I noticed this too, but wrote it off as a timing issue because the posts were fairly recent. I haven't seen the code for this block, but it does seem strange.
This is bug #5836 and bug #5253 and has been assigned to Martin D on 4 July. I think he's a busy guy, so he probably has not got rounf to it yet as it is low priority on bug tracker
Forgot to look up if the issue had already been reported in teh bug tracker. I agree it's not that big a priority. If it's not working correctly all the time, perhaps it should be temporarily removed?
The MySQL in that block is too difficult for me, so I can't be of much help...