The third time, famously, is the charm. That, at least, is what New York officials are hoping. On Wednesday, a new design (the third) for the tower to be erected on Ground Zero in Manhattan, was unveiled. If built, the 1,775-foot skyscraper would be the tallest in the United States and would cost an estimated $1.5 billion to build. But, the new design  of the so-called "Freedom Tower" -- by architect David Childs -- is supposed to be much safer than the last, designed by Berlin architect Daniel Libeskind. Its base is further back from the sidewalk -- to prevent truck bombs -- and the foundation will be reinforced. While the design is intended to evoke the grace of the original, not everyone is happy with it.  Indeed, it loses almost all the mystique of the Libeskind original . But New York governor George E. Pataki isn't one of them. "New Yorkers have always reached for the sky," he said at a Wednesday press conference. "And we'll never stop."

Blogging Live8

We'll be partying down the street from the Brandenburg Gate this Saturday when some of the biggest names in music (okay, a lot of the smaller ones, too.) come to Berlin to fight poverty in the developing world. But if you're not able to make it to one of the Live 8 cities -- there are still plenty of ways to participate in Sir Bob Geldof's massive, multinational Live 8  festival. First, you can watch live streams  of all the concerts in every city at America Online. While watching, in another window, you can read about the very important issues being raised at Live 8  -- increasing development aid and forgiving debt in Africa and other underdeveloped regions to put an end to poverty. And in another window, you can do your part by pulling up the special site Technorati , where you can connect with other people to talk about global poverty and what you can do about it. So far, they've collected more than 9,000 posts.