Friends in high places

Two friends of mine were recently inducted into the National Academy of Sciences: Adam Riess and Alex Filippenko. I worked with Adam ages ago when we were both grad students; we were on the same team looking at supernovae with Hubble. He later went on to co-discover dark energy; I wound up writing fanboy blog entries about Doctor Who. I think we know who got the better deal. Alex was initially on the other team that co-discovered dark energy, but eventually joined the team with Adam on it. I met Alex a few years ago, and we quickly became friends; we both love astronomy, and we both love talking about it to the public. Alex has won Berkeley's student-voted Best Professor on campus something like 6 times, while I of course tied for Best Science Blog with an anti-global warming site. I think we know who got the better deal. My sincere congrats to both Adam and Alex; this is a prestigious honor and well-deserved!