Going in reverse order from Elu's last question to Artemis' cuz why not?
1.) You have two opposite ideas, with a development program your hope is that you end up spreading the Influence out to a point that a coup would burn itself out through the shear cost of ejections and banjections before it can dismantle the previous government.
On the other hand you have what many regions adopted in a endocap system. Which restricts the spread of influence to a small group which makes it harder for an outside force to come in and dismantle the government.
Funny enough they both achieve the same goal making it harder for an outside force to come in and dismantle the currently standing state. But on the other hand they are both vulnerable to the same thing. An internal faction attempting to coup. Though I would say that in the end the Development Program is less vulnerable because it vastly increases the pool of people that the government in exile can recruit to help. While in an endocap system those who might have wanted to help don't have the influence to do so.
2.) Gravity and Centrifugal Force. Gravity condenses it down into a sphere and the force of the rotating earth slightly flattens it causing a slight bulge at the equator and depression at the poles.
3.) Lord Lore, the Architect of Pandemonium, Demon of the Eras Map, Controller of the Nations of Anhur, Rapallo, Anhur Light, Anhurian Colonial Realm, Andulus, Ertolia, Frances Francis the First of France, Belis, Versutia, Ghost of Versutian Past, Ilian Coalition, The Giving Tree, The One That Lived, and Imperial Sobek.
4.) When it comes down to it, TNP has been my home for the vast majority of my time in NS now. I didn't start here, but I came here after about a 2 years in the UCRs. I just want to help keep it safe in the way I know how.