What is "zodiac"

Zodiac \Zo"di*ac\, n. [F. zodiaque (cf. It. zodiaco), fr. L. zodiacus, Gr. ? (sc. ?), fr. ?, dim. of zw^,on an animal, akin to ? living, ? to live.]

1. (Astron.)

   1. An imaginary belt in the heavens, 16[deg] or 18[deg] broad, in the middle of which is the ecliptic, or sun's path. It comprises the twelve constellations, which one constituted, and from which were named, the twelve signs of the zodiac.

   2. A figure representing the signs, symbols, and constellations of the zodiac.

2. A girdle; a belt. [Poetic & R.]

   By his side, As in a glistering zodiac, hung the sword.
   --Milton.

late 14c., from Old French zodiaque, from Latin zodiacus "zodiac," from Greek zodiakos (kyklos) "zodiac (circle)," literally "circle of little animals," from zodiaion, diminutive of zoion "animal" (see zoo).\n

\nLibra is not an animal, but it was not a zodiac constellation to the Greeks, who reckoned 11 but counted Scorpio and its claws (including what is now Libra) as a "double constellation." Libra was figured back in by the Romans. In Old English the zodiac was twelf tacna "the twelve signs," and in Middle English also Our Ladye's Waye and the Girdle of the Sky.

n. 1 (context astrology English) The belt-like region of the celestial sphere approximately eight degrees north and south of the ecliptic, which thousands of years ago included the apparent path of the sun, moon, and planets. 2 (context astrology English) The twelve equal divisions of the astrological zodiacal region into signs, or houses, of the zodiac, each sign named after a constellation in this region. 3 (context astronomy English) The belt-like region of the celestial sphere corresponding to the apparent path of the sun over the course of a year, the ecliptic. 4 (context countable English) A circle decorated with the signs of the zodiac. 5 Any of various astrological systems considered similar to the above.

1. n. a belt-shaped region in the heavens on either side to the ecliptic; divided into 12 constellations or signs for astrological purposes

2. (astrology) a circular diagram representing the 12 zodiacal constellations and showing their signs

In both astrology and historical astronomy, the zodiac ( Greek: ζῳδιακός, zōdiakos) is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude that are centered upon the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The paths of the Moon and visible planets also remain close to the ecliptic, within the belt of the zodiac, which extends 8-9° north or south of the ecliptic, as measured in celestial latitude. Because the divisions are regular, they do not correspond exactly to the boundaries of the twelve constellations after which they are named.

Historically, these twelve divisions are called signs. Essentially, the zodiac is a celestial coordinate system, or more specifically an ecliptic coordinate system, which takes the ecliptic as the origin of latitude, and the position of the Sun at vernal equinox as the origin of longitude.

The zodiac is a coordinate system of twelve "signs", based on twelve constellations used in astronomy and astrology.

Zodiac is a non-fiction book written by Robert Graysmith about the unsolved serial murders committed by the " Zodiac Killer" in San Francisco in the late 1960s and early '70s. Since its initial release in 1986, Zodiac has sold 4 million copies worldwide. Graysmith was a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle and later also wrote Zodiac Unmasked.

Zodiac (Zodiak, , ) was a space disco music band that existed in the 1980s in Latvia, then a part of Soviet Union. The band was extremely popular in the Soviet Union and has been credited by critics as the Soviet answer to the French band Space who were popular at the time.

Zodiac is the name of different groups of fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Zodiac is the seventh studio album by electronic rock band Electric Six. It was released in 2010 on Metropolis Records.

According to an official statement by the band, the songs on the album have been arranged to correspond with the signs of the Zodiac. The album contains a cover version of The Spinners 1976 classic " The Rubberband Man".

Zodiac is a ride at Thorpe Park, Surrey, United Kingdom.

Zodiac is an album led by saxophonist Cecil Payne recorded in 1968 but not released on the Strata-East label until 1973.

Zodiac: An Eco-Thriller (1988) is a novel by American writer Neal Stephenson. His second novel, it tells the story of an environmentalist, Sangamon Taylor, uncovering a conspiracy involving industrialist polluters in Boston Harbor. The "Zodiac" of the title refers to the brand of inflatable motor boats the hero uses to get around the city efficiently. His opponents attempt to frame him as an ecoterrorist.

The protagonist is inspired by environmental chemist Marco Kaltofen. Taylor is a recreational user of nitrous oxide, justifying his choice of drug by the eponymous Sangamon's principle: "the simpler the molecule, the better the drug".

In the novel, Taylor is a chemist working for GEE, a fictional environmental activism group which stages both protests and direct actions plugging toxic waste pipes. Taylor becomes involved with Basco Industries, a fictional corporation which produced Agent Orange and is a major supplier of organic chlorine compounds. Basco experiments with genetic engineering to develop chemical producing microbes, driving Taylor's efforts to expose their crimes and preserve Boston Harbor.

A number of the later events of the novel take place on Boston Harbor's Spectacle Island which at the time of publication was almost entirely composed of garbage. In the story it is frequented by drugged-out and reputedly Satanic groupies of the " two-umlaut" heavy metal music band, Pöyzen Böyzen, who are too intoxicated with angel dust to realize they are poisoning themselves with the toxic waste that was dumped there.

Taylor's projects involve sampling the concentration of polychlorinated biphenyls in Boston Harbor with the help of the Gallaghers, a fishing family who record the location of the lobsters they catch. While gathering evidence which GEE will use to expose Basco's crimes, Taylor is flummoxed by the fact that the toxins have suddenly disappeared. He eventually discovers that Basco has acquired a bioengineering firm, where his high school nemesis is employed as a genetic engineer, to create a bacterium that is able to digest toxins, cleaning up the harbor instantly. However, Basco had been forced to release the bacteria into the wild without full testing because of their imminent exposure by GEE. Depending on the equilibrium state of the harbor, the new bacteria is also able to create toxins.

To stop Taylor meddling with their plans, Basco discredits him by planting a bomb in his house and framing him as a terrorist trying to assassinate their president. He escapes with the help of a Native American tribe and eventually returns in secret to steal one of their ships containing a large amount of toxins which they are planning to release into the ocean.

Zodiac is a 2007 American mystery- thriller film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay by James Vanderbilt is based on the 1986 non-fiction book of the same name by Robert Graysmith. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey, Jr., with Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch, Dermot Mulroney and Chloë Sevigny in supporting roles.

Zodiac tells the story of the manhunt for a notorious serial killer who called himself the " Zodiac" and killed in and around the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s, leaving several victims in his wake and taunting police with letters, blood stained clothing, and ciphers mailed to newspapers. The cases remain one of Northern California's most infamous unsolved crimes.

Fincher, Vanderbilt and producer Bradley J. Fischer spent 18 months conducting their own investigation and research into the Zodiac murders. Fincher employed the digital Thomson Viper Filmstream camera to photograph the film. However, Zodiac was not shot entirely digitally; traditional high-speed film cameras were used for slow-motion murder sequences.

Reviews for Zodiac were very positive, lauding the film's writing, directing, acting and historical authenticity. The film grossed over $84 million worldwide against a production budget of $65 million.

Zodiac are a hard rock band from Münster, Germany. The band was formed in 2010 by singer-guitarist Nick Van Delft and Long Distance Calling drummer Janosch Rathmer. Stephan Gall and Robert Kahr joined shortly after to complete the line-up before Ruben Claro replaced Kahr in 2012. The band are heavily influenced by rock and blues music from the 1970s and it adds to the theme and style of their own music. As of 2016, they have made four studio albums.

Zodiac is a solitaire card game which is played with two decks of playing cards shuffled together. An old game, it first appeared in Lady Adelaide Cadogan's book Illustrated Games of Patience. It is so-named probably because of its " globe"-shaped layout. It had many variations until its rules were standardized in 1914.

First, eight cards are dealt in a row. They form the cells which make up the reserve, or the " Equator". Each reserve cell can only hold one card. Then twenty four cards are dealt in a circle surrounding the Equator to form the tableau, or the " Zodiac."

The game is divided into two phases: the first phases consists of playing the rest of the cards into the Zodiac and the Equator; the second phase is the building of the cards into the foundations.

In the first phase of the game, the cards in the Zodiac are built up or down by suit; the build can change direction in the same pile. However, the cards in Zodiac cannot be touched until the second phase. This means that until the second phase starts, the cards in the Zodiac cannot be used to build on each other. Also, any card build on a pile in the Zodiac stays there until the start of the second phase.

The cards on the Equator are used to build on the cards on the Zodiac. The space in the Equator can be filled with an available card from the stock or the top card of the wastepile. However, filling a space is not compulsory, i.e. a player can leave a space open for as long as the player finds it advantageous.

Meanwhile, the stock is dealt one card at a time, and unplayable cards are placed on a wastepile, the top card of which is available to be built on a pile in the Zodiac or to fill a space on the Equator. Once the stock runs out, the player can just pick up the remaining cards in the wastepile and turn it face down to make it the new stock. The player can do this as many times as he wants as long as there still more cards neither in the Zodiac nor in the Equator.

Only when all cards are both in the Zodiac and in the Equator, the second phase begins. The cards in the Zodiac and Equator are built straight to the foundations. The foundations are built up by suit from Aces to Kings. The game is won when all the cards are built on the foundations.

At any point in the game, when it becomes stuck, i.e. the cards in the stock/wastepile cannot be built without blocking other cards during the first phase, or encountering a block during the second phase, the game is lost.

Obviously the player must have great care and consideration in building the cards in the Zodiac in order for the game to be won. Also, the layout of the game is large when played with standard-sized playing cards. So, as a suggestion, the player can just deal eight cards for the Equator and twenty-four cards for the Zodiac to save space.

In cryptography, Zodiac is a block cipher designed in 2000 by Chang-Hyi Lee for the Korean firm SoftForum.

Zodiac uses a 16-round Feistel network structure with key whitening. The round function uses only XORs and S-box lookups. There are two 8×8-bit S-boxes: one based on the discrete exponentiation 45 as in SAFER, the other using the multiplicative inverse in the finite field GF(2), as introduced by SHARK.

Zodiac is theoretically vulnerable to impossible differential cryptanalysis, which can recover a 128-bit key in 2 encryptions.

Two soundtrack albums were released from the 2007 film Zodiac.

The first album, Zodiac: Songs from the Motion Picture, was released by Lakeshore Records on February 27, 2007 and features various popular music pertaining to the time periods covered in the film.

The second album, Zodiac: Original Motion Picture Score, was released by Varèse Sarabande on March 13, 2007 and features the music of David Shire.

Originally the film's director, David Fincher, envisioned the film’s soundtrack to be composed of 40 cues of vintage music spanning the nearly three decades of the Zodiac story. However, the director felt that an original score was also needed "to take the emotional part of the film to another level," according to the film's sound designer and longtime collaborator Ren Klyce.