Comments on: How to Ensure Failure

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:11:40 +0000

1. As they say here, إن شاء الله. It’s hard to say, but if they would like to continue to attract students to a country like KSA, there will need to be changes made.
2. For future classes, it’s unknown, and there has been some confusion even now about the amount. They’ve asked us to not widely discuss the value of compensation, however.
3. It varies widely – some families have had no problems and others have had just as many as the students. Perhaps with some time, one might expect the situation to improve.

By: Wess

Wess — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:59:57 +0000

1. After reading all this I get an impression,KAUST isn’t all the attractive rather gives a scary picture. Do you expect things taking a more professional approach in near future?
2. Whats the amount of monthly stipend for a PhD?
3. How good is the housing if dependants accompany you for your PhD?

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:40:00 +0000

I realize that the lip is what makes it stay in place. The point is, if you lift it up and rotate it, you can drop the cover through. It’s like taking a window screen off of a window from inside – you detach it, and then rotate it so that its longest dimension is oriented diagonally in the window and pull it through.

The point is that this maneuver is impossible with a circular manhole cover. They both need lips, but the fact that by design a circular manhole cover cannot pass through the manhole itself in any orientation is very important.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:40:57 +0000

Well, not all manhole covers are simply “square.” They have two squares – one is smaller than the outer (the one that rests on the ground) and the one that you see over the top.

So essientially it has a “lip,” which is much easier to make than a circle cover and still doesn’t fall through.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:14:21 +0000

Yep. Definitely have square manhole covers. Not all of them are, but the fact that square ones are even manufactured in the first place makes no sense to me. I can’t imagine any specialized need for square ones.

By: Colin

Colin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:04:08 +0000

I was just talking to somebody last week about why manhole covers are round. Do they really have square manhole covers there? Clearly there are communication issues on all levels there.

–”Can we get some round manhole covers”
-”Why”
–”The square ones keep falling down the hole”
-”But the square ones are easier to make”

/facepalm