I love it when friends/blog-readers send me items that they think I’d like to post, or just should be posted. Seriously. They’re usually pretty interesting, sometimes pretty funny.

Here’s one article sent to me by a friend who reads Slate. It’s about why Jamaicans are so fast. Some of their speed due to genetics!

70 percent of Jamaicans have the “strong” form of the ACTN3 gene—which produces a protein in their fast-twitch muscle fibers that has been linked to increased sprinting performance. That’s a significantly higher percentage than in the United States, where about 60 percent have the gene variant.

Isn’t it fascinating the way that science is gradually, inexorably trumping politics in this discussion of why various people do various things better than other people do?

Another friend sent me this story about a man who is suing a Chicago restaurant, saying that its undercooked salmon gave him a 9-foot tapeworm. (My friend kindly wished the same on me.)

He later passed the giant parasite

The man wants $100k, which seems not nearly enough….

According to the Web site mayoclinic.com, tapeworms can measure up to 50 feet long….