Dylan Matthews
is a senior correspondent and head writer for Vox's Future Perfect section and has worked at Vox since 2014. He is particularly interested in global health and pandemic prevention, anti-poverty efforts, economic policy and theory, and conflicts about the right way to do philanthropy.
Welcome to Vox Sentences, our news bulletin breaking down the day's biggest stories.
1. An even greater firewall
A person surfs the internet in a net cafe on January 21, 2008 in Chongqing Municipality, China. (China Photos/Getty Images)
China has initiated a crackdown on the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), a technology widely used to evade the country's extensive internet censorship.
In addition to the blockages, there have also been hacks, like one targeting Microsoft Outlook, which the Chinese government is widely suspected of carrying out.
The internet restrictions aren't just a form of censorship; they're also a kind of protectionism, sheltering Chinese businesses like Baidu and Alibaba from competition by US tech companies.
In 2008, many observers were insisting China would never crack down on VPNs: "Every bank, every foreign manufacturing company, every retailer, every software vendor needs VPNs to exist," one professor said.
It's worth noting this is not as severe as a 2012 incident in which VPN services were blocked almost entirely; the fact that they were later restored gives some cause for optimism now.
The number of jobs that require a license has grown considerably in recent decades, often in baffling fields; as of 2012, 39 states required licensing for massage therapists and 34 states required a license to install security alarms.
Licensing increases wages considerably, but hurts consumers by raising prices; one study found that people in states where dental hygienists are tightly regulated are more likely to lose teeth to decay or gum disease.
Obama's budget isn't out until Monday, but this paper by the University of Minnesota's Morris Kleiner, the leading economist on licensing issues, illustrates what this kind of reform would look like.
Environmentalists fear that approving the pipeline would accelerate the burning of high-carbon tar sands oil, causing worse global warming. That might be true, but it's hard to say how big a deal it is.
According to one study, surgeons left objects (usually sponges) inside patients 4,857 times from 1990 to 2010. They operated on the wrong patient altogether 27 times.
Political nerds love talking about brokered conventions because they're really fun and chaotic and haven't happened in decades, but Sean Trende makes a good case that Republicans could face one next year.
"A couple who named their child 'Nutella' are now the proud parents of baby 'Ella' after a French court rejected their decision to name the child after the delicious hazelnut spread."
"Binge-watching a TV show on Netflix or Hulu is one of the great pleasures of modern life, but now a study from the University of Texas at Austin is going to make you feel weird about it."
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