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The current Bully timestamp is:

8209 2804 3BB4

Percentage count to next timestamp is: 94%

   

This page was loaded on: 2025-04-30 01:16:41 (UTC) (Update page)

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What is the Bully Row time system?

Figure 1

The Bully Row time system is neither a clock nor a calendar. Clocks are tied to the rotation of the Earth and measure Universal Time (UT) in terms of days and fractions of days (for example: hours, minutes, and seconds). Calendars are tied to changes in the seasons, which result from the orbit of the Earth around the Sun (Ephemeris time), and from the precession of the equinoxes. Calendars measure time in terms of days, weeks, months, and years. Clocks and calendars are used for tracking biological processes such as setting a time to wake up in the morning or determining when to plant crops. It is essential for clocks and calendars to remain correlated with the earth's actual orientation for proper management of life's biological processes.

Since clocks and calendars are tied to the motion of the Earth, and these motions are somewhat irregular, it becomes necessary from time to time to insert leap seconds, or make other corrections, to keep clocks and calendars in sync with the Earth's actual orientation. As shown in figure 1 above, the Earth's rotational motion (UT) can experience variations on the order of 500 milliseconds per year. The Earth's orbital motion (ET) can experience variations on the order of 40 milliseconds per year. During the 110 year period (1930 AD ... 2040 AD) shown in figure 1, the accumulation of Earth's rotational variations resulted in an increase of Delta T (ET-UT) from less than 25 seconds to more than 70 seconds.

The Bully Row time system (shown on the far right axis in figure 1) is not directly tied to the motions of the Earth, and hence, it is never necessary to insert leap seconds or other corrections into Bully Row timestamps. The Bully Row time system measures elapsed time and can be directly related to International Atomic Time (TAI), which is the passage of elapsed time as measured using atomic clocks.

Timespan described by Bully Row timestamps

$${16}^{12}\cdot 3055\ seconds=27,249,360,000\ years$$

A unique hexadecimal twelve digit Bully Row timestamp is realized every 3055 seconds TAI. The universe is currently understood to be less than 13.8 billion years old, which means that there are enough unique Bully Row timestamps to span the entire age of the universe. Click the below link to see an estimated Bully Row Timeline for the history of the Earth.

Bully Row Timeline for the History of the Earth

Why do we need Bully Row timestamps

It is impossible to predict the exact long term relationship that will exist between elapsed time and wall clock time (which is based on the Earth's orientation). Leap second insertions, along with other clock and calendar corrections, were designed to accommodate for uncertainties in Earth's motion, but since these variations are unpredictable, they can not be pre-programmed into computer hardware or software.

The inability of computers to account for unpredictable corrections in time, has resulted in multiple time standards being created. Each time standard is a reflection of circumstances that existed during the deployment of that particular system. For example, as shown in figure 1 above, The GPS system was deployed January 6, 1980. At a time when there was a DeltaT adjustment (TT-UTC) of more than 51 "leap" seconds. The LORAN-C upgrade; on the other hand, occurred in 1972 when the DeltaT adjustment (TT-UTC) was closer to 42 "leap" seconds. The timestamps provided by GPS and LORAN-C differ by 9 seconds due to the disparate circumstances under which these systems were deployed. Click on the below "LeapSecond.com" link for a comparison of six time standards (local, UTC, GPS, Loran, and TAI):

LeapSecond.com

The unpredictability of leap second insertions is an ongoing source of confusion and expense. Click on the following "The second is broken" link for more information:

The second is broken

The advantage of the Bully Row time system is that Bully Row timestamps are not correlated with the motions of the Earth, and hence, as shown in figure 1 above, the Bully Row timestamps are independent of unpredictable DeltaT variations.

Realized vs. Estimated Bully Row timestamps

Each Bully Row timestamp is realized exactly 3055 seconds TAI after the previous one. However, since atomic time standards did not exist prior to the 1950's, any assignment of Bully Row timestamps prior to 1958 should be viewed as an estimate of how elapsed time might have transpired in the past, rather than an actual realization of Bully Row time. Bully Row time should only be considered "realized" when time is measured to a required accuracy of ${10}^{-10}$.

There have been over 655360 realized Bully Row timestamps (8209 28E4 0000 ... 8209 28EE 0000) during the 66 years of modern atomic time keeping (1958 AD ... 2024 AD). Given the availability of atomic clocks, it is anticipated that Bully Row timestamps will continue to be realized with great regularity for the foreseeable future. However, A Bully Row timestamp should not be considered "realized" until after it occurs and is measured using precise clocks.

To clear up uncertainty, the following table (derived from the Wikipedia "Leap Second" article), lists all leap second insertions that have occurred since the introduction of modern time keeping. For each leap second insertion, the below table lists the preceding Bully Row timestamp (that had been "realized" immediately prior to the leap second insertion), and the subsequent Bully Row timestamp (that was "realized" immediately after the leap second insertion).

A few details are worth noting in the below table. The TAI and UTC already differed by 10 seconds at the beginning of 1972, so when Bully Row Timestamp 8209 28E5 DFFB was realized, the TAI time was 1972-06-30 23:34:45 TAI, whereas UTC time was 1972-06-30 23:34:35 UTC. An additional 27 leap seconds have been inserted into UTC during the fifty year period between 1972 and 2022, making a total of 37 leap seconds difference, so when Bully Row Timestamp 8209 28EC E3C0 was realized, the TAI time was 2017-01-01 00:32:00 TAI, whereas UTC time was 2017-01-01 00:31:23 UTC. You will also note that Bully Row timestamps are realized during TAI times with a seconds value ending in five or zero. The Bully Row and TAI both measure elapsed time as determined by atomic clocks, so these systems will always have this simple relationship.

Announced leap seconds to date

Year	30 Jun	31 Dec	Bully Row Timestamp	International Atomic Time (TAI)	Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
1972	+1	+1	8209 28E5 DFFB 8209 28E5 DFFC 8209 28E5 F44F 8209 28E5 F450	1972-06-30 23:34:45 TAI 1972-07-01 00:25:40 TAI 1972-12-31 23:45:05 TAI 1973-01-01 00:36:00 TAI	1972-06-30 23:34:35 UTC 1972-07-01 00:25:29 UTC 1972-12-31 23:44:54 UTC 1973-01-01 00:35:48 UTC
1973	0	+1	8209 28E6 1CA2 8209 28E6 1CA3	1973-12-31 23:57:50 TAI 1974-01-01 00:48:45 TAI	1973-12-31 23:57:38 UTC 1974-01-01 00:48:32 UTC
1974	0	+1	8209 28E6 44F4 8209 28E6 44F5	1974-12-31 23:19:40 TAI 1975-01-01 00:10:35 TAI	1974-12-31 23:19:27 UTC 1975-01-01 00:10:21 UTC
1975	0	+1	8209 28E6 6D47 8209 28E6 6D48	1975-12-31 23:32:25 TAI 1976-01-01 00:23:20 TAI	1975-12-31 23:32:11 UTC 1976-01-01 00:23:05 UTC
1976	0	+1	8209 28E6 95B6 8209 28E6 95B7	1976-12-31 23:30:50 TAI 1977-01-01 00:21:45 TAI	1976-12-31 23:30:35 UTC 1977-01-01 00:21:29 UTC
1977	0	+1	8209 28E6 BE09 8209 28E6 BE0A	1977-12-31 23:43:35 TAI 1978-01-01 00:34:30 TAI	1977-12-31 23:43:19 UTC 1978-01-01 00:34:13 UTC
1978	0	+1	8209 28E6 E65C 8209 28E6 E65D	1978-12-31 23:56:20 TAI 1979-01-01 00:47:15 TAI	1978-12-31 23:56:03 UTC 1979-01-01 00:46:57 UTC
1979	0	+1	8209 28E7 0EAE 8209 28E7 0EB0	1979-12-31 23:18:10 TAI 1980-01-01 01:00:00 TAI	1979-12-31 23:17:52 UTC 1980-01-01 00:59:41 UTC
1981	+1	0	8209 28E7 4B1C 8209 28E7 4B1D	1981-06-30 23:19:00 TAI 1981-07-01 00:09:55 TAI	1981-06-30 23:18:41 UTC 1981-07-01 00:09:35 UTC
1982	+1	0	8209 28E7 736F 8209 28E7 7370	1982-06-30 23:31:45 TAI 1982-07-01 00:22:40 TAI	1982-06-30 23:31:25 UTC 1982-07-01 00:22:19 UTC
1983	+1	0	8209 28E7 9BC2 8209 28E7 9BC3	1983-06-30 23:44:30 TAI 1983-07-01 00:35:25 TAI	1983-06-30 23:44:09 UTC 1983-07-01 00:35:03 UTC
1985	+1	0	8209 28E7 EC84 8209 28E7 EC85	1985-06-30 23:55:40 TAI 1985-07-01 00:46:35 TAI	1985-06-30 23:55:18 UTC 1985-07-01 00:46:12 UTC
1987	0	+1	8209 28E8 517D 8209 28E8 517F	1987-12-31 23:40:35 TAI 1988-01-01 01:22:25 TAI	1987-12-31 23:40:12 UTC 1988-01-01 01:22:01 UTC
1989	0	+1	8209 28E8 A23F 8209 28E8 A240	1989-12-31 23:51:45 TAI 1990-01-01 00:42:40 TAI	1989-12-31 23:51:21 UTC 1990-01-01 00:42:15 UTC
1990	0	+1	8209 28E8 CA91 8209 28E8 CA92	1990-12-31 23:13:35 TAI 1991-01-01 00:04:30 TAI	1990-12-31 23:13:10 UTC 1991-01-01 00:04:04 UTC
1992	+1	0	8209 28E9 06FF 8209 28E9 0700	1992-06-30 23:14:25 TAI 1992-07-01 00:05:20 TAI	1992-06-30 23:13:59 UTC 1992-07-01 00:04:53 UTC
1993	+1	0	8209 28E9 2F52 8209 28E9 2F53	1993-06-30 23:27:10 TAI 1993-07-01 00:18:05 TAI	1993-06-30 23:26:43 UTC 1993-07-01 00:17:37 UTC
1994	+1	0	8209 28E9 57A5 8209 28E9 57A6	1994-06-30 23:39:55 TAI 1994-07-01 00:30:50 TAI	1994-06-30 23:39:27 UTC 1994-07-01 00:30:21 UTC
1995	0	+1	8209 28E9 944B 8209 28E9 944C	1995-12-31 23:12:05 TAI 1996-01-01 00:03:00 TAI	1995-12-31 23:11:36 UTC 1996-01-01 00:02:30 UTC
1997	+1	0	8209 28E9 D0B9 8209 28E9 D0BA	1997-06-30 23:12:55 TAI 1997-07-01 00:03:50 TAI	1997-06-30 23:12:25 UTC 1997-07-01 00:03:19 UTC
1998	0	+1	8209 28EA 0D60 8209 28EA 0D61	1998-12-31 23:36:00 TAI 1999-01-01 00:26:55 TAI	1998-12-31 23:35:29 UTC 1999-01-01 00:26:23 UTC
2005	0	+1	8209 28EB 27DC 8209 28EB 27DD	2005-12-31 23:45:40 TAI 2006-01-01 00:36:35 TAI	2005-12-31 23:45:08 UTC 2006-01-01 00:36:02 UTC
2008	0	+1	8209 28EB A0F0 8209 28EB A0F1	2008-12-31 23:18:40 TAI 2009-01-01 00:09:35 TAI	2008-12-31 23:18:07 UTC 2009-01-01 00:09:01 UTC
2012	+1	0	8209 28EC 2E04 8209 28EC 2E05	2012-06-30 23:45:00 TAI 2012-07-01 00:35:55 TAI	2012-06-30 23:44:26 UTC 2012-07-01 00:35:20 UTC
2015	+1	0	8209 28EC A6FC 8209 28EC A6FD	2015-06-30 23:32:20 TAI 2015-07-01 00:23:15 TAI	2015-06-30 23:31:45 UTC 2015-07-01 00:22:39 UTC
2016	0	+1	8209 28EC E3BF 8209 28EC E3C0	2016-12-31 23:41:05 TAI 2017-01-01 00:32:00 TAI	2016-12-31 23:40:29 UTC 2017-01-01 00:31:23 UTC

The Bully Row Anthem

The Bully Row Anthem (Alan Doyle Cover)

The earliest meaning of English bully was “sweetheart.” The word was probably borrowed from Dutch boel, “lover.” Later bully was used for anyone who seemed a good fellow.