18, 262 days.
Had he been born on Jupiter, he’d be a smidge over 4 years old (but then, he’d be more likely to live in Europa’s underground moon-spanning ocean, with the other alien squiddies). Mercury? 207 years old. Venus? 81. Pluto? Just 2 and a half months old.
But here on the green, green hills of Earth, PZ Myers of Pharyngula is 50 today.
50! That may be a tiny fraction of the lifespans of Moses, Abraham, and Methuselah — there were giants in those days, after all — but it’s still rather impressive for a guy who seems to live for ticking off creationists. As PZ himself would tell you, it’s advances in medicine due to evolutionary (gasp!) biology that allow so many of us to live to our three score and ten, and well beyond.
Let’s hope that PZ beats that and then some. We could use more fiery rhetoric like his.
March 8th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Shouldn’t that have been “in the blue, blue waters of Earth”?
Happy birthday, PZ!
Sorry, but no poems from scansion-challenged me.
March 8th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Happy Birthday to the second best science blogger I know.
March 8th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Yes, many happy returns to PZ!
Nit-picker that I am, I feel I must comment on the “2 and a half months” on Pluto. How is that one calculated? Pluto’s moons all have fairly short orbital periods (Charon is just over 6 days, and Nix and Hydra are shorter periods than that), so in fact PZ would be almost 3000 “months” old on Pluto. Of course, that’s still a lot less than a year there.
March 8th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
For Pluto, I took the fraction of the orbital period represented by his age, and multiplied by 12, assuming a Pluto month is 1/12 of a year.
March 8th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
“For Pluto, I took the fraction of the orbital period represented by his age, and multiplied by 12, assuming a Pluto month is 1/12 of a year.”
That actually makes more sense, since our Gregorian month isn’t based on the lunar month- it’s just arbitrary divisions based roughly on 1/12 of a year.
March 8th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
I’m going to have that image in my head for weeks …
March 9th, 2007 at 12:17 am
[...] HYBRIDIZATION EXPERIMENTS UPDATE: Scientists have successfully cross-bred humans with squid. [...]
March 9th, 2007 at 12:41 am
I must admit that the Aussie post immediately above this one did make me laugh and with the photo does help explain his championing of them
But hey, happy birthday to the squid king and second best science blogger 
sorry for the back handed birthday congrats but I stiill haven’t forgiven you for beating BA. 
March 9th, 2007 at 7:09 am
“‘For Pluto, I took the fraction of the orbital period represented by his age, and multiplied by 12, assuming a Pluto month is 1/12 of a year.’
That actually makes more sense, since our Gregorian month isn’t based on the lunar month- it’s just arbitrary divisions based roughly on 1/12 of a year.”
But why 12 Gregorian months in a year? Because that’s (approximately) how many lunar months there are in a year.
March 9th, 2007 at 7:13 am
I consider it irresponsible speculation to favour the possibility of cephalopodic life on Europa over Jupiter when no evidence against Flying Jovian Space Squid has yet been uncovered.
March 9th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Well then. That’s one more “name” I share a birthday with. Nifty!
March 9th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Hey Phil. Have you seen this google presentation by Dr. Bussard regarding his approach to thermonuclear fusion? It’s really fascinating,,,
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606
http://www.askmar.com/ConferenceNotes/Should%20Google%20Go%20Nuclear.pdf
The pdf is a condensation of the video. It’s easier to follow than the video, which is 1.5 hrs. long.
Gary 7
March 9th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Phil! How did you miss Penn Jillette’s birthday on March 5th!?
Oh, well, happy belated birthday.
J/P=?
March 9th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Fish and Wildlife Service issues restricted topics for scientists traveling abroad.
I expect you all over this, Phil!
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2935828
March 10th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
pz rules