You didn't have a bet on if black-holes were real or not, did you?

I'm sure as you all know, Professor Stephen Hawking, the Lucasian (Newton) Chair of Physics at Cambridge and author of A Brief History of Time, is not doing very well these days.

Professor Hawking is one of those unique people in the world. Not only is he the longest surviving person with Lou Gehrig's Disease, he is also able to make complex physics understandable by us mere humans. And showing his sense of humor that most people thought wasn't possible from someone in his stature he did a few stints on Star Trek the Next Generation (most notably playing poker with Data and Sir Isaac Newton). He also recently was able to experience 0g in a flight on the Vomit Comet. He is soon to retire the Chair (tradition states at 67, the Chair will retire). For someone with advanced neuron motor disease (ALS), that's quite an accomplishment.

Before I had geek-love for Neil deGrasse Tyson (who also has a great sense of humor and populism), Stephen Hawking fit that bill.

Well wishes, professor.