Balloon Juice - Open Threads Archives

War for Ukraine Day 1,081: A New Innovation To Combined Arms Maneuver

by Adam L Silverman| February 9, 20258:54 pm| 10 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Military, Open Threads, Russia, Silverman on Security, War, War in Ukraine

A couple of quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie had her monthly post-chemo check in yesterday. She got a clean bill of health. The biggest issue is she’s got fourteen year old back hips, but the vet has her on a treatment that seems to be working. Thank you all again for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, Ohio Mom: I have seen your question. I need to think about how best to answer it. I am not ignoring you or it. Though I was asleep the last two nights when you reposed the question in the comments.

Third, I’ve been offline almost all of the day reading or watching 6 Nations Rugby. I’m going to just run through the basics tonight because I’m sure everyone is either watching the Super Bowl or watching something instead of the Super Bowl or hanging out by the food and drinks at a Super Bowl party.

But I do want to cover this up front:

⚡️Ukraine to launch ‘Drone Line’ project to enhance battlefield operations.

The project seeks to enhance combat effectiveness by expanding the use of drones within elite units of the Ground Forces and the State Border Guard Service.

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— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) February 9, 2025 at 3:45 PM

From The Kyiv Independent:

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry announced on Feb. 9 the launch of the “Drone Line,” a new military initiative aimed at integrating unmanned aerial systems into frontline operations.

The project seeks to enhance combat effectiveness by expanding the use of drones within elite units of the Ground Forces and the State Border Guard Service.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov described the initiative as a transformative step in modern warfare, emphasizing that unmanned systems will play a central role in combat. “This is the new standard of war, where unmanned systems become a key element of combat, helping our defenders carry out the most complex missions,” Umerov said.

The first phase of the project will focus on five elite regiments and brigades: the 20th Separate Regiment “K-2,” the 429th Regiment “Achilles,” the 427th Regiment “RAROH,” the 414th Brigade “Magyar’s Birds,” and the “Phoenix” Regiment, which is part of the “Pomsta” Brigade. These units have already demonstrated effectiveness in drone warfare and will now see their capabilities significantly scaled up, according to the minister.

By integrating infantry and UAVs into a unified strike system, the Drone Line aims to create a 10-15 kilometer deep kill zone, ensuring that enemy forces cannot move without sustaining heavy losses. “This will fundamentally change battlefield tactics, giving our warriors a decisive advantage,” Umerov said in his post on Facebook.

The initiative will also provide constant aerial support for infantry and enhance target detection and destruction before adversaries reach Ukrainian positions.

The Defense Ministry credited President Volodymyr Zelensky for spearheading the initiative and highlighted the ongoing work of Ukraine’s defense industry in advancing drone technology.

I’ve written here a few times about how over the past 11 years the Ukrainians have been developing, revising, adjusting, and innovating the Ukrainian way of war. Which is why some of the standardized training we and our NATO allies have tried to provide has often not worked. Because it fit the US’s and NATO’s way of war, not Ukraine’s. This is not completely new, the Ukrainians have been integrating their UAV ops with their other maneuver operations for a while, but what they Ukrainians are attempting with their Drone Line UAV-Infantry scheme of maneuver is an attempt to formalize the concept of operations. We will get to watch this experiment in real time as the Ukrainians change the characteristics of war even as its nature remains unchanged.

Here’s Ukraine’s air defense tally from last night:

70 deadly Russian drones downed tonight, 67 on Saturday. Doesn’t exactly read as “Putin just wants people to stop dying”—more like he wants to kill more Ukrainians and has zero interest in ending the war.

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— Maria Avdeeva (@mariainkharkiv.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 4:56 AM

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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The Less Dependent Europeans Are on Russia, the Sooner We Can Ensure Security in Europe – Address by the President

9 February 2025 – 19:59

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

Today marks an important event for our region and for Europe as a whole. The Baltic states – good friends of Ukraine – have disconnected from the Russian energy grid. Their energy systems are now fully synchronized with the European continental system.

Ukraine had already done this in 2022, and now the Baltic states have also freed themselves from dependency. Moscow will no longer be able to use energy as a weapon against the Baltic states. This also means that Europe has become even more cohesive. This is exactly the course all of us in Europe should continue to follow across the continent. This is in particular relevant for Central European countries – those that still have agreements with Russia. We need to work more closely with America – LNG gas, oil. We need to work more closely with our partners in countries neighboring the European Union, in this region, to import the necessary energy. The Caucasus, the Middle East, North Africa. The less dependent Europeans are on Russia, the sooner we can ensure reliable security for everyone in Europe. I congratulate our friends – Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia – on today’s achievement. It’s important that Poland is helping, proving once again that cooperation among us all means the independence of each of us. I am grateful to the European Union for supporting our region and our common security. In the same way, we need to put pressure on Russia’s attempts to use its tankers and its fleet against us, against all of Europe. In Ukraine, we have recently expanded the sanctions so that not only Russian tankers are sanctioned, not only the companies they are registered under, but also so that the captains of these vessels, the people who work for this war, feel this pressure. This needs to be upheld at the European level – the European Union must join these sanctions in the energy sector.

And one more thing.

Today, Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi delivered a report. The Donetsk region – Pokrovsk, Vremivka, and other heavily contested areas. Our troops are demonstrating extraordinary bravery. The 33rd, 225th, and 425th separate assault regiments – thank you very much, guys! Also, the 82nd and 95th brigades in the Kursk direction demonstrate highly effective enemy destruction. We must hold all our positions firmly. The stronger we stand on the front lines, the stronger our diplomacy – our work with partners – will be. Thank you to everyone standing with Ukraine!

Glory to Ukraine!

Yesterday President Zelenskyy sat for an interview with Reuters. Here’s the video:

Lithuania:

🇱🇹🚀 Lithuania raises nearly €900,000 in one week to buy drones for Ukraine

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— Ukrainska Pravda 🇺🇦 (@pravda.ua) February 9, 2025 at 7:21 PM

From Ukrainska Pravda:

Ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Lithuania is once again holding the solidarity campaign Radarom!, raising nearly €900,000 in just one week.

Source: Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The campaign’s organisers reported that Lithuanian citizens and businesses had donated €887,225 by Sunday morning on 9 February.

Two-thirds of the funds raised will be used to purchase drones and anti-drone systems produced in Lithuania, while the remaining third will be allocated for equipment manufactured in Ukraine.

The solidarity campaign will continue until 24 February.

Background:

In 2023, the first Radarom! campaign raised over €14 million, which was used to buy 17 radars.

In 2024, Radarom! raised €8.6 million, which was used to purchase 1,141 safe soldier kits.

Lithuanian company NT Service made a significant contribution to the campaign Radarom! by donating 50 SkyWiper-MOTO anti-drone systems, designed to protect vehicles and soldiers from drone attacks.

This should help with the drone line initiative.

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania:

“Goodbye, Russia. Goodbye, Lenin,” said Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda after the Baltic states disconnected from Russia’s energy system. “This is a historic moment, marking the end of a long journey. We’ve achieved full energy independence. The era of pressure and blackmail is over.”

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 11:24 AM

Georgia:

On the 74th day of continuous protests, Rustaveli Avenue was blocked again, despite heavy police presence on Rustaveli and nearby streets.

Initially police tried to stop the demonstrators, but as the crowd grew, they retreated through the surrounding streets.

#GeorgiaProtests

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 2:34 PM

📸 Natia Leverashvili/Publika

— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 2:34 PM

It’s freezing, 0 degrees. Day 74 continuous, day 104 overall.
The electoral fraud, the U-turn in foreign policy, the mass torture… The crisis will only deepen without free and fair elections. And without the release of the political prisoners! #GeorgiaProtests
📷 Mautskebeli

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 2:38 PM

Despite the mobilization of masked policemen, protesters once again blocked Rustaveli Avenue.

#GeorgiaProtests
Day 74

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— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 12:36 PM

Day 74. There was an abundance of regime police (look at the end of the video), but for Georgians, it’s important to close Rustaveli every night, so they proceed with it quite fearlessly. It seems like they want to intimidate us with their presence these last two days, but eventually 1/

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 12:39 PM

they will most likely either have to try to disperse the Rustaveli protest, or fail to act on their own newest dictatorial law that outlaws “spontaneous” protests (protests without officially notifying the authorities).
Let me just say, while Rustaveli is a logistical and tactical disaster 2/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 12:39 PM

for protesters because it is THE one location where the regime has profoundly mastered dispersals, it is nevertheless a sacred place for Georgians who have fought for independence and freedom precisely on Rustaveli (in front of the Parliament) for almost 40 years now. 3/

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 12:39 PM

Any clash or arrest on Rustaveli gets more attention, and, I’m saying it humorously, but it almost feels like protests can be outlawed everywhere “BUT NOT ON RUSTAVELI!” It’s our default, our home.
#terrorinGeorgia #GeorgiaProtests 4/4.

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 12:39 PM

All of this is very logical and will only get worse as long as the menace known as the Georgian Dream is in power.
#terrorinGeorgia

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 4:38 PM

On top of everything, central Tbilisi has no gas/heating, and it’s freezing outside. We will be sleeping with everything we’ve got. Welcome back, 1990s.

— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 4:48 PM

Alongside virtually all protests being outlawed, indoor protests were also outlawed, and the police concentrated around university sit-ins yesterday. Here the students discuss their plans in case they get arrested for sit-in protests.
#GeorgiaProtests
📷 Archil Gochitashvili

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— Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 4:26 AM

Back to Ukraine.

“Lowpass” performed by 🇺🇦 F-16. The aircraft carries a full set of air-to-air missiles, AIM-120 and AIM-9. The aircraft also has 2 additional 370-gallon (~1400 liters) fuel tanks. The AN/ALQ-131 electronic countermeasure system is installed on the central point of the suspension. t.me/TyskNIP/15089

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— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 2:22 PM

Russian recon drone had an explosive flight thanks to a Ukrainian FPV interceptor.

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— UNITED24 Media (@united24media.com) February 9, 2025 at 9:18 AM

Prince Harry, the best of the British royals, embraces members of the Ukrainian team after the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 in Canada.

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— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 9:07 AM

Sumy:

Sumy these minutes. Russian drone struck a residential neighborhood, hitting a parking lot and shattering windows in nearby apartment buildings. According to preliminary information, there are no reported casualties.

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 4:41 PM

Sumy tonight after the russian drone strike

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 5:23 PM

The parking lot is on fire in Sumy after the russian drone strike.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 5:19 PM

The Kursk cross border offensive:

⚡️Kursk incursion stopped Russian invasion of Zaporizhzhia, Zelensky claims.

The president said the cross-border offensive was “one of our most successful operations” and that it forced Russia “to give up their military units from the Zaporizhzhia direction.”

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— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) February 9, 2025 at 6:33 PM

From The Kyiv Independent:

Ukraine’s offensive into Russia’s Kursk Oblast prevented Russian forces from carrying out large-scale operations in northeastern and southern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with ITV News on Feb. 7.

Kyiv launched a surprise cross-border incursion into Kursk in August 2024, initially capturing about 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of Russian territory. While Ukrainian forces have lost roughly half that area since, they recently advanced 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) in the region in a new offensive.

Speaking during an interview with the British outlet ITV News on the six-month anniversary of the incursion, Zelensky called the Kursk operation “one of our most successful operations.”

The aim of the incursion was to create “a buffer zone” that would protect Ukraine’s major northeastern cities, Kharkiv and Sumy, from another Russian offensive, Zelensky said. Russia launched a new assault against Kharkiv Oblast in May 2024, advancing as far as 10 kilometers (6 miles) before Ukrainian troops halted the advance at the first line of defense.

“(T)he idea was to preventatively carry out an attack and create a buffer zone not on Ukrainian territory, but on Russia’s territory in those regions,” Zelensky said.

“And that’s what happened.”

The Kursk incursion prevented Russia from fulfilling its operational goals in Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts, while also providing Ukraine with nearly 1,000 Russian soldiers to replenish Kyiv’s prisoner exchange fund, Zelensky said.

It also prevented Russia from a southern offensive, he claimed.

“(T)hey withdrew their operational forces from the south of our country, because they were planning to attack Zaporizhzhia, this was their next operation after Kharkiv and Sumy, they were going to Zaporizhzhia,” Zelensky said.

“So they were forced to give up their military units from the Zaporizhzhia direction and parts from the East.”

Russia redirected troops in these regions to Kursk Oblast, Zelensky alleged.

GOP F*ckery Open Thread: President Deadbeat Suggests Stiffing the Treasury

by Anne Laurie| February 9, 20258:40 pm| 154 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel, Trumpery, Elon Musk, Lock Him Up...Lock Them All Up

What…does any of this mean
www.reuters.com/markets/us/t…

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— Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 6:00 PM

The guy notorious for stiffing his creditors suggests he could just, y’know, decide not to pay interest on debts owed by the government, because who’s gonna make him? Only question seems to be whether Acting President Musk fed him this theory, or whether he’s just reverting to his happy place. Per Reuters:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said the United States may carry less debt than thought and said it could be because of fraud related to debt payments.

Trump made his comments to reporters aboard Air Force One while flying to the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

The United States currently has $36.2 trillion public debt outstanding, according to the U.S. Treasury, which plays a central role in the global financial system…

“We’re even looking at Treasuries,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “There could be a problem – you’ve been reading about that, with Treasuries and that could be an interesting problem.”

Trump added on Treasuries: “It could be that a lot of those things don’t count. In other words, that some of that stuff that we’re finding is very fraudulent, therefore maybe we have less debt than we thought.”

Trump’s comments on Sunday about potential fraud related to U.S. Treasuries raises the question of what sort of action Musk’s team may take on Treasuries.

A federal judge temporarily blocked Musk’s team on Saturday from accessing government systems used to process trillions of dollars in payments, citing a risk that sensitive information could be improperly disclosed…

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a Trump appointee, said last week that Musk’s team had “read only” access to the payment system and said any decisions to stop payments would be made by other agencies.

Professional global financial analyst:

They are going to play Russian roulette with US debt markets www.bloomberg.com/news/article…

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 5:36 PM

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It means uncertainty, which markets always love.

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 7:18 PM

I think it means that the same flibberty-gibberty we hear 24-7 from him becomes a lot more pressing to interpret when it seems to mean we're going to stop servicing Treasury debt.

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 6:06 PM

From Josh Marshall, at TPM:

I suspect this will just end up being something Old Man Trump said on a plane and we won’t hear about it again. But after recents, who are we kidding? Anything is possible. On Air Force One today en route to the Super Bowl Trump told reporters that DOGE analysts (whatever that means) had found “irregularities” in US treasuries and that that the US may not be obligated to pay some of them. “Maybe we have less debt than we thought,” he said.

Needless to say, this is quite literally violating the express language of the 14th Amendment which says: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”…

One other point worth noting is that Trump seems to be basing this on some analysis from the DOGE boys. This appears to have been one of the DOGE boys main goals at Treasury, getting access to details about what kinds of payments Treasury makes, the answer being close to everything the US government does outside of the Pentagon and some of the Pentagon stuff too. The Treasury also services the US debt, which is what we’re talking about here. I’m less clear on what access in what part of Treasury Department these guys could have gotten more information about how the Treasury Department sells and service Treasury notes. But all that detail aside, imagine thinking that by downloading a ton of data and having a few days to analyze it you could make the determination that a significant amount of the US national debt wasn’t real and didn’t have to be paid. It’s hardly the craziest thing we’ve seen over recent days. But it’s still worth noting how nuts that is.

So, if you’re looking to spike your blood pressure, let’s see how the Asian markets (twelve hours or so ahead of ours) react overnight…

GOP F*ckery Open Thread: President Deadbeat Suggests Stiffing the TreasuryPost + Comments (154)

Sunday Wisdom Open Thread

by Rose Judson| February 9, 20255:08 pm| 128 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Respite

I have spent part of the weekend immersed in chats with U.S. family whose livelihoods are directly threatened by the NSF/NIH vandalism. Most of rest of it I have spent buried in the Oresteia. Aeschylus was a war veteran who’d witnessed the messy birth of Athenian democracy. He knew what was up way back in 458 BCE:

Sunday Wisdom Open Thread

Amen, old man.

I can think of a few divine punishments I’d like to see inflicted on some people – the kind that involve large birds of prey pecking out livers for eternity. Wallowing in those thoughts are corrosive to the soul in the long run, though. So I also went out for waffles with the Child, to a cafe near us run by a husband and wife who spent time living in New Orleans and in China. It’s just about the only place in town that offers fried chicken with your waffle.

Sunday Wisdom Open Thread 1

What about you all? Did you manage to find some small joys this weekend? Anyone making any good Super Bowl food? I obviously won’t be staying up to watch – kickoff is at 11:30 my time – but being from northeastern Pennsylvania, I’d like to see the Eagles win. And I miss decent Buffalo wings.

Respite thread open to all topics except the Horrors.

Sunday Wisdom Open ThreadPost + Comments (128)

A Bunch of Pre-Superbowl Reads

by @heymistermix.com| February 9, 20252:02 pm| 140 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

Let’s check in on the obliteration of trans identity under Trump:

First, Rep Mary Miller, an election denier, misgendered Rep Sarah McBride when recognizing her for a speech on the House floor. McBride took it in stride and delivered a barnburner. Miller got her Fox News hit. Fuck her.

Second, Erin Reed has a good piece calling out the New York Times for saying, now, that Trump’s attacks on trans people are “shameful”, while consistently platforming anti-trans “just asking questions” views. Fuck them.

Next, Garrett Graff has another update from the perspective of what the US press would write about a foreign country:

Two weeks into a fast-moving coup by a South African tech oligarch, the United States — which was already deep into planning for its 250th birthday next year — hangs suspended this weekend in a liminal state somewhere between the constitutional republic it has been for 249 years and an authoritarian regime akin to Europe’s infamous fallen democracy, Hungary.
Following the alarming purges of the security services last week and the successful capture of the national treasury and other federal agencies by technical junta forces loyal to centibillionaire Elon Musk, the country’s constitutional system seemed to awaken from slumber this week.

Although by Monday Musk reigned unquestioned as head of the government, he appears content to allow the country’s elected president, Donald Trump, to remain the ceremonial head of state, and overall the political situation seemed to stabilize as the week progressed. Amid widening protests by opposition leaders and the public, damning media reports, and a flurry of court orders that blocked or slowed some of the most controversial power grabs, the country even appeared — at least temporarily — to pull back from the abyss.

There’s a new Substack organized by Judd Leglum called Musk Watch that is pretty good. Here’s the This Week in Musk update.

I watched a couple of AOC’s stories on Instagram last night — they’ve disappeared now (that’s how they work) but she said that in her experience, calls to her Republican colleagues are noted, even if they pretend they’re not. So keep calling, even if your rep is a R.

Finally, thanks to commenter Walker for pointing out that the cut to the NIH grant indirect costs is already against the law after Ceremonial President Trump tried it in 2017. I also forgot to mention this as one indicator that King Musk is going to defy court orders:

After a NY judge blocked DOGE access to Treasury data, Elon Musk just reposted a user who implied that the judge’s order should be defied ⬇️ 👇

“I don’t like the precedent it sets when you defy a judicial ruling, but I’m just wondering what other options are these judges leaving us…”

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— Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social) February 8, 2025 at 7:02 PM

Open thread.

(Edit: Forgot one — an examination of RFK Jr’s relationship with lifting and steroids. Such a fucking weirdo.)

(Edit2: Forgot another one: Marisa Kabas reports that the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children removed LGBTQIA+ materials from their site under a threat from King Elon’s administration.)

A Bunch of Pre-Superbowl ReadsPost + Comments (140)

It’s better to be lucky than good, James Clerk Maxwell edition.

by Tom Levenson| February 9, 20251:14 pm| 58 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Science & Technology

Actually, in Maxwell’s case, it was best to be both lucky and good.

I just put up what I hope is a respite post over at my nascent newsletter* and thought to mirror it here. This is one which, despite what the great sage Janis Joplin once observed, has no great social or political import. Instead, it’s a tale of lucky mistakes in a 19th century demonstration by one of the greats in the history of physics, James Clerk Maxwell. So read on for the strange but true story of the Tartan Ribbon (largely drawn from a lovely 1961 Scientific American article by Ralph Evans, a Kodak researcher who was a member of the team that retraced Maxwell’s steps.) Jackals cannot live by wretched news alone, amirite?

[inevitable soundtrack]

This is a quick weekend note to offer a little distraction from the various travesties being wrought on American science (and much else).

One of my favorite (minor) genres in the history of science are stories of what might be thought of as useful errors. And in that one, I particularly love the story of the great physicist James Clerk Maxwell’s public display of what is often considered the first color photograph.

This is an anecdote that has given joy to a lot of people in and around the history of science, especially that of physics. That’s partly because Maxwell is at once a giant in the field—arguably, the most significant theorist between Newton and Einstein—and was, by all accounts, one of the good guys, someone a biographer can spend a lot of time with and feel that they’ve been in fine company. So it’s fun to see him make a mistake (perhaps better, be lucky); even the great ones can mess up! And because he is easy to root for, it’s also nice that the error didn’t get in the way of what he was trying to accomplish.

So what did Maxwell do?

The just-the-facts-ma’am version of the story is that in 1861 Maxwell gave a lecture at the Royal Institution (one of the great monuments to public engagement with science) in which he displayed this image:

It's better to be lucky than good, James Clark Maxwell edition.

That’s the famous Tartan Ribbon, an image created by Maxwell’s collaborator, Thomas Sutton.

For Maxwell, the significance of the image was the argument it helped him make in favor of the claim that the full color range that the human eye can perceive could be built out of three primary colors—an idea first proposed by Thomas Young almost six decades earlier. Maxwell advanced Young’s thinking (and that of Hermann von Helmholtz, who built on Young’s work) when he provided a mathematical account of the three color hypothesis.

The tartan ribbon experiment was an empirical follow-up to that work of theory. The experimental problem to be solved was how to create a multi-color image out of the monochromatic photographs of the day. That’s where Sutton came in.

Sutton was one of pioneers of the early age of photography. What he did to create an example of Maxwell’s conception of color has been described in detail in a Scientific American article from 1961, written by Ralph Evans, one of a team of Kodak scientists who recreated the original experiment. Sutton first created three filters by dissolving metallic salts in water that he then placed in glass vessels. Each dissolved compound produced a different color: red, green and blue. He then photographed the ribbon through each filter, capturing the images on silver iodide emulsion. He printed the three images on glass to create transparencies. When Maxwell delivered his lecture, those three slides were illuminated with the appropriate shade of light—red for red and so forth, and projected to form a single colored image to astound the audience.

So far so good. Where’s the error?

Well…none of it should have worked. As Evans writes, the silver iodide emulsion Sutton used is only sensitive to light with short wavelengths—blue light. It can’t “see” red or green hues, and whatever was captured on the negatives shot through those two filters it wasn’t what a naked eye would have seen as those colors in the ribbon itself.

What happened? When the Kodak researchers tried to figure that out, they recognized that both their film stock and Sutton’s original plates could record not just blue light, but ultraviolet as well—electromagnetic radiation invisible to the human eye with wavelengths even shorter than what we perceive as blue. Even better, Sutton’s red and green filters were sensitive to different regions of the ultraviolet slice of the spectrum. Also, as Evans speculates, some red dyes reflect ultraviolet light as well as what we see as red—which means that (assuming the tartan ribbon’s red swatches were colored with the appropriate dyestuff) Sutton’s procedure would detect the red regions in the photographic subject even though it was only picking up an ultraviolet signal.

All of which is to say that the ground-breaking photograph was an accident. The tools he and Sutton had available should not have been able to achieve what they wanted; it did because the emulsion and the filters possessed unexpected and at the time unknown properties that allowed the expected result to emerge. The Tartan Ribbon image might be better described as the first false-color photographic image ever made. Except, of course, that the point it made was correct: Maxwell’s three color argument does indeed describe a part of reality.

I’ll let Evans have (almost) the last word:

Be that as it may, the principle devised by Maxwell and put into practice by Sutton was a valid one for producing a color photograph. And because of the fortuitous circumstances we have described, the experiment worked, allowing Maxwell to invent three-color photography almost 15 years before there were sensitizing dyes that would have made his experiment “possible. “

One more thing:

I hope anyone who has read this far has had fun with this little story of serendipity. It has certainly given me pleasure for a long time—but as I revisited it this weekend, I find that along with the fun of catching out a great one in a error, it has a bit of a somber cast to it. The last two weeks have seen a sustained attack on US science mounted by the Trump/Musk administration. A lot of damage has already been done, and if the moves both made and announced go unreversed, that harm will become catastrophic.

In that context, the story of this scrap of ribbon contains an important message: Maxwell’s mistake was a productive one. He got to a true fact: three color imagery can produce a powerful representation of reality, confirming both theory and prior observation. That’s what science does: imperfectly but with great power make incrementally more sense of the world around us. Gutting our ability to do that work will not just deprive us of the fun of such insights—think all those glorious images (in spectacular false color) captured by the Hubble and Webb telescopes, for example—but will also limit (cause us not to find) the knowledge vital to human flourishing that would otherwise have emerged.

There will be a lot more to say—and to fight to protect—in the coming days and weeks. Alas.

This thread is as open as a shutter on a deep space observation.

*If you’re so moved, subscribe! I’m aware of the disagreement on the use of Substack as a platform. My response is to offer Inverse Square as a free site. Barring unforeseen stuff, all content there will stay free. It is part of my likely feckless attempt to build a more sharply defined online presence in support of my public writing. Also I don’t think I’ll mirror everything, but if there’s anything I think might particularly appeal to our community, I’ll try to be sure to get it up here as well.

Image: Thomas Sutton and James Clark Maxwell, Tartan Ribbon, 1861

It’s better to be lucky than good, James Clerk Maxwell edition.Post + Comments (58)

King Musk Obliterating University Funding

by @heymistermix.com| February 9, 202511:44 am| 93 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

King Musk Obliterating University Funding — From: @meltart.bsky.social

Well I guess it’s time to talk about this:

The NIH released a seemingly down-in-the-weeds new directive which has the effect of drastically reducing the federal funds that go to institutions doing basic medical research. Put as briefly as possible, NIH medical research grants are divided into funds for this specific study (“direct”) and funds that go to the institution which houses the lab conducting the study and the infrastructure that makes it possible (“indirect”). That latter category is a major funding source for research universities and academic medical centers. Last night’s directive reduces that stream of funding somewhere between 50% and 75%. The precise breakdown ranges from institution to institution. But that’s a good measure of the level of funding cuts we’re talking about.

That’s Josh Marshall at TPM. Whenever I hear about one of these funding cuts, I wonder two things. First, is it plainly illegal? I haven’t seen anyone report that this one is, though I’m sure the slipshod way that King Musk does things probably leaves a lot of “attack surface” for legal challenges. Second, is it grossly unpopular? This one seems like it it is:

Having reviewed various particulars I think there are at least some reasons to think that the drasticness of the action may make it hard to pull off. There are academic medical centers outside of Boston, New York and LA. They exist across the South and in red states as well. Indeed, these and the universities they’re associated with are often bigger drivers of job support and growth, in percentage terms, than they are in blue states. They’re also where people get treated for diseases. They’re where a lot of people’s kids go to school. So I think you will have major, major stakeholders from Republican parts of the country who will be pushing back on this. Often in this era it’s not publicly. But it still happens. I’m pretty certain that when the administration nixed its across-the-board grant freeze it was because they were starting to hear from key Republicans that they wouldn’t be able to support it because of the impact in their states and districts.

So the point is this. We all get that in our age the Democrats are essentially the party of the universities and higher education. Not simply because of the people who work in that sector but because of people who have college educations and advanced degrees and are acculturated to its values. So on its face, from a degenerate, authoritarian point of view it seems like a no-brainer — knock out the universities. But it doesn’t break down that clearly when you see where these places are located and the role they play in communities around the country.

This morning, Josh posted that Sen. Katie Britt is already crying about how the cuts will affect the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the largest employer in the state (!). I presume that King Musk will either ignore those pleas, or Court Jester Trump will prevail upon King Musk to give a little money back to the red states while punishing the blue, which will increase the illegality of the move. (Side note, I’ll know that this country is on the right track when we call can call weirdos like Katie Britt “weird” rather than pretending that their religiosity is anything but a fucking scam cover for their evil fucking racism, sexism and homophobia.)

That illegal/unpopular two-step is a good way to look at other diktats from King Musk. USAID: grossly illegal / a little unpopular (overall). Banning the existence of trans people: illegal and if it’s merchandised correctly, I think unpopular, though initially very popular with Trump’s base. The question, as always, is who’s going to enforce the law. So far, the answer is: nobody.

King Musk Obliterating University FundingPost + Comments (93)

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Thank You, Bishop Budde

by Anne Laurie| February 9, 20257:17 am| 344 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Religion, Trumpery

New from @OliviaCGeorge—

What happens after you ask Trump to ‘have mercy’? Threats, praise and hope.

Bishop Mariann E. Budde returned to Washington National Cathedral on Sunday for her first public service since her viral inauguration sermon.https://t.co/tsolPAdGCF

— Pablo Manríquez (@PabloReports) February 3, 2025

Hey, it’s Sunday…Per the Washington Post, “What happens after you ask Trump to ‘have mercy’? Threats, praise and hope”: [gift link]

… It had been 12 days since the Right Rev. Mariann E. Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, pleaded with President Donald Trump to “have mercy” on immigrants, LGBTQ children and others who might be scared by his return to power.

Twelve days since the media storm began. Twelve days since praise started pouring in from around the world — and vitriol, too. Twelve days since a U.S. House member called for the New Jersey-born bishop to be “added to the deportation list.”

Now, Budde made her way to the altar for her first public service at the cathedral since that sermon, the final event of Trump’s inauguration. Congregants craned their necks and rose to their tiptoes. They stretched out their arms to snap a photograph…

Her direct appeal to Trump on that January day — some 24 hours after he had ascended to the highest office in the land for the second time — ushered in a deluge of reactions.

Was it a moment of political catharsis? An act of public resistance? An inappropriate politicization of the pulpit?

For Budde, it was an expression of basic Christian theology.

“It was rooted in Jesus,” she said, “not a partisan agenda.”

Trump demanded an apology and called her “nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”

On Sunday, the cathedral appeared more full than for the post-inauguration service, which was not open to the public. The wooden chairs were packed with a diverse crowd of young and old: people who had walked to the cathedral from nearby homes and those who had driven upward of an hour and across state lines.

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Sunday Morning Open Thread: Thank You, Bishop BuddePost + Comments (344)

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

I really should read my own blog.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

We still have time to mess this up!

Keep the Immigrants and deport the fascists!

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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It’s better to be lucky than good, James Clerk Maxwell edition.

King Musk Obliterating University Funding

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Thank You, Bishop Budde