A help request in the browser will triggerhelp request in the browser will trigger the daily max cap. The SO team has set different request limits on the help requests (yesterday it was 300, but today it's 100000). So, by making stats?help
(no key) request your first request for the day, you're 'hacking' your daily cap to 100000. :-)
I suspect this hack won't last long, so use it while it's there...