Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.

The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.

Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.

To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot

Fasten your seatbelt ’cause your about to watch a Hyperlapse of Google Street View http://depot.ly/k0gtf

A brilliant project that illustrates endangered words http://depot.ly/k0g6P

#UI Design: An Intro to Flexible Box http://depot.ly/k0fpm  *Nice read

Don’t understand Bitcoin? This video explains it in a few minutes http://depot.ly/jXzvA

9 years of Gmail & an infographic http://depot.ly/jXzIy

Yahoo and Apple are reportedly in talks to get more cozy http://depot.ly/jXzBL

The sky’s the limit? Artist Thomas Lamadieu disagrees http://depot.ly/jXzpG

Ribbon’s in-stream Twitter payments shut down by Twitter 90 minutes after launching http://depot.ly/jXzXi  via @marketingland

The Apps That Don’t Work With PayPal, And What You Can Use Instead http://depot.ly/jVsc9  *Great article

Behind the scenes: how a Disney logo is created http://depot.ly/jVrS5  via @CreativeBloq

Might come in handy http://depot.ly/jVrBt  Scorched, a light-weight, generic web framework for Ruby

Awesome! URLs are for People, not Computers http://bit.ly/ZhJDBO

Beautiful typography by Joachim Vu http://depot.ly/jSXl8

Vengeance On Lorem Ipsum: Three Draft Filler Fonts http://depot.ly/jSSpb

So you want to learn hand lettering? http://bit.ly/ygKW67  #typography by @seanwes

Koken: a #free PHP CMS designed for creatives to showcase their work – http://koken.me/  /via @smashingmag

Cool scenario for responsive image processes and tools http://depot.ly/jSPKs

Welcome to the Internet party. Having any fun? http://depot.ly/jQpXP  A hilarious video by the folks at @cracked

Hard geometry by Justin Mezzell http://depot.ly/jQobX

What do Google Maps and Persian carpets have in common? See for yourself: http://depot.ly/jQozU

Want more? No problem! Keep track of all our tweets by following us @DesignerDepot

600+ Handcrafted Icons & Ribbon/Badges Set – only $10!

It's official. As of today, hanging on the CCAN office wall, is a pen from Governor Martin O'Malley's bill-signing ceremony for the Maryland Offshore Wind Energy Act of 2013. Thanks to you and a statewide coalition that was broader and bigger than anything I've seen in CCAN's ten years, we won! Let me say that again: We won!

This is the start of what can be a huge offshore wind industry from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras that will one day provide most of the East Coast's electricity, while playing a key role in solving climate change. Thank you for all your hard work!

Now our work goes on -- and there's lot's more to do. On the defensive front, we were less successful during the just-ended Maryland General Assembly. In fact, we lost two critical bills by just one vote -- on a fracking moratorium and something called "black liquor."

See the full note from Mike>>



Victory: We won on offshore wind!
On April 9th, CCAN staff were on hand as Gov. Martin O’Malley signed the offshore wind power bill into law, positioning Maryland to lead in harnessing our state's most abundant clean energy resource. This incredible victory belongs to all of you who took action over the past three years -- by packing multiple hearing rooms, flooding key legislators’ offices with emails and phone calls, writing dozens of letters to the editor, and even circling the State House. Governor O'Malley went to bat to make offshore wind power a reality, and he deserves our thanks, too. Click here to send a note thanking Gov. O’Malley for his leadership!

MD Activist Call: Get the inside scoop from Annapolis
Do you want the inside scoop on what happened in Annapolis on energy and climate issues during the 2013 legislative session? Are you wondering what you can do next to build on the momentum of our offshore wind victory? Join CCAN's Maryland organizers and Mike for a grassroots conference call on Tuesday, April 16th at 7:30 p.m. You’ll learn more about our triumphs and challenges on wind, fracking, black liquor and other keys issues this year, and get a chance to ask questions about what’s ahead for the next few months. Sign up here to get the call-in details and join us on April 16th at 7:30pm.



Help clean up D.C.'s top renewable energy law
A dirty form of energy -- the burning of a toxic paper making byproduct called "black liquor" -- has snuck its way into the most important clean energy law in D.C., our Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). The RPS was intended to ensure that an increasing percentage of our energy comes from clean energy sources, like wind and solar power. Instead, a big loophole is allowing 79 percent of D.C's renewable energy dollars to support old, polluting plants burning black liquor and inefficient wood waste. Starting this month, we'll be asking the D.C. City Council to pass legislation to close the "black liquor loophole," and make sure our renewable energy dollars incentivize true clean energy sources. Sign our petition urging the City Council to end the black liquor rip-off.

One million comments to stop Keystone XL
As the moment of truth on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline approaches -- and the recent Exxon tar sands spill in Arkansas reminds us of the risks -- the movement to stop the pipeline keeps getting louder and bolder. On March 21st, CCAN leaders joined Interfaith Moral Action on Climate for another peaceful demonstration of civil disobedience at the White House. Tar Sands Blockade activists, including former CCAN-er Ethan Nuss, continue to challenge tar sands profiteers across the country. Wherever President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and influential senators like Mark Warner go -- including storefronts in Harrisonburg, Virginia -- #noKXL activists are there. On April 22nd, Earth Day, the clock runs out to submit public comments on the State Department's latest flawed environmental review of Keystone XL. Click here to submit yours and help us reach the ambitious national goal of one million #noKXL comments.



Introducing Project Planet
This Earth Month, CCAN is telling Dominion Power -- Virginia's top climate polluter -- to go beyond token “green” efforts like tree planting and to start making a plan to reduce its climate-disrupting emissions. The project, called Project Planet, launched on April Fools’ Day, when thousands of Virginians saw the spoof headline “Dominion to go carbon neutral!” in emails, on social media or in their local newspaper boxes. Check out the video here.

Throughout April, parents, faith communities, and other concerned Virginians across the commonwealth are working together to demand a new direction from Dominion for the sake of those with the most at stake: our children, grandchildren and future generations. By collecting petitions to Dominion, submitting letters to the editor of local newspapers, and working with kids and youth on creative projects, we are telling Dominion to take serious action to address climate change. Sign the petition, and then sign up to get more involved here.

Hybrid tax moves forward. Next step: Repeal
When Gov. Bob McDonnell signed Virginia’s transportation bill into law this month, an outrageous attack on climate solutions -- a new annual tax on hybrid car owners -- became state law. Bending to public outcry, the governor reduced the hybrid tax from $100 to $64 per year. But we've crunched the numbers and that's still an arbitrary and excessive amount that unfairly punishes Virginians trying to do their part for the climate. To protest the tax, CCAN supporters led a honking parade of hybrid and electric cars around the Capitol in Richmond and delivered more than one thousand petitions urging the governor to veto it. Next year, we’ll work with our allies in the General Assembly to push for legislation to repeal the hybrid tax.



Getting ready for Power Shift 2013
Have you heard? Power Shift 2013 has been officially announced! From October 18-21st, 10,000 students from across the country will converge in Pittsburgh, PA for a weekend of action, trainings, and unity as we combine our power to take on the fossil fuel industry and fight the climate crisis. Hundreds of Maryland, DC and Virginia students attended Power Shift 2011 in Washington, DC. We need hundreds more to come together this fall in Pittsburgh. Join fellow students from around the country to bring new power to our campaigns to fight fracking, divest from fossil fuels, and demand 100% clean energy on campus.

Click here to pre-register with CCAN today. Then, join the Power Shift 2013 Facebook page, and stay tuned for more information on registration and coordinating travel from your campus.

Virginia's campus climate leaders come together
Students from across Virginia came together in early April for a leadership summit in Richmond, where they developed a long-term vision for a unified campus climate movement. Students left the summit, hosted by the Virginia Alliance for a Cleaner Environment (VACE) and CCAN, re-energized and ready to keep building a strong statewide network. Read more about the summit and learn how to get involved here.

Heather McIlvaine from enterprise software giant SAP blogs about open data: “How are mobile apps, Big Data, and civic hacking changing the nature of open data in government? The Center for Technology in Government took a look at this topic and presents its findings”. See The Future Of Open Data.

PhD Dissertation Defense

Data-driven group analysis of complex-valued fMRI data

Pedro A. Rodriguez

11:00am Tuesday, 16 April 2013, ITE 346, UMBC

Analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data in its native, complex form has been shown to increase the sensitivity of the analysis both for data-driven techniques such as independent component analysis (ICA) and for model-driven techniques. The promise of an increase in sensitivity and specificity in clinical studies provides a powerful motivation for utilizing both the phase and magnitude data; however, the unknown and noisy nature of the phase poses a challenge for successful study of the fMRI data. In addition, complex-valued analysis algorithms, such as ICA, suffer from an inherent phase ambiguity, which introduces additional difficulty for group analysis and visualization of the results. We present solutions for these issues, which have been among the main reasons phase information has been traditionally discarded, and show their effectiveness when used as part of a complex-valued group ICA algorithm application. The developed methods become key components of a framework that allows the development of new fully complex data-driven and semi-blind methods to process, analyze, and visualize fMRI data.

In this dissertation, we first introduce the methods developed as part of the fully complex framework for ICA of fMRI data. We introduce a physiologically motivated de-noising method that uses phase quality maps to successfully identify and eliminate noisy voxels—3D pixels—in the fMRI complex images so they can be used in individual and group studies. We also introduce a phase correction scheme that can be either applied sub-sequent to ICA of fMRI data or can be incorporated into the ICA algorithm in the form of prior information to eliminate the need for further processing for phase correction. Finally, we present two visualization methods that are used to augment the sensitivity and specificity in the detection of activated voxels. We show the benefits of using the developed methods on actual complex-valued fMRI data.

In the remainder of the dissertation, we focus on developing constrained ICA (C-ICA) algorithms for complex-valued fMRI data. C-ICA uses prior information, hence providing a balance between model-based and data-driven approaches such as ICA to improve the source estimation performance and robustness to noise. C-ICA algorithms have been used to improve the estimation performance in real-valued fMRI data, but—to our knowledge—have not been applied to complex-valued fMRI data. We develop the first C-ICA algorithm that uses complex-valued references to constrain either the sources or the mixing coefficients. The designed algorithm is not restricted to having a unitary demixing matrix, which is a major assumption in existing C-ICA algorithms. We show, on both simulated and actual fMRI data, how the performance of ICA improves by using prior information about the fMRI paradigm.

Committee: Dr. Adali (Chair), Dr. Morris, Dr. Rutledge, Dr. Laberge, Dr. Phlypo, and Dr. Calhoun

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At the end of last month, we published a giveaway of 3 premium WordPress themes that were kindly provided by TemplateMonster, one of the oldest and most popular companies on the Web where you can purchase and download website templates and CMS themes. In this post, I’d like to let you all know who won this awesome giveaway!

The Winners

Here are the three lucky Six Revisions readers who have won themselves a premium WordPress theme of their choice:

• Dinesh Dhiman
• Pedro Regadas
• Anish Shah

On behalf of the Six Revisions community, I’d like to congratulate our three winners!

The winners should have already gotten an email from the awesome folks at TemplateMonster containing information about their premium WordPress theme.

About TemplateMonster

At TemplateMonster, you can find and download a monstrous amount of premium website templates. You can also find a ton of themes for popular CMSs such as WordPress, Jigoshop (for your WordPress online store), Joomla!, Magento and much more.

Related Content

• 6 Questions To Ask Before You Install A WordPress Plugin
• Lessons Learned Building a SaaS with WordPress
• 8 Excellent WordPress Caching Plugins to Speed Up Your Site
• Related categories: WordPress and Web Development

About the Author

Jacob Gube is the Founder and Chief Editor of Six Revisions. He’s also a web developer/designer who specializes in front-end development (JavaScript, HTML, CSS) and also a book author. If you’d like to connect with him, head on over to the contact page and follow him on Twitter: @sixrevisions.