Ack! Here are some things I’d have posted about had I not been busy travelling and moving furniture and stuff.

• It’s interesting how much the American news covered Pope Benedict’s visit to Washington and NYC. Admittedly, the former is pretty significant — most previous popes didn’t meet with the president — but then, the president does meet with a great many foreign leaders. (And no, there was no coverage here of the Ruddster’s visit.)
• The situation in Zimbabwe is looking increasingly sad and leaves me scratching my head wondering what can be done … which puts it back to how it’s been for years now.
• I read in a newspaper last week that the Chinese government is “concerned” about anti-Western protests in several cities. Of course, in a country where dissidents are usually cracked down upon long before they do anything public, it couldn’t possibly be the case that the Communist Party was complicit in said protests, or maybe even organised them to counter Western criticisms …
• Speaking of protests about China and Tibet, this photo of the Sydney Harbour Bridge is quaint when thinking that the NSW government wants to ban laser pointers!
• On the proposed waterfront project, oh City of Perth, what are you lot thinking? Wait, are you thinking? That must be it — increasingly it seems the biggest barrier to anything happening in the CBD is members of the council who are bereft of reason.
• And finally I’m a little surprised that the State Government’s appeal against the native title ruling that covers Perth was successful — well, sort of. So much for using the previous court’s decisions as a base to move forward.

• First up: the proposed new building for 140 William Street (above the new train station) is awesome. Not as pretty as the Raine Square development across the road (which, BTW, is definitely going ahead), but very functional and very bold in its design — and we need more buildings in Perth with architecture that triggers strong reactions (as long as they’re not all bad …).
• Glenn Milne’s little scuffle at the Walkley Awards nicely epitomises, I think, the way that old media stalwarts simply don’t get this new-fangled Internet thang. (Though admittedly, Crikey has hardly been angelic in its treatment of Milne. The sneaky buggers have also, by my guess, bought AdWords that link to news.com.au rather than their own site …)
• There’s another leadership spat in the Labor Party. Yawn. Although I think it’d be cool if Big Kim were to win the next election, Howard-style, it’s not exactly something I’d bet on. Problem is, I’m far from convinced that anyone else on Federal Labor’s frontbench could do any better.
• The continuing debate about daylight saving on newspaper letters pages annoys me for its pointlessness, but I notice that among the pro camp there’s a strong sense of the old mindset that says Perth is still some sort of country town, and can’t function without the assistance of our older & better-established bretheren o’er east. I keep reading things about how farmers and other businesses desperately need close-timezone contact with Sydney, as if the west coast is devoid of warehousing or financial services or something.
• Speaking of daylight saving, it amuses me that the Lotteries Commission had its “you can take an extra hour with your Lotto ticket!” ad out days before the State Government launched its (lame!) attempt to inform the public about the time change yesterday — an entire four days before the change happens!
• Today is World AIDS day, meaning the world’s been reminded of how bad the situation is, and a former American president is out pointing to the next problem area. Sadly, the Pope was also in today’s headlines, and while it’s good that he’s healing rifts within Christianity, it would be far better if he actually tried doing something to address the problem of AIDS among poorer people, many of whom are Catholic. Oh sorry, my mistake, that’d be against his principles.
• Finally, sense has prevailed in the question of Federal funding for an HPV vaccine (the one that’s reported in the media as a “cervical cancer vaccine”). But it’s actually only partly prevailed — a basic concept in public health is that mass vaccinations are all about stopping the spread of a disease, which means that boys should be vaccinated as well as girls, and the age range should probably be wider too. The current funding arrangement is likely to just paint HPV and cervical cancer as a “women’s issue”, rather than as a real sexually-transmitted disease about which everyone should care.