UniqueBible.app is now available as a binary distribution on Windows. So, you can now just download, unzip, and run.

UBA Releases

I've released an open source version of Hymn Lyrics for Android - Open Hymn Lyrics. It has all the features of the ad supported version and the paid version, but is now free.

- Over 2000 public domain Christian hymns
- Less than 3 MB in size
- Support for adding your own songs to the app
- Filters/favorites
- Search YouTube for hymn
- Show chords for popular songs
- Custom hymn numbers
- Ability to delete all built-in songs (only show custom songs)

Code is hosted at:
https://gitlab.com/hymnlyrics/open-hymn-lyrics

Report issues at:
https://gitlab.com/hymnlyrics/open-hymn-lyrics/-/issues

Group discussion at:
https://groups.google.com/g/open-hymn-lyrics-support

Shinzo Abe, former Japanese prime minister, assassinated during campaign speech

Boris Johnson Resigns As Prime Minister After Government Collapses

"Worst Start Since 1788": A Closer Look At The Catastrophic First Half Performance

This was the worst first half for the market in 50 years and it’s all because of one thing — inflation

US stocks see worst first half drop in more than 50 years

JPM Warns US "Perilously Close To Recession" As Atlanta Fed Slashes Q2 GDP To -2.1%

58% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck after inflation spike

Tech stocks are having their worst year ever

"One Of The Worst Downturns In Recent History": Zuck Warns Facebook

Rationing Has Already Started In Europe As The Entire Globe Plunges Into A Horrific Economic Nightmare

Millions of Calif. families to get ‘inflation relief’ stimulus checks of up to $1,050: What we know about whether other states will follow

States are sending free money in place of federal stimulus checks — is inflation relief headed your way?

In a historic and far-reaching decision, the U.S. Supreme Court officially reversed Roe v. Wade on Friday, declaring that the constitutional right to abortion, upheld for nearly a half century, no longer exists.

NPR

The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision — Planned Parenthood v. Casey — that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.

Politico

The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion.

Almost half the states are expected to outlaw or severely restrict abortion as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision on a Mississippi case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion, joined by four other conservatives. The three liberal justices opposed the decision. Chief Justice John Roberts voted with the majority to uphold the Mississippi abortion restrictions but did not approve of tossing out Roe altogether.

CNBC

Held: The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.

In recent years, a significant number of States have enacted abortion restrictions that directly conflict with Roe. Those laws cannot be dismissed as political stunts or as outlier laws. Those numerous state laws collectively represent the sincere and deeply held views of tens of millions of Americans who continue to fervently believe that allowing abortions up to 24 weeks is far too radical and far too extreme, and does not sufficiently account for what Roe itself recognized as the State's "important and legitimate interest" in protecting fetal life.

After today's decision, the nine Members of this Court will no longer decide the basic legality of pre-viability abortion for all 330 million Americans. That issue will be resolved by the people and their representatives in the democratic process in the States or Congress.

The Roe Court took sides on a consequential moral and policy issue that this Court had no constitutional authority to decide. By taking sides, the Roe Court distorted the Nation's understanding of this Court's proper role in the American constitutional system and thereby damaged the Court as an institution.

To be sure, many Americans will disagree with the Court's decision today. That would be true no matter how the Court decided this case. Both sides on the abortion issue believe sincerely and passionately in the rightness of their cause. Especially in those difficult and fraught circumstances, the Court must scrupulously adhere to the Constitution's neutral position on the issue of abortion.

In my judgment, on the issue of abortion, the Constitution is neither pro-life nor pro-choice. The Constitution is neutral, and this Court likewise must be scrupulously neutral. The Court today properly heeds the constitutional principle of judicial neutrality and returns the issue of abortion to the people and their elected representatives in the democratic process.

DOBBS, STATE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, ET AL. v. JACKSON WOMEN'S HEALTH ORGANIZATION ET AL.

US inflation hits 40-year high of 8.6% as food, gas and shelter costs rise

Inflated grocery prices and shrinking package sizes. The cost of food is rising at fastest pace since 1979

Fed hikes its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage point, the biggest increase since 1994

S&P 500 tumbles nearly 4% to new low for the year, closes in bear market territory

Global stock markets head for steepest weekly fall since 2020 as recession fears rise – as it happened

World Bank Warns of Global Recession, Stagflation — 'This Is the Sharpest Slowdown in 80 Years'

The World Bank says most countries are headed for a recession, and warns of a possible return to 1970s ‘stagflation’

Bitcoin’s Price Sinks Closer to $20,000 As Crypto Crash Continues.

U.S. gas prices average hits $5 as summer of pain sets in

Mortgage rates surge to 5.78%, highest level since 2008

Here's 18 Signs That The Economic Meltdown We've Been Waiting For Has Already Begun

Coverage:
War in Ukraine
NBC News
Economist
BBC
CNN
Politico
Reuters
Wikipedia

Ukraine:
- 44 million people (8th most populous in Europe)
- 2nd largest land mass country in Europe after Russia
- 80% are Christian. 60% are Orthodox.
- 17% residents are Russian
- In 1986, Chernobyl plant disaster
- In 1991, nation formed after collapse of USSR
- World’s largest reserves of iron ore
- Mostly flat geography contributes to major agricultural industry
- Largest grain exporter in world
- Member of United Nations, but not EU
- History of political corruption
Wikipedia
Visual Capitalist
The Fact File

Orange Revolution:
- November 2004 to January 2005
- Protest of 2004 Ukrainian presidential election
Wikipedia

Revolution of Dignity:
- Maidan Revolution
- February 2014
- Protest of Yanukovych not signing EU agreement
- Ousted Yanukovych from power
Wikipedia

Russian invasion:
- Feb 24, 2022 - Russia invades Ukraine
Dmytro Kuleba
Aljazeera

Volodymyr Zelenskyy:
- Born in Jewish family
- Professional comedian
- Became president in 2019
Wikipedia
Zelenskyy’s unlikely journey, from comedy to wartime leader
Servant of the People party
Twitter account

Articles:
The increasingly complicated Russia-Ukraine crisis, explained
Russia’s war in Ukraine: complete guide in maps, video and pictures
Stop asking what Putin wants and start asking what Ukrainians want
I need ammunition, not a ride: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declines US offer to evacuate Kyiv

Movies:
Winter on Fire - Netflix

Videos:
“Prayer for Ukraine” performed by Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York

Photos:
Getty Images
NPR
The Times
Zeebiz

Twitter:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Dmytro Kuleba - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
Stratcom Centre UA

"The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit, is an economic trend in which employees voluntarily resign from their jobs en masse, beginning in early 2021, primarily in the United States."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Resignation




"38% of pastors in the United States have thought about quitting full-time ministry in the past year, according to The Barna Group."
Pastors leaving jobs amid 'Great Resignation'


"People from Asia to Europe have been walking away from jobs as they re-evaluate their work-life balance amid high levels of burnout."
U.K. Firms Brace for a Great British Resignation in 2022


Causes:

- Concerns about covid
- Lack of childcare
- Better work-life balance
- Stimulus payments
- Dissatisfaction with work
- Long covid and less ability and desire to work
- Toxic culture - "failure to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion; workers feeling disrespected; and unethical behavior"
- Negative assessments of their company's future outlook
- Burn out
- Seek higher pay
- Seek jobs that offer full-time remote
- Early retirement - forced or voluntary
- Vaccination, mask mandates
- Move to self-employment
- "pandemic epiphanies” - reassessing career path
- "reduce the coercive element of labor as much as possible by subverting capitalism”
- “Well, some of us are lazy and we just don’t want to work.”

“The weariness of the pandemic, the weariness of politics that are extreme on both ends, the weariness of opening and closing and shutting down and wearing a mask and not wearing a mask and vaccinations and not, all of that is just weariness and it's exhausting is the word I’d used,”

"More-innovative companies, including SpaceX, Tesla, Nvidia, and Netflix, are experiencing higher attrition rates than their more staid competitors. The pattern is not limited to technology-intensive industries, since innovative companies like Goldman Sachs and Red Bull have suffered higher turnover as well."
Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation

Links:

What is 'The Great Resignation'? An expert explains
Tang ping - "Lying flat"
Pastors leaving jobs amid 'Great Resignation'
These Are the Top 5 Reasons People Are Quitting During the Great Resignation
Quitting is just half the story: the truth behind the ‘Great Resignation’
Three Myths of the Great Resignation
‘Anti-work’ threads on Reddit are fueling the Great Resignation

"As a new mayor and City Council begin their terms, 488 spots across 123 committees are currently unfilled. The groups include those created by the city and those affiliated with Atlanta to which elected leaders make appointments. That’s over one third of all positions, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of city records that track appointments."
Across Atlanta’s boards and commissions, nearly 500 spots sit unfilled

"The city of Jackson is seeking residents to fill vacancies on various boards and commissions. Currently, the city has 30 vacancies on 13 of its boards and commissions that need to be filled by residents who want to serve, officials said."
Jackson seeking residents to serve on boards and commissions

Workplace Relations Commission board positions still unfilled after three months

Front Royal-Warren County EDA struggles to fill vacancies

Big milestone for me, I just completed the first pass of my translation of the New Testament. You can read it here: TransliteralBible.com

I started this project on Feb 2019 as a way to learn Greek and to dive deeper into the Bible. And this has turned out to be one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. Honestly, when I started on this project, I was in a very dry place. All sermons were boring to me, personal Bible study was boring, and prayer was boring. Preachers seemed to be teaching the same things over and over. Bible study materials did not go very deep.

Doing this has been a journey that has affected me in ways that I would not have ever expected. But, one thing I can honestly say now is I love the law. I have such a greater appreciation and awe of the Bible that really only people who have dug deep can understand. And ironically, I feel I've only scratched the surface. There is so much to dig even further.

Doing this has transformed how I view the Bible, how I walk out the Christian faith, and even improved my marriage! Now, whenever someone is willing to listen to me, I say if they want to transform their Christian walk, they should write their own translation of the Bible.

It's not as hard as it sounds, though it does require effort. We have so many tools now to look into the original languages that one doesn't really need to know Greek or Hebrew. I started just using Blue Letter Bible. Really that's all one needs to write their own translation.

As for the tools I use, three years ago, I got introduced to VS Code at work, which really makes composing the text easier. And also around that time, I started playing with Python which allowed me to automate some of the translation work. Last December, I discovered a fantastic Bible study program called UniqueBible.app. It made my translation work go much faster and it also allows me to publish my translation on the web.

I'll now go through the second pass of the NT and also start translating the OT, which will take much longer. But I'm not too concerned about how long it'll take. It's the journey that has been transformational. And I encourage anyone to start this journey for yourself to dramatically increase your love of God and the Bible.