Children’s author and photographer Walter Wick decided to balance 117 toys of various sizes and shapes on a LEGO block to create the shot that he was looking for. And then, with some difficulty, he knocked it down.

I created this photograph for the Kids Gallery of the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford. It shows 117 objects balancing on a single Lego block. No adhesives, glue or hidden supports were used. The stability of this improbable pile of objects is helped by positioning the center of gravity of each horizontal section directly above the Lego block and by lowering the center of gravity of the entire structure as much as possible through the use of hanging objects.

The process involved about a week of trial and error, with many, many crashes along the way. After settling on a design for the lower half of the structure, I worked on the horizontal segments separately, adding them to the stack with temporary supports in place. This allowed me to swap out different objects and shift them around until all the parts were in balance. I then removed the supports and took this photograph. The stack remained up until I decided to knock it down (captured on video!)

Resulting Photograph via Gizmodo | Artist’s Website

Google in 1998 (notice the exclamation mark)

Sure, everybody knows that Google was created by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin who became gazillionaires. But did you know that Google's first storage device was cobbled together with LEGO? Or that Google's first investor wrote a $100,000 check even before the company officially existed? Or that it has its own "official" Google dog?

Neatorama presents the Top 10 Neat Facts About Google:

1. Before Google, There Was BackRub

In 1996, graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked on a research project to understand the link structure of the World Wide Web. They're particularly interested in determining the importance of a given web page based on its backlinks or how many other web pages link to it (which later became the concept behind Google's "PageRank" algorithm).

The project was named BackRub (yes, a play on the word "backlink"). You can see an archived page of BackRub in the Wayback Machine:

8) Your logo is upside down: Why is the light source obviously below the image? It looks quite unnatural...

The logo is simply a scan of my hand, from a flatbed scanner converted to black and white. The "back" in the picture is the scanner cover, and the shadows are from the scanner light.

2. The Original Google Computer Storage

Photo: Stanford Infolab's Computer History Exhibits Photo

Larry and Sergey needed large amount of disk space to test their PageRank algo, but the largest hard disks available at the time were only 4 GB. So they assembled 10 of these drives together.

While he was an undergrad at Michigan University, Larry had built a programmable plotter out of LEGO, so it's only natural that he used the colorful bricks to create Google's first computer storage!

3. Google's First Investor

Sun Microsystem co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim knew a good thing when he saw it. After talking to Larry and Sergey about Google for 30 minutes, he whipped out his checkbook and wrote a check for $100,000, made out to "Google, Inc." Problem was, Google, Inc. hasn't existed yet!

Oh, by the way, the Sun in Sun Microsystem stands for "Stanford University Network."

4. Google Garage

Talk about getting lucky tenants. In 1998, Susan Wojcicki rented her garage to two Stanford students - you know who they are - for $1,700 a month to help out with the mortgage. That turned out to be a life-changing decision for Susan - it got her a key early job at Google which translated to a top executive position later on, introduced a future husband to her younger sister Anne, and created a mini cottage industry for the rest of her family. (Photo: Jack Gruber/USA Today)

In 2006, Google bought the house which had become a tourist attraction (the busloads of people who show up to take pictures were so annoying that Google decided not to publish the address - though ironically, you can still Google Map it.)

5. Google's First Dog

Despite the Internet's obsession with cats, dogs rule Google. In 1999, a Leonberger breed named Yoshka came to work with Google's first VP of Engineering Urs Hölzle and became the company's "first" dog. (Photo: Google Timeline)

If you must know, Leonbergers are big dogs with lionesque mane that look really majestic. They are, however, useless as guard dogs because they're much too kind and gentle.

6. Just How Many Servers Does Google Have?

A sign near the Googleville data center. Photo: ahockley [Flickr]

The real Googleville. Photo: Melanie Conner/NY Times

Good question. Nobody outside the company knows, and Google ain't talkin'. The company's famously secretive when it comes to its data centers (Heck, no one even knows for sure how many data centers the company has!)

For example, The Dalles or "Googleville" data center in a small Washington Oregon town, was cloaked in secrecy:

"No one says the 'G' word," said Diane Sherwood, executive director of the Port of Klickitat, Wash., directly across the river from The Dalles, who is not bound by such agreements. "It's a little bit like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in Harry Potter."

Recently, Google Fellow Jeff Dean gave a revealing talk on large-scale computing systems in which he discussed technical details of a new storage and computation system called Spanner, which is designed for up to 10 million servers. Skynet, anyone?

7. "Green" Search

All those hardware must use a lot of electricity (indeed, Googleville data center is calculated to require about 103 megawatts of electricity - enough to power 82,000 homes or a city the size of Tacoma, Washington), but just how much energy do you use when you perform a Google search?

Google calculated that it uses about 1 kJ (0.0003 kWh) of energy to answer the average search query. It's so efficient that your PC will likely use more energy in the time it takes to do a Google search.

Photo: Google Solar Panel Project

To offset its electricity consumption, Google even installed 1.6MW solar panels on the rooftops of the Googleplex. A total of 9,212 solar panels generate 4,475 kWh daily, the equivalent of about the amount of electricity used by 1,000 California homes.

8. Google Trike

[YouTube Clip]

I'm sure you're all familiar with Google Street View and the camera-topped Google Car, but what about all of the interesting places inaccessible to cars? Enter the Google Trike, which started as a project by Daniel Ratner, a Senior Mechanical Engineer on the Street View team:

"I began thinking about building a bicycle-based Street View system after realizing how many interesting places around the world - ranging from historic landmarks to beautiful trails to shopping districts - aren't accessible by car," says Dan. "When I'm riding the trike, so many people come up to me and ask where it's off to next or how they can get imagery of their favorite spot, so I can't wait to see what our users come up with."

Previously on Neatorama: Google Car Pulled Over by the Cops - Now in Google Street View!

9. I'm Feeling Lucky Costs Google $110 Million a Year

The "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on Google's homepage takes you straight to the first web page result. Because it bypasses Google's own search result page, where users are shown ads, the button actually costs Google around $110 million a year.

Why keep it? Google Vice President of Search Product and User Experience Marisa Mayer said:

You know Larry and Sergey had the view, and I certainly share it, that it's possible just to become too dry, too corporate, too much about making money. And you know what I think is really delightful about Google and about the "I'm Feeling Lucky," is that they remind you that the people here have personality and that they have interests and that there is real people.

10. Googlebot, Revealed At Last!

Image: Ben Rathbone

In 2005, Ben Rathbone (then at Google's Hardware Operations) gave us a glimpse of humanity's future. I, for one, welcome our new Googlebot overlord:

Then I pondered the question: what does Google do? The grossly simplified answer that I came up with is Google connects the world with the Internet.

It all snapped into place: the idea of a robot, connecting a world with the Internet, with wires, that connect to big cabinets of computers. It was not hard then to make the leap to representing the internet as a world, or globe, made up of pages.

Photo: Nathan Sawaya

Here at Neatorama, we’re big fans of LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya. His latest project is a functional cello made out of LEGO bricks. At the link, there are more pictures and a time-elapsed video of the construction process.

Link via Geekologie

Tron is one of my all time favorite Sci-Fi movies and it’s a pleasure to see that almost three decades later, it’s still inspiring its fans. Here’s a fantastic diorama of the Tron Light cycles scene by Flickr user 2×4 we first spotted over at The Brothers Brick blog.

Photo: Flynet

A month ago, I linked to a news story about plans for a full-sized LEGO house in the UK. James May, the TV host responsible, has construction of the three-million brick project well underway. And yes, it has a functioning bathroom. You can view twenty photos of the construction process at the link.

Link via Geekologie

8-Bit Trip is a stop motion LEGO video tribute to classic video games. It was created by the Swedish band Rymdreglage after 1,500 hours of work.

Via Boing Boing

On Friday, more than three million Lego bricks were delivered to the vineyard in preparation for the task.

Denbies marketing and business development manager, Jeanette Simpson, said: “The millions of bricks came all the way from the Czech Republic. The house will be life-size with a staircase, toilet and shower.”

Link via Geekologie

Two Japanese LEGOsmiths used a whopping 65,000 bricks and 1,590 man hours to complete the stunning diorama, which even simulates a launch with flashing lights under the boosters and a vocal countdown. The only thing it doesn’t do is lift off.

Part of the “Nasu Space Center,” it appeared as a scene in Nasu Highland Park, an amusement park in Japan.

Link (with video). -via Digg

Link – via Wired

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Lee.

The giant pharaoh is currently floating down the River Thames on its way to Legoland in Windsor, England, where it will be the centerpiece of Legoland’s Kingdom of the Pharaohs, which is set to open March 21. 

This is the final leg in its 1,395-mile journey by truck and boat from the Czech Republic, where it was constructed.

The pharaoh required more than 200,000 Lego bricks and weighs one ton.

Link

(image credit: Geoff Caddick/PA Wire via AP)

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

Lego PC that SCREAMS 80s LEGO with what I think are the most recognized LEGO sets of the 80s representing Space, Castle, Town, with Touch Screen LCD, RF Remote, Blue NEON light, Spectrum Analyzer display, HDTV Tuner card coming soon. I call it BIG BLUE.

See lots more pictures at Brickshelf. Link -via Gizmodo

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Andrea.

Oh, I fondly remember watching the anime Space Battleship Yamato
as a little kid, so it’s a neat treat to find this replica of the Yamato (or Argo in the American dub of the series, retitled Star Blazers) made with LEGO by Vincent Cheung: Link – via The Brothers Brick

Christoph Niemann shows us how you only need a few LEGO pieces to make a whimsical yet brilliant homage to New York City:

During the cold and dark Berlin winter days, Christoph Niemann spends a lot of time with his boys in their room. And as he looks at the toys scattered on the floor, his mind inevitably wanders back to New York. I LEGO N.Y.

Link – via swissmiss

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by JKirchartz.

Link via Oddee

It’s easy to make a clown horrifying, but Angus MacLane managed to make a clown adorable. Click here for a gallery of images of his Lego Clown Tank.

Previously on Neatorama: Kung Fu Clowns.

Lego Santa CrabBot by Andrew Colunga. His Flickr gallery is full of terrific Lego creations.

I’m always surprised at the inventiveness of LEGO builders. Just when I thought I’d seen ‘em all, comes a new amazing creation.

Take this working LEGO safe, for instance. It’s built with LEGO Mindstorms NXT. It has a five number combination lock (that translates to over 305 billion different combos) and even a motion sensor so it can’t be moved without the alarm going off.

Check out the video and more info at Slippery Brick: Link – Thanks Jayne Howley!

(And if you think that’s cool, check this one out: a working LEGO slot machine and a LEGO Shoot Out game)

Thanksgiving may be over, but turkey-related madness continues! Here’s a weaponized turkey mecha that is both whimsical and technically elaborate by Adrian Drake of Brickfrenzy: Link – via The Brothers Brick

Gizmodo has published a video from their visit to LEGO’s Memory Lane – a “secret vault guarding almost every Lego set ever manufactured”.

…the impressive view of the 4,720 Lego sets inside this lair. These weren’t just simple boxes full of bricks. These were tickets to ride a time portal to emotions and simpler days long forgotten.

Link

While we’re on the subject – have a look at these neat LEGO creations, where someone has used the plastic building bricks and figs to re-create eight famous movie scenes.

Link

That’s LEGO masterbuilder Mark Kelso posing in front of his latest creation: the Invisible Hand, General Grevious’ spaceship from Star Wars Episode III. Kelso’s ship is huge: 73 inches (185) long, 13 inches (33 cm) wide and weighs about 30 lbs (13.4 kg).

Link – via Gizmodo

No wussy LEGO diorama for Brickshelf user MicahBerger – he went straight for the jugular with this blood-drenched scene from Beowulf, aptly titled "Then came Grendel … He bore God’s wrath." Link – via The Brothers Brick