Archive of Past Messages
(Most recent messagess appear first.)
7/9/2006
I would like to begin by thanking all of you for your continuing
support of Craig Research Labs!
2005 was a turbulent year for the Lab and for myself. As many
of you know, I was scheduled to leave in the last week of July
2005 to walk across the USA to raise money for cancer research
at The
Sloan-Kettering Institute. Unfortunately, the "Cancer
Walk USA" project was put on hold due to unforeseen differences
between Craig Research Labs and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
I had spent the previous three years fundraising for Sloan-Kettering,
and I had also spent two years training for the project, walking
up to 12 miles a day. I was definitely ready to go and I did
not abort the project willingly...however, complex endeavors
involving multiple partners require a great deal of planning
and mutual trust, and in the end I was forced to accept the fact
that Sloan-Kettering simply did not believe in the project's
goals as much as I did and that they were unwilling to provide
the support that I felt the project deserved. Therefore I could
not in good conscience commit myself and all of my personal resources
(as well as put my friends and family through unnecessary worry
and hardship) to undertake this highly demanding two year long
project on Sloan-Kettering's behalf. However, our disagreements
were entirely organizational in nature; I still believe that
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is a first rate cancer
hospital and scientific research organization and that it is
very deserving of your donation dollars, should you choose to
give them. If I were to be diagnosed with cancer it would be
the first place I would go to seek treatment. You can donate
to MSKCC by clicking here.
Is the Cancer Walk USA story over? Not quite. The loss of
the project was a great disappointment to me, and the walk still
feels very much like unfinished business -- so in the future
I will seek to revive the idea with a new charity partner. In
the meantime, the Craig Research Labs "Click to Cure Cancer" webpage continues
to raise money to fund cancer research. Please stop by daily
and click. :)
Now on to other business. Over the past year or two, the core
research activity of Craig Research Labs (distributed computing
on the web) has changed and evolved. Distributed computing is
at the heart of this organization; it's what I founded the company
to do. Here's our latest news:
Stanford University's Folding@home project is up to version
5, and UC Berkeley's SETI@home has migrated to the BOINC platform
(Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing). BOINC allows
users to participate in many other valuable science projects
besides SETI, and I am currently looking into what this means
for the Lab and our future research activities (there may be
new opportunities for us here). In the meantime, I am VERY PLEASED
to announce that as of this writing, our SETI@home team has crunched
20,700.43 work units, and our Folding@home team has achieved
a whopping score of 171,328! (I never even thought we would make
it past 50,000 LOL!) Our team of volunteers now numbers more
than thirty individuals around the globe who are working diligently
to help push these projects forward. A big congratulation and
round of applause to everyone!!! If you are not yet a member
of one of our teams, please click here.
Hopefully I will have more good news for you soon.
Douglas Craig
Director
Craig Research Labs
3/4/2005
[Update, 8/1/2006 -- Someone else now
owns the "cancerwalkusa.org" URL, so I have deactivated
all of the Cancer Walk USA links below and elsewhere on this
website.]
[Update, 3/29/2005 -- Please note that
there has been a change in the departure date and the beneficiary
institution for the following project. Please visit the Cancer
Walk USA webpage for further information.]
I am pleased to announce today that Craig Research Labs is
embarking on its most exciting venture to date. In midsummer
of this year I will leave from the front steps of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
in New York City to walk across the United States in a sustained
media campaign to raise cancer awareness and to solicit money
for cancer research at The Sloan-Kettering Institute. As I cross
the USA I will be making stops at every newspaper, radio station,
and TV station en route and asking every person in the country
to make a suggested five dollar donation to fight cancer. Five
dollars may seem like a very modest sum -- most of us can easily
afford to part with it (we generally think nothing of spending
this much for a burger and fries at a fast food restaurant) --
but if everyone does their small part and donates five dollars
to this project then collectively we will raise $1.5 billion
dollars to fight cancer (according to the latest US Census
Bureau statistics, there are approximately 300 million people
living in the USA -- you do the math). The project will be called
"Cancer Walk USA" and it will be the main focus of
Craig Research Labs through 2007. I will be putting my heart
and soul into this project.
Won't you all please join me in this effort by making a donation?
Even if you have never given to a charitable cause before, I
want to encourage you today to think of yourself as a philanthropist.
Write out a check and send it in (see www.cancerwalkusa.org for
details on how to donate) and help prove that America is still
the greatest and most caring nation on earth -- that when we
pull together with a common goal, we can accomplish what others
would deem impossible.
As with the "Click to Cure Cancer" program,
I have chosen the Sloan-Kettering Institute to be the recipient
of the money raised by this project because of their long history
of ground breaking research and innovative treatments for cancer.
In addition, the close relationship between the Sloan-Kettering
Institute and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Hospital
means that new cancer treatments developed at the Institute can
be rapidly put into clinical practice saving lives. I am immensely
proud to be continuing my company's three year partnership with
Memorial Sloan-Kettering and I have every confidence that they
will be able to put the money we raise over the next two years
to the best possible use.
While funding cancer research is high on the Craig Research
Labs agenda, I also want you to know that the lab has many other
ongoing projects. Our distributed computing teams made up of
volunteers from around the globe are entering their fifth year
of operation and our Folding@home team is rapidly approaching
the milestone 100,000 mark. Go team! Lately I have greatly expanded
our Science Image Archive which provides free science graphics
to educators (I will be continuing this work in my spare time
during my walk and hopefully one of these days I will be able
to find time to place the entire archive online for convenient
browsing). I also spent a large part of last summer prototyping
several novel solar energy inventions for the lab; I would love
to tell you all about them but unfortunately I am not presently
at liberty to do so because of pending patent issues. (Shhhh...it's
a secret...don't tell anyone).
One final footnote -- I am also excited to announce that in
the next few months this website will contain our very first
store. I have been working with NASA to develop a line of consumer
products for the lab containing images from the Hubble Space
Telescope. As the Hubble is nearing the end of its operational
life, I thought it would be nice to choose a few of the most
beautiful and educational Hubble images and place them on a variety
of common items ranging from the practical (coffee mugs, calendars,
etc.) to the whimsical (frisbees, t-shirts). I am constantly
amazed that most people have never even seen a Hubble image.
Let's change that. Tell all your friends and co-workers to visit
our new store so they can enjoy the marvelous beauty of the universe
and support the lab financially at the same time. And by the
way, sales of these products will likely be the only income I
will receive during the two years I will be walking for Sloan-Kettering...so
if you happen to feel the urge to purchase a coffee mug with
an image of NGC 6543 on it, please don't hold back. [Shameless
plug]
Douglas Craig
Director
Craig Research Labs
9/19/2004
I have always intended for Craig Research Labs to be a "participatory"
institution. The lab exists for everyone -- no matter their race,
creed, religion, or location around the globe. When people come
together and combine their efforts towards a common goal, the
result is always far more successful than if the same individuals
had acted alone. When we speak with a common voice, we are heard
more loudly. When we unite, we achieve.
I would like to call upon all of you now to unite with us.
If you love science (and I know that you do or else you would
not be reading this) then you probably support the same goals
as we do here at the lab: the advancement of human knowledge,
the development of cheap and clean energy sources, the discovery
of cures to diseases, the exploration of the solar system and
beyond, and the general improvement of the living conditions
of all people around the world. These are goals that most people
do not often have a chance to think about in the course of their
day to day lives -- most of us get up in the morning, go to work
or school, take a half hour for lunch, and later come home in
the evening to spend time with our families and maybe catch the
big game on TV or watch a sitcom or two. We do not generally
have the opportunity to think about larger things because we
are under so much pressure just to earn a living. We know that
the world would be a better place if these larger goals could
be reached, but we do not know where to begin to do our small
part.
Science can serve as a beacon in these instances; it is the
lighthouse that leads us across the water to distant and exciting
new lands. Science has been responsible for every major improvement
in the human condition since the dawn of history, and it continues
to be so today. That is why this company was founded, and why
we continue to work tirelessly to fulfill our mission, and why we would like to inspire
you to help us to do more.
Craig Research Labs is an organization that is still in its
infancy. We are not even four years old. We have many ambitious
goals, but in order to reach them we must first work through
our growing pains. You have been very generous with your support
of our efforts thus far; I thank all of the volunteers around
the world who have joined our wildly successful distributed computing
teams; I also thank the many website owners across the Internet
who have linked to us and sent new visitors our way, and the
many individuals who have written kind letters to me in support
of the lab.
We need your help now more than ever to fulfill our mission.
We have several important new projects we are working on for
2005, but we have also had to discontinue a few past initiatives
because they are no longer relevant to the continued development
of this company. These include last year's membership initiative,
the CRL Science Blog, and our participation in the Amazon.com
Honor System. We will continue to develop our core activities
-- acceleration of our work in Distributed Computing, and enhancement
of our cancer research fundraising efforts. We humbly request
your support and participation in the efforts of the lab to achieve
these goals. If you have not already done so, please click here to become a volunteer, or
email me
if you would like to provide financial support for the lab or
our cancer research partners.
I look forward to sharing an exciting 2005 with all of you!
Douglas Craig
Director
Craig Research Labs
7/3/2002
It's been ten months since the founding of this company and
my last formal message to you. I thank all of you for your words
of encouragement and your support of my vision -- that science
can make the world a better place and is therefore worthy of
being pursued for its own sake, as an end in itself. At this
company we have made it our mission to do whatever we can to
push forward new ideas and innovations -- to bring about an acceleration
in the acquisition of knowledge and the advance of the sciences.
We have already reached our first significant milestone --
we recently completed our work for Stanford University's computational
biochemistry program Folding@home Version 1.0 with over 7,000
work unit credits and a team ranking that was within the top
100 teams worldwide. I am personally very proud of this accomplishment.
Our ongoing work for the new Folding@home program (Version 2.0)
and UC Berkeley's SETI@home radio astronomy project continues.
We are always looking for new volunteers to help us with these
projects (no experience necessary), so if you would like to join
one of our volunteer teams please click
here.
I originally had the idea in the back of my mind that the
"Message from the Director" would be an annual tradition
to update my audience about the main themes and noteworthy achievements
of this company, but as we approach the anniversary of our first
year in business, I am finding compelling reasons to write to
you sooner than expected. As this organization has grown and
the public has begun to discover what we are all about, we have
begun to gather significant grass roots support. I would now
like to draw upon that support, as Craig Research Labs has reached
a critical juncture in its development.
As some of you probably know, all of the research efforts
that we currently participate in are non profit projects. Yet
we are a for profit company. Reconciling these two issues has
been a challenge and a balancing act. Up until the present moment
I have without hesitation taken on the responsibility of funding
the company out of my own pocket (and I am not a wealthy individual),
but the time has come when Craig Research Labs must move beyond
its modest beginnings if it is to grow and flourish as a science
advocacy and research organization.
Therefore, I have decided that the time is right to begin
to search for new sources of revenue. After several false starts
I have been able to acquire a number of high quality advertisers
for our website; these companies sell a wide variety of science
and technology related products which should be of interest to
all members of the Craig Research Labs family. The addition of
these advertisers adds variety and value to our web offerings,
creates needed revenue, and does not interfere with our research
activities.
I would now like to ask that you support our advertisers by
visiting them through the links on our web pages and purchasing
their products. If you vote with your pocket book, you can help
us raise the money to do more science and at the same time you
get to buy yourself something nice! (What could be better?) If
you share our vision for a better world, then please take the
simple step of remembering us when it comes time for your next
telescope, software, or science curio purchase. The dollars you
spend shopping on our site will go a long way towards helping
us reach our financial objectives so we can get on with what
we do best -- science.
Here's a final thought. In a world that often seems chaotic
and unpredictable, isn't it nice to have something you can count
on? I can already tell by the enthusiastic feedback I have received
during the formative period of this company that many people
believe strongly in what we are trying to do. Together we have
started a very small snowball rolling down a very large hill,
and it is already beginning to increase in size. I am confident
that with your continued support Craig Research Labs will be
around for a very long time, and that we will be able to do great
things. I know I can count on you. You can count on us as well
to work as hard as we possibly can to make sure that your enthusiasm
is warranted and that we will live up to all of your expectations.
Together we can cure diseases, develop renewable energy sources,
and maybe one day even take mankind to the stars. Thank you for
believing in us during these exciting first ten months.
Douglas Craig
Director
Craig Research Lab
(Original "Message from the Director" - 9/1/2001)
The story of the 20th Century and beyond is the story of the
triumph of technology over human misery. At no other point in
human history have we innovated with such fervor or progressed
so rapidly. We have evolved and awakened. The pace of discovery
has been dizzying: the automobile, the airplane, television,
personal computers, the Internet...and also more mundane things
-- less glamorous perhaps but no less important -- advances in
medicine, cheap and abundant energy sources, crops with yields
our ancestors could only have dreamed of. We have all been uplifted
by these discoveries. Make no mistake: the future depends on
the continuation of this unprecedented burst of inspiration.
If we grow complacent or lose our sense of priorities we may
falter and lose forever much of what we have gained.
To be sure, there have been obstacles to overcome, many caused
by the irresponsible misuse of technologies that could have prevented
suffering. We have experienced disastrous wars, environmental
catastrophes, an increasing disparity between wealthy and poor
nations, and the continuing threat of sudden and total annihilation
of the human race. Ironically, it is technology itself which
holds the key to overcoming all of these tragedies, if only we
have the courage to use it wisely. Human nature may be firmly
rooted within each of us, but humans can be creative and curious
as well as cruel, and surely we can do better than we have done
in the past.
Perhaps I have a unique perspective on these matters. I was
born on the day that astronauts first walked on the moon. I have
witnessed firsthand the power of science to inspire and bring
potent, positive change. Science and technology have certainly
changed my life; I wonder how many of my peers that were born
on that day have also been led to follow paths that intertwine
with events larger than themselves. It is a great adventure that
we all must embark upon, every one of us, whether we are aware
of it or not.
It is my hope that one day this company will play a small
part in taking us to the stars, or at the very least help to
make a few things better here on Earth. I invite you to join
me on a journey towards an exciting, prosperous, and more sustainable
future.
Douglas Craig
Director
Craig Research Labs
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