Prior research on technology entrepreneurship has been grounded almost exclusively in capitalist frameworks developed in the Global North. We argue that context matters, and that scholars should examine technology entrepreneurship in the roughly half of the world where socialism provides the economic foundation. As a step in this direction, we investigate how the principle of common prosperity shapes technology entrepreneurship in socialist contexts. Focusing first on China – a global technological leader and one of the world’s largest generators of patents – we show through two cases that concern for the poor is not incidental but integral to technology entrepreneurship under socialism. We then extend the analysis to a second socialist context outside China, demonstrating the broader relevance of common prosperity for understanding the relationship between technology entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation. Taken together, these cases suggest that research on technology entrepreneurship should move beyond Global North capitalist assumptions and instead account for societal context, particularly the socialist emphasis on common prosperity. Incorporating such perspectives invites scholars to reconsider the role of technology and entrepreneurship in advancing the common good and reducing poverty.

This article deals with late antique Jewish and Christian discourse on social hierarchy, martyrology, and attitudes toward the law and the commandments. I place Jewish and Christian attitudes to martyrdom in late antiquity within the larger system of the commandments. Beyond the circumstantial connections between martyrdom and the affirmation or violation of laws, I argue that martyrdom constitutes an important lens for the examination of the rule of the law and for the negotiation of socio-religious hierarchies. I argue that the elevation of martyrdom creates inner tension vis-à-vis the idea of life-long righteousness based on adherence to the law. I discuss the construction of martyrdom as the final and ultimate commandment, necessary for reaching a state of perfection. Through addressing a case where martyrdom is presented as competing with, if not substituting, a life according to the law, I discuss the theme of an upside-down world, which appears in both Christian and Rabbinic literature, concerning martyrs. In this framework, I discuss the view of martyrdom as a kind of stairway to heaven—an instrument for rapid advancement allowing to overtake those who lived according to the law—and the unique perception of law and martyrology in the fourth-century Syriac-Christian Book of Steps, which places the martyrs below the perfect.

Tendon-driven Continuum Robots (TDCRs) excel at operating in confined and complex environments due to their inherent flexibility and high degrees of freedom. Despite these advantages, achieving precise control in multi-section TDCRs remains challenging because of their infinite degrees of freedom, nonlinear behaviour, and coupled tendon actuation. This paper introduces a generalised virtual actuation space framework that significantly simplifies kinematic modelling and control of multi-section TDCRs. By formulating a novel concept of virtual actuation space that converts each bending section of the TDCR two-input actuation system, the proposed method reduces the complexity of TDCR modelling and control, enabling unique and simplified representations of each section. Furthermore, the formulation decouples each section via a generalised tendon mapping matrix that handles coupling effects. Experimental validation on a two-section TDCR demonstrates tracking performance with a root mean square error below 3 mm, corresponding to approximately 1% of the robot’s length. These results confirm the method’s efficacy in improving TDCR precision for minimally invasive surgery, industrial applications, and other constrained environments.

We describe the marine horsehair worm Nectonema shimadai sp. nov., which was parasitic in a snapping shrimp (Alpheus sp.) collected at 4 m depth from the coastal water of Kikaijima Island, Japan, northwestern Pacific. The nematomorph was a female, 49 mm in length and 340 μm in width, salmon-pink when alive, with a translucent anterior body region and a distinct anterior chamber. The 18S sequence from N. shimadai sp. nov. was 12.8%, 9.8%, 9.6%, and 9.3% divergent in Kimura 2-parametar (K2P) distance from Nectonema sp. parasitic in the isopod Natatolana japonensis, Nectonema sp. parasitic in the crab Chionoecetes bairdi, N. munidae, and N. agile, respectively. In an 18S tree, N. shimadai sp. nov. was the sister taxon to a clade comprising three decapod-parasitic species, and species sharing the same host group or ocean were not monophyletic. The tree may reflect genetically distant warm- and cold-water lineages within decapod-parasitic nematomorphs.

To understand the early modern Caribbean, we must understand the societies that inhabited it. The parameters through which historians approach these societies have changed drastically in the last decade. While recent interventions have proven useful for framing our attitude to how populations in the Caribbean formed, they are less effective when applied to societies whose longevity was uncertain that, in some cases, fractured or collapsed. It is in this context that some historians have identified what they term “sinew populations”: communities whose “off-grid” nature necessitates different ways of thinking about how they functioned. Recent works have discussed how sinew populations ensured the long-term viability of their communities, but this approach also requires attention to the factors that could render a sinew population’s existence unviable.

This article uses an eighteenth-century Caribbean population of pirates as a case study to illustrate the issue of viability within sinew populations. In particular, the article emphasizes the weak social foundations on which this sinew population was built and the lack of interest among the pirates themselves, after 1718, in maintaining a large pirate population. In thinking about how pirates related to one another and what this meant for the long-term survival of the pirate sinew population, this article demonstrates the importance of social maintenance for understanding how Caribbean societies operated.

This study uncovers a previously overlooked chapter in the historiography of civil disobedience: Menachem Begin’s resistance to Israeli emergency legislation between 1948 and 1954, which he argued undermined foundational democratic principles. It presents the first scholarly analysis of Begin’s resistance, contending that it constitutes a clear instance of civil disobedience, embodying its core tenets. At the heart of this historical case study lies a paradigmatic question: how can laws that erode foundational—yet abstract—democratic principles, such as the separation of powers, be effectively resisted, and can such resistance be accommodated within traditional frameworks of civil disobedience? Begin’s struggle brings these questions into sharp relief, illuminating longstanding critiques of the framework’s overly restrictive boundaries and underscoring the tension between theoretical frameworks and political reality. More broadly, the article engages central debates at the intersection of law, politics, and democratic thought. By examining the democratic convictions of a prominent right-wing leader, it contributes to historical scholarship on the role of conservative and right-wing movements in shaping democratic ideologies, while also providing a historical reference point for subsequent ideological transformations and radicalization processes within these movements. Finally, by illuminating the complexities inherent in opposing laws that erode core-yet abstract-democratic principles, this study resonates with contemporary debates on democratic backsliding, offering a historical lens through which civil disobedience has served as a principled response to such challenges.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Latin American artists turned low-cost, open platforms such as Mozilla Hubs, Twitch, Jitsi, YouTube and OBS into ephemeral infrastructures for collaborative VR concerts, 3D live-coding sessions, collective streaming events and networked Algoraves. Drawing on participant observation, event documentation and informal interviews, this article examines these cases with a focus on La Fábrica VR (TOPLAP México) and related experiences in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Argentina and Costa Rica. We argue that these practices materialise a situated, collaborative and tactically informal technological production that reconfigures agency, embodiment and listening in immersive environments.

Suicide is among the most pressing public health problems of the 21st century. Fictional depictions of suicide have long been known to influence the public’s understanding of suicide and, in some cases, can impact suicide rates. Unrecognised to date is that J.K. Rowling is, arguably, the most prolific popular author on the topic of suicide. Dozens of Rowling’s characters and, indeed, each of her books, have a connection to suicide. This review summarises Rowling’s coverage of suicide and discusses the implications. In particular, it explores how her books/series generally include a protagonist who survives a crisis and a foil who succumbs to despair and trauma, and how these narratives relate to what Rowling has said publicly about her own story of survival. Although her treatment of suicide does not always align with recommendations for responsible media portrayals, overall, Rowling’s works have exposed numerous people worldwide to messages of hope and survival, and this deserves scientific attention.

Does Benatar’s anti-natalism – the view that it is better never to have been – imply that death is better than continued living? This is known as the pro-mortalist question, a compelling, unresolved question surrounding anti-natalist discourse. In order to answer this question, I analyse two theories about the badness of death that Benatar uses to argue against the idea that anti-natalism implies pro-mortalism. The first is that death deprives one of the good things in life. The second is that death annihilates the person. However, I argue that these theories fail to block pro-mortalism. As such, I conclude that Benatar’s anti-natalism implies pro-mortalism, suggesting that if it is better never to have been, then it is better to cease to be.

In 1958, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority established a fifteen-minute daily Persian-language program targeting Iranian listeners, restarting segments that had begun almost a decade earlier. These broadcasts were written and produced by recent Iranian Jewish immigrants to the country, who brought press and activism experience and expertise from their country of origin. The purpose of these broadcasts was to highlight Israel’s economic and technological achievements, convey its foreign policy perspectives, and strengthen elite connections with Iran. In the process, such broadcasts also became the focal point for an increasingly internationalizing Iranian population, a fact that remained true up to and beyond the country’s 1978–79 revolution. Studies of radio in Israel have noted the medium’s function in both domestic constructions of the new state’s identity and culture as well as public diplomacy facing its enemies and allies. This article shows that Persian-language radio broadcasts served both these purposes, as well as positing a further function in their use as a point of transnational connectivity, beyond relations with Israel alone. In so doing, this article points to the power of listeners in structuring their own communities, even in response to state-centric media campaigns.