The Muhammad Ali Center Peace Gardens program is an effort to teach children respect for diverse cultures and nutrition by planning and planting gardens that incorporate plants from around the world. The initiative is based on a successful program conducted by the John F. Kennedy Montessori Elementary School. The teacher-led project helped nearly 600 preschool to Grade 5 students, from Asia, South America, Russia, Cuba, the US and other nations, learn how to build multicultural gardens with plants from different countries, grow food and learn respect for different cultures. Children participated in all aspects of the garden including planting, nurturing, harvesting, cooking and donating food to the hungry. Educators worldwide can access the program including a free downloadable teacher curriculum guide and grant application forms from . The curriculum includes a case study based on the John F. Kennedy school success model, tips on planning and planting the garden, plus information about nutrition and nature. The grant application deadline is January 5, 2011 and recipients will be notified by the first week of April 2011.Two-hundred worldwide grants will be awarded by Yum! Brands Foundation over a four-year period to build multicultural gardens in underprivileged schools around the world.

Language Guide () is a collaborative project to develop interactive, sound-integrated language learning resources. The free website aims to help people learn languages and gain knowledge about new cultures. Learners simply scroll over any of the pictures to hear the name of the item read aloud. Thirteen languages are available at the site, including Arabic, with the best lessons available in English, French and Spanish. Language Guide is signing up volunteers to help build up the lessons for the other languages on offer.

If you’re looking for a media player outside Apple’s product line, then consider the Sansa Fuse+ (Plus). The Sansa Fuze+ has a capacitive touchpad which provides the sensation of using a touch-screen, without obscuring the device’s viewable area. The player has a 2.4” QVGA LCD screen and its interface operates like a film strip. Left to right finger sweeps select functions such as music, video, podcasts, FM radio and photos, while up and down sweeps or double taps on the touch-pad, let users explore and select individual categories and files. The device is compatible with most major media formats as well as Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. The Sansa Fuze+ is fully compatible with any microSD card. Users can slide these cards into the media player’s microSDHC memory card slot to instantly expand their music, photo or video libraries, with up to 4,000  songs or 64 hours of video per 16GB card. The media player’s rechargeable battery lasts up to 24 hours for audio playback or up to five hours for video playback. For enhanced versatility, the device also includes a recordable FM radio and a microphone for audio capture.

From NEC BIGLOBE comes — a window into the world of Android apps popular in Japan. The English language Andronavi site features reviews of Japanese apps, including apps based on Japanese themes such as karate and the otaku craze. There are more than 60 reviews in English available already and one or two new reviews will be added daily. Reviews are presented with app images and videos. Additionally, each app has a Facebook “like” button, that enables users to share opinions and reviews of apps with their friends. By the end of this month there will be more than 650 apps at , with a total of 150,000 projected to be available by the end of 2012.