A live map of what the internet is talking about.
The system continuously reads news feeds, groups the words it finds into clusters of related concepts, and plots them on an interactive 2D map. Topics that are trending glow brighter; topics the internet has moved on from fade out. Related concepts drift closer together, giving you a weather-radar view of the news cycle at a glance.
Live overlays track real-world movement on the same map — ships via AIS and aircraft via ADS-B, with a plugin system for adding more data sources. More overlays are on the way.
feeds.json ──► ingest_live.py ──► nucleus.db (SQLite)
│
▼
viewer (Zig + Raylib)
ingest_live.py— Continuous ingester: round-robins through RSS feeds, drip-feeding headlines in small batches.hourly.py— Core ingest logic and model helpers (used byingest_live.py).feeds.json— Configurable list of RSS/Atom feed sources.prototype.py— Core model:ConceptNucleus,WordNetNucleusModel, GloVe embedding loader.db.py— SQLite helpers (schema, snapshot storage, position I/O).viewer/— Real-time interactive viewer built with Zig and Raylib.render.py— Batch matplotlib renderer (reads saved JSON, outputs frames).make_movie.py— Stitchesframes/into an MP4 via ffmpeg.
Download a prebuilt binary from ziglang.org/download and add it to your PATH, or use your package manager:
# Arch
sudo pacman -S zig
# macOS
brew install zig
# Ubuntu/Debian (via snap)
sudo snap install zig --classic --betaRaylib needs to be installed as a system library so the Zig build can link against it:
# Arch
sudo pacman -S raylib
# macOS
brew install raylib
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install libraylib-dev
# From source (any platform)
git clone https://github.com/raysan5/raylib.git
cd raylib/src && make PLATFORM=PLATFORM_DESKTOP && sudo make installmkdir -p data
curl -Lo data/glove.6B.zip https://nlp.stanford.edu/data/glove.6B.zip
unzip data/glove.6B.zip glove.6B.50d.txt -d data/
rm data/glove.6B.zippython -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install numpy scipy scikit-learn feedparser nltk matplotlib pillowFeeds are defined in feeds.json. Each entry has a name and an RSS url:
[
{"name": "Economy (US)", "url": "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=recession+OR+%22economic+slowdown%22&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en"},
{"name": "TechCrunch", "url": "https://techcrunch.com/feed/"}
]Any valid RSS or Atom feed URL will work. You can build custom Google News feeds by changing the search query:
https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=Taylor+Swift+OR+Beyonce&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
Some ideas:
- Local news — search for your city or region (
q=Portland+Oregon) - Celebrities — track names or entertainment topics
- Industry-specific —
q=biotech+OR+%22clinical+trials%22for pharma, etc. - Non-English — change
hl=andgl=params (e.g.hl=de&gl=DE&ceid=DE:defor German news) - Any RSS feed — blogs, subreddits (
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/.rss), government feeds, etc.
Changes take effect on the next ingest restart.
python ingest_live.pyThis runs continuously, round-robining through RSS feeds and drip-feeding headlines in small batches (default: 10 headlines every 6 seconds). A full cycle through all feeds takes about 6 minutes.
python ingest_live.py --interval 3 --batch 5 # faster, for testingTo run it as a background service with systemd (user):
cp wordnet-live.service ~/.config/systemd/user/
systemctl --user enable --now wordnet-live.servicecd viewer
zig build runThe viewer reads from nucleus.db in real time. It polls for new snapshots on a background thread, so you can leave it running while hourly.py adds data.
The viewer has live overlays toggled with keyboard shortcuts:
| Key | Overlay | Source |
|---|---|---|
S |
Ships (AIS) | Digitraffic (Finland) by default |
A |
Aircraft (ADS-B) | OpenSky Network |
W |
Cameras | JPEG snapshot feeds (user-configured) |
For global ship coverage, set an aisstream.io API key:
export AISSTREAM_API_KEY=your_key_hereWithout it, ship data is limited to the Finnish coast via the free Digitraffic API.
Cameras are configured in cameras.json. Each entry needs a name, lat/lon, and a URL that returns a JPEG or PNG snapshot:
[
{"name": "Jackson Hole Town Square", "lat": 43.4799, "lon": -110.7624, "url": "https://www.seejh.com/cams/townsquare/townsquare.jpg"},
{"name": "Your Local Traffic Cam", "lat": 51.5, "lon": -0.12, "url": "https://example.com/cam.jpg"}
]The viewer polls each camera every 30 seconds. Click a camera icon on the map to see its latest snapshot in the detail panel. DOT highway cameras, weather stations, and any URL that serves a static image will work.
Video streams (RTSP, HLS, MJPEG) are also supported via ffmpeg. Set "type": "stream" in the config, or the viewer will auto-detect from the URL:
{"name": "My RTSP Cam", "lat": 52.37, "lon": 4.89, "type": "stream", "url": "rtsp://..."}
python render.py # renders frames to frames/
python make_movie.py # stitches into concept_timelapse.mp4| Key | Action |
|---|---|
F / F11 |
Toggle fullscreen |
Home |
Reset camera (fit to screen) |
Esc |
Close search / clear selection |
P |
Toggle performance stats |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
/ |
Open search bar |
Esc |
Close search bar |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
G |
Toggle physics simulation |
M |
Toggle geographic mode (pins concepts to map coordinates) |
; / ' |
Decrease / increase geo spring strength |
N |
Toggle navmesh visualisation |
E |
Toggle edge rendering |
1–8 |
Toggle visibility of colour clusters |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Space |
Play / pause timeline |
[ / ] |
Decrease / increase playback speed |
Left / Right |
Step backward / forward |
End |
Snap to live |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
T |
Toggle motion trails |
B |
Toggle bloom |
C |
Toggle chromatic aberration |
V |
Toggle scanlines |
X |
Toggle night vision |
K |
Toggle CRT (barrel distortion, phosphors, flicker) |
H |
Toggle hologram/scanner |
J |
Toggle VHS glitch |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
S |
Toggle ships (AIS) |
A |
Toggle aircraft (ADS-B) |
W |
Toggle cameras |
CASSANDRA includes a built-in JavaScript-powered terminal. Press backtick to open it. Run commands, write scripts, pipe data between programs, or launch host binaries like htop, vi, and ssh — all inside the viewer.
Write 3D graphics programs in JavaScript — icospheres, solid cubes, particle systems, all rendered by the GPU at 60fps with composable behaviors.
See TERMINAL.md for the full documentation.
If you find CASSANDRA interesting, please give it a star and share it with others — it really helps the project grow.
See LICENSE.