Image by William Chew, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.
Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:
1. The Great Firewall has been strengthened this week because unapproved VPNs will now be illegal to use in China. That means that the Chinese will be unable to access popular websites like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and many others while inside the country's borders. The new law is in effect now and the government plans to leave it in place until at least March 31st, 2018. China certainly isn't the only country that censors Internet access—Egypt, Russia, Cuba, Bahrain, Turkey, Vietnam also limit Internet communications, against the advice from the United Nations Human Rights Control, which argued against the state-sponsored disruption of Internet access and described online privacy as an essential facet of freedom of expression.
2. An artist tied one knot every day of 2016, and it makes for some beautiful art.
That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.