WordPress is still a hot technology in 2014, and the CMS of choice for the majority of web designers continues to go from strength to strength.

There are some great new – and free – themes that have been released or received major updates since the start of 2014. Now all you have to do is pick your favorite and install. What are you waiting for?

Every month we’ll be bringing you our pick of the best free WordPress themes released over the last 4 weeks. Here are our picks for February:

Alpha Forte

The attraction to Alpha Forte is in the big, custom background behind the blogging theme. The theme features a three-column layout, two widget areas in the sidebar and is mobile friendly. But what really draws you to the theme is the big-photo design.

TYPAL Business

TYPAL Business is a pretty powerful business theme with a lot of great options. It’s fully responsive and can be customized in almost every way, including headers, widgets, menus and backgrounds. The theme also includes sticky posts and is Theme-Check tested.

Elisium

This responsive theme is designed for business websites and has plenty of options for customization from logo to homepage content to social media integration. Elisium‘s look is clean and modern and includes plenty of content areas.

Mega Responsive

Mega Responsive, as the name implies, is a fully responsive theme that includes a nice infinite scroll feature. The clean, minimalistic style design was created with the flat style in mind and is SEO ready. The theme also offers a variety of customization options from color to a random image tool.

Nova Lite

Nova Lite is a responsive theme based on the Twitter Bootstrap framework, designed in the flat style. Unlike many similar themes, what makes this Nova different is that is includes an unlimited number of sidebars and galleries. The free theme also comes with 14 default skins for different looks, three custom widgets and widget areas and customizable backgrounds.

Obscura

Obscura is a theme designed to show off great images. The two-column design is appropriate for a portfolio or photography business website. The design is responsive and supports the popular NextGEN Gallery plugin to manage photo galleries. Almost all of the features are customizable as well, including navigation, menus, widgets and backgrounds.

Zippy

If you are looking for a small and clean responsive theme, Zippy might be the option for you. The theme is designed with small businesses in mind and is perfect for people who don’t want to deal with code. The simple layout includes a flexible slider, social link tools and multiple footer widgets.

Bizznis

This parent business-style theme is made for WordPress site owners who don’t want to touch complicated code or development aspects of the site. Bizznis is fully responsive, secure and fast. While this theme does not include a ton of options, the included features (categories, shopping cart, search) are designed with business owners in mind.

Undiscovered

Undiscovered is an elegant theme that includes a responsive layout and retina-ready graphic display. The theme includes a slew of post formats, making it a great platform for bloggers. Undiscovered also supports commenting, galleries (with a slider) and plenty of color, logo and typeface customization options. The theme also includes a massive social media bundle with icons for 18 popular social media networks.

x2

If you want a blog that has plenty of neat animations and extras, x2 is the place to look. With three slideshow options, widget areas and a ton of customization options — including light and dark color schemes — this theme is made for ease of building. Other features include support of the common BuddyPress, bbPress and WooCommerce.

Infinitano

This simple responsive theme is built on the popular Twitter Bootstrap framework and is best used for blogs, where the focus is on text content rather than visuals. Infinitano includes customization options and dual-level dropdown navigation.

Isis

Isis is a clean responsive theme is power-packed for visual design. It includes two home page layouts, social icons, four widgets, a large slider, three page templates and more. The design scheme works for a variety of website types, from business sites to portfolios or blogs. All you need to get started is a few great images.

Journal Box

This flexible blog theme features a high color design (with two color options) and a two column layout. Journal Box includes a handful of interactive elements as well, including a profile box for the blog owner and share buttons that can be embedded in each post.

Lithium

Lithium is a super-simple theme is designed for bloggers on Twitter Bootstrap. It includes simple posting, social media linking, and widgets for popular posts, Flickr integration and video. While the theme is free, you must share a link to download it.

Blogly Lite

Designed for bloggers, Blogly Lite is an almost-feminine styled flat theme with a variety of customization options. The theme is fully responsive and has a quite refined look and feel for a free theme. (An upgraded version is also available which unlocks additional widgets and customization options.)

Exility-light

Exility-light is a simple theme is designed for blogs and features large image areas. The two-column layout is widget-ready and includes a custom menu and two sidebars. The simple design is attractive and user-friendly.

MiniMag Pro

Designed with flat styling, MiniMag Pro packs a lot of power and clean design into a free theme. The blogging theme is fully responsive and SEO ready. The theme also includes a slider, customizable calendar, multiple post formats and has been tested in all popular web browsers. This theme also includes a ton of customization tools from color to custom logo to the appearance of the slider. This theme is one of the more feature-packed free themes available.

Nictitate

It’s easy to see why Nictitate is one of the most downloaded WordPress themes of the month. This theme features a modern and bright design with plenty of features. It is fully responsive, includes custom widgets, includes localization support, unlimited sidebars and allows for easy integration of Google Analytics and social links and sharing. For a free theme, Nictitate also has a lot of embedded goodies from neat animations to videos and clean typography.

Future

Future is a clean and creative theme that includes a good number of features. The theme is designed in the trendy flat style and is retina ready. Future’s free version includes plenty of customization tools, post formats, featured images, widgets and is SEO ready. The downside to Future is that you have to upgrade to the pro theme for the responsive layout.

MeadowHill

For a theme with a big image area, MeadowHill delivers. The responsive theme uses an almost parallax style with a long scroll design. It includes five color schemes, a ton of customizable menu and widget areas, social sharing functions and the ability to create a variety of custom shortcodes or custom CSS. This theme also includes the ability to translate into five languages.

Have you used any of these themes in a project? Have we missed one of your favorites? Let us know in the comments.

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Used to be Valentine’s Day was a time when guys would ask a girl out on a “date.”

That seems like the distant past with “hanging-out” replacing “dating” and women doing outrageous things like paying for their own meals. 

A recent New York Times article goes as far as to claim that our generation is witnessing “the end of courtship.”

However, this may not be a bad thing. Gone are the age-old formalities, excessive chivalry, and pre-determined gender roles. Enter texting and social media.

But these modes of communication have their limits too. Interactions with romantic interests can often be vague, confusing, and unfulfilling.

Another recent article proclaims that our generation’s hook-up culture and media dependency has left us unprepared for the basics of a commited relationship. 

The basics involve sharing and, often (gulp)… some vulnerability.

But as Brené Brown, a University of Houston researcher states:

“Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection”

So… what does all this suggest? Do we college students of generation Y really lack connection? Dating skills?

What are you doing on Valentine’s Day? 

These days it seems like politics and ideological divisions are spilling over into every aspect of American life.

Case in point: the new Lego Movie, which opened on Friday to rave reviews.

So what could possibly be the issue with a movie based on plastic bricks?

According to Fox News, the movie’s villain, appropriately named President Business, represents a cruel caricature of the American business executive and looks too much like Governor Mitt Romney.

This is despite the fact that Lego Movie is probably the most thinly veiled toy marketing movie in recent memory. What’s more capitalist then making a hugely profitable movie that also promotes your other products?

This isn’t the first time that Fox has cried foul to “Hollywood’s” supposed liberal agenda for kid’s movies.

Of course, every movie will be impacted by the perspectives of those who made it; that’s a big part of what makes movies valuable as an artistic medium.

But it seems to us at USDemocrazy that maybe we should just LEGO of all the political posturing and enjoy Lego Movie for the harmless entertainment that it is.

Does Hollywood have a problem with liberal bias? Or is Fox grasping at plastic straws here?

There’s a new viral game sweeping the nation, and it is the chubby most infuriating bird ever… Flappy Bird. Despite his quick rise to fame, there have been rumors floating around that Flappy Bird is about to meet its untimely demise. 

For those of you still the dark (consider yourself spared), it is a highly addicting yet simplistic game. You tap your phone’s screen to fly a little bird through a series a pipes. That’s it. No power-ups, no levels, no extra obstacles…just a bird and pipes.

It is extremely frustrating, increases adrenaline levels, and causes unnecessary expletives. Yet, why have over 18 million people downloaded the game that apparently took only 3 days to create? 

Though the game only took off since the end of January, the app was released in May 2013 by Dong Nguyen, a creator based in Vietnam.

Neither the iTunes nor Android store have promoted the game which makes many speculate that bots were used to boost its visibility in both app stores. Twitter posts, mostly by gamers sharing their frustration of the little bird, also helped to make Flappy Bird the success it is today.

Apparently Dong Nguyen wasn’t prepared to see Flappy Bird become so famous. On February 8th afternoon, Nguyen tweeted…

“I am sorry ‘Flappy Bird’ users, 22 hours from now, I will take ‘Flappy Bird’ down. I cannot take this anymore.”

He went on saying it wasn’t for any legal reasons. Regardless, Flappy Bird  aficionados restlessly await the departure of their favorite little bird.  In the meantime, you can tweet with #saveflappybird to get your voice heard. 

But in the age of phenomenal computer-graphic potential and highly complex games, it’s hard to believe that a little pixelated bird has grabbed the attention of such a wide audience.