Topic: STRANGE - on May 11, 2010 at 10:40:00 AM CEST
Scroogle has been blocked
We regret to announce that our Google scraper may have to be permanently retired, thanks to a change at Google. It depends on whether Google is willing to restore the simple interface that we've been scraping since Scroogle started five years ago. Actually, we've been using that interface for scraping since Google-Watch.org began in 2002.
This interface (here's a sample from years ago) was remarkably stable all that time. During those eight years there were only about five changes that required some programming adjustments. Also, this interface was available at every Google data center in exactly the same form, which allowed us to use 700 IP addresses for Google.
That interface was at www.google.com/ie but on May 10, 2010 they took it down and inserted a redirect to /toolbar/ie8/sidebar.html. It used to have a search box, and the results it showed were generic during that entire time. It didn't show the snippets unless you moused-over the links it produced (they were there for our program, so that was okay), and it has never had any ads. Our impression was that these results were from Google's basic algorithms, and that extra features and ads were added on top of these generic results. Three years ago Google launched "Universal Search," which meant that they added results from other Google services on their pages. But this simple interface we were using was not affected at all.
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Topic: STRANGE - on April 30, 2010 at 10:56:00 AM CEST
Man eats 1,500 lightbulbs
Wang Xianjun, 54, of Sichuan Province, started to snack on broken glass because he says it is 'crispy and delicious.'
He recalls: "I accidentally swallowed a piece of thick fish bone, but nothing happened. With curiosity, I tried several pieces of broken glasses secretly and nothing happened also."
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Topic: STRANGE - on April 30, 2010 at 10:54:00 AM CEST
Lehrerin verklagt Schülerin wegen Hasenzeichnung
Wer hat Angst vorm Mümmelmann? Meine Lehrerin, behauptete eine Schülerin in Vechta: Die Pädagogin drehe durch, wenn sie Hasen sehe oder "Hase" höre, erzählte sie Mitschülerinnen. Kurz darauf waren Hasen auf die Tafel gezeichnet, die Lehrerin hat Klage eingereicht.
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Topic: STRANGE - on April 20, 2010 at 12:36:00 PM CEST
Pilot crashes plane asking tractor driver for directions
A Russian pilot crashed into a field after the pilot got lost - and decided to ask a tractor driver for directions.
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Topic: STRANGE - on April 19, 2010 at 2:29:00 PM CEST
George Washington owes $300,000 in library fines
New York City's oldest library says one of its ledgers shows that the first U.S. president has racked up 220 years' worth of late fees on two books he borrowed, but never returned.
Adjusted for inflation, that means Washington owes approximately $300,000 (£197,000).
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Topic: STRANGE - on April 11, 2010 at 1:25:00 PM CEST
Lizenzen für Babys? Patent auf genmanipulierte Embryonen
Patente auf Leben sind verboten. Trotzdem kämpfen Pharmakonzerne härter denn je um Exklusivrechte an Samen- und Eizellen. Allen voran eine alte deutsche Firma: Merck
So Faust-gleich sich die Forscher in Darmstadt auch bemühten in der Medizin, Chemie und Biologie – über ein Jahrzehnt lang haben sie keine eigenen Pillen erfunden. Bei Merck regierte das Mittelmaß. Entsprechend enthusiastisch wurde 2006 der Kauf der Genfer Firma Serono gefeiert. »Eine Hochzeit im Himmel«, schwärmte Pharmachef Elmar Schnee. Inzwischen jedoch droht aus der Verbindung Höllenärger zu erwachsen: Als Marktführer in der Fruchtbarkeitstherapie hielten sich die Schweizer offenbar für so omnipotent, dass sie zusammen mit ihren Wirkstoffen auch menschliche Eizellen, Spermien und sogar Embryos patentiert haben wollten.
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Topic: STRANGE - on April 5, 2010 at 1:22:00 PM CEST
Wie illegaler Datenhandel abläuft
Geld verschwindet vom Konto, es gibt rätselhafte Abbuchungen - wie ist das passiert? Buchautor Detlef Tiegel kennt die Hintergründe aus erster Hand: Er hat in einem Trickser-Callcenter gearbeitet. Mit der Veröffentlichung illegaler Datensätze löste er einen bundesweiten Skandal aus.
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Topic: STRANGE - on March 23, 2010 at 11:30:00 AM CET
The Virtual Toilet Paper Museum Contemporary Toilet Paper
"Maybe they should have a toilet paper museum. Would you like that? So we can see all the toilet paper advancements down through the ages. Toilet paper in the Crusades. The development of the perforation. The first six-pack. "
Welcome to the Virtual Toilet Paper Museum, a tribute to that much-maligned material which plays such an important role (or should that be "roll"?) in our everyday lives. Come inside and view our extensive collection of brands from the mundane to the exceeding rare, wondrous toilet-paper-related artworks of unusual beauty, and myriad informational exhibits.
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Topic: STRANGE - on March 11, 2010 at 10:00:00 AM CET
Woman tries to shut down Large Hadron Collider over apocalypse fears
The country's highest court said that the woman — whom it didn't identify — had failed to demonstrate any connection between experiments at the CERN collider outside Geneva and the apocalypse.
The Federal Constitutional Court in the western Germany city of Karlsruhe threw out the woman's appeal because she was "unable to give a coherent account of how her fears would come about."
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Topic: STRANGE - on March 7, 2010 at 11:34:00 AM CET
Äthiopiens Rebellen klauten Live-Aid-Millionen
Es war die weltgrößte öffentliche Hilfsaktion: Beim Pop-Projekt Band Aid und dem folgenden Benefizkonzert Live Aid kamen 1985 Hunderte Millionen Dollar für die Hungernden Äthiopiens zusammen. Wie die BBC jetzt berichtet, zweigten Rebellen einen Großteil des Geldes ab - und kauften Waffen davon.
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Topic: STRANGE - on February 27, 2010 at 1:37:00 PM CET
Visitors evacuated as Dubai's shark aquarium cracks open
An aquarium and a shopping centre in Dubai have been evacuated after water leaked from a massive tank holding hundreds of sharks.
Safety officials said the "small crack" appeared in the tank which holds 10 million litres of water and more than 33,000 underwater creatures.
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Topic: STRANGE - on January 31, 2010 at 11:28:00 AM CET
Woman sues Metra after toilet explodes on train
Julianna Mandernach filed the suit in Cook County Circuit Court against the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corp. and Metra, claiming the Jan. 29, 2009, incident left her with injuries of a “personal and pecuniary nature.”
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