Some of the subjects that The Lede likes to return to from time to time just seem to be bottomless wells of potential items. For example:
The strange byways of the criminal mind: Al Parish, a 50-year-old former economist accused of bilking 500 investors out of about $90 million, gave up trying to fight the charges today and entered guilty pleas in federal court in Charleston, S.C., to two counts of fraud and lying to investigators.
What did he do with the money he swindled? According to The Associated Press, he bought pens. Fountain pens. Very expensive ones. One diamond-encrusted model cost $170,000. Mr. Parish amassed a collection of $1.2 million worth of pens before the authorities caught up with him.
He evidently also splashed out for some of the more usual high-life indulgences, like fancy cars, fancy watches, and cases of personalized hot sauce ( “Al Parish’s Bottle of Death” ). A bit more sensibly, he also bought the Fender Stratocaster guitar that Jimi Hendrix reportedly used to record “Foxy Lady.”
When he is sentenced, Mr. Parish could be looking at a maximum of 45 years in the, um, pen.
The strange byways of medical science: Scientists have been saying for generations that the human appendix appeared to serve no purpose at all, which raised the question of why we ever had them to begin with. Some scientists at Duke University Medical School have now published a proposed explanation: They’re petri dishes.
Their paper, published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology and noted by the Associated Press, argues that because people in most of human history lived in fairly small, scattered populations, it was not as easy as is today for their bodies to repopulate their digestive tracts when necessary with the helpful germs that we all depend on to live. (Fun factoid: A healthy human body contains more bacteria than human cells. Ew.) So when some illness or other wiped out the good germs in the main part of the gut, it would have been very helpful to have a supply of them tucked away in a sheltered corner, ready to restore a healthy equilibrium again. Ergo, the appendix.
Nowadays people can manage fine without the little organ, and its welcoming way with germs is more a hazard than a help — 321,000 cases of appendicitis a year in the United States, the paper says. But there may be comfort in the idea that, like buggywhips, phonograph needles and little toes, the appendix had a real use once after all.
The strange byways of wayward transport: Peter Halmos is finally getting his yacht unstuck from a shoal about two miles off Key West, Fla., where it has been aground for two years since being blown there by a hurricane.
All that time, Mr. Halmos and the government have been arguing over how to free the 158-foot yacht without doing too much damage to the beds of seagrass around it, the A.P. reports. Meanwhile, Mr. Halmos has been living on houseboats moored nearby so he could keep vandals and thieves off his vessel, which he bought in 1995 for $16 million.
The solution they ultimately hit upon involves pumping water around the boat’s hull and slowly tugging it off — very slowly, only about 10 feet a day. At that rate, it’ll be weeks before the yacht reaches water deep enough to navigate. Afterward, Mr. Halmos has to replant the disturbed seagrass.
On top of all that cost, he’s kept his captain and two crew members on the payroll all this time to help him keep the boat safe and minimally seaworthy. Add it all up, and Legacy may be the ultimate proverbial hole in the water for throwing money in. “Luckily, I have enough zeros after my name that I can absorb it,” Mr. Halmos told the A.P.
Illustration showing make-up of the human appendix.
Researchers at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, United States believe that they have found the purpose of the vermiform appendix, long thought to be useless.  The theory, published in  the Journal of Theoretical Biology this week, is that the appendix creates and protects helpful microorganisms for a person's digestive system.

For years, scientists believed that the appendix served no purpose, and wondered why it was even present in the human body.  Surgeons removed them regularly, and it seemed to have no ill effects on the health of patients.

In addition, when infected the appendix became harmful and even deadly.  Inflammation occurs quickly and can cause death if the infected organ is not removed in time.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2005 321,000 Americans were stricken with appendicitis.  On average, 300 to 400 Americans die of appendicitis each year.

The new theory, proposed by surgeons and immunologists at the Duke University School of Medicine, says that people throughout most of human history lived in small, spread out groups.  As a result, their contact with other people was far more limited than it is today in modern industrialized societies.  Today, if a person's digestive tract lacks helpful bacteria, they can regain the needed germs from contact with large numbers of other people.  In times when populations were less dense, and cholera epidemics purged large numbers of people's useful digestive bacteria, the appendix was able to restore the digestive system's supply of helpful germs.

"The appendix acts as a good safe house for bacteria," said Duke surgery professor Bill Parker, a co-author in the study.  He said the appendix's location--below the one-way passage of food and germs through the large intestine in a digestive cul-de-sac--helps validate the theory.  The worm-shaped appendage also acts to manufacture these helpful germs, Parker said.

Parker added that in less developed societies with lower population densities, the appendix may still be useful and rates of appendicitis are lower.  However, regardless of the appendix's apparent function, Parker confirmed that those suffering from appendicitis should still have it removed.

Scientists not affiliated with the study have come out in favor of the theory. Brandeis University biochemistry professor Douglas Theobald said the idea was the most likely purpose of the appendix. "It makes evolutionary sense."