It’s not impossible to invade the US. It’s been done several times already, for example 1942 and 1812. Mexico, which shares the same oceanic borders, was invaded by France in 1861 and of course the entirety of the Americas was essentially invaded by colonial settlers.

It’s unlikely for other reasons, but nothing about it is impossible.

Flat cables can be conformant and they still have twisted pairs. Cables just have to meet the physical properties set by the standard.

Have you ever taken the coast starlight or the Cascade trains? Last time I took the former it arrived 14 hours late.

Have you tried plugging it in first? Machine kneading is usually faster than hand kneading.

The CSB doesn’t regulate and it can’t issue fines. They also don’t show up unless you’ve already had an incident. When they do show up, it’s simply to document and investigate the root causes, so they can issue recommendations to one of the regulatory agencies that actually enforces things. You need to have really fucked up for an agency with literally 40 staff overseeing one of the largest industrial economies in the world to notice you.

There’s probably a bunch of reasons for the multi wing design, but the big one is going to be improving lift/carrying capacity without increasing the width.

The most efficient wings for low speeds are glider wings: as long and thin as possible. That makes them inconvenient to pack and folding joints are weak points. The second wing adds lift, but also problems: it’s less efficient than a single wing of the combined length would be and the front wing makes the rear wing less efficient. The winglet improves the situation somewhat. Facing downward also improves maneuverability.

It’s pretty unintuitive because we’re not used to dealing with ocean sized bodies of water in day to day life. Part of the explanation is just that the prevailing winds pile all the water in the Pacific up against the coast, causing higher sea levels on the West Coast. The lower salinity of the Pacific also causes lower water density, which translates to higher sea levels.