Q:

home.reports.product.compared block in default home page never displays

I'm trying to use the layout XML that is set by default on the CMS Home page of a clean Magento install (See Admin > CMS > Pages > Design tab > Layout Update XML).  It inserts three product blocks: new products, recently viewed products, and (I think) recently compared products.  
All is well, except for the the recently compared block home.reports.product.compared which, despite my having compared some items (and they show up in the compare sidebar block), is never populated. 
Am I misunderstanding the role of the block, or is it just plain broken? 
Possibly related: the XML also unsets the sidebar blocks for recently viewed and compare, however the compare block still appears and in fact appears twice in the sidebar, only on the homepage. 
<reference name="content">
<block type="catalog/product_new" name="home.catalog.product.new" alias="product_new" template="catalog/product/new.phtml" after="cms_page">
    <action method="setProductsCount"><count>8</count></action>
    <action method="addPriceBlockType"><type>bundle</type><block>bundle/catalog_product_price</block><template>bundle/catalog/product/price.phtml</template></action>
</block>
<block type="reports/product_viewed" name="home.reports.product.viewed" alias="product_viewed" template="reports/home_product_viewed.phtml" after="product_new">
    <action method="setProductsCount"><count>4</count></action>
    <action method="addPriceBlockType"><type>bundle</type><block>bundle/catalog_product_price</block><template>bundle/catalog/product/price.phtml</template></action>
</block>
<block type="reports/product_compared" name="home.reports.product.compared" template="reports/home_product_compared.phtml" after="product_viewed">
    <action method="addPriceBlockType"><type>bundle</type><block>bundle/catalog_product_price</block><template>bundle/catalog/product/price.phtml</template></action>
</block>
</reference>

A:

From my experience the recently compared items block will only display after removing the items from your compare list. 
If you remove the items with the handy "clear all" or on a item basis from the compare side bar they should then appear on the bottom of the home page.