Looking for a job can feel like a lonely enterprise. Despite the dozens of emails you’ve sent, the phone calls you’ve diligently forced yourself to make, and the strangers you’ve tried to befriend at LinkedIn—not to mention your heartfelt intention to do work that changes the world for the better—some days you may find yourself alone in your apartment, your inbox collecting more e-mail newsletters and your phone silent, like it forgot it belongs to you.

You may even be tempted to give in to feelings despair. And who’s to blame you if you do. There are compelling reasons that go well beyond the job search to feel down and sometimes, it’s impossible for even the best of us not to indulge them. (more…)

A powerful coal-state Democrat has inserted a 24-page provision into the U.S. Congress’s proposed cap-and-trade bill that would create a $10 billion Carbon Storage Research Corporation, including up to $500 million in “administrative expenses” over the next 10 years. The Web site Solve Climate said the institute would be operated by the coal industry and would research methods of storing carbon dioxide underground; it would be funded with a 50-cent-per-month surcharge on the utility bills of all U.S. households.

(more…)

On June 4 in Los Angeles, the Israel Conference will spotlight Israeli clean tech, medical tech, high tech and more. Investors coming to the event represent about $20 billion in funds.

“Many Los Angeles and California business leaders and entrepreneurs will have their first opportunity to see first what Israeli companies, technologists and investors can bring to their enterprises,” noted Sharona Justman, conference co-chair and managing director of STEP Strategy Advisors, an acquisitions advisory and strategic planning firm.

“There are tremendous synergies in the technology communities in Israel and California and we expect this conference to ignite deals.”

(more…)

In a sign of the growing importance of renewable sources of energy, global investment in wind power, solar power, and other alternative forms of energy last year exceeded investments in coal, oil, and carbon-based energy for the first time.

(more…)

George Soros, one of the world’s most successful investors and boldest philanthropists, has been more perceptive than almost anybody on the economic crisis – warning about “market fundamentalism” and the emerging credit “superbubble” since the 1980s. “The idea that financial market are self-correcting,” Soros writes, “remains the prevailing paradigm.” And it is wrong.

Rather than thinking markets are always right, Soros thinks of markets as “almost always wrong” – and has made billions by trading on this insight.

Now nearing 80, Soros’ observations carry more weight than ever. The new edition of The Crash of 2008: the new Paradigm for Financial Markets is Soros’ 11th book – and his first bestseller. In it he explains his theory and argues that clean energy investments are central to macroeconomic policy.

(more…)

HCL CleanTech Ltd., a biofuels start-up based in Tel Aviv, announced today a $5.5 million Series A financing led by Khosla Ventures, Burrill & Company, and angel investor Zohar Gilon.

HCL CleanTech has developed a proprietary technology to make an old, industrially proven German process converting lignocellulosic biomass to fermentable sugars economically attractive. According to the company, it is these fermentable sugars which are considered the gateway to advanced biofuels (biobutanols, biodiesel, jet fuel etc) and biochemicals (bioplastics etc). (more…)

Two U.S. patent applications in clean technology have opened themselves up to community peer review.

The first patent application filed by General Electric and developed with support of the Department of Energy, seeks patent protection for a predictive algorithm that controls and optimizes power dispatch in a microgrid (Pre-Grant Publication no. 20090062969).  Click to participate.

The second patent application, filed by Consolidated Edison of New York, seeks patent protection for a controller that schedules charging of hybrid vehicles on local electric grids (Pre-Grant Publication no. 20090062967).  Click to participate.

(more…)