Hello and welcome to our weekly roundup of tech, design, and culture-y goodness. This week, we explore the hype behind tech conferences, wonder about the dangers of the future Internet, and get a little carried away with cheesy stock images. Thanks for joining us!

1.Because Maroon 5 is totally relevant to CES.
This week, the Internetz are all about CES. So far, the biggest news has been the conference’s insanely theatrical smorgasbord of an opening keynote (here’s the condensed version in pictures and tweets). Once you’ve quit chuckling, you can find real updates from the conference on Ogilvy and Mather’s handy recap blog.

2. Keynotes with promise
Speaking of conferences, did you hear that Tina Roth Eisenberg, a.k.a. famed blogger swissmiss is keynoting at SXSW Interactive?  Tina’s one of our favorite design bloggers/entrepreneurs/Brooklynites, so we couldn’t be more excited for her. And in case you haven’t been keeping up, the other keynoters are the brainiacs behind The Oatmeal, SpaceX and OUYA. Quite the lineup.

3. Lighting hit your car? So what.
Digital media consumption is changing our idea of extraordinary. At least according to Kevin Kelly, founder of WIRED magazine (and he knows a thing or two about digital media). His recent blogpost examines our increased exposure to extraordinary events (because anything is readily available on YouTube). “A steady diet of coincidences makes it easy to believe they are more than just coincidences, right?” Definitely worth a think/read

4. Could it be the next big “pull to refresh”?
Here’s a solid list of digital design trends that are likely to stick in 2013. Gesture-focused design with larger fonts and more colors than just blue? We can dig it

5. Death by Internet
A recent Internet ID report brought to light how truly scary the Internet could get by 2014, as the use of connected devices to carry out physical crimes becomes more plausible. According to the tech security firms that be, our future is ripe with military drone exploitations and murders by pacemaker hack, just to name a few.

6. [intermission]
Number 5 was pretty heavy, sorry. Why don’t you take a little break to scroll through the beauty of National Geographic’s photo contest winners?

7. The rise of the SPONSORED TWEET
While advertising workarounds aren’t new on the Twitter platform, Samsung and the Associated Press made headlines this week for bypassing the typical ad system and opting for in-tweet promotions. If this practice grows, could it be the demise of Twitter’s current advertising model? Probably not.

8. Wearable Tech is the new Livestrong bracelet
With Disney’s announcement of MyMagic this week, the popular adoption of wearable tech is barely a question now. Whether it’s for to help you find shorter lines at an amusement park or to keep track of your daily activity, technology-as-accessory is here to stay. (see also: Fitbit’s new Flex)

9. A little roundup of web font resources
Want a little web font inspiration? Look no further than this showcase of best Google Web Fonts, these typekit font pairings, and this tool for creating better designed web typography.

For more inspiration, grab an e-book of our first 100 Forward Thinking posts or look through our case studies.