Sarge,
Because the latest posts page is very database intensive there are times when it probably does time-out. I have been trying to figure out a way to cache this page and have it reset every five minutes or so, but so far no progress.
For those other regulars reading.... this is kind of why it's not a great idea to have the Latest Posts page as your default home link for Armorama. (of course if I can cache it then it would be a great homepage!).

Jim