DATETIME

"YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS"

@@session.time_zone

mysql> insert into times values(now()); mysql> select unix_timestamp(t) from times; 1310128044 mysql> SET SESSION time_zone='+0:00'; mysql> select unix_timestamp(t) from times; 1310164044

There's also a TIMESTAMP type, which is stored as UNIX time, but has other magic.