Its sole was high and thick, with the swooping shape of a roller coaster.

NEWYORKER: Sole Mate

While the idea of what constitutes the ideal body shape is changing in Sudan, the traditional preference for women to have thick legs remains.

BBC: Slim in Sudan: Female fleshiness loses its allure

Once the container is spinning at the correct speed (typically a few revolutions per minute), the mercury spreads out to form a layer less than a millimetre thick, and in such a way that variations in the thickness of the mercury layer compensate for the imperfect shape of the container.

ECONOMIST: Mirror, mirror