pickpuck 4 hours ago

What if we extended this idea beyond one dataset to all discrete news events and entities: people, organizations, places.

Just like here you could get a timeline of key events, a graph of connected entities, links to original documents.

Newsrooms might already do this internally idk.

This code might work as a foundation. I love that it's RDF.

  • VikingCoder 2 hours ago

    Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale

    Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus

  • ggm 17 minutes ago

    Given 6 degrees is rooted in reality, this means we can draw causal graphs from anyone (bad) to anyone (we don't like) and then invent specious reasons why it means "it's all connected, man"

    That said, some networks of shorter paths than 6 are interesting. Right now, there's a 1:1 direct path from these documents to a bunch of people with an interest in confounding what evidentiary value they have in justice processes. That's more interesting to me, than what the documents say right now.

  • afavour 38 minutes ago

    The New York Times has an API that lets you query “tags” or “topics” and the articles associated with them:

    https://developer.nytimes.com/docs/semantic-api-product/1/ov...

    The Guardian has similar:

    https://open-platform.theguardian.com/documentation/tag

    Either or both could be an interesting starting point for something like that. I tried to find something for the BBC and was surprised they didn’t have anything. I would have figured public media would have been a great resource for this.

  • jandrewrogers 2 hours ago

    This has been attempted many times. They all fail the same way.

    These general data models start to become useful and interesting at around a trillion edges, give or take an order of magnitude. A mature graph model would be at least a few orders of magnitude larger, even if you aggressively curated what went into it. This is a simple consequence of the cardinality of the different kinds of entities that are included in most useful models.

    No system described in open source can get anywhere close to even the base case of a trillion edges. They will suffer serious scaling and performance issues long before they get to that point. It is a famously non-trivial computer science problem and much of the serious R&D was not done in public historically.

    This is why you only see toy or narrowly focused graph data models instead of a giant graph of All The Things. It would be cool to have something like this but that entails some hardcore deep tech R&D.

    • michelpp 41 minutes ago

      There are open source projects moving toward this scale, the GraphBLAS for example uses an algebraic formulation over compressed sparse matrix representations for graphs that is designed to be portable across many architectures, including cuda. It would be nice if companies like nivida could get more behind our efforts, as our main bottleneck is development hardware access.

      To plug my project, I've wrapped the SuiteSparse GraphBLAS library in a postgres extension [1] that fluidly blends algebraic graph theory with the relational model, the main flow is to use sql to structure complex queries for starting points, and then use the graphblas to flow through the graph to the endpoints, then joining back to tables to get the relevant metadata. On cheap hetzner hardware (amd epyc 64 core) we've achieved 7 billion edges per second BFS over the largest graphs in the suitesparse collection (~10B edges). With our cuda support we hope to push that kind of performance into graphs with trillions of edges.

      [1] https://github.com/OneSparse/OneSparse

    • babelfish 2 hours ago

      I don't have any experience on graph modeling, but it seems like Neo4j should be able to support 1 trillion edges, based on this (admittedly marketing) post of theirs? https://neo4j.com/press-releases/neo4j-scales-trillion-plus-...

      • jandrewrogers an hour ago

        The graph database market has a deserved reputation for carefully crafting scaling claims that are so narrowly qualified as to be inapplicable to anything real. If you aren't deep into the tech you'll likely miss it in the press releases. It is an industry-wide problem, I'm not trying to single out Neo4j here.

        Using this press release as an example, if you pay attention to the details you'll notice that this graph has an anomalously low degree. That is, the graph is very weakly connected, lots of nodes and barely any edges. Typical graph data models have much higher connectivity than this. For example, the classic Graph500 benchmark uses an average degree of 16 to measure scale-out performance.

        So why did they nerf the graph connectivity? One of the most fundamental challenges in scaling graphs is optimally cutting them into shards. Unlike most data models, no matter how you cut up the graph some edges will always span multiple shards, which becomes a nasty consistency problem in scale-out systems. Scaling this becomes exponentially harder the more highly connected the graph. So basically, they defined away the problem that makes graphs difficult to scale. They used a graph so weakly connected that they could kinda sorta make it work on a thousand(!) machines even though it is not representative of most real-world graph data models.

  • johongo 2 hours ago

    Emil Eifrem (founder of Neo4j) has a talk about them doing this with the Panama papers

  • j-pb 4 hours ago

    If it's RDF it won't work as the foundation.

  • axus 3 hours ago

    One wonders what the US government agencies use.

    • PaulHoule 3 hours ago

      Isn’t that what Palantir’s product is?

    • cjohnson318 3 hours ago

      They probably use Excel, maybe Microsoft Access.

      • ToucanLoucan 2 hours ago

        Microsoft Access form that connects via IIS to an Excel spreadsheet acting as a database. Also the server it's running on is sitting on a wooden table.

    • abnercoimbre 3 hours ago

      I think you meant one shudders. And yeah, Snowden made it clear there's orders of magnitude more data than this graph explorer for them to sift through.

    • dboreham 2 hours ago

      Internet search engines have their origins in government projects fwiw. They had search engines before Alta Vista, used for searching data sets that pre-date the internet, and some of the people involved in those went to work on the original commercial search engines.

bfkwlfkjf 4 minutes ago

Anybody else enjoying the fact that maga manufactured this outrage and now it's being turned against them?

ChrisMarshallNY 4 hours ago

Oh Cthulhu, this is like a periscope into a septic tank...

  • bamboozled 3 hours ago

    Yes almost no one has been held accountable for any of it, "weird"?

    • Y_Y 4 minutes ago

      What accountability would you suggest?

boogheta 2 hours ago

It's a bit too bad that the network visualisation relies on d3: it is really slow with big networks, and the force directed algorithm is far from the best. Have you tried using JS libraries built specifically to visualise graph networks such as Sigma.js, Vivagraph or Cytoscape?

liotier 5 hours ago

"Brad Edwards" and "Bradley Edwards" might be the same individual.

  • DrewADesign 3 hours ago

    I’m sure some developer/archivist is working on a name authority as we speak.

  • tovej 4 hours ago

    Yes, the dataset also has three entries for Virginia Giuffre, "Virginia L. Giuffre", "Virginia Roberts Giuffre", and "Jane Doe Number 3 (Virginia Roberts)"

  • adolph 2 hours ago

    I read a recent observation that people subject to discovery are often making purposeful typos in key names in order for the communication to remain under the radar.

  • cyrusradfar 3 hours ago

    great use case for using AI to suggest mergers and clean up.

    • specproc 2 hours ago

      LLMs are awful for this. I've got a project that's doing structured extraction and half the work is deduplication.

      I didn't go down the route of LLMs for the clean up, as you're getting into scale and context issues with larger datasets.

      I got into semantic similarity networks for this use case. You can do efficient pairwise matching with Annoy, set a cutoff threshold, and your isolated subgraphs are merger candidates.

      I wrapped up my code in a little library if you're into this sort of thing.

      github.com/specialprocedures/semnet

  • GuinansEyebrows 4 hours ago

    Likewise for instances of "Larry" and "Lawrence" Summers... probably a lot of those.

jrochkind1 5 hours ago

Why are they all moving, what does the time axis represent?

  • alhadrad 5 hours ago

    Its because the layout system has also a physics system.

  • piyh 4 hours ago

    >A force-directed graph is a technique for visualizing networks where nodes are treated like physical objects with forces acting between them to create a stable arrangement. Attractive forces (like springs) pull connected nodes together, while repulsive forces (like electric charges) push all nodes apart, resulting in a layout where connected nodes are closer and unconnected nodes are more separated

    https://observablehq.com/@d3/force-directed-graph/2

yndoendo 3 hours ago

After seen this I interested in a map of each person to assist with knowing who they are, who they worked for during the email date, and who they currently work for.

theultdev 4 hours ago

This is the best rendition I've seen so far.

The Bill Clinton entity is interesting.

> 2009: Bill Clinton discontinued association with Jeffrey Epstein

> 2010: Jeffrey Epstein provided flights on jets to Bill Clinton

> 2010-2011: Jeffrey Epstein traveled via private aircraft with Bill Clinton

> 2011: Ghislaine Maxwell piloted helicopter for Bill Clinton

> 2014: Bill Clinton alleged presence at sex parties

> 2015: Bill Clinton distanced relationship from Jeffrey Epstein

Wasn't very good at discontinuing the relationship it seems.

Guess there is precedent for him lying about sexual activities though.

I think a sentiment analysis between the friendliness and social meetups between Epstein and other individuals would be useful.

Who were his friends after 2008 when he was first convicted?

Those who were still friends with him after 2008 were in on it or guilty by association, if not legally, socially.

Friends like Reid Hoffman and Larry Summers...

> From: Reid Hoffman

> Sent: 7/6/2015 5:04:31 PM

> To: jeffrey E. [jeeyacation@gmail.com]

> Subject: RE: ICYMI

> slow progress.

> planning to see you in August.

> Hope you're well.

Larry Summers has too many to list. Doesn't look good though digging through them.

  • beepbooptheory 3 hours ago

    This obviously the correct lens but note that the 2008 plea deal was so neutered by the time of settlement it made it somewhat easy to stay friends with him.

    This is of course ontop of the 2006 Florida prostitution charge though.

    • theultdev 3 hours ago

      Especially when Epstein was paying off journalists at the NYT and intimidating other outlets.

      But point being those people that were friends with him had to know. Whether it was socially acceptable by the elite because the public wasn't aware isn't very relevant.

  • tinyplanets 3 hours ago

    I'd take a look at Trump. He's on a whole different level. Lots of rape and sexual abuse of minors... wow.

    • bamboozled 3 hours ago

      Seems to get away with it all, meanwhile, we all pay our taxes, don't break any laws and just be "good people".

    • theultdev 3 hours ago

      Of course, deflect discussion to Trump. Does that make any of those other people look better to you?

      Trump gave information against Epstein in 2009 and unlike Bill and others did cut ties after learning he was poaching girls from Mar-a-Lago.

      I specifically made the point to look into those who were friends with Epstein even after knowing what he was doing.

      Nice whataboutism though. Feel free to reference source materials to support your claims.

      Btw are you a bot or is that just a canned statement you use?

      • hiccuphippo 2 hours ago

        Well for one those other people are not the current president of the most powerful country in the world.

        But sure, lock all of them up, just don't ignore a few because they are too powerful.

        • JumpCrisscross 23 minutes ago

          It’s been wild to see people subsume not defending child rapists to their partisan identity.

          I’m still convinced it’s a minority of loud voices online and on social media.

      • toyg 2 hours ago

        Clinton at least has not been in office for 25 years. Trump is still in office. Surely the priority should be to get the bad people out of institutions asap...?

      • timeon 2 hours ago

        > Trump gave information against Epstein in 2009

        Pre-2009 records on Trump there are nasty. One example:

        > ... It was at these series of parties that I personally witnessed the Plaintiff being forced to perform various sexual acts with Donald J. Trump and Mr. Epstein. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein were advised that she was 13 years old. I personally witnessed four sexual encounters that the Plaintiff was forced to have with Mr. Trump during this period, including the fourth of these encounters where Mr. Trump forcibly raped her despite her pleas to stop.

        Only difference between Clinton and Trump is that Trump is still president.

      • sanktanglia 3 hours ago

        Trump was with Epstein in 2017, he didn't cut ties at all

        • theultdev 3 hours ago

          That's a lie that has already been proven false since Trump's entire trip was documented.

          Love how we have actual evidence against people but discussions always devolve into some conspiracy related to Trump.

          ----

          Based on the available evidence, there is no confirmed meeting between Trump and Epstein in 2017. While both men were in Palm Beach during Thanksgiving week 2017, there is no direct evidence they met.

          Here's what we know about their presence in Palm Beach that week:

          - Trump was at Mar-a-Lago from November 21-26, 2017

          - Epstein owned a mansion in Palm Beach and was known to be in the area

          - Epstein mentioned both Trump and himself being "down there" (Palm Beach) in an email exchange on November 23, 2017

          While there were claims circulating online that Trump spent Thanksgiving with Epstein in 2017, these claims have been thoroughly investigated and found to be unsubstantiated

          Trump's official calendar for that week shows his activities included:

          - Thanking military members on a virtual call

          - Visiting Coast Guard members at Lake Worth Inlet Station

          - Playing golf with Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson

          • culi 2 hours ago

            Even if Trump cut off ties with Epstein in 2017, he should clearly be held accountable for his past actions. Here's 2 pretty damning emails:

            ---

            Epstein to Maxwell 2011-04-02

            > i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump... [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75% there

            ---

            Epstein to Ruemmler 2018-08-23

            > you see, i know how dirty donald is. my guess is that non lawyers ny biz people have no idea. what it means to have your fixer flip

            • theultdev 2 hours ago

              You didn't read my post. They never met in 2017.

              And those emails aren't damning at all. You have a disgruntled pedo spouting off nonsense.

              Epstein is not a moral figure you can trust, of course he was mad after Trump gave information against him in 2009 and kicking him out of Mar-a-lago.

              The only thing you can trust is the correspondence between Epstein and other individuals. Not hearsay from him.

              Anyone can gossip about someone, that is not evidence. Evidence is individuals being friendly with Epstein after knowing what he's done, going to his island, etc. None of which that Trump did.

wnevets 5 hours ago

where is bubba?

  • analog31 5 hours ago

    Retired from public office.

    • trallnag 5 hours ago

      [flagged]

      • deelowe 5 hours ago

        Bubba was allegedly a nickname for clinton.

        • JKCalhoun 5 hours ago

          (Also allegedly the name of a horse Ghislaine Maxwell owned.)

        • wnevets 5 hours ago

          The nickname itself isn't alleged, which particular bubba is tho.