Opinion

From functionally extinct oysters to shark fin cruelty, recent environmental news has suggested a doom-and-gloom future for global aquaculture. A new report, from The WorldFish Center and Conservation International, takes the notion of the world's bleak seafood system a step further, with a chart that illustrates how the mercy of the world's fish supply lies almost entirely in the hands of one country: China.

China accounted for 61.5 percent of global aquaculture in 2008 and is now the single largest exporter of seafood to the United States, thanks to America's taste for shrimp and catfish. But given the country's rash of recent food safety scandals, and the fact that the FDA has only inspected 1.5 percent of processing facilities in China, this statistic has perilous implications for the future of seafood.

Overfished seafood and overfishing have both been hot topics as of late, but there needs to be a greater conversation not only about how fish are disappearing, but also who the world's seafood suppliers have turned to. Are you concerned about the provenance of your seafood for health and safety reasons?

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After a Missouri ice cream shop was banned from selling cicada ice cream to customers, San Francisco's health department has followed suit by telling one restaurant that it can no longer sell chapulines or grasshopper tacos, citing the fact that the purveyor isn't USDA approved.

Although purportedly no one has gotten sick in the two-and-a-half years that the item's been offered on his menu, "the city is worried people will get sick," La Oaxaquena owner Harry Persaud told the San Francisco Chronicle. In Persaud's native Oaxaca, grasshoppers are par for the food course; here in the US, there isn't a single domestic grasshopper purveyor with federal approval.

While there are agricultural health and safety issues at hand, food bans like this open the floodgates to prohibit other cultural delicacies (turtle, pigeon, and snails, anyone?), something that I worry may undermine our country's vast array of ethnic food options. Do you believe this will set a precedent for other food bans?

Source: Flickr User william.neuheisel

Dissing your competitors seems to be the name of the game for CEOs lately. Not only did Steve Jobs call other tablet makers "copycats" during yesterday's iPad presentation, but across the way at the GDC keynote address, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata was discussing the difference between traditional gaming consoles and the new breed of smartphone and social media platform games, saying that there are "some differences in the way we do business, but games always come first. The console is just to enable gaming."

This is true. But he also said smartphone and social media platforms have "no motivation [for] high-value video games," that smartphone manufacturers are just out to sell hardware, while the social media platform goal is to amass players. This may be true in a sense, but I disagree with his statement. I'll tell you why after the break.

As you may have heard, Apple announced the iPad 2 during a press event in San Francisco yesterday. Reviews so far have been glowing, but Steve Jobs did not hold back on discussing why the company's competitors aren't succeeding in this space. Jobs declared that manufacturers are still designing tablets to work like PCs, when tablets aren't used like regular computers; Apple understands this, which is why they are winning the tablet war. I know many of you are Apple fans, and plenty of you are not, but I've found it very interesting over the years to see the two camps collide, and it makes me wonder — how do we go about deciding which products to buy?

I predominately use Apple products (we are a Mac office here at Sugar HQ), but I've had my share of Microsoft and RIM products as well, and I may as well tell you that I liked the new iPad. But I'm sure you're wondering how it stacks up against its competitors. Check out the spec breakdown of four popular tablets after the jump.

There's no shortage of doggy videos singing along to music, but there are an overwhelming number of clips of pups enjoying Gwen Stefani — could she secretly be a dog whisperer? If your pups love to sing, lemme know what singers always get them going.

While I'm active on Facebook and Twitter for work, I'm far more discerning about the information I share about my personal life. What can I say — GeekSugar has taught me well! A friend recently shared that she was taken aback by the breeder of her dog requesting to be a friend on Facebook and a follower on Twitter since she rarely interacts with the woman anymore.

This got me thinking about the village of people that help in each pet's life. Be it a dog's trainer, walker, vet, or even the human mom to a furry BFF, where (if anywhere) do you draw the friendship line?

My pal snapped this picture to share these "Pomeranian/Chihuahua mixes" for sale outside a local shop. Am I the only one that doubts that breed combo made these puppies? But anyway, he mentioned that he felt lucky I wasn't with him because they definitely didn't look old enough to be away from their mother and he knew I'd give the people an earful for all of the above.

On the one hand, at least the dogs weren't immediately abandoned at a shelter but, on the other, who's to say the owners didn't plan to make money off of this "unexpected pairing" either now . . . or in the future. The whole situation doesn't sit right with me, but share what concerns you have about this scenario in the comments below.