diff --git a/plugin-designs/research-dashboard/src/components/dashboards/DashboardMapPanel.vue b/plugin-designs/research-dashboard/src/components/dashboards/DashboardMapPanel.vue
index 449061e06..29564faf8 100644
--- a/plugin-designs/research-dashboard/src/components/dashboards/DashboardMapPanel.vue
+++ b/plugin-designs/research-dashboard/src/components/dashboards/DashboardMapPanel.vue
@@ -272,15 +272,27 @@ function setLiveResize(on) {
 // sixth bin. Steps are interpolated in OKLab, so the lightness intervals are perceptually EVEN
 // (sRGB interpolation bunches the midtones and would make two adjacent bins look alike).
 //
-// MEASURED, navy pin '#1a237e' composited at the real fill-opacity 0.78 over #f2f3f0:
+// ┌─ SUPERSEDED 2026-09-22 — THIS TABLE DESCRIBES A RAMP AND A PIN THAT NO LONGER SHIP ────────┐
+// │ Kept because the REASONING below is still the reason the ramp is ordered by lightness, but │
+// │ every NUMBER in it is stale: both variables it measured have since changed. The pin is no  │
+// │ longer navy (it is orange '#ef6c00') and the ramp is no longer this pale coral (it ends at │
+// │ the label red '#cd2027'). For the CURRENT measured table see the BIN_COLORS note below —   │
+// │ effective pin visibility 2.77 / 2.07 / 1.83 / 2.31 / 3.00 / 4.16, worst bin2 1.83.         │
+// │ ★ The 7:1 floor cited here is NOT the standard the shipped pin meets, and pretending it is │
+// │ would be the dishonest reading: a light-on-light orange pin cannot reach 7:1 against a red  │
+// │ ramp, which is exactly why the white stroke became load-bearing instead. Do not quote these │
+// │ numbers as if they were current, and do not "restore" the 7:1 target without re-reading the │
+// │ BIN_COLORS note, which explains why that target belonged to the navy era.                  │
+// └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
+// HISTORICAL. MEASURED, navy pin '#1a237e' composited at fill-opacity 0.78 over #f2f3f0, against
+// the PALE CORAL ramp that this file shipped before the heartbeat-red change:
 //
 //   NO_DATA #f3f3f1 11.91
 //   #f8e0da 10.80 · #fccec4 9.82 · #febbad 8.85 · #ffa797 7.92 · #ff9380 7.07
 //
-// WORST DATA BIN 7.07. That is BELOW the 7.20 the ashen-clay ramp reached, and the regression is
-// deliberate and stated: 0.13 of contrast buys the hue the Driver asked for, and 7.07 still
-// clears the 7:1 floor that is the actual constraint. It remains well above the green this
-// replaced at the start of the card (1.13 before any of this work).
+// WORST DATA BIN WAS 7.07, below the 7.20 the ashen-clay ramp reached; that regression was
+// deliberate and bought the hue the Driver asked for while still clearing the 7:1 floor that was
+// the constraint AT THE TIME. It remained well above the green this replaced (1.13).
 //
 // REJECTED, each measured rather than argued:
 //   dark red   '#b8383f' endpoint — worst 3.33. The pin disappears. This is the one to re-read
@@ -296,7 +308,14 @@ function setLiveResize(on) {
 // measures it instead of rediscovering it and blaming the hue.
 //
 // THE THREE CONSTRAINTS, each verified rather than asserted:
-//   1. navy pin ≥ 7:1 on every bin at 0.78 — worst 7.07. PASS.
+//   1. ★ RETIRED WITH THE NAVY PIN. This read "navy pin ≥ 7:1 on every bin at 0.78 — worst 7.07.
+//      PASS." It was a NAVY-ERA constraint and it no longer describes the product: the pin is now
+//      orange, and a light-on-light orange CANNOT reach 7:1 against a red ramp at any tuning
+//      (swept; the worst case saturates near 1.98). The constraint did not get quietly lowered —
+//      it got REPLACED by one that matches the two-band pin that actually ships: effective
+//      visibility = max(orange disc, white stroke) on every bin, worst 1.83 at bin2. Anyone
+//      tempted to "restore 7:1" should read the BIN_COLORS note first — doing so means either
+//      giving the Driver back a navy pin or giving up the label red.
 //   2. no red-vs-green dependence (8% of men have that deficiency, and red-green is exactly the
 //      bad-good pairing a designer reaches for here). ★ THIS CONSTRAINT BINDS HARDEST NOW THAT
 //      THE RAMP IS ACTUALLY RED — a red ramp that ordered by HUE would be unreadable for those
@@ -604,12 +623,17 @@ function addLayers() {
   // never a hue problem; it was an opacity bug. Both lessons still bind: the pin is ONE fixed
   // colour at FULL opacity, everywhere.
   //
-  // WHAT IT IS NOW. Fill '#1a237e' (Material Indigo 900, the navy the product standardises
-  // on) under a white ring. Against the CURRENT heart-red ramp the dot measures 11.91 / 10.80
-  // / 9.82 / 8.85 / 7.92 / 7.07 - strong on every bin, worst case 7.07.
-  //
-  // REJECTED. '#0d47a1' (Blue 900) - too light. Tinting the pin per bin - reintroduces the
-  // original alpha fault. Reverting to orange - the Driver ruled explicitly against it.
+  // ★ SUPERSEDED 2026-09-22 — THE PIN IS NO LONGER NAVY. This paragraph used to read "WHAT IT IS
+  // NOW. Fill '#1a237e'... worst case 7.07", and both halves are now false: the fill is the orange
+  // '#ef6c00' (see the layer below) and those contrast figures measured a pale coral ramp that no
+  // longer ships. Kept only so the NAVY-ERA rejections stay readable:
+  //   '#0d47a1' (Blue 900) - too light.
+  //   Tinting the pin per bin - reintroduces the original alpha fault. ★ STILL BINDING.
+  //   "Reverting to orange - the Driver ruled explicitly against it." ★ NO LONGER TRUE. That
+  //     ruling was given while the ramp was PALE and the pin navy; the Driver has since asked for
+  //     orange against the new red ramp ("I think it might be better orange"), which supersedes it.
+  //     Navy did not lose on contrast - it was freed to become the SELECTION ring, which had to
+  //     move because an orange ring on an orange pin measured 1.07. See SEL_COLOR.
   //
   // NOTE FOR DARK STYLES. This product is Material LIGHT only (no prefers-color-scheme:dark
   // in this bundle), so only the light pairing ships. A genuinely dark style would swap the
@@ -702,18 +726,28 @@ function addLayers() {
   //      alpha was the real fault, compositing each pin with whatever bin sat beneath it so it
   //      rendered a different colour per country at 1.18–1.22 contrast. Never reintroduce pin
   //      alpha, never tint per bin.
-  //   2. WHITE RINGS around blue dots so the field does not read as a heat map, and all rings stay
-  //      visible when zoomed out. Still here — it is now the stroke instead of a second layer.
-  // Navy #1a237e measures 11.91 / 10.80 / 9.82 / 8.85 / 7.92 / 7.07 across the ramp; the ramp's
-  // HUE changed (green → ashen clay → heart red, see the BINS note above) but the pin did not.
-  // 7.07 is a deliberate 0.13 below the clay ramp's 7.20, spent to buy the red the Driver asked
-  // for, and still far above the 1.13 this whole line of work started from.
+  //   2. WHITE RINGS so the field does not read as a heat map, and all rings stay visible when
+  //      zoomed out. Still here — it is now the stroke instead of a second layer. ★ The ring is
+  //      now LOAD-BEARING rather than merely separating: it is what carries the pin on the dark
+  //      bins, where the orange fill falls to 1.03-1.35. Removing it does not cost tidiness, it
+  //      costs the pin.
+  // ★ STALE LINE REMOVED 2026-09-22. This used to read "Navy #1a237e measures 11.91 / ... / 7.07
+  // across the ramp... but the pin did not [change]." The pin HAS now changed — it is '#ef6c00' —
+  // so that sentence had become the exact kind of confidently-wrong comment this file warns about
+  // elsewhere. Current measured table lives in the BIN_COLORS note: effective visibility
+  // 2.77 / 2.07 / 1.83 / 2.31 / 3.00 / 4.16, worst bin2 1.83.
   //
   // WHAT IS GIVEN UP, stated honestly: the outer navy band gave the white ring a hard boundary on
-  // ANY ground, so over the palest bin the ring now blends into the background. The ring's job is
-  // separating pins from EACH OTHER (it still does that) while the navy disc carries pin-vs-ground
-  // contrast. MEASURE the pale end before calling this settled. If separation genuinely fails
-  // there, the fix is a casing on overlapping symbols only — not a restored global dark rim.
+  // ANY ground, so over the palest bin the ring blends into the background. The ring's job is
+  // separating pins from EACH OTHER (it still does that) while the DISC carries pin-vs-ground.
+  //
+  // ★ "MEASURE THE PALE END BEFORE CALLING THIS SETTLED" — DONE 2026-09-22, and the answer is that
+  // the two bands SWAPPED ROLES when the pin went orange. Against the pale bins the white ring is
+  // weak (1.11-1.48) but the orange disc is strongest there (2.77/2.07); against the dark bins the
+  // disc collapses (1.03) and the ring takes over (2.31/3.00/4.16). Neither band is sufficient
+  // alone and each covers the other's failure, which is why BOTH must stay. The old worry — the
+  // pale end — is the end the orange disc handles best, so it is no longer the risk; the real
+  // worst case moved to bin2 (1.83), where the two bands cross over.
   //
   // HIT-TESTING: 'rd-bubble-layer' keeps its id and is now the ONLY bubble layer, so every
   // click/hover handler bound to that id is unaffected. 'rd-bubble-halo' no longer exists.