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Question

What year is the Unix epoch — "time zero" for Unix timestamps — and how do you peg it?

Answer

1970 → tub · case.

A vintage terminal and a suitcase floating from a bathtub, a clock at midnight — the pegs tub (19) and case (70) encode 1970.

The Unix epoch is 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970; every Unix timestamp counts the seconds elapsed since that instant. Peg the year 19 · 70 → tub · case: a travel case floating in a bath tub. (A signed 32-bit counter of those seconds overflows in 2038 — the "Year 2038 problem".)

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