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Wdoes that mean? This statement seems to have been around for quite some time, but the theme remains the same. Top of the world one day, mundane cleaning implement the next. A usual, part of being around for a while is that the statement shows up in a number of forms and is attributed to a number of different people. In any case, it is interesting.

The statement is reminding us that fame is fleeting, as is beauty, and even life itself. At any moment, your status could change. That Pop star with the first name of Justin, may well be finding that out shortly.

To me, the bottom line of this statement is humility. Yes, the fame might be nice, but you should know it won’t last. No matter what you are now, it won’t last forever. All things will end. Don’t get too hung up on the peacock thing, right?

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SHAT Why is humility important?

the statement says, even the brightest and fanciest peacocks eventually face a day when they are no longer all that impressive. Eventually, they may even find that their pride and joy, their tail feathers, have become nothing more than a cleaning tool for gathering up the dust. How much

months ago, Russia destroyed one of their own satellites. Big deal, you may think. Well, yes it is, when you look at the implications.

The Russians used anti-satellite technology. This is not new. Anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons have been around for almost as long as satellites have been around. They are seen as necessary because of the inherent military and surveillance capabilities of satellites.

ASAT weapons come in two types. There are the kind that physically destroy satellites by blowing them up or smashing into them. Then there are the kind that disable satellites via software hacks, jamming, or blinding with lasers.

The Russian ASAT technology used late last year was the first kind. It was also the first proper test of a fairly new system. That system is known as ‘Nudol’ and it is essentially an anti-ballistic missile system.

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more humble might you be if you thought of the way things will be at the end? When we remember our place in the universe, when we remember that all things which are born must also die, it can be a little easier to be humble, and not strut quite so much.

Don’t get me wrong, if you’re good, you can admit it. But when you become a self-publicity machine, and strut everywhere with your brightest plumage on display, you have to know it will eventually end, and that it won’t be pretty, right? Yet so many people forget this, and make fools of themselves.

STATEMENT

As usual, there is no such a thing as too much or too little. The trick is finding the middle ground, where you are neither hiding, nor strutting. That place does exist, and most of us remember to not stray too far towards strutting. But it can be hard sometimes. Perhaps this statement will help you.

Where can I apply this in my life?

The opposite of humility is arrogance. Where in your life are you a little arrogant? Under what circumstances are you most likely to strut and preen? When does it tend to happen? If you don’t know, perhaps it’s because you don’t do it.

Then again, you just might not have noticed it. This is another exercise in introspection and self-examination. Have you given much thought to this topic in the past? Why or why not?

And when do you think would be a good time to revisit the topic?

Might the occasion of this statement

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Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told that the Nudol system was made of ‘suborbital rockets that home in on a target satellite and destroy it by just sitting in the way, while the satellite smashes into it at 27 000 kilometres per hour.”

So there’s that. Destroying stuff by getting in the way.

Then there is the fact that what was destroyed was a big object. It was a Soviet-era satellite, Cosmos 1408, that hadn’t worked since the 1980s.

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McDowell went on to say that “they took out a fairly large satellite”. It was a 1 750 kilogramme machine. “That’s on the big end of targets that have been used.”

The only reason to take out something this large in a practice test is to prove that you can take out something this large. I’ll leave the implications of this point to your imagination.

When you blow up stuff that is in orbit that ‘stuff’ doesn’t go away. It just becomes smaller stuff in orbit. It creates an orbital debris field, which is a patch of debris that continues to orbit the planet.

Slowly, those bits will eventually fall back to Earth, and if they are small enough, they will burn up in the atmosphere. as good a reason as any other? Take a moment and think about the questions asked in the opening paragraph of this section. We all have times when we are a little more proud of what we have done or accomplished than normal. They might not all raise us to the status of peacock, but it’s a good place to start.

When is it most likely to happen? Under what circumstances? Are you an end zone dancer?

When are you most tempted to have your peacock moment? I would caution against simply listing any time you have a great time, or show off, unless you really live to do it, and do it frequently.

Given how reserved I am as a person, this isn’t something I do very often. Some of you may find yourself wondering if you ever do it at all. Perhaps not.

Not every statement applies equally to each person. To me, the important point is that you took the time to consider it, to examine your life. For those of you, who are basically done, consider entering a phrase or term in the search window and take a shot at different statements.

Who knows what you might find out about yourself as you dig into other parts of your life, right?

Just don’t strut around, claiming you’ve got this one covered, right? For the rest, is there a common thread in the times you are a little less than humble? Is it every time you talk about your grandkids? Ask yourself if it is strutting or just a more appropriate version of pride. Again, if there is a pattern, changing one thing can yield big results.

What could you do to keep that feather duster in mind when you start to get a little too prideful? How can you use this statement to help you remain humble? Is there some other saying or method you think would be helpful?

If they are not, they will crashland who knows where onto Earth.

But while they are still in orbit, travelling at thousands of kilometres an hour, they are rather like a set of razor blades, knives and bullets. Anything that crosses paths with such a debris field is likely to be damaged.

That almost happened earlier this week. SpaceX said that they had tracked about 6 000 close approaches of debris from this ASAT event, and about a third of their satellites have been put in jeopardy. Fortunately for SpaceX, they could manoeuvre their fleet, which not all satellites could do.

Moving on and talking of near impacts in orbit, a huge asteroid passed by us yesterday. The size of a basketball court, it passed over our orbit, and came within eight times the distance of the moon.

That’s about a distance of 4.3 million kilometres from us. It was also fairly fast as far as these things go, travelling at 33 000km an hour, or 27 times the speed of sound.

NASA considers any object this big and this fast that comes within 7.5 million kilometres of Earth to be ‘potentially hazardous’.

ASAT technology meanwhile, may have the ability to take out such potentially hazardous asteroids, in the right circumstances.