Return time ago in PHP a-la twitter. Comes from http://viralpatel.net/blogs/twitter-like-n-min-sec-ago-timestamp-in-php-mysql/ but applying strtotime to the parameter.

time_elapsed_string.php

function time_elapsed_string($original) {

    $original = strtotime($original);
    
    // array of time period chunks
    $chunks = array(
    array(60 * 60 * 24 * 365 , 'year'),
    array(60 * 60 * 24 * 30 , 'month'),
    array(60 * 60 * 24 * 7, 'week'),
    array(60 * 60 * 24 , 'day'),
    array(60 * 60 , 'hour'),
    array(60 , 'min'),
    array(1 , 'sec'),
    );

    $today = time(); /* Current unix time  */
    $since = $today - $original;

    // $j saves performing the count function each time around the loop
    for ($i = 0, $j = count($chunks); $i < $j; $i++) {

    $seconds = $chunks[$i][0];
    $name = $chunks[$i][1];

    // finding the biggest chunk (if the chunk fits, break)
    if (($count = floor($since / $seconds)) != 0) {
        break;
    }
    }

    $print = ($count == 1) ? '1 '.$name : "$count {$name}s";

    if ($i + 1 < $j) {
    // now getting the second item
    $seconds2 = $chunks[$i + 1][0];
    $name2 = $chunks[$i + 1][1];

    // add second item if its greater than 0
    if (($count2 = floor(($since - ($seconds * $count)) / $seconds2)) != 0) {
        $print .= ($count2 == 1) ? ', 1 '.$name2 : " $count2 {$name2}s";
    }
    }
    return $print;
}