An exercise in geometric measure theory

echo <<eof >>/dev/null

I was given a math paper to read over that includes, in its introduction, the assertion
"the length of an algebraic curve of degree $d$ in the unit disc is less than $4d$". I don't think I'd seen this before, so I've decided to try proving something like it, and got a smaller constant than $4$, but not much smaller. (If you've not seen this problem before, can you guess?!)

My silly question for the day

Dear Phil,

Does this mean that Johannesburg gets six more weeks of outdoor cricket weather? Or do we have to go there and ask the meerkats?

definitely in the Northern Hemisphere