Marissa Mayer has a knack for summoning helpers, whether it's The Killers to her wedding, a Vogue photographer to her office, or Lady Gaga to her stage. But Google's know-it-all fashionbot outdid herself when she convinced police to block a key San Francisco artery during rush hour so she could upgrade her opulent penthouse.

Googler parents complaining about the soaring cost of childcare should be glad that the executive in charge wasn't Marissa Mayer. This photo, taken when Google senior UI designer Kerah Pelczarski took her infant over to Aunt Marissa's Four Seasons penthouse apartment, gives one a taste. Mayer was having Seattle artist Dale Chihuly's signature colorful blown-glass art installed in November 2006. I don't know if I'm more surprised that Pelczarski let the infant play on a floor full of glass, or that Mayer let Chihuly use tertiary colors. But given Mayer's predilection for mixing business and pleasure, I have to think a Mayer-designed childcare center would have cost much more than $50,000 per student a year. Have a better caption? The best one will become the new headline. Thursday's winner: "This is how we elect the board of directors" by giddieup. (Photo by marissa)

The Google homepage today features a photo of chrome tulips by famous artist Jeff Koons. Google has hired a bunch of artists and designers to create themes as a way of promoting the iGoogle homepage. And their choices read like a veritable "who's who" of name-brand, commercial types who create work that isn't particularly daring or challenging.