Options for managing browser tabs in OS X

Tabbed browsing is one of the more useful features to make it to Web browsers. However, as with using single windows you might inadvertently close one and need to restore it. While you can create a new tab and then peruse the browser history to find a link to the content it contained, an easier option is to use the built-in tab restoration options in your browser.

To do this, there are two hotkeys to keep in mind. The first is the classic Command-Z for undoing an action, which in
Safari will undo a recently closed tab in a specific window; however, this only pertains to the single most recent tab closed. While this allows you to restore separately closed tabs in different windows, for a given window you can only restore the last closed tab.

The Opera browser's tab options are organized in the Window menu, and provide quicker ways to reopen them than Apple's Safari.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Topher Kessler/CNET)

On the other hand, alternative browsers like Chrome,
Firefox, and Opera use a common hotkey, Shift-Command-T, for undoing closed tabs, but unlike Command-Z in Safari, subsequent presses of this hotkey will continue restoring other closed tabs.

In addition to restoring tabs sequentially, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox all have options to browse through collections of recently closed tabs for a given window, so you can quickly reopen either some or all of them. These options are available in the History menu for Chrome and Firefox, and in the Window menu for Opera.

Beyond managing tabs, you may also wish to restore entire closed windows. In this respect, while Safari has an option to reopen a recently closed window, as with its tab management it will only do so for the most recent window. On the other hand, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera manage closed windows as collections of tabs. This blends well with their existing tab management options to allow you to restore any set of tabs as a single window. These options are available in the History menu of Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera.

While Safari only allows a single tab or window to be restored, this is not necessarily a hindrance--it just requires you to be on top of any inadvertent closures and quickly restore them when they happen. Safari's browser history and bookmarks should be enough to restore other recently closed content; however, if you need specific tab organizations or regularly find yourself needing to restore multiple tabs, then Firefox, Chrome, and Opera offer more robust options than Apple's Safari browser.

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Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or !
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Severed Heads Were Sacrifices in Ancient Mexico

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of more than 150 skulls from an ancient shrine in central Mexico—evidence of one of the largest mass sacrifices of humans in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica.

The skulls, many facing east, lay beneath a crude, slightly elevated mound of crushed stone on what was once an artificial island in a vast shallow lake, now completely dry.

"The site is barely a bump on the horizon in the middle of nowhere," said lead archaeologist Christopher Morehart, of Georgia State University. And that was baffling. Previous evidence of such sacrifices came from grand pyramids in large ceremonial centers.

The discovery suggests that the site—near the town of Xaltocan (named after the ancient lake)—played a significant role in the political turmoil during the period between the years 650 and 800. The great city of Teotihuacan, only nine miles (15 kilometers) away, had suddenly begun to collapse, and the power it once exerted over the region was slipping away. Many experts believe this turn of events was triggered by a massive drought.

What followed was a time of  "political, cultural, and demographic change," according to Morehart, a National Geographic research grantee. As people left Teotihuacan and moved to the surrounding areas, new communities formed and new leaders competed for power. "There's a good chance that the sacrifices are related to these competitions," Morehart said.

The sacrificed individuals could even have been war captives—often the case in Mesoamerican cultures. The site itself was probably not a battlefield, though. It was a sacred space that was specially prepared for rituals.

The people who lived in this area appear to have performed elaborately choreographed rituals at the shrine before the fall of Teotihuacan, but they didn't include human sacrifice. Because of its water-bound location and the presence of freshwater springs nearby, the shrine was likely the site of ceremonies that petitioned gods associated with rain and fertility. Artifacts uncovered include clay images of Tlaloc, a rain god.

The rituals began to include sacrifices, though, as power struggles gripped the parched region. Morehart and his colleagues from the National University of Mexico believe that victims were first killed and dismembered. The body parts may then have been thrown into the lake, while the heads were carefully arranged and buried. Incense was burned during this ceremony, along with the resinous wood of pine trees. Flowers added their own perfume to the fragrant smoke, and foods such as ritually burned maize were presented as additional offerings.

Over the following centuries, new peoples arrived in the area and political power ebbed and shifted, yet the sacred nature of the site persisted. Morehart and his team found evidence for rituals here during both the Aztec and colonial periods, and they even came across a recent offering.

"As we were digging we found a black plastic bag. Inside was a hardboiled egg, a black candle, and some photos of people," he said. "It's a fascinating example of continued ritual activity in a place despite dramatic changes in social, political, and cultural contexts."

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Suspect Tried to Flee Country Before Cop Shooting

The fired ex-California cop who set off a region-wide manhunt after allegedly shooting three police officers this morning -- one fatally -- had initially gone to a yacht club near San Diego where police say he attempted to steal a boat and flee to Mexico.

Police say that former police officer Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33, who officials believe posted an online manifesto outlining his plan to "terminate" his former colleagues and their families, is armed with a long gun and might have several other guns and high-capacity magazines. He is also believed to have access to military uniforms because he has served in the Navy.

"We are considering him armed and dangerous," Lt. Julia Engen of the Irvine Police Department said.

Police allege that he went to the yacht club Wednesday night at Point Loma, Calif., near San Diego to steal the boat. He aborted the attempted theft when the boat's propeller became entangled in robe, law enforcement officials said. It was at that point he is believed to have headed to Riverside, where he allegedly shot two police officers.

"He pointed a handgun at the victim [at the yacht club] and demanded the boat," Lt. David Rohowits of the San Diego Police Department said.

Police say the expert marksman shot at four officers in two incidents overnight, hitting three of them: one in Corona, Calif., and the two in Riverside, Calif.

Sgt. Rudy Lopez of the LAPD said two LAPD officers were in Corona and headed out on special detail to check on one of the individuals named in Dorner's manifesto. Dorner allegedly grazed one of them but missed the other.

"[This is an] extremely tense situation," Lopez said. "We call this a manhunt. We approach it cautiously because of the propensity of what has already happened."

The Riverside Police Department said two of its officers were shot before one of them died, KABC-TV reported. The other is in stable condition with two gunshot wounds, police say.

"They were on routine patrol stopped at a stop light when they were ambushed," Lt. Guy Toussant of the Riverside police department said.

Christopher Dorner: Ex-Cop Wanted in Killing Spree Watch Video

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In the manifesto Dorner published online, he threatened at least 12 people by name, along with their families.

"Your lack of ethics and conspiring to wrong a just individual are over. Suppressing the truth will leave to deadly consequences for you and your family," Dorner wrote in his manifesto.

A badge and identification belonging to Dorner have been found in San Diego, according to San Diego police Sgt. Ray Battrick. Dorner's LAPD badge and ID were found by someone near the city's airport, and turned in to police overnight, The Associated Press reported.

Police around Southern California are wearing tactical gear, including helmets and guns across their chests. The light-up signs along California highways show the license plate number of Dorner's car, and say to call 911 if it is seen. The problem, police say, is that they believe Dorner is switching license plates on his car, a 2005 charcoal-gray Nissan Titan pickup truck.

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said today that 40 protective details have been deployed to protect officers and their families.

"We are taking all measures possible to ensure safety of our officers and their families," he said.

Dorner is also believed to be responsible for the weekend slayings of an assistant women's college basketball coach and her fiancé in what cops believe are acts of revenge against the LAPD, as suggested in his online manifesto.

Lawrence was found slumped behind the wheel of his white Kia in the parking lot of their upscale apartment complex in Irvine Sunday and Quan was in the passenger seat.

"A particular interest at this point in the investigation is a multi-page manifesto in which the suspect has implicated himself in the slayings," Maggard said.

Police said Dorner's manifesto included threats against members of the LAPD. Police say they are taking extra measures to ensure the safety of officers and their families.

The document, allegedly posted on an Internet message board this week, apparently blames Quan's father, retired LAPD Capt. Randy Quan, for his firing from the department.

One passage from the manifesto reads, "I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty."

"I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own," it reads. "I'm terminating yours."

Dorner was with the department from 2005 until 2008, when he was fired for making false statements.

Randy Quan, who became a lawyer in retirement, represented Dorner in front of the Board of Rights, a tribunal that ruled against Dorner at the time of his dismissal, LAPD Capt. William Hayes told The Associated Press Wednesday night.

According to documents from a court of appeals hearing in October 2011, Dorner was fired from the LAPD after he made a complaint against his field-training officer, Sgt. Teresa Evans, saying in the course of an arrest she had kicked a suspect who was a schizophrenic with severe dementia.

After an investigation, Dorner was fired for making false statements.

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Today on New Scientist: 6 February 2013

Open Richard III DNA evidence for peer review

A good case has been made that a skeleton unearthed from a car park is that of the last Plantagenet king of England - it's time to share the data

Universal bug sensor takes guesswork out of diagnosis

A machine that can identify all bacteria, viruses and fungi known to cause disease in humans should speed up diagnosis and help to reduce antibiotic resistance

Choking China: The struggle to clear Beijing's air

As pollution levels return to normal in China's capital after a record-breaking month of smog, what can be done to banish the smog?

Genes mix across borders more easily than folk tales

Analysing variations in folk tales using genetic techniques shows that people swap genes more readily than stories, giving clues to how cultures evolve

Sleep and dreaming: Slumber at the flick of a switch

Wouldn't it be wonderful to pack a good night's sleep into fewer hours? Technology has the answer - and it could treat depression and even extend our lives too

Closest Earth-like planet may be 13 light years away

A habitable exoplanet should be near enough for future telescopes to probe its atmosphere for signs of life

Lifelogging captures a real picture of your health

How can lifelogging - wearing a camera round your neck to record your every move - reveal what's healthy and unhealthy in the way we live?

Musical brains smash audio algorithm limits

The mystery of how our brains perceive sound has deepened, now that musicians have broken a limit on sound perception imposed by the Fourier transform

Magnitude 8 earthquake strikes Solomon Islands

A major earthquake has caused a small tsunami in the Pacific Ocean, killing at least five people

Nuclear knock-backs on UK's new reactors and old waste

Plans to build new reactors in the UK are stalling as yet another company pulls out, and there is still nowhere to store nuclear waste permanently

Amateur astronomer helps Hubble snap galactic monster

An amateur astronomer combined his pictures with images from the Hubble archive to reveal the true nature of galactic oddball M106

Nightmare images show how lack of sleep kills

Fatigue has been blamed for some of worst human-made disasters of recent decades. Find out more in our image gallery

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Football: Singapore lose to Jordan in opening 2015 Asian Cup qualifier

SINGAPORE: Singapore's quest to reach the 2015 Asian Cup got off on a disappointing note with a 4-0 defeat against Jordan in Amman on Wednesday.

Two goals from Ahmad Hayel in the 54th and 73rd minutes, and one each from Abdallah Deeb (18th) and Khalil Zaid Baniateyah (52nd) gave Jordan the win over the reigning Southeast Asian champions at the Amman International Stadium.

The win puts Jordan on top of Group A in the qualifiers, with Oman second after beating Syria 1-0 thanks to a 39th minute winner from Abdulaziz Al-Muqbali.

Singapore's next match is against Oman at the Jalan Besar Stadium on August 14.

Sixteen teams will qualify for the 2015 Asian Cup, to be staged in Australia from January 8 to 31 that year.

Group A:
Oman 1 Syria 0
Jordan 4 Singapore 0

Group B:
Iran 5 Lebanon 0
Thailand 1 Kuwait 3

Group C:
Iraq 1 Indonesia 0

Group D:
Yemen 0 Bahrain 2
Qatar 2 Malaysia 0

Group E:
Uzbekistan 0 Hong Kong 0
Vietnam 1 UAE 2

- TODAY

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Mobile Internet data traffic to grow 13-fold by 2017, says Cisco

There are a number of different predictions floating around about how many Internet-connected devices there will be worldwide within the next few years. But regardless of those numbers, we can all be sure that mobile Internet data traffic is going to explode exponentially as well.

Cisco Systems has chimed in with its latest predictions through 2017 in regard to mobile data traffic -- and the forecasts don't hold back.

According to Cisco's Visual Networking Index report covering 2012 through 2017, the networking giant is predicting that global mobile data traffic will jump 13 times, to a rate of 11.2 exabytes consumed globally per month at an annual run rate of 134 exabytes.

To put this in perspective, the monthly rate for 2012 was 0.9 exabytes of mobile data traffic.

Doug Webster, vice president of Service Provider Networking Marketing at Cisco, explained further in prepared remarks that this projection equals "more than 46 times the total amount of mobile IP traffic just a few years ago in 2010."

He continued:

With such dramatic adoption, we are rapidly approaching the time when nearly every network experience will be a mobile one and, more often than not, a visual one as well. This trend is a result of the seemingly insatiable demand by consumers and businesses alike to achieve the benefits gained when connecting people, data, and things in an Internet of Everything.

Cisco expects that from now through 2017, mobile devices such as smartphones and
tablets (but also laptops) will account for the overwhelming bulk of this traffic.

One point also worth highlighting is that it appears researchers are forecasting mobile data traffic to increase sharply because of more devices online -- not users.

By 2017, Cisco is predicting there will be 5.2 billion mobile users -- up from 4.3 billion in 2012. But they also predicted that there will be more than 10 billion connected devices (including more than 1.7 billion M2M connections) within four years -- up from 7 billion total in 2012.

However, there are expected to be some major changes in demographics as well -- especially in emerging markets. -- which could provide new business opportunities for everyone from mobile OEMs to service providers.

Specifically, researchers predicted that we'll see the highest growth rate for mobile data traffic in the Middle East and Africa, with a 17.3-fold increase. But the Asia-Pacific region is expected to dominate with the most mobile traffic overall, accumulating 5.3 exabytes per month by 2017.

For a look at more predictions from Cisco's Visual Networking Index, check out the promo clip below:

This story originally appeared on ZDNet under the headline "Cisco: Mobile Internet data traffic to grow 13-fold by 2017."

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Richard III Mania: Understanding a Kingly Obsession

A.R. Williams

He reigned for only two years and 47 days, and he died more than 500 years ago. But suddenly he's trending on Twitter and the talk of Facebook—and our story this week on the discovery of his bones beneath a British parking lot has netted 11,000 Facebook "likes" and counting.

And while the apparent confirmation of Richard III's bones is no doubt a testament to the power of archaeology, there are many other reasons for the current Richardmania. Here's my list:

The Shakespeare factor: The bard portrayed Richard III as one of the wickedest characters in English literature, launching his play with the now immortal line, "Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by the sun of York." Students around the world study the play about a king who stole the British throne, murdered his nephews, and died in battle lamenting the lack of a horse. The U.S. branch of the Richard III Society, which is dedicated to reassessing the king's reputation, offers one of many online lists of resources for educators.

He was a handsome devil: His heart may have been dark, but his face was fair. Computer modeling has created a true-to-life portrait of RIII by adding muscles and flesh to the recently recovered skull.

His stage presence: From John Barrymore (1929) to Laurence Olivier (1955) to Peter Sellers (1965) to Kevin Spacey (2012), A-list actors have played RIII in theaters and movies. Will the news change how the character is portrayed in the future? That, apparently, will depend on the actor.

A highborn figure laid low: Everyone loves a story with a juicy twist, and this is a good one. Kings and queens normally end up in grand places, not under parking lots. Think of Elizabeth I's tomb in Westminster Abbey. Though most headline writers played it straight, promoting the king-in-the-car-park theme, some couldn't resist pitching this as a hunch that paid off or a face that launched a thousand myths. Twitter was full of digs and puns.

Local interest: From Ph.D.s to people who left school at 16, the Brits know their history and closely follow the news of archaeological finds like RIII. Many volunteer on digs in their spare time. The summer I worked on a medieval excavation at the site of what is now a parking lot in Milton Keynes, I wielded my WHS pointing trowel on weekends alongside a nurse named June, an ambulance driver named Richard, and a bricklayer named Andrew. The Council for British Archaeology publishes a list of current opportunities for fieldwork.

The debates: Is this news more PT Barnum than serious science? Will it rewrite history? Rehabilitate a much-maligned figure? And how solid is the DNA evidence? Turi King, a University of Leicester genetics expert involved in this project promises that the findings will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

A battle for the burial: The cities of York and Leicester both want RIII. Where will he finally RIP?

Now they're on a roll. British archaeologists are looking for another lost king, the 9th-century's Alfred the Great. The University of Winchester has just applied for permission to investigate an unmarked grave in a local church.

Even if they find bones from the right period, though, a DNA match might be difficult to find. Scientists would have to trace branches of the family tree that lead from more than 1,100 years ago to a living relative. But if they're lucky, a reveal could come as early as this summer.

Have your own explanation for Richardmania? Share it in the comments.

Editor's note: A.R. Williams is an archaeologist who has covered the field for National Geographic since 1988.

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US Postal Service to End Saturday Mail Delivery

Feb 6, 2013 8:28am

Weekend mail delivery is about to come to an end.

The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays, but will continue to deliver packages six days a week, the USPS announced at a news conference this morning.

While post offices that open on Saturdays will continue to do so, the initiative, which is expected to begin the week of August 5, will save an estimated $2 billion annually. The USPS had a $15.9 billion loss in financial year 2012.

“America’s mailing habits are changing and so are their shipping habits,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said. “People will say this is a responsible decision. It makes common sense.”

The service reduction is the latest of Postal Service steps to cut costs as the independent agency of the U.S. government struggles with its finances.

To close its budget gap and reduce debt, it needs to generate $20 billion in cost reductions.

USPS officials have pushed for eliminating mail and package delivery on Saturdays for the past few years, but recent data showing growth in package delivery, which is up by 14 percent since 2010, and projected additional growth in the coming decade made them revise their decision to continue package delivery only.

Saturday mail delivery to P.O. boxes will also continue.

Research by the post office and major news organizations indicated that 7 out of 10 Americans support switching to five-day service.

Since 2006, the Postal Service has reduced annual costs by $15 billion, cut the career force by 28 percent and consolidated 200 mail-processing locations.

The USPS announced in May it was cutting back on the number of operating hours instead of shuttering 3,700 rural post offices. The move, which reduced hours of operation at 13,000 rural post offices from an eight-hour day to between two and six hours a day, was made with the aim of saving about $500 million per year.

The cutback in hours last year resulted in 9,000 full-time postal employees’ being reduced to part time plus the loss of their benefits, while another 4,000 full-time employees became part time but kept their benefits.

                                              (Image Credit: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

SHOWS: Good Morning America

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Today on New Scientist: 5 February 2013

Engineering light: Pull an image from nowhere

A new generation of lenses could bring us better lighting, anti-forgery technology and novel movie projectors

Baby boomers' health worse than their parents

Americans who were born in the wake of the second world war have poorer health than the previous generation at the same age

New 17-million-digit monster is largest known prime

A distributed computing project called GIMPS has found a record-breaking prime number, the first for four years

Cellular signals used to make national rainfall map

The slight weakening of microwave signals caused by reflections off raindrops can be exploited to keep tabs on precipitation

NASA spy telescopes won't be looking at Earth

A Mars orbiter and an exoplanet photographer are among proposals being presented today for how to use two second-hand spy satellites that NASA's been given

China gets the blame for media hacking spree

The big US newspapers and Twitter all revealed last week that they were hacked - and many were quick to blame China. But where's the proof?

Nobel-winning US energy secretary steps down

Steven Chu laid the groundwork for government-backed renewable energy projects - his successor must make a better case for them

Sleep and dreaming: Where do our minds go at night?

We are beginning to understand how our brains shape our dreams, and why they contain such an eerie mixture of the familiar and the bizarre

Beating heart of a quantum time machine exposed

This super-accurate timekeeper is an optical atomic clock and its tick is governed by a single ion of the element strontium

A life spent fighting fair about the roots of violence

Despite the fierce conflicts experienced living among anthropologists, science steals the show in Napoleon Chagnon's autobiography Noble Savages

Challenge unscientific thinking, whatever its source

Science may lean to the left, but that's no reason to give progressives who reject it a "free pass"

Need an organ? Just print some stem cells in 3D

Printing blobs of human embryonic stem cells could allow us to grow organs without scaffolds

Ice-age art hints at birth of modern mind

An exhibition of ice-age art at London's British Museum shows astonishing and enigmatic creativity

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Football: S'pore helping Europol probe match-fixing ring

SINGAPORE: Singapore police said Tuesday they were helping European authorities in their investigation into an international crime syndicate that rigged hundreds of football matches in Europe and elsewhere.

"The authorities in Singapore are assisting the European authorities in their investigations into an international match-fixing syndicate that purportedly involves Singaporeans," the police said in a statement.

"Singapore takes a strong stance against match-fixing and is committed to working with international enforcement agencies to bring down transnational criminal syndicates, including those that involve the acts of Singaporeans overseas, and protect the integrity of the sport."

In the latest indication that Singapore is at the heart of a global match-fixing empire, Europol said Monday they had smashed a network rigging hundreds of games, including in the Champions League and World Cup qualifiers.

Europol said a five-country probe had identified 380 suspicious matches targeted by a Singapore-based betting cartel, whose illegal activities stretched to players, referees and officials across the world.

A further 300 suspicious matches have been identified outside Europe in Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, in the course of the investigation.

Analysts said revelations about the scale of the scandal could damage Singapore's squeaky-clean image as one of the world's least corrupt nations.

Singapore's role in international match-rigging has long been clear, with Wilson Raj Perumal jailed in Finland in 2011 and another Singaporean, Tan Seet Eng or Dan Tan, wanted in Italy over the "calcioscommesse" scandal.

However, the latest announcement uncovered the huge scale of the activities, and raised potential problems for Singapore's reputation, as well as questions about how authorities are dealing with the match-fixing syndicates.

"This story has the potential to severely damage the global reputation of Singapore as a safe and ethical financial hub in Asia," said Jonathan Galaviz, managing director of US-based consultancy Galaviz & Co, who has closely watched Asia's gaming industry.

"Singapore's public policy makers need to reassess whether they have enough resources dedicated to monitoring and enforcing laws relating to illegal gambling and sports corruption in the country," he told AFP.

"Major questions will arise as to what the government authorities in Singapore knew, when did they know it, and why this illegal network running out of Singapore was not caught sooner."

Galaviz said it was "extremely disturbing" that in the match-fixing case, "Singapore's status as a financial hub was potentially being used for nefarious purposes".

The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) said it takes "a serious view of allegations pertaining to match-fixing and football corruption" and vowed to "spare no effort" to crack down on any such activities.

"The problem of match-fixing is not just confined to Asia," FAS said in a statement.

"It is a global problem and FAS will continue to work closely with the relevant authorities, both at the domestic and international levels, to combat match fixing and football corruption aggressively."

Zaihan Mohamed Yusof, an investigative reporter with Singapore's New Paper who is considered a leading authority on match-fixing, admitted he was taken aback by the numbers revealed by Europol.

"This number to me it's huge, 680," he told AFP. "Whether Singaporeans were involved in the whole 680, I'm not sure but at least there's a figure and you can see the scale there."

And Neil Humphreys, a popular sports columnist and author, asked why "so little is being done to question Singaporean individuals allegedly involved in such a global match-fixing operation".

"More pertinently, the issue has not received quite the same front-page media attention that it has in other football-popular countries, despite the obvious fact that Singapore is allegedly home to the ringleaders of the world's biggest match-fixing syndicate," he told AFP.

The local daily, the Straits Times, put the story on page three Tuesday.

-AFP/ac

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