4) I leave a little slack in my cables but then wrap them with a generous amount of gaffers tape near the top of the stand so that if I were to break a band the taped cable should prevent a catastrophic dump of the mic itself.
I loop my mic cables around and back through my T-Bar. If the mic falls thru, it will get caught by the cable, it is tied to the stand. Also, if anyone pulls on the cable from below, the T-Bar will take the stress, not the bottom of the mic. I'll post pix if I can find one, or get remember to bring a camera from work tomorrow...
Terry