If you’ve been to your local Best Buy this week, you may have noticed signs advertising Geek Squad’s IdeaFestival, an online contest being held to find submissions for, as the site puts it, “novel solutions for some of the world’s sustainability problems” using technology.

There are a number of entries already in categories such as “E-Waste”, “Power Conservation” and “Untapped Resources”, but anyone can submit their ideas for the possibility of winning a trip down to the “2007 IdeaFestival” in Louisville, Kentucky to work with a number of well-known thinkers on expanding their submissions.

This is just an early reminder that Daylight Savings Time will be in effect at 2:00am on this coming Sunday, April 2nd.

Daylight Savings Time, which involves moving the clock an hour ahead, generally starts on either  the last Sunday in March the first Sunday in April, and is in effect until the the last Sunday in October.

At least that’s how it is currently.  In 2007, the United States will alter how DST works due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005.  The US Department of Energy will be monitoring a change in the policy, which will have DST start on the second Sunday of March and last until the first Sunday in November.

Popular Science has a great article up detailing toy-inventor Tim Kehoe’s 11-year quest to create disappearing colored bubbles.

Thanks to Kehoe’s vision, and the chemical dye expertise of Ram Sabnis, children everywhere will be able to buy bottles of bubble solution that will create floating spheres of a single color come this February.

If you’re looking for another good resource for those interested in a more skeptical view on typically controversial topics like the paranormal, junk science or alternative medicine, visit skepdic.com.

I’ve taken to reading random Wikipedia entries, something that’s very easy and informative thanks to the layout of their front page.

Today’s entry that I came across involved the anglerfish, which many people are familiar with as the deep sea fish that dangles a bioluminescent glowing, worm-like bait from it’s forehead in order to draw prey close enough to its mouth to eat.

If you saw Pixar’s Finding Nemo, you saw an animated version of this fish in the dark sea depths sequence.

The fascinating, if not disturbing, portion of the Wiki entry is about the anglerfish reproductive habits. Males are born as tiny little creatures with no digestive system and a keen sense of underwater smell, which allows him to find a suitable female anglerfish and bite one of her flanking sides. At that point, enzymes are released which causes the two to slowly merge into one organism, with the male mutating into a simple set of gonads that release sperm into the female’s bloodstream. Any males that do not find a female simply die.

Every time I take a look at the reproductive strategies of other species, the whole “asking someone out on a date” thing no longer looks as scary.

If you’re looking for a little more power in your Independence Day holiday fireworks, consider taking a look at NASA’s Deep Impact website.

The Deep Impact mission involves a NASA space probe set on a collision course with Comet Tempel 1. The probe will fire an “impactor” at the comet in order to aid scientists in studying exactly what makes up the interior of a comet.

For those with broadband, you can also catch video and multimedia presentations on the mission at NASA TV. More information on the project can also be found at Wikipedia.