an antique lamp with the inscription CALADIUM SEGUINUM on it. Swift took Latin in high school, but says she isn't sure what it means. (Later, I look it up. It turns out it's a homeopathic remedy for male impotence.)

 For years, Swift was terrified to move to New York. "I was intimidated by it for so long," she says. But now that she's here, she loves it. She can walk down the street to get dinner, or go furniture shopping with friends in Brooklyn. Even the paparazzi are better, she says. "They don't provoke me, or ask weird questions. And a lot of them are long-lensing it – which, if you have to have paparazzi in your life, is such a better way." She likes it so much she's trying to recruit friends to move here – like her buddy Selena Gomez. "Project Selena," Swift says. "I think I can do it."

 Back in the living room, Swift settles into the couch with a muffin and starts talking about her Fourth of July. She invited a bunch of friends up to Rhode Island, where she has a house in a fancy community called Watch Hill. It was raining, and the day looked like a bust, until her friend Jaime King's husband came up with the idea to buy eight Slip 'N Slides and lay them end to end like some unholy Slip 'N Slide centipede. Even with the rain, the slides still weren't slippery enough, so they got a bunch of olive oil and poured it all over themselves. ("There was a dangerous level of slipperiness," Swift says.) Later they all went to the beach, which is normally full of Swift-gawkers ("Hotel fees have doubled in the year we've been there," Swift says), but was empty that day because of the rain. That night they cooked a huge feast, with Swift assigning everyone jobs ("You make salad dressing! You chop apples for apple pie!"), and afterward they played Celebrity, the game where everyone puts a bunch of famous names in a hat and takes turns drawing one and trying to make their team guess. The game got a little heated, because one team had a lot more famous people on it, which gave them what some guests thought was an unfair advantage. (Swift: "It was like, 'You dated him! 2010!'") But in the end, everyone was appeased, and the game went on as planned. And did Swift's team win? She smiles. "Of course we won."

 Swift bought the Rhode Island house in April 2013, for a reported $17 million. The old summer estate of a Standard Oil heiress, it boasts water views in every room and a seagull Swift named George Washington that swims in her pool. Swift calls it her "dream house," but it's also been the source of some of her first truly negative press. The trouble started when she redid her sea wall, which she says hadn't been updated since the house was built in 1929. She hired a team of engineers, who spent all winter rebuilding it; she thought she was doing something nice, until some locals got angry and accused her of ruining the beach. (TMZ: "Taylor Swift Neighbors Pissed: You're Screwing With Our Coastline!!")

 It wasn't long before the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council stepped in to say that Swift hadn't done anything wrong. Still, for Swift, the wall became sort of a metaphor for haters in general. "There will always be people who grumble about things," she says. "But when they saw what it looked like when it was finished – it looked so much nicer! The other wall had all this graffiti on it – it looked old, and not in a good way. But it was a problem, so I fixed it. Nothing has changed about anyone's beach experience, except that now my house won't fall on them. So, you know. Sorry not sorry."

 The only way to hear 1989 in full is to borrow Swift's iPhone, which is white and silver and covered in kitten stickers. There are 13 songs in all, plus a handful of bonus tracks, filed under the unbreakable code name "Sailor Twips." (She will only play them over headphones, because of wiretaps.) There are also hundreds of voice memos containing sketches of chords and melodies, which is how most of her songs start out. Antonoff (who also happens to be Dunham's boyfriend) says that for one song they wrote together, he sent Swift a track "and literally 30 minutes later she sent me back a voice note that sounded exactly like the record."

 As the title suggests, 1989 was influenced by some of Swift's favorite Eighties pop acts, including Phil Collins, Annie Lennox and "Like a Prayer"-era Madonna. (Given that 1989 is also the year Swift was born, she necessarily got into them later, usually via VH1's Pop-Up Video.) The album was executive-produced by Swift and Max Martin, with whom she first collaborated on her 2012 single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." Officially, it's not even finished yet: Somewhere in Sweden, Martin is tinkering until the very last minute to ensure the drum sounds are as up-to-date as possible.

 Theo Wenner

 Swift's last album, 2012's Red, straddled the line between country and pop. "But at a certain point," she says, "if you chase two rabbits, you lose them both." So this time, she set out to do full-on "blatant pop music." A casual fan won't notice much difference, but to Swift and her brand, it's a big step. She says she won't be going to country-awards shows or promoting the album on country radio. When she first turned in the record, she says the head of her label, Scott Borchetta, told her, "This is extraordinary – it's the best album you've ever done. Can you just give me three country songs?"

 "Love you, mean it," is how Swift characterizes her response. "But this is how it's going to be."

 The other big change on 1989 is that for the first time in years, there are no diss tracks dishing about Swift's exes. A few of the songs are about her relationships and love life, but they're mostly wistful and nostalgic, not finger-pointy or score-settling. "Different phases of your life have different levels of deep, traumatizing heartbreak," Swift says. "And in this period of my life, my heart was not irreparably broken. So it's not as boy-centric of an album, because my life hasn't been boycentric." In fact, she suggests, she hasn't dated at all since breaking up with One Direction singer Harry Styles more than a year and a half ago. "Like, have not gone on a date," she says. "People are going to feel sorry for me when you write that. But it's true."

 Swift says dating is hard for her. For one thing, there's the logistics. "Seventy percent of the time, when a guy asks me out, it'll just be a random e-mail," she says. Some movie star will get her address from his publicist and e-mail her cold. Usually she politely rebuffs them – but even if someone did penetrate that line of defense, building a relationship is hard.

 "I feel like watching my dating life has become a bit of a national pastime," Swift says. "And I'm just not comfortable providing that kind of entertainment anymore. I don't like seeing slide shows of guys I've apparently dated. I don't like giving comedians the opportunity to make jokes about me at awards shows. I don't like it when headlines read 'Careful, Bro, She'll Write a Song About You,' because it trivializes my work. And most of all, I don't like how all these factors add up to build the pressure so high in a new relationship that it gets snuffed out before it even has a chance to start. And so," she says, "I just don't date."

 (That goes for hooking up as well. "I just think it's pointless if you're not in love," Swift says. "And I don't have the energy to be in love right now. So, no.")

 Truth be told, Swift sounds a tiny bit jaded – which, for a "self-professed hopeless romantic," maybe isn't the worst thing to be. "It's not like I've sworn off love," she says. "My life is just not conducive to bringing other people into it right now. I'm very childlike and romantic about lots of things, but I'm realistic about this."

 Swift pauses, searching for a metaphor that will help her explain herself. "Have you heard of the Loneliest Whale? There's this whale – I think Adrian Grenier is making a documentary about it. It swims through the ocean, and it has a call unlike any other whale's. So it doesn't have anyone to swim with. And everybody feels so sorry for this whale – but what if this whale is having a great time? Because it's not bad that I'm not hopelessly in love with someone. It's not a tragedy, and it's not me giving up and being a spinster. Although I did get another cat." She laughs. "I asked around: I was like, 'Does two cats count as cats?' But then I thought, what imaginary guy's perspective am I thinking about this from? Someone is going to think I'm undateable for a lot of reasons before they think I'm undateable because I have two cats."

 Since she's been single, Swift has been acquiring girlfriends with the fervor she once devoted to landing guys. (For instance: Two years ago she told Vogue she wanted to be friends with Kloss; now they're going to the gym together and taking road trips to Big Sur.) Swift says this is another byproduct of being single. "When your number-one priority is getting a boyfriend, you're more inclined to see a beautiful girl and think, 'Oh, she's gonna get that hot guy I wish I was dating,'" she says. "But when you're not boyfriend-shopping, you're able to step back and see other girls who are killing it and think, 'God, I want to be around her.'" As an example, she cites her pal Lorde, whom she calls Ella. "It's like this blazing bonfire," Swift says. "You can either be afraid of it because it's so powerful and strong, or you can go stand near it, because it's fun and it makes you brighter."

 Earlier in her career, Swift deflected questions about feminism because she didn't want to alienate male fans. But these days, she's proud to identify herself as a feminist. To her, all feminism means is wanting women to have the same opportunities as men. "I don't see how you could oppose that." Dunham says Swift has always been a feminist whether she called herself one or not: "She runs her own company, she's creating music that connects to other women instead of creating a sexual persona for the male gaze, and no one is in control of her. If that's not feminism, what is?"

 Swift's focus on sisterhood cuts both ways, because when another woman crosses her, she's equally fierce about hitting back. The angriest song on 1989 is called "Bad Blood," and it's about another female artist Swift declines to name. "For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not," she says. "She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, 'Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?'" Then last year, the other star crossed a line. "She did something so horrible," Swift says. "I was like, 'Oh, we're just straight-up enemies.' And it wasn't even about a guy! It had to do with business. She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me. And I'm surprisingly non-confrontational – you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So now I have to avoid her. It's awkward, and I don't like it."

 (Pressed, Swift admits there might have been a personal element to the conflict. "But I don't think there would be any personal problem if she weren't competitive," she says.)

 Theo Wenner

 As is often the case, Swift dealt with her emotions by writing about them. "Sometimes the lines in a song are lines you wish you could text-message somebody in real life," she says. "I would just be constantly writing all these zingers – like, 'Burn. That would really get her.' And I know people are going to obsess over who it's about, because they think they have all my relationships mapped out. But there's a reason there are not any overt call-outs in that song. My intent was not to create some gossip-fest. I wanted people to apply it to a situation where they felt betrayed in their own lives."

 Swift prides herself on never explicitly saying whom her songs are about, and she's not going to start with this one. Yes, she sprinkles clues in her liner notes and makes winking references onstage, but she tries to keep them obscure enough to maintain some modicum of mystery (or at least plausible deniability). She's so disciplined on this front that she won't even say any of her ex-boyfriends' names out loud – so when she does slip up, even in the most innocent way possible, it's highly entertaining.

 Swift is still talking about "Bad Blood" when she starts to explain why she wants everyone to know it's about a female. "I know people will make it this big girl-fight thing," she says. "But I just want people to know it's not about a guy. You don't want to shade someone you used to date and make it seem like you hate him, when that's not the case. And I knew people would immediately be going in one direction—" As she suddenly realizes that she just accidentally referenced her ex-boyfriend's band, Swift goes white. She buries her face in her hands. "Why?!" she howls, cracking up. It's a classic Taylor Swift Surprised Face, only for real this time.

 Swift won't say much about her relationship with Styles, other than that they're now friends. But talking to her, it seems clear that many of the songs on 1989 that are about a guy are about him. There's "I Wish You Would," about an ex who bought a house two blocks from hers (whom she implies was Styles). And "All You Had to Do Was Stay," about a guy who was never willing to commit (ditto). Then there's the song that sets a new high-water mark for Swiftian faux secrecy – a sexy Miami Vice-sounding throwback about a guy with slicked-back hair and a white T-shirt and a girl in a tight little skirt that is called – no joke – "Style." (She allows herself a satisfied grin. "We should have just called it 'I'm Not Even Sorry.'")

 Of all the songs on the album that seem to be about Styles, the most intriguing one is "Out of the Woods." Co-written by Antonoff, it's a frantic tale of a relationship where, Swift says, "every day was a struggle. Forget making plans for life – we were just trying to make it to next week." The most interesting part comes when Swift sings, "Remember when you hit the brakes too soon/Twenty stitches in a hospital room." She says it was inspired by a snowmobile ride with an ex who lost control and wrecked it so badly that she saw her life flash before her eyes. Both of them had to go to the ER, although Swift wasn't hurt. She corrects herself: "Not as hurt."

 For a couple whose every move was so thoroughly documented, it's kind of shocking to think that something as newsworthy as a trip to the emergency room wouldn't have wound up on the Internet. "You know what I've found works even better than an NDA?" says Swift. "Looking someone in the eye and saying, 'Please don't tell anyone about this.'" Even so, it's impressive: The most top-secret hospital visit would necessarily involve three or four witnesses – and none of them talked?

 Swift says that's sort of her point. "People think they know the whole narrative of my life," she says. "I think maybe that line is there to remind people that there are really big things they don't know about."

 I didn't know what kind of coffee you wanted, so I brought options."

 Two weeks later, Swift is in the back seat of an SUV idling next to Central Park, with a tray of four iced coffees balanced on her lap. Outside wait a dozen paparazzi and several dozen fans. The plan is to take a nice walk in the park – and maybe, though this is unspoken, to get a glimpse of the attention she faces daily.

 Swift takes her bodyguard's hand and steps out of the car. She's dressed in the decidedly un-park-friendly outfit of a tweed skirt and crop top, pink suede Louboutin pumps, and a yellow Dolce & Gabbana bag. She navigates the muddy trail impressively in her heels, the crowd behind her swelling every few feet. In front of her, two bodyguards clear a path. Behind her, another bodyguard carries a bag of scones.

 Swift turns down a dead-end path where the paparazzi can't follow and takes a seat in a gazebo on the shores of the lake. On the wooden posts are carved hundreds of initials, the stories of couples who came before – the kind of thing that might appear in a Taylor Swift song. Excitedly, Swift points at the lake: "Turtles! And ducks!" She looks at the ground. "Oh. And a used condom."

 Swift says that the only time she could come to the park and have it be normal would be in the middle of the night ("which is dangerous") or at four in the morning ("which is early"). She hasn't driven alone in five years, and she can't leave her home without being swarmed by fans. ("When a sweet little 12-year-old says to their mom, 'Taylor lives an hour from here . . .' – more times than not, they'll make the trip.") Although she doesn't like to draw attention to it, she says there is a contingent of fans that think her songs contain hidden messages to them. "Think about it," she says. "Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone? Take that, add 'crazytown' to it, and it sounds like an invitation for kidnapping."

 Theo Wenner

 We've been talking for a while when a boat rows up carrying three teenagers – two girls and a guy. "Oh, my God!" says one of the girls. "Today is my birthday! Can I please take a picture with you?" Swift laughs. "You can, but I don't know how you're going to. You're on a boat, buddy!"

 "I'll get off!" the girl says. "I'll find a way." Swift and her bodyguard reach out and help her into the pavilion. "You're going to make me cry!" she says.

 "Is it really your birthday?" Swift asks.

 "How old are you?"

 "Seventeen," the girl says.

 "Oh, that's a good year."

 "I know. I'm excited."

 The girl says she lives on Long Island. She and her friends took the train in for the day. "That's cute," Swift says. "Are you going to dinner somewhere?"

 The girl scrunches up her face. "We were going to . . . Chipotle?"

 Swift smiles. She goes to her purse and pulls out a wad of cash – $90, to be exact. "Here," she says. "Go somewhere nice."

 "Oh, my God," the girl says. "Thank you!" She climbs back in the boat, and she and her friends paddle off.

 Pretty soon it's time to go. One of Swift's bodyguards, Jeff, a former Marine Corps anti-terrorism specialist, comes over to brief her. "OK, we've got a six-minute walk to the exit. Twitter is going like wildfire, so some of the more obsessive fans . . ." He trails off. "We're just gonna close the gap on you and keep them back."

 Swift gives her bangs one last check in her phone's camera, then she looks out at the lake. "I wish we had a boat."

 She stands up to go. Immediately we're surrounded by a crush of paparazzi and fans. Even the hot-dog vendors are snapping pictures. As Swift winds her way through the park, the crowd grows larger and more aggressive; it's a little scary. "OK, everybody, we need some room, please!" Jeff says. "Step back. Give her space!"

 But Swift is unfazed. "You want to know a trick to immediately go from feeling victimized to feeling awesome?" she says. She pulls out her phone and hands me the earbuds: "This is my go-to." She presses play, and Kendrick Lamar's "Backseat Freestyle" fills the speakers. As Swift bobs her head, Lamar raps:

 All my life I want money and power

 Respect my mind or die from lead shower

 I pray my dick get big as the Eiffel Tower

 So I can fuck the world for 72 hours

 Goddamn, I feel amazing

 Damn, I'm in the Matrix . . .

 Swift smiles wide. "I know every word." ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Is Katy Perry the mystery woman Taylor Swift shades in Rolling Stone?

 The "Shake It Off" singer griped about a pop peer in the magazine's Sept. 25 issue, but in typical Swift style, she refused to name names. Perry implied she's the one Swift declined to identify by referencing 2004's Mean Girls. "Watch out for the Regina George in sheep's clothing..." the singer tweeted Tuesday.

 Does that make Swift Cady Heron in this scenario? And is mutual ex John Mayer the Aaron Samuels? Regardless, the 24-year-old "Mean" singer has yet to reply to the 29-year-old "Firework" singer's tweet.

 The ex-country star implied Perry was the inspiration for the song "Bad Blood," which appears on her new album, 1989. "For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not. She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, 'Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?' Then last year, the other star crossed a line," Swift recalled. "She did something so horrible, I was like, 'Oh, we're just straight-up enemies.' And it wasn't even about a guy!"

 Swift, who counts Lena Dunham and Karlie Kloss as BFFs, continued, "It had to do with business. She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me."

 For 15 months, Swift toured the globe to promote Red. Perry kicked off her Prismatic World Tour in May 2014, with concerts scheduled in Australia, France and the United States, among other countries. |||||


The situation has become dangerous and unacceptable. San Francisco City Attorney’s Office

 It was fun while it lasted.

 The wheels came off San Francisco’s short-distance transportation experiment on Monday, when City Attorney Dennis Herrera sent a cease and desist letter to three companies that had flooded the city’s streets with electric scooter rentals.

 The scooters, which were popular in spite of some maintenance issues, represent a wave of venture capital money pouring into short-distance transportation tools. One of the companies, Bird, has become a familiar presence on the streets and sidewalks near its headquarters in Santa Monica, California. It’s of a piece with the dockless and electric bicycle boom, epitomized by Uber’s high-value acquisition of e-bike start-up Jump last week.

 But nowhere have scooters blanketed a city quite like San Francisco. Among the city’s complaints: The scooter companies have violated state law (yes, apparently California has a state statute governing electric scooters) by allowing riders to scoot on sidewalks, without helmets, and with two people to a scooter. Helmet laws in particular tend to be the kiss of death for shared mobility programs, sending potential users back into taxi cabs.

 Below are the photos the City Attorney released to bolster the case for a crackdown, noting, “We cannot overstate the public safety hazard that operating motorized scooters pose on City sidewalks.”

 “We cannot overstate the public safety hazard that operating motorized scooters pose on City sidewalks,” the City Attorney writes. San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

 Scooters left on Market Street. San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

 Scooters outside the De Young Museum San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

 An older man dodges a scooter downtown. San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

 Supervisor Aaron Peskin—himself no stranger to overstatement (he once compared housing construction in San Francisco to the destruction of Bến Tre)—is working on a municipal law to regulate scooter usage. At least two San Franciscans, including Peskin, claim to have broken their toes tripping over scooters.

 However, as many San Franciscans have pointed out, the presence of scooters is in many ways less of a nuisance—and objectively, less of a danger—than the city’s private automobiles. Joe Rivano Barros made the point in a series of tweets over the weekend:

 San Franciscans may find the scooters a nuisance, but it’s mostly that they are an unfamiliar one, and for some residents, a reminder that the city is changing.

 Update, 5:50 p.m. After this article was published, a spokesperson for the City Attorney responded to a question: How many documented injuries or accidents had occurred involving electric scooters? Here is the response: ||||| Jack Handlery logs into an app to use a motorized scooter in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 17, 2018. San Francisco is ordering three companies that rent out motorized scooters to stop operating until... (Associated Press)

 Jack Handlery logs into an app to use a motorized scooter in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 17, 2018. San Francisco is ordering three companies that rent out motorized scooters to stop operating until they can ensure riders are following state law and the dockless devices are not a hazard to the public.... (Associated Press)

 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco is ordering three companies that began renting motorized foot-pedal scooters in the city last month to stop operating until they can ensure riders are obeying state laws and that the devices are not a hazard to the public.

 City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in letters to LimeBike, Bird and Spin that the city has received numerous complaints of riders whizzing by on sidewalks, not wearing helmets and parking the devices on sidewalks, obstructing the right of way.

 Despite previous warnings, the scooter companies are "creating a public nuisance on the city's streets and sidewalks and endangering public health and safety," he wrote.

 Hundreds of the scooters began appearing around the tech-friendly city in March, and were quickly picked up by riders. They have become an annoyance for many because they do not require docking stations and can be set down anywhere when a ride is over.

 California law requires riders of motorized scooters to wear a helmet, not carry passengers and not operate on sidewalks. The rules appear in videos riders must watch and sign off on when they download the cellphone app that unlocks the scooters.

 Herrera provided the companies with photographs showing scooters lying in the middle of sidewalks and people riding without helmets. They have until April 30 to address complaints, he said.

 Jack Handley, who works at his family-run hotel, said he pays about $2 to use a scooter for about five minutes, which he said he rides on the street.

 "I can grab one and zoom on over to where I need to go and then zoom right back," Handley said after dropping off a LimeBike outside a FedEx office in downtown San Francisco.

 He said he would stop using them if he is required to get a permit or wear a helmet.

 "I'm not going to carry a helmet with me," he said. "I would rather walk than go through that headache."

 The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved legislation requiring the scooter companies have transit agency permits to operate and to allow public workers to remove scooters without permits from streets or sidewalks.

 The ordinance requires companies to educate users about how to safely ride and store the devices and establishes fines starting at $125 per scooter.

 "Sidewalks are for pedestrians and strollers and disabled individuals and wheelchairs," said the law's author, Supervisor Aaron Peskin.

 "We're not trying to ban them," he said. "But we want to make sure that they're operating in a way that is helpful to the transportation problems of San Francisco."

 David Estrada, chief legal officer for Santa Monica, California-based Bird Rides Inc., said the company wants to work with city officials to solve traffic problems in San Francisco.

 "They request we do some education for riders and request we implement some technology to address some of the issues, we have all of that in the works," Estrada said.

 The company, whose founder Travis VanderZanden was chief operating officer at Lyft and former vice president of global driver growth at Uber, started a pilot program Tuesday requiring San Francisco riders to take a photo showing how they parked the scooter at the end of their trip, Estrada said.

 Users who repeatedly violate the rules will be suspended, said Kenneth Baer, a spokesman for Bird. "San Franciscans have logged more than 90,000 miles on Birds, which shows that there is great demand for new, environmentally friendly ways to get around this great city," Baer said.

 Santa Monica's city attorney in December filed a criminal complaint against Bird, saying the company was operating without a permit and had ignored required licensing and orders to remove the scooters from sidewalks. Bird pleaded no contest and agreed to pay more than $300,000 in fines and secure proper licenses.

 Spokespeople for San Mateo, California-based LimeBike and San Francisco-based Skinny Labs Inc., also known as Spin, did not immediately return emails seeking comment Tuesday.

 ___

 This story has been clarified to note Peskin was the law's author, not sponsor.

 ___

 Associated Press writers Terry Chea and Ryan Nakashima contributed to this report. ||||| The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously voted today to approve the ordinance that looks to regulate electric scooters in San Francisco. The ordinance seeks to establish regulation and a permitting process that would enable the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency or Department of Public Works to take action against scooters from companies that don’t have an official permit from the city.

 “Part of the brouhaha has been really the function of the fact, which was admitted yesterday, was that some of these companies have been a little bit fast and loose with the truth,” Supervisor Aaron Peksin, a sponsor of the ordinance, said today at the Board of Supervisors meeting.*

 Peskin is referencing the fact that Lime, Spin and Bird deployed their respective scooters without permission from the city. The permitting scheme the city has in mind, Peskin said, is very similar to the one San Francisco has in place around stationless bike-sharing.

 “This is a basic permitting scheme to allow the professional staff at SFMTA to permit these with sensible, regulatory frameworks and to be able to confiscate unpermitted vehicles or devices,” Peskin said.

 He added that these electric scooters can absolutely serve some benefits to people in San Francisco, but that it does not mean the city should have to sacrifice its sidewalk space. The next step is for the BOS to continue working with the SFMTA to develop this regulation. At a hearing yesterday, the SFMTA said it hopes to open up the permitting process by May 1.

 Earlier in the meeting today, the BOS adopted a resolution to develop a working group to inform future legislation around emerging technologies. One of the resolution’s sponsors, Supervisor Norman Yee, noted how he’s heard from seniors and people in wheelchairs who are “being imperiled and inconvenienced because they are having to navigate around scooters and bikes.”

 He later added, the purpose of the working group would be to ensure the city is mindful of both the intended and unintended consequences of emerging technologies.

 Yesterday, SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera sent cease-and-desist letters to Lime, Bird and Spin, but that doesn’t seem to be making any difference to Lime, Bird and Spin. All three of their respective scooters were found on the streets of San Francisco this morning.

 “As it says in the letter, the City Attorney has laid out some recommendations for operation that he will like to see implemented by April 30; he has not requested an immediate stoppage of service,” a Bird spokesperson told TechCrunch. “We are taking his concerns very seriously and reviewing his recommendations for improving Bird in San Francisco.” Lime says it’s taking the City Attorney seriously, as well as the vote by the BOS today. “In response, we are updating our current community outreach plan to address the City’s concerns about pedestrian safety, parking compliance, and rider education,” a Lime spokesperson told TechCrunch. “We plan to roll out new initiatives, along with our complete response to the City Attorney by the end of next week.” Lime says it will also provide helmets to users, which will we able for pickup starting April 22. Similar to Bird, Lime will also start requiring people to submit a photo of their properly parked scooter at the end of the ride. Additionally, Lime says it will more clearly state that riding on or blocking sidewalks is illegal. I’ve reached out to Spin about its operations in San Francisco. I’ll update this story if I hear back.

 An earlier version of this story misattributed Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s quotes to another supervisor. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– A battle between the city of San Francisco and companies that rent out motorized scooters has come to a head: On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an ordinance seeking to regulate the scooters, TechCrunch reports. At issue is the fact that the companies—LimeBike, Spin, and Bird—started operating three weeks ago without approval from the city, and city authorities say the electric scooters can be dangerous. "We cannot overstate the public safety hazard that operating motorized scooters pose on City sidewalks," said City Attorney Dennis Herrera in a cease-and-desist letter to the companies Monday, per Slate. The letter ordered the companies to stop operating until a plan was in place to make sure customers stop riding on sidewalks and without helmets or drivers licenses, and stop parking in places that block sidewalks, ramps, and transit stops. (They don't require a docking station and can thus be left anywhere when riders are done using them, the AP reports.) TechCrunch says the letter didn't "seem to be making any difference," as scooters from all three companies were spotted on San Francisco streets Tuesday. The Board of Supervisors is looking to put a permitting process in place for the scooter companies similar to the one that exists for bike-sharing companies operating in the city; it hopes to have the process in place by May 1. It also plans to establish fines starting at $125 when scooter regulations are violated.


Olsen twins line The Row $39,000 backpack flying off shelves at Barneys New York: Ashley

 Mike Coppola/Getty The Olsen twins said their $39,000 backpack is selling out at Barneys New York.

 Take our Poll $39,000 backpack Would you buy it? Sure! If I could afford it. No way, not even if I was rich. I'm not sure. Related News Articles

 Melissa McCarthy's curvy clothing line

 Target's next style sensation? Jason Wu

 What recession? A $39,000 backpack designed by the Olsen twins' designer brand The Row is selling out.

 Former child actress turned high-end fashion designer Ashley Olsen told Women's Wear Daily that The Row was scrambling to keep up with demand for the luxury car-priced accessory.

 'FULL HOUSE': WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

 "It was the first thing that sold off the shelf," she said.

 Barneys New York began carrying the crocodile-skin bags in July, in an effort to compete with other ludicrously-priced handbags.

 Now, it seems the gamble has paid off.

 Amanda Brooks, the fashion director for Barneys New York, told Fashionista this summer that the line of super-pricy bags was a surefire attempt appeal to a younger crowd.

 "Obviously we don't carry Hermes bags in the store so we were trying to find something that appeals to that customer who is willing to spend a lot of money on a bag that's going to last a long time and has a classic design," she said.

 Brooks also touted another benefit to the bag.

 "You also might be the only one who has it," she said.

 Not if the bag keeps flying off the shelves, you won't. ||||| A $39,000 backpack from the Olsen twins' luxury fashion line The Row was "the first thing that sold off the shelf," according to Ashley. "During our last economic crisis in the U.S., the only thing that went up was Hermès." That's why she designed this mind-bogglingly expensive backpack, made exclusively from the skin of the mysterious fourth Olsen sister, who lives in a cage in their basement. You thought Elizabeth Olsen was the secret one? Hah.

 Above, Ashley totes the fabled bag in Tribeca. Shhh, do you hear that? It's little Scaleskin Olsen, begging for her life. [WWD, NYDN, image via Splash] |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– The solution to America's endless economic woes is apparently the Olsen twins' $39,000 backpack. In a Women's Wear Daily interview from last week just getting some attention, Ashley explains why she and her sister thought extreme luxury might sell: "During our last economic crisis in the US, the only thing that went up was Hermès." And their plan worked: The alligator backpack, part of The Row handbag collection, "was the first thing that sold off the shelf," Ashley says. Gawker has a picture, and snarks that it is "made exclusively from the skin of the mysterious fourth Olsen sister, who lives in a cage in their basement."


SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — In the chaotic aftermath of the San Bernardino shootings, as the wounded bled from gunshots, others lay dead and police searched for multiple killers, an officer relayed the name of a suspect to dispatchers.

 Investigators work the site of a mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center on Monday, Dec. 7, 2015 in San Bernardino, Calif. The FBI said it's investigating the massacre on Wednesday in San Bernardino,... (Associated Press)

 An investigator works the site of a mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center on Monday, Dec. 7, 2015 in San Bernardino, Calif. The FBI said it's investigating the massacre on Wednesday in San Bernardino,... (Associated Press)

 Yellow police tape is strung in front of the Inland Regional Center, site of Wednesday's mass shooting on Monday, Dec. 7, 2015 in San Bernardino, Calif. The husband and wife who carried out the shootings... (Associated Press)

 The officer identified Syed Rizwan Farook, a co-worker of most of those shot, as a possible suspect because he had left a work meeting "out of the blue" 20 minutes before the shooting and matched the description of a gunman, according to audio of dispatch recordings.

 "He seemed nervous," the unnamed officer reported in an edited selection of recordings posted by The Press-Enterprise newspaper of Riverside.

 Farook and his wife carried out the attack that killed 14 people and wounded 21 others Wednesday. The couple, who the FBI said had become radicalized, died about four hours later in a firefight with officers in this city an hour east of Los Angeles.

 The shooting occurred at the Inland Regional Center, a social services agency, where the county Department of Public Health was renting the auditorium for an annual meeting.

 Trudy Raymundo, director of the department, was preparing to make a presentation when she heard gunfire outside. A gunman in a black ski mask and dressed all in black then burst through the door and started shooting.

 Raymundo dropped to the floor and huddled under a table with other colleagues as bullets sprayed the room that had been decked out with a Christmas tree, ornaments and other seasonal decor.

 "It's constant shots and constant firing, and all you can think of is, 'Why don't they stop?'" Raymundo said Monday in her first public comments since the slaughter. "It was just endless."

 County health employees had trained for an active-shooter scenario a year earlier in the same room.

 "Everyone was trying to be quiet and not draw attention to themselves as they were trained to do, to try to find as much protection as you can," said Corwin Porter, assistant director of the department. "Unfortunately the room just didn't provide a whole lot of protection."

 Family members of witnesses said the initial gunfire lasted about 30 seconds and then the shooters reloaded and fired again before fleeing without saying a word.

 Raymundo said she saw one man enter the room, but that two left.

 Dispatch recordings reveal the back-and-forth from officers in the field and calm-talking dispatchers, including some of the confusion and misinformation that was relayed as they tried to figure out how many suspects were involved and whether they were still at the Inland Regional Center.

 "We do not know if we still have an active shooter," one of the first officers on the scene reported. "We supposedly have two down inside. We'll be making entry."

 A dispatcher put out the call: "San Bernardino Police Department has an active shooter. ... They're asking for all units that are available."

 Nearly six minutes into the recordings, an officer identifying himself as Ida 9 reported Farook's name.

 He said the suspect "left out of the blue and, um, then 20 minutes later the shooting occurred."

 Witnesses reported seeing a pair of gunmen wearing ski-type masks and vests, an officer said.

 A dispatcher later advised all units that three suspects wearing black masks and, possibly, tactical vests, fled in a black SUV with assault rifles.

 At some point, a man's voice reported a dozen "DOAs," using the jargon for dead on arrival, and said others had been moved to a treatment area.

 That is followed by chatter about a bomb that shooters left behind.

 A lieutenant then tells all sheriff's deputies and police officers to get out of the building.

 "Bomb arson has seen the device," someone said. "It is out of the norms. They are going to explode it through robotic means. They have pulled out of the building as well."

 The recordings pick up about four hours later as a short chase ends in a shootout between the couple and nearly two dozen officers.

 Shots were being fired out the back window of the SUV, and a dispatcher reported that officers were taking fire.

 A helicopter pilot reported that his partner was moving to the backseat of the chopper, armed with an M4 rifle.

 Gunfire can be heard in the transmissions.

 "Can see one guy down," an officer reported. "There's one guy in the back of a car."

 In the background, a man can be heard yelling, "Hold your fire, hold your fire."

 Police later said the couple fired off 76 rounds in the shootout, but the two were outgunned by officers, who shot 380 rounds. ||||| (CNN) Investigators believe San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook may have been plotting an earlier attack in California with someone else, two U.S. officials said.

 One of the officials said the two conspired in 2012 and a specific target was considered. Neither of the officials could say how serious the plotting got.

 San Bernardino shooters: What we do and don't know about their radicalization

 One official said the two decided not to go through with the earlier attack after a round of terror-related arrests in the area.

 "They got spooked," the official said.

 Read More ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 Dec. 8, 2015, 9:51 PM GMT / Updated Dec. 9, 2015, 1:27 AM GMT By Pete Williams, Hannah Rappleye, Richard Esposito, Andrew Blankstein and Robert Windrem

 San Bernardino terror couple Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik spent at least a year preparing for their terror attack, NBC News has learned, practicing at a local gun range and making financial plans for their family after their deaths.

 And the husband may have discussed an attack as many as three years ago, law enforcement sources said Tuesday.

 Two sources said Farook and Malik had practiced their shooting skills at a Riverside, California-area gun range for a year or more before last Wednesday’s attack on a holiday office party. They killed 14 people and wounded 21 more with firearms at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.

 Counterterrorism officials also told NBC News that Farook and Malik were making preparations for some time to “take care of both grandma and the baby.” The couple lived in a Redlands, California residence with their 6-month-old daughter and Farook’s 62-year-old mother, Rafia Farook. They left their daughter with Rafia Farook on the morning of the attack.

 Investigators are examining a $28,500 deposit made to Farook’s bank account in the weeks before the Dec. 2 rampage.

 A U.S. counterterrorism official said that he didn’t have details on the transfer, but that it “would be consistent with them making preparations for grandma and the kid.”

 “They had purposely thought through that problem,” said the official. “There were other indications of preparations.”

 Reuters reported that the loan to Farook was made by the online lender Prosper. In a statement, Prosper said that the company is "prohibited by law from disclosing any non-public, personally identifiable information regarding any loan originated through our platform."

 "All loans originated through the Prosper platform are subject to all identity verification and screening procedures required by law, including U.S. anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering laws," the spokesperson said. "Like all Americans, Prosper is shocked and saddened by recent events in San Bernardino."

 And a senior law enforcement official told NBC News Tuesday that FBI investigators have been told that Farook discussed staging an attack in California as early as 2012.

 The official said investigators don’t yet know what to make of the claim, although they say it may bolster their growing suspicion that Farook was radicalized long before he returned from Saudi Arabia last year with his wife.

 The latest revelations come after NBC News reported Monday that federal investigators are interviewing a neighbor of Farook and Malik who bought two of the four guns that were used in the massacre. ||||| The loan offers investigators a key new detail as they try to unravel how Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik plotted the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. The money could also explain how they managed to pay for target practice at local gun ranges, as well as the rental sport utility vehicle they used during the Dec. 2 attack, the officials said. |||||

Write a summary.

– San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook may have been planning mass murder even before he married accomplice Tashfeen Malik, according to sources close to the investigation. Officials tell CNN that Farook plotted to carry out an attack with somebody else in California in 2012, though it's not clear how far the preparations went. The plan was called off after a round of terror-related arrests in the area "spooked" Farook and his accomplice, one source says. Law enforcement officials tell NBC News that Farook and Malik appeared to have planned the San Bernardino attack for at least a year, training at local gun ranges and making financial arrangements for their 6-month-old daughter and Farook's mother. The FBI is still investigating a loan of $28,500 deposited into Farook's account two weeks before the attack, a loan that an investigator tells NBC "would be consistent with them making preparations for Grandma and the kid." In other developments: The Los Angeles Times reports that former Minneapolis resident Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan, an alleged ISIS recruiter who targeted Westerners on social media, has surrendered to authorities in Somalia. Investigators suspect he may have influenced Farook. The San Bernardino Department of Public Health, which employed Farook and most of the 14 people killed in the attack, trained employees last year for an active-shooter drill in the same room at the Inland Regional Center that Farook and Malik attacked, the AP reports. "Everyone was trying to be quiet and not draw attention to themselves as they were trained to do, to try to find as much protection as you can," an assistant director of the department says. "Unfortunately, the room just didn't provide a whole lot of protection." Law enforcement sources tell the Times that a device Farook and Malik left behind at the scene of the attack may have been designed to kill first responders. The sources say the crude device, which included three pipe bombs, was disabled by water from the building's sprinkler system. See a photo of the holiday party taken just before the shooting here.


These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| A woman is being praised for lending a generous helping hand to a dad in need when an airline agent denied his toddler daughter a free seat on the plane as he was checking in.

 When the man walked up to the counter at an airport in Omaha, Nebraska, last week with his daughter in his arms, the agent asked how old she was. When he replied, “She just turned two,” the agent asked to see her ticket.

 The man was confused. He thought his daughter would be able to fly for free. But he soon found out she was over the age limit by just two months.

 “He was hit with emotion. He mentioned he couldn’t afford to rebook this flight or get her the ticket with such short notice,” a fellow flier, Kevin Leslie, explained in a post that has since gone viral with more than 45,500 shares on the Facebook page of blogging site “Love What Matters.” “He stepped aside and tried to make a few calls. Hugging his daughter and grabbing his head, you could tell he was heartbroken.”

 That’s when an “angel in disguise” stepped in to save the day.

 She had overheard the man’s dilemma, and told the agent she wanted to help.

 “I wanna buy her ticket,” the woman said, pointing to the little girl.

 “You know how much this ticket costs, right?” the surprised agent replied.

 “$700 something?”

 “$749.”

 This happened right in front of me this morning and This woman needs to be commended. The gentlemen standing behind her... Posted by Kevin Leslie on Wednesday, March 8, 2017

 Without hesitation, the woman pulled out her credit card and paid for the ticket.

 The man was overwhelmed with joy and hugged the woman, repeatedly asking for her name so he could pay her back. But the woman refused, and said, “Don’t worry about it,” before walking away.

 Both Leslie and the young father had no idea who the woman was — until Leslie posted about the woman’s act of kindness on Facebook. Within hours, people identified her as Debbie Bolton, the co-founder and global chief sales officer at Norwex.

 Facebook/Debbie Bolton

 Norwex confirmed Bolton’s identity to CBS News on Friday, saying they are “very proud” of her.

 “We have always appreciated the loving spirit of Debbie Bolton,” Amy Cadora, chief marketing officer at Norwex, told CBS News. “She’s kind, caring and generous. That’s why none of us was a bit surprised when we saw the recent post on social media about her generosity.”

 Several employees with the company also praised the woman for her inspiring act.

 “I was not surprised,” Cari Flynn, an independent sales consultant at Norwex, told CBS News. “There is not just some ‘glamazon’ or ‘egomaniac’ heading this company; there is a humble person who really cares about people!”

 Flynn, who has been with the company for more than 3 years, said she met Bolton at a conference in 2015 where Bolton spoke about working with Mother Teresa when she was 19.

 Amber Arnold, who has worked as team coordinator for the company for the past two years, met Bolton back in October, and said this story didn’t surprise her one bit.

 “This is story depicts the kind person that Debbie Bolton is,” Arnold told CBS News. “She is incredibly kind, giving, genuine and so humble. ... She leads by example and is walking her talk, every single day. “

 Leslie said he shared the story because he believes “people like this need to be heard about.”

 Bolton’s employees couldn’t agree more.

 “We need more Debbie Boltons in this world,” Arnold said.

 Bolton said she just “did what anyone else would do,” and didn’t expect the act of kindness to reach this many people. But since it did, she hopes her action might inspire someone else to make a positive impact in the life of another, Cadora said. |||||

Write a summary.

– A Texas businesswoman has been unmasked as the Good Samaritan who saved a distraught father in a bind. The man was checking in for a flight earlier this month at Omaha's Eppley Airfield with his toddler when he hit a snag. CBS News reports the agent asked him the girl's age and when he replied "she just turned 2," the agent told him she could not fly without a ticket. (The cut-off is age 2, and he had bought his ticket a while back.) In a Facebook post by Love What Matters that went viral, fellow traveler Kevin Leslie described what happened next: "The man was confused because he was under the impression she could ride for free. ... He mentioned he couldn't afford to rebook this flight or get her the ticket with such short notice. He stepped aside and tried to make a few calls. Hugging his daughter ... you could tell he was heartbroken." That's when a woman stepped up, asked him what was wrong, and told the agent she wanted to purchase the ticket. The agent questioned whether the woman realized just how expensive the ticket was. "Seven hundred something?" she replied, as she handed over a credit card and paid the $749 fare. The father hugged her, offering to pay her back. "Don't worry about it," she replied. The hero has been revealed as Debbie Bolton, co-founder and global sales chief at Norwex, a company that makes chemical-free home and personal care products, reports the Omaha World-Herald. Workers there praised their boss, with one calling Bolton "a humble person who really cares about people." The chief marketing officer says Bolton's act wasn't surprising. "She’s kind, caring, and generous." (This woman was hailed as "epitomizing the true Good Samaritan.")


Here is a news article: (CNN) A young woman who broadcast the beating and racial taunting of a man on Facebook Live has been arrested with three others in connection with the gruesome attack, Chicago police said Wednesday.

 The disturbing 30-minute video shows a man tied up and his mouth covered, cowering in the corner of a room. His attackers laugh and shout "f*ck Donald Trump" and "f*ck white people" as they kick and punch him.

 The video shows someone cutting into his scalp with a knife, leaving a visibly bald patch.

 Police said the victim is an 18-year-old with special needs. Officers found the disoriented young man wandering a Chicago street "in crisis" Tuesday afternoon.

 He was so traumatized that it took most of the night for him to calm down so he was able to talk to police, Capt. Steven Sesso said.

 The suspects, two men and two women, all 18, are in custody awaiting formal charges, which are expected to be filed Thursday.

 Hate crime charges under consideration

 The victim knew at least one of his accused attackers from school, Cmdr. Kevin Duffin said. Though he may have voluntarily gotten into a van with the group, police are considering kidnapping charges.

 Because the victim is white and the people in the video are black, police also are investigating whether hate crime charges are appropriate, Duffin said.

 "Although they are adults, they're 18. Kids make stupid decisions -- I shouldn't call them kids; they're legally adults, but they're young adults, and they make stupid decisions," Duffin said.

 "That certainly will be part of whether or not ... we seek a hate crime, to determine whether or not this is sincere or just stupid ranting and raving."

 It's possible the racially charged statements were little more than people "ranting about something they think might make a headline," Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said.

 He said he did not believe the attack was politically motivated.

 "It's sickening," he said. "It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that."

 Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi emphasized Thursday that the investigation has so far not revealed a racial or political motive.

 The incident comes as Chicago draws intense scrutiny for a grim milestone: 762 homicides in 2016 . Johnson commended the patrol officers for attending to the victim in distress and following the case through. "You hear the narrative that police are backing down and not doing their jobs; this is a perfect example of them doing their jobs," he said.

 Video pulled from Facebook

 Facebook confirmed that it pulled the original video from the suspect's Facebook profile.

 "We do not allow people to celebrate or glorify crimes on Facebook and have removed the original video for this reason. In many instances, though, when people share this type of content, they are doing so to condemn violence or raise awareness about it. In that case, the video would be allowed."

 According to its community standards , the company removes content, disables accounts and works with law enforcement in cases of a genuine risk of physical harm or direct threats to public safety.

 Facebook users also can report offensive material to staff dedicated to responding to such reports. If a live stream starts blowing up, staffers monitor it for possible violations and interrupt it if need be.

 The timeline

 The victim's parents reported him missing Monday, telling police they had not heard from their son since dropping him off Saturday at a McDonald's in the Chicago suburb of Streamwood.

 Police in Streamwood said that after the man was reported missing, his parents began getting text messages from someone "claiming to be holding him captive."

 Officers investigating the texts "discovered a Facebook video depicting (the man) being verbally and physically abused." It's unclear what alerted the police to check Facebook.

 Soon after they discovered the video, Streamwood investigators said they were contacted by Chicago police, saying they had found the missing man.

 On Tuesday Chicago officers responded to a battery call at a residence in the area where the victim had been found. There were signs of a struggle and property damage, police said. Police have not identified the person who made the call.

 After viewing the Facebook video, they determined the victim was the man found on the street -- and the people arrested were involved, police said.

 Police said the victim might have been with the suspects for at least 24 hours. ||||| EMBED More News Videos The family of the special needs man brutally tortured by four people while they streamed it live on Facebook spoke out for the first time Thursday.

 EMBED More News Videos Four people are facing hate crime, kidnapping and other charges in connection with the brutal torture of an 18-year-old man with special needs that was streamed live on Facebook.

 Four people were charged Thursday in connection with the brutal torture of an 18-year-old man with special needs that was streamed live on Facebook Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville; Tesfaye Cooper, 18, of Chicago; Brittany Covington, 18, of Chicago; and Tanishia Covington, 24, of Chicago; were each charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to the Cook County state's attorney. Hill, Cooper and Brittany Covington were charged with residential burglary. Hill was also charged with robbery and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Chicago police detectives laid out the timeline of events that led up to a man being tied up, kicked, beaten, yelled at, slashed and forced to drink toilet water - all of which was streamed live on Facebook.Police said they don't know the motive behind the apparent torture or the suspects' decision to stream it. At one point, the teens, who are black, told the victim, who is white, to say he loves black people.The suspects also made a string of profane statements about President-elect Donald Trump. At one point, a suspect is heard telling the victim to, "Say f*** Trump b****. F*** Trump. Say F*** Trump."Police said they investigated the attack as a hate crime and the state's attorney agreed it met those standards by approving the charges."Let me be very clear, the actions in that video are reprehensible. That alone with racism have absolutely no place in the city of Chicago or anywhere else for that matter," Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said.The victim, who is from northwest suburban Crystal Lake, was reported missing from nearby Streamwood by his parents on Monday. Police said they had not heard from him since Saturday, when they dropped him off at the McDonald's near Schaumburg and Barrington roads to meet up for a sleepover with Hill. Police said the two were "acquaintances" who met at a school in Aurora.Unbeknownst to the victim, investigators said Hill had stolen a van prior to picking him up at McDonald's. Investigators said the pair then drove around for the next two days, visiting friends and sleeping in the van. It wasn't until Tuesday that police said Hill brought the victim to an apartment in the 3400-block of West Lexington Avenue in the Homan Square neighborhood on Chicago's West Side.Investigators said the victim told them he got into a "play fight" with Hill that escalated when two of Hill's acquaintances, the Covington sisters, became aggravated with him."That's when they tie him up and when the racial slurs and, you know, the deference to his mental capacity starts coming out. That's primarily one of the reasons they were charged with the hate crime," said Cmdr. Kevin Duffin, Chicago Police Dept.Police said the victim was left tied up in the corner for four to five hours. Streamwood police said the victim's parents received text messages from people who claimed to be holding him captive.When a downstairs neighbor complained about the noise and threatened to call 911, police said the Covington sisters kicked in her door and stole something. That prompted the neighbor to call police and gave the victim the opportunity to escape, investigators said.Police said an officer came upon the victim wandering on Lexington on Tuesday evening wearing a tank top inside out and backwards, jean shorts and sandals. He was observed by an officer to be confused and bleeding, who later learned he had been reported missing two days earlier in Streamwood."He was bloodied and battered and due to the cold weather conditions, I approached him for a field interview," said Officer Michael Donnelly, Chicago Police Dept. "He was discombobulated, he was injured, he was confused."Investigators said they do not believe the attack was premeditated, but may have escalated under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Police said they decided to pursue hate crime charges considering the "totality" of the victim's diminished mental capacity, the fact that he was bound, and racist statements made on the video.Police said the victim is now at home in Crystal Lake and is expected to make a full recovery. His family said they had all seen the video in a brief press conference Thursday evening."We're so grateful for all the prayers and efforts that led to the safe return of our brother. We're fully aware of the charges being brought against the offenders. At this time, we ask for continued prayers for all those involved, for our family's privacy as we cope and heal," said David Boyd, the victim's brother-in-law.When asked about the victim's condition, Boyd said: "He's doing as well as he can be at this time."A group of West Side ministers spoke out Thursday to condemn the brutal attack. They said they were called to act after hearing from their congregations. They said they will pray for and donate to assist the victim."This is not who the West Side is. This is not a representation of the African American race in Chicago at all," said Rev. Ira Acree, Greater St. John Bible Church."Sin is a reproach to any people. But we also condemn the use of social media to highlight this," said Rev. Walter Arthur McCray, National Black Evangelical Association.In an interview with ABC7's Judy Hsu , President Barack Obama addressed the attack, calling it "horrific" and "terrible.""Part of what technology allows us to see now is the terrible toll that racism and discrimination and hate takes on families and communities. But that's part of how we learn and how we get better. We don't benefit from pretending that racism doesn't exist and hate doesn't exist. We don't benefit form not talking about it. The fact that these things are being surfaced means we can solve them," Obama said.A Facebook spokesperson released this statement Thursday: "We do not allow people to celebrate or glorify crimes on Facebook and have removed the original video for this reason. In many instances, though, when people share this type of content, they are doing so to condemn violence or raise awareness about it. In that case, the video would be allowed."Facebook's community standards with regard to Facebook Live state, "We understand the unique challenges of live video. We know it's important to have a responsible approach. That's why we make it easy for people to report live videos to us as they're happening. We have a team on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, dedicated to responding to these reports immediately."All four suspects will appear in bond court around 1:30 p.m. Friday. The victim's family said they have not yet decided if they will attend. For now, they said they're focused on "trying to stick together as a family." ||||| Hate crime and kidnapping charges were filed Thursday against four people who Chicago police say bound, gagged and beat a teenager with special needs while broadcasting the attack on social media. Trina Orlando reports. (Published Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017)

 Hate crime and kidnapping charges were filed Thursday against four people who Chicago police say bound, gagged and beat a teenager with special needs while broadcasting the attack on social media.

 The brutal attack, which had political and racial connotations — the victim is white, and the suspects are black — sent shockwaves across the nation, and was even addressed at the White House press briefing Thursday.

 "The actions in that video are reprehensible. That along with racism have absolutely no place in the city of Chicago or anywhere else for that matter against anyone regardless of their race, gender, state of mental health or any other identifying factor," Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said at a news conference Thursday.

 Thirty minutes of the torturous attack were streamed live on Facebook, but authorities said it was a six-hour ordeal that evolved out of a play fight, with the victim beaten, kicked, cut and forced to drink from a toilet.

 The victim, who is not being identified, is an 18-year-old with "mental health challenges" from Crystal Lake.

 Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville; Tesfaye Cooper, 18, of Chicago; Brittany Covington, 18, of Chicago and Tanishia Covington, 24, of Chicago, were each charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Hill, Cooper and Brittany Covington also face charges of residential burglary. Hill was also charged with robbery and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

 They are expected to appear in court Friday afternoon; it is not clear if they have attorneys.

 The two men and two women were taken into custody Wednesday after being seen violently beating a teenager on Facebook Live. The suspects are black and the victim is white, and one of the suspects suspects allegedly yelled profanities about white people and President-elect Donald Trump during the live video. Police had earlier said they do not "have anything concrete" to suggest the attack was politically motivated, however.

 A second potential video in the attack is being looked into by police, showing the group forcing the teen to drink toilet water.

 “It’s just sickening, sickening,” Johnson said Wednesday in reaction to the video. "It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that."

 Speaking at a news conference Thursday evening, the victim's brother-in-law said the teen is doing "as well as he could be" and asked for "continued prayers for all those involved and for our family’s privacy as we cope and heal."

 From left to right: Tanishia Covington, Brittany Covington, Jordan Hill, Tesfaye Cooper

 Photo credit: CPD

 A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the site removed the original video, saying in a statement, "We do not allow people to celebrate or glorify crimes on Facebook."

 "In many instances, though, when people share this type of content, they are doing so to condemn violence or raise awareness about it. In that case, the video would be allowed," the statement read.

 Authorities believe the teenager knew Hill from school and went with him willingly on New Year's Eve after meeting at a suburban McDonald's. They allege Hill stole a van and picked the victim up from the Streamwood restaurant, ultimately bringing him to the city, 50 miles from his home, police said.

 The victim's parents knew the teen would be spending the night with a friend, but reported him missing the next day, police said.

 It wasn't until Tuesday police said the attack happened and the teen was able to escape before police found him in the 3400 block of West Lexington "bloodied," "battered," and "discombobulated."

 He then led the police back to the nearby home where he was tortured.

 "I just can't believe anybody would do that to someone, especially a special needs child," the victim's grandmother told NBC.

 Streamwood authorities also say the suspects had been sending the victim’s parents text messages while holding him hostage.

 "This is going to affect him for probably the rest of his life," the teen's grandmother said. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Four people have been arrested and charged with a hate crime in the beating of an 18-year-old with mental disabilities that was broadcast on Facebook Live in what a police rep is calling a "reprehensible" 30-minute video. The man's parents had dropped him off at a McDonald's in Streamwood, Ill., on Saturday, and police believe acquaintances took him to Chicago in a stolen vehicle. His parents reported him missing on Monday and subsequently began receiving text messages from someone "claiming to be holding him captive," police say, per the Chicago Tribune. Officers soon after found the video showing people cutting the shirt of a white man with tape over his mouth, cutting into his scalp, kicking and hitting him, forcing him to drink from a toilet, and yelling "f--- Trump" and "f--- white people," reports Fox 32. The man, found wandering a Homan Square neighborhood on Tuesday, was "traumatized" after at least 24 hours in captivity and taken to a hospital for treatment. Two men and two women—including one individual who went to school with the victim—have now been arrested, reports CNN. "It's sickening. It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that," says Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. The group in the video had expressed hope that it would go viral. Charged with a hate crime, as well as kidnapping, unlawful restraint, and battery with a deadly weapon, per WLS: Tanishia Covington, 24, and Jordan Hill, Tesfaye Cooper, and Brittany Covington, all 18. Cooper and Brittany Covington were also charged with burglary, while Hill got hit with that plus a robbery charge, NBC News reports. All four are expected in court on Friday.


Abstract

 We document a new genus and species of shrew rat from the north peninsula of Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. The new taxon is known only from the type locality at 1,600 m elevation on Mt. Dako, in the district of Tolitoli. It is distinguished from all other Indonesian murines by its large, flat, pink nose with forward-facing nares. Relative to other Sulawesi murines, the species has extremely large ears (~ 21% of head and body length), very long urogenital hairs, prominent and medially bowing hamular processes on the pterygoid bones, extremely long and procumbent lower incisors, and unusually long articular surfaces on the mandibular condyles. Morphologically, the new taxon is most similar to a group of endemic Sulawesi rats known commonly as “shrew rats.” These are long faced, carnivorous murines, and include the genera Echiothrix, Melasmothrix, Paucidentomys, Sommeromys, and Tateomys. Our Bayesian and likelihood analyses of DNA sequences concatenated from 5 unlinked loci infer the new shrew rat as sister to a clade consisting of Melasmothrix, Paucidentomys, and Echiothrix, suggesting that Sulawesi shrew rats represent a clade. The Sulawesi water rat, Waiomys mamasae, was sister to the shrew rats in our analyses. Discovery of this new genus and species brings known shrew rat diversity on Sulawesi to 6 genera and 8 species. The extent of morphological diversity among these animals is remarkable considering the small number of species currently known.

 Kami mendokumentasikan genus dan spesies baru tikus cucurut dari bagian semenanjung utara pulau Sulawesi, Indonesia. Takson baru ini hanya diketahui dari lokasi spesimen tipe pada ketinggian 1,600 mdpl di Gunung Dako, Kabupaten Tolitoli. Ia dibedakan dari spesies tikus Indonesia lainnya berdasarkan ukuran hidung yang besar, datar, berwarna merah muda dengan moncong hidung menghadap ke arah depan. Jika dibandingkan dengan spesies tikus Sulawesi lainnya, spesies ini memiliki telinga yang sangat besar (~ 21% dari panjang kepala dan badan), rambut urogenital yang sangat panjang, prosesus hamular yang jelas dan menonjol pada pertulangan pterygoid, gigi seri bagian bawah yang sangat panjang, dan penampang persendian yang panjang dan tidak biasa pada kondilus mandibula. Secara morfologi, takson ini lebih mirip dengan kelompok tikus endemik Sulawesi yang umumnya dikenal sebagai “tikus cucurut”. Kelompok ini dicirikan dengan mulut yang panjang, pemakan daging, dan termasuk didalamnya adalah genus Echiothrix, Melasmothrix, Paucidentomys, Sommeromys, dan Tateomys. Analisis Bayesian dan likelihood menggunakan sambungan sekuens DNA dari 5 lokus yang tidak terpaut menunjukkan spesies tikus cucurut baru ini berkerabat dekat dengan kelompok yang terdiri dari Melasmothrix, Paucidentomys, dan Echiothrix, memberi kesan tikus cucurut Sulawesi merepresentasikan suatu clade atau kelompok tersendiri. Tikus air Sulawesi, Waiomys mamasae, diketahui berkerabat dekat dengan tikus cucurut dalam analisis yang dilakukan. Penemuan genus dan spesies baru ini menambah keanekaragaman jenis tikus cucurut di Sulawesi yang telah diketahui menjadi 6 genera dan 8 spesies. Besarnya perbedaan morfologi di antara spesies-spesies tersebut merupakan sesuatu yang luar biasa mengingat sedikitnya jumlah spesies yang telah diketahui saat ini. ||||| Hog-nosed Shrew Rat (courtesy: Kevin C. Rowe, Senior Curator of Mammals, Museum Victoria) Hog-nosed Shrew Rat (courtesy: Kevin C. Rowe, Senior Curator of Mammals, Museum Victoria) Jake Esselstyn, Curator of Mammals for the LSU Museum of Natural Science (courtesy: Kevin C. Rowe, Senior Curator of Mammals, Museum Victoria)

 LSU Museum of Natural Science Curator of Mammals Jake Esselstyn and his international collaborators have discovered a new genus and species on a remote, mountainous island in Indonesia. This new discovery is the third new genus described by this group of scientists since 2012, and identifies a rodent with features never seen by the scientific community before.

 On the second morning of their field season in 2013, Esselstyn and Museum Victoria Senior Curator of Mammals Kevin Rowe set out in opposite directions from their field camp to check their traps. Unbeknownst to each other, they both caught the same type of animal in their respective traps and immediately knew they were looking at a new species.

 “We had never seen anything like this. It was obviously a new species. We came back to camp and were both surprised that the other one had it as well,” Esselstyn said.

 The animal is a shrew rat with a large, flat, pink nose and forward-facing nostrils for which they named the Hog-nosed rat, or Hyorhinomys stuempkei. With extremely large ears, long hind legs that may be used for hopping, long white incisors and very long urogenital hairs, the Hog-nosed rat is so genetically different from any other species that the scientists described it as a new genus. This discovery is the cover story of the Journal of Mammalogy this month.

 Long incisors are a trait of shrew rats. But the Hog-nosed rat has especially long incisors. Another distinct characteristic of the Hog-nosed rat is that it lacks a jaw muscle attachment point found in most mammals called the coronoid process on the dentary bone.

 “I don’t know of any other rodents that have lost the coronoid process completely,” Esselstyn said.

 The loss of the coronoid process indicates a weak jaw musculature and a diet that does not require vigorous chewing. The scientists found that the new species eats earthworms and beetle larvae.

 Challenging Study Site

 The island of Sulawesi in Indonesia is geographically complex, mountainous and challenging to scientifically sample. Little research has been conducted on the island since the early 20th century.

 “On Sulawesi, there is a lot of ground to cover and most of it hasn’t been surveyed before, especially at high elevation,” Esselstyn said.

 He and his collaborators from Australia and Indonesia have been studying the region since 2010. Inundated by constant rain, the study site for this discovery was a moss-covered habitat on Mt. Dako at about 1,600 meters elevation and a two-day trek from the nearest village.

 “There’s a lot of biogeographic complexity at Sulawesi. So we’re not too surprised that we’re finding new things. But our team has been a bit surprised by the degree to which these animals are really novel. They are not just subtly different organisms, but really charismatically different,” Rowe said.

 The scientists described the Few-toothed shrew rat, or Paucidentomys vermidax, in 2012. One of the reasons why scientists have thought that rodents have been evolutionarily successful is they have incisors for gnawing and molars for grinding.

 “However, this rat we described in 2012, doesn’t have molars and they really can’t gnaw because of the shape of their incisors. Interestingly, this species has lost the two things that we think made rodents successful,” Esselstyn said.

 In 2014, the scientists described the Sulawesi water rat, Waiomys mamasae, which was known to villagers and their guides but not to the scientific community. Villagers use this animal as a talisman to protect their homes against fire.

 “Our guides didn’t tell us right away that they had caught it. We were asleep and they were up late at night discussing whether they should give it to us or keep it for themselves. We were very glad that they eventually decided to give it to us, because otherwise we would have left and never had known about this animal,” he said.

 These animals Esselstyn and his colleagues have described are new species within new genera, because the animals could not be placed within any existing group. After sequencing the DNA from the specimens, the scientists had the molecular evidence to confirm the species’ unique distinctions. ||||| As rats go, this one is pretty cute. And until Tuesday, the world was oblivious to its existence. But thanks to the fieldwork of a research team from Australia, Indonesia and America the 250-gram animal has been discovered in the remote, high-altitude jungle of Sulawesi, Indonesia.

 Described for the first time in the Journal of Mammalogy, this new species of mammal is so unique that it also represents a new genus.

 Museum Victoria mammalogist Kevin Rowe, a member of the team that found the rat in 2013, said among the distinct features were its very small mouth, large white front teeth, big ears and noticeably long pubic hairs.

 Dr Kevin Rowe of the Museum Victoria, with a specimen of the newly discovered mammal species, the hog-nosed rat, found in Indonesia. Photo: Eddie Jim

 "It was exciting as I knew immediately that we had a new species," Dr Rowe said. "I am still amazed that we can walk into a forest and find a new species of mammal that is so obviously different from any species, or even genus, that has ever been documented by science."

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 While scientists are yet to observe a live hog-nosed rat, the five specimens caught in overnight traps boast long hind limbs similar to a bandicoot, suggesting it might hop, and long pubic hairs not seen in rats but featured on an Australian hopping mammal, the potoroo.

 The mouth can hardly open suggesting the carnivorous rat 'slurps' up its food - most likely earthworms, beetle larvae and other invertebrates.

 Meet the newest mammal discovered: the hog-nosed rat from Indonesia. Photo: Museum Victoria

 "It looks like it's whistling all the time," Dr Rowe said.

 While the 40-45 centimetre animal's unique anatomy was evidence it was a new species, genetic testing confirmed it was also a new genus.

 The hog-nosed rat was found in the cool but humid moss forests of Sulawesi's northern peninsula, 1600 metres above sea level. The nearest village is a two-hour hike away and even that village is considered remote.

 The pig-like nose with forward-facing nostrils inspired its Greek-in-origin genus name: Hyorhinomys ('hyo' meaning hog, 'rhino' meaning nose and 'mys' meaning rat).

 Named by the discovery team from Museum Victoria, Indonesia's Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense and the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science, the rat's scientific name is Hyorhinomys stuempkei.

 Dr Rowe said the rat's closest relative was a group of shrew rats found on Sulawesi but that they were not closely related. All rats and mice evolved 25 million years ago, of which there are about 1500 known species.

 Geologically isolated, Sulawesi has not been connected to Australia or Asia for 10 million years. The fieldwork is part of a wider project to document and establish the area's biodiversity, long considered a hot spot of endemic species. |||||

Write a summary.

– A newly found creature's name is the hog-nosed rat, and things don't get any more picturesque from there. Reporting on their find in the Journal of Mammalogy, scientists describe the animal, found in 2013 on Mount Dako, on Indonesia's Sulawesi Island: It's a long-faced carnivorous creature with "extremely large ears (~21% of head and body length) [and] very long urogenital hairs"—the latter being pubic hairs. Co-author Kevin Rowe tells Mashable Australia that it's unclear what purpose the hair serves, though "it probably helps it in some kind of reproductive way. Both males and females have those long ... hairs, like whiskers. They're not like human pubic hairs." Among its other features: Rowe explains that the 18-inch-long rat's mouth opening is so narrow that it can't open it much. "It probably eats worms and insect larvae, just kind of slurping them up." (In line with that slurping, it also lacks the coronoid process on the dentary bone, which other mammals rely on to chew.) KNOE reports it's the third genus newly identified by the international team since 2012 (here's another of the team's finds), and recalls the moment the rat was found—twice. Rowe, of Museum Victoria, and LSU Museum of Natural Science Curator of Mammals Jake Esselstyn went to check their respective traps, saw what was clear to them was a new species, "came back to camp and were both surprised that the other one had it as well." The rodent was given the name Hyorhinomys stuempkei, which the Age translates from the Greek as "'hyo' meaning hog, 'rhino' meaning nose and 'mys' meaning rat." (Another unusual animal-related find: a mysterious, giant, jellylike "thing.")