Yorkshire hand new deals to duo Harry Brook and Dom Leech

Harry Brook has signed a new five-year deal with Yorkshire (Adam Davy/PA Images). (PA
Wire)

Harry Brook and Dom Leech have committed their futures to Yorkshire by signing new
contracts.

Batter Brook, who was called into the England Test squad for the series against New
Zealand, has signed a five-year deal which will keep the Keighley-born 23-year-old at the
club until at least October 27.

Middlesbrough fast bowler Leech, 21, will remain on the books until at least October 2024
having made a handful of first-team appearances since his debut in 2020.

Yorkshire’s interim managing director of cricket Darren Gough said: “We are absolutely
delighted that they have both committed their futures to the club.

“Harry is an incredible talent and the performances he has put in so far this year have been
nothing short of incredible, rightfully earning him an England call-up. It’s clear that he has a
very bright future and it’s great for the club to be able to secure his services for a long
period of time.

“Dom is a highly regarded seamer and we are really excited to see what he can achieve
over the next few years. Like most young fast bowlers, he’s had to cope with a few injuries
in the early-stage of his career, but we are confident he has all of the attributes to be a
brilliant cricketer for Yorkshire.”

Source: Creation of Adam - Michelangelo - Wikimedia Commons

Seeing Girl with Balloon reminded me of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam in the Sistine
Chapel. Outstretched hands between the terrestrial world and the numinous, which by
touch, we create and are created. As if the Michelangelo is the response to the Banksy, the
“hand of the father” is meant to grasp that of the girl once the balloon drifts beyond reach. It
would only be then that “everything’s going to be alright” for her again, the ultimate mission
of a father for a daughter.

Hand-Holding Lasts Forever

The research on hand-holding says that it lowers blood pressure, reduces pain in parallel
with empathy, and synchronizes brain waves in correlation with the ability to accurately
assess each other’s emotional states—Goldstein (2018).

If you close your eyes with empathy for someone you’ve lost too early, you are still holding
hands, and it makes you the kind of person to make sure that everything will be alright for
others. If you’ve lost your father, his generosity was real, and what you have become
because of him is just as real and still growing by his influence.

You are still holding hands with him and can continue to do so until the day that you, too, fly
to meet him in the “up-aboves.” For now, your connection is renewed any time you close
your eyes and reach out your hand.
Shakedown payments
The second basic type of cryptocurrency scam simply uses cryptocurrency as the payment
method to transfer funds from victims to scammers. All ages and demographics can be
targets. These include ransomware cases, romance scams, computer repair scams,
sextortion cases, Ponzi schemes and the like. Scammers are simply capitalizing on the
anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies to hide their identities and evade consequences.

Romance frauds often result in requests for cryptocurrency. Tero Vesalainen/iStock via
Getty Images
In the recent past, scammers would request wire transfers or gift cards to receive money –
as they are irreversible, anonymous and untraceable. However, such payment methods do
require potential victims to leave their homes, where they might encounter a third party who
can intervene and possibly stop them. Crypto, on the other hand, can be purchased from
anywhere at any time.

Indeed, Bitcoin has become the most common currency requested in ransomware cases,
being demanded in close to 98% of cases. According to the U.K. National Cyber Security
Center, sextortion scams often request individuals to pay in Bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies. Romance scams targeting younger adults are increasingly using
cryptocurrency as part of the scam.

If someone is asking you to transfer money to them via cryptocurrency, you should see a
giant red flag.

The Wild West

In the field of financial exploitation, more work has been done to study and educate elderly
scam victims, because of the high levels of vulnerability in this group. Research has
identified common traits that make someone especially vulnerable to scam solicitations.
They include differences in cognitive ability, education, risk-taking and self-control.

Of course, younger adults can also be vulnerable and indeed are becoming victims, too.
There is a clear need to broaden education campaigns to include all age groups, including
young, educated, well-off investors. We believe authorities need to step up and employ new
methods of protection. For example, the regulations that currently apply to financial advice
and products could be extended to the cryptocurrency environment. Data scientists also
need to better track and trace fraudulent activities.

Cryptocurrency scams are especially painful because the probability of retrieving lost funds
is close to zero. For now, cryptocurrencies have no oversight. They are simply the Wild
West of the financial world.