Geography: The Congo basin

Having started near Antarctica at Kerguelen, then moving far north to Svalbard,  I decided to hit the middle of the earth.  My eyes scanned for a few moments before the large, green area of the Congo leapt-out.

I am amazed at the earth and its differences.  The far cold south and north are filled with information of things within scarcity, of how humanity has carved out some existence (sometimes failed) within near unendurable climates.  Barren, desperate places, but beautiful to the eye, fill my images.google.com searches.  Brilliant-white peaks, and unforgiving arctic oceans juxtaposed to remote satellite stations and international vaults are now compared with the most lush, green and vibrant landscape one could ever imagine on earth.

The Congo Basin is vast, and as much as Kerguelen is described as "one of the most remote places on earth," so has The Congo, relatedly, hidden its mysteries, even until present times.

It is called "The Heart of Africa" and "The Second Lung of The Earth" (The Amazon being the other).

It is vast.  It is practically half the size of the lower 48 states.  Yet this is mostly untamed, unexplored jungle, filled with huge marshes and some of the most uncrossable river in the world: The Great Congo River.  It is the deepest river in the world.

It is the place where died "Dr. Livingston" (yes, of the, "Dr. Livingston I presume" fame).  He called The Congo River, "that horrible river."

At The Congo's southeast corner lies 1/6th of all the fresh water in the world in Lake Tanganyika.  It is called, "an inland ocean" and described as more ocean than lake, with large waves crashing its shores.  It is the 2nd deepest and the largest fresh water lake in the world.  Divers compare the fish in it to deep ocean fish.

The fauna of The Congo are vast in number and variety.  One type of antelope lives only there, in the marsh, some 15,000 of them.  Ancient lung fish evolved some 300 million years ago, that can fall into suspended animation during even years of drought are there.  Then there are the elephants, gorillas and big cats.  And then there is poaching....

And there is the constant deforestation....

The Congo is filled also with human misery and great political upheaval.  Warlords control large sections of it, and legitimate governments are forced to make pacts with them to maintain power.   The United Nations keeps a perpetual presence in The Congo.

And it is both one of the most wealthiest places in the world, and one of the most poor at the same time.  The poverty of The Congo is some of the worst on the planet, with people earning as little as 35 cents a day, in mines said to drive one mad.  Child labor is ubiquitous and other human exploitation.  The individual earning so very little produces gold, that in short order is sold for many magnitudes of money later in European markets.  The gold and diamonds buried within The Congo are estimated to be wroth $23 trillion (that's trillion) dollars.  Yet, due to the lack of infrastructure, governmental stability and general in-cohesion of the people living in there, these vast reserves of mineral wealth go untouched and managed and mostly exploited (illegal mining is as rife as poaching).

And so I continue learning about The Congo.

Movie Review: **Spoiler Alert** The Hobbit: An Unexpeted Journey

-Opening scenes at Bag End were well done.  The entire interchange went well, even Bilbo's obstinance at having his abode intruded to his being mildly interested in the "quest" and map, to his final signing of the contract.

-The troll scene went badly.  The book's dialogue and sequences were abandoned to highlight Bilbo's worth.  (A main issue up until the entering of Mirkwood -- of Bilbo basically being a poop-popsicle to "Thorin and Company" was side-stepped by Jackson by tossing in a couple/few more instances of Bilbo's bravery.  His only real value was evidenced to the dwarves after leaving Gollom with the ring.  My memory of Balin muttering to himself, "Bilbo, Bilbo, Bilbo...." being deeply impressed with the Hobbit sticks about now.)  But anyhow, the troll scene sacrifices that instance of Gandalf's prowess to give it instead to Bilbo.  And some key lines omitted that I longed to see.  It is the first instance we get in "The Hobbit" (and in the entire cosmos if it is the first book we read) of Gandalf's will and wisdom and control of middle earth.

-The tree-top scene was also changed, and the super-orc is put in our faces with a rivalry between him and Thorin that we all know the ending of.  The problem is there was no such rivalry in the books at all, but iswydtj (I see what you're doing there Jackson).  And I accept it, but I think Tolkien would cringe (he would cringe anyhow).  Those of us who have read The Hobbit (many times here), know how this rivalry will end, that never existed, albeit, a final battle between the two does.

-The dialogue with the eagles is entirely tossed.

-The elves are kept quite serious prior to and in Rivendell although Tolkien has them presented almost nonsensical from memory.

-The meeting of the 4: Galadriel, Saruman, Gandalf, Elron all meet to talk.  It is decent, but I think draggy to the non-fans.  It was violent to me in presentation and I was both shocked and some what delighted that they did it.  It was clearly out of Unfinished tales, albeit, 50% invented, and the best part of that meeting left out -- wherein, Gandalf blows smoke rings and passes his hand through one, indicating to Saruman, "You'll never have what you want" -- when Saruman suggests Gandalf is up to something over his relationship with the Hobbits <-- I was sad that Jackson didn't go there.  This part in Unfinished Tales is very powerful.  A chiding by Saruman at Gandalf over the hobbits and his concern with them, entirely absent.

-Gandalf discussed the 5:  I almost came.  I cannot believe Jackson did this, and it alone was enough to justify the entire movie.  Had he called them: Istari, I would have passed out.  He mentions "The 2 Blue wizards," and even uses Tolkien's own words when questioned in an interview, "I do not recall their 'middle earth' names."  Gandalf fails to give their 'Western' names (Alatar and Pallando).

-Radagast: I mean fucking wow.  Lol!  This makes me a Saruman fan.  He's hugely in the movie, and 95% fabricated.  A sleigh pulled by rabbits -- I mean, gmafb....

Dead Space: Chapter 4

Dead Space 3 is coming.  This inspired me to get back into Dead Space 1.  Here's a vid I put together of chapter 4:


Here's my play last night starting chapter 4 (just completed chapter 3 too last  night):

My raw footage of Dead Space: Chapter 4

*Spoiler* mini-boss
*Spoiler* I die

Music is by Awolnation who were apparently recruited solely by Red Bull by touting "free use of our recording studio."

I'm having trouble finding the name of the song but I _think_ it's "Worm Bitten Apple":

Here's more info on the song

Awonation Band on Wikipedia

I ripped it off "The Athlete Machine" Red Bull vid:

The Athlete Machine by Red Bull Kluge

^way cool...

Neanderthals: Behind Bigfoot, fear of the dark and sex?

Frontiers of Zoology provides a fascinating take on "a different face for Neanderthals" as presented by Danny Vendramini.  Namely, they did not look so much like homo sapiens (explaining why the two species lived so long near each other without combining), were actually the main predator of our ancestors, and also raped our early counterparts as well.

I love theories, and this is a new one for me.  Mainline thought is that Neanderthals looked very similar to homo sapiens, and we simply absorbed the subspecies over time.  This new theory suggest the opposite, and that we had to adapt-or-die, to a savage, man-hunting, monster whose legacy exists in the form of Bigfoot, Sasquatch and the Abominable Snowman.

This page is intriguing as well: Modern Neanderthal?

Pleasant little child Neanderthal

Possible evidence of Neanderthal in modern day -- Russian Boxer

Neanderthal DNA traced to human populations

What a man-eating, raping, seeing-in-the-dark Neanderthal _may_ have looked like.

The Mastodon Must Die!

The older I get, the more conservationist I get (did not say "conservative").  IANAEF (I am not an earth firster), but at the same time, the burgeoning human population _is_ wiping out the rest of all living things.  Something's gotta give.

Centuries to come -- if we don't nuke ourselves -- the sum total of all animals (maybe plants) will be contained on minute reserves.  That is, if we manage to finally figure out how to stop the chaos of falling/rising governments, discord and the sheer ignorance on the planet.

The stories behind the last of a species are heart breaking.  In 1922, the last Barbary Lion found itself in the sights of a hunter's rifle.  The sound of that gunshot marked the end of that animal, and that hunter -- who cared about nothing more than killing it -- had the privilege of being the last human on earth to see the largest of all modern lions alive.

I could go on, but this morning, the wired story of how the founders of modern America perceived the Pleistocene bones being discovered in the east, of titan, elephant-like animals, was both entertaining and sad.

A. Extinction was not a concept.  These animals must _still_ be alive, somewhere, on the continent.
B. They are carnivorous!  And should be feared!

The truth was:
C. They were herbivores, and they are gone forever....

Hopefully, not forever: the Barbary Lion has returned, in 2010, in the form of 2 cubs, made possible thanks to the efforts of biologists who searched for their descendants in zoos across the world.  Maybe, one day, we'll see mastodon babies too....

What a flesh-eating Mastodon may look like

Star Wars Stuff: The Inspiration for the AT-ATs

What gave the creators of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back the inspiration which produced the great, lumbering AT-ATs?  According to Phil Tippett -- Visual Effects designer for ESB and the AT-AT -- it was the largest known land mammal to have ever existed.  A distant cousin of the modern-day rhinoceros: Paraceratherium

This mega-creature also goes by the names: Indricotherium and Baluchitherium.  The "therium" part always means "beast."  I love etymology.  The best I can do with "Paraceratherium" is: "Pre-horned-beast."  My google skills did not produce a source translation.  Apparently, the first name given to any bones later determined to be this animal was Paraceratherium.  "Indricotherium" and "Baluchitherium" came later.  As with most new pre-historic megafauna discoveries, it takes a few tries before they get it right, or realize previously discovered bones were the same as a set thought new.  Triceratops' first discovered skull was thought to be of a great bison.  /digress

Back on topic: a popular myth is that the AT-AT was instead inspired by cranes operating on the docks at Oakland, CA.

However:

"[This is] a myth both Lucas and visual effects expert Phil Tippett deny. The inspiration for the AT-AT was Paraceratherium, an extinct species of rhino-like creature and the biggest land mammal in history." Source

I found a great youtube vid/BBC documentary on Paraceratherium:

This thing was huge.  It would make the biggest elephant look small.  Up to 18 tons, 16 feet tall with a total span from tail to nose of some 40 feet.

Great pic showing size of Paraceratherium,
which dominates the frame in the background.

What an AT-AT may look like.

Somebody did this.

German Command Vehicles

Rommel's command vehicle.  Called, "Greif"?

The SdKfz 250/3, Leichter Funkpanzerwagen and/or, "Lighter Radio Armored Car."

Guderian used the SdKfz 251/3, and he can be seen it in the attached pic:

"The half-tracked SdKfz 251/3 mittlerer Funkpanzerwagen (various radios were  used). This famous photo shows Guderian in 1940 during the Western campaign; an Enigma electro-mechanical encryption/decryption machine is visible."

Source

Wolfenstein-Type Catacombs Under Odessa

I love the Internet and now reddit.  I learn about things I wouldn'ta otherwise.  Who knew that the catacombs of the Wolfenstein saga (see! I brought it home!) do exist, under Odessa:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odessa_Catacombs <-- too lazy to do anything more than just paste the gd link....

Apparently, death in these catacombs is not uncommon.  Note to Russian teens dared to go in there -- don't!!!
Eye Candy ... ok fine, I made alink this time....

(Slightly nsfw):
From reddit: Girl got lost in the catacombs below odessa

They do remind me of the catacombs in Return to Castle Wolfenstein:

A partial map of the catacombs

They apparently stretch throughout the underneath of Odessa

(yes, scarfing most of this from reddit comments, ty redditors!)

What a way to die, in endless, underground passages....

If you go down in there, this could be you....

Planetary Annihilation

Who hasn't thought about annihilating an entire planet?  Well, soon, you'll be able to with the upcoming real-time strategy game from Uber Entertainment called -- get ready for it:

The game is still in development, but the teaser (easily found on youtube or kickstarter.com) is quite tantalizing.

Ever since Civ1, back in the '90s, I wanted to take the game to another world, another planet.  It saddened me that, when you finally built your spaceship, the game ended.  Winning!

But it didn't feel like winning.  RTSes developed, and sure, story-lines such as Star Craft's took you from world to world, but it wasn't seamless.  These were basically staged or set environments  you found yourself in, once you completed a chapter or part.

Planetary Annihilation promises to provide a seamless experience, wherein, planets, moons and even asteroids are involved and can be used.

Game experiences could be small -- as little as 20 minutes on "small maps" -- up to huge battles, with many planets and players involved and "...then the war goes interplanetary."  These battles could last up to 12 hours! ..says Jon Mavor, CTO.

The full interview is available at pcgamer.com.

They are still raising money for development.  More info at the wiki.

can't wait!...

If a bad player dies cuz he's bad, and no one is around to see it...

does he still suck?...

fatkiddown: sometimes I wonder
fatkiddown: what bad players are really doing
fatkiddown: is it their connection? their computer?
fatkiddown: are they blind or some how disabled?
fatkiddown: what can it be?
fatkiddown: that makes them play that way?...
Wack: they play it like CoD
fatkiddown: how so?
Wack: Run&Gun
Wack: thinkin they will respawn

Stargate stuff

Anyhow, under sea Stonehenge off the coast of Okinawa, some 110 feet under water.  The stones are upwards of 12 feet high:

Source: Grahamhancock.com

They also found this chick down there:

In all seriousness, I love ancient mysteries.

Is our daddies E.T.?...

Chit and Hurch

Yet another CSB....

I made this for my step daughter who had an art project in college.  She had to do a cartoon or something and asked for ideas.

Basically, Chit and Hurch are huffers -- glue, paint, name it.  I can't remember the clever thoughts behind their names (Hit and Church maybe?), but anyhow, they find some industrial glue that kills them when they open/huff it.  Within moments, the world blows up like a Nick Cage movie, and they _safely_ fall into the depths of the earth into some great crevasse....

Anyhow, with them falls the industrial glue and preservative, which perfectly preserves their freshly deceased bodies for millennia.

Eons later, aliens find nothing of humanity on Earth save deep within it, and only Chit and Hurch, who, they bring back to life via their technology, and then, keep C&H in their alien museum as a representation of the sum total of humanity -- compete with paint cans used for huffing....

Update: I just remembered, Hit and Church are spins on "Hitler and Churchill" ... I have no clue why I did that, but if you look close you can see Hit's little mustache....



So....

1st, a preemptive CSB:

One of my fav NSFW places to go is reddit.  I'm here now to call out the over-use of a word:

So....

It has to be the most used word to begin a post on reddit.

so.......

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK! DO NOT START REDDIT! YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE IT!!!!!!!!!


Ok, I'm calming down.  Still.  Let's discuss:

So, shit. I mean, anyhow. What is "so"? ... a conjunction. My wife does that on the phone using her fake phone voice, when she's talking to someone I can tell she doesn't know that well. She'll tell something and at the end of it go, "so..." followed by a slight chuckle. In that vein, I guess it's like, "I just said something I hope you approve of or find entertaining. I don't know you that well, and I just want us to be swell." Ending "so's" are more requests I suppose. Opening "so's" are more like, "ok listen." Either way, they have something to do with not knowing what else to say, I mean, besides the normal use of "so" to connect main clauses (stfu! about grammar!).

In Puerto Rico, they say, "ehtay, ehtay, ehtay...." I asked what that meant and someone said, "oh, it's like saying, "ummm."

I just watched an entire Spongebob Squarepants episode where he gets stuck in Patrick's giant ball of gum. Spit kept dripping out of it. It was gross, and people lived inside of it too, but they escaped. Spongebob is trippy man. I don't do acid, but it's gotta have fan following amongst its adherents....

So....

Coffin Phones

A while back, I saw a story where some people are starting to place their deceased loved one’s cell phone in the coffin at burial time … with it on … waiting to take a call.

googles provided this article from 2008....

I quickly decided that this was creepy. I mean, can you imagine making that call to your dead loved-one’s phone, hearing it ringing, knowing it’s ringing beside their remains, six feet under.

I then thought about the messages you would leave like, if you had time to do a new voicemail message: “Hi, this is FKD. I can’t come to the phone right now cuz I’m dead. Leave a message if you want, but I’ll never call you back. After all, I’m dead….” Or, “Hi, you’ve reached the voicemail of FKD, the late, meaning, I’m gone, I’m dead. Why are you calling me? Didn’t you hear?” Or, “This is me, FKD, I’m dead, and if you only got one ring before getting to voicemail then that means the battery on this thing’s dead too … beep!”

World of Tanks: Ruin on Ruinberg

Battle Type: Encounter

Map: Ruinberg

Vehicle: T28

tl;dr: cover the flag, be aware of the east, but the battle is lost if that red bar finishes the journey to 100%....
My experience, thus far, on this map, on this side of it and on battle mode: encounter, is that there is a fierce medium struggle at around the townish intersection at E0 -- at least, the enemy will bring it, and my team should answer it.  If not, then it won't be much of a struggle at all....

Being in a T28 -- with a top speed of 18kph (if I'm lucky, and being pulled by a French medium upper tier, down hill, being sucked forward by a super massive blackhole) -- I decided to go to hide at the toppish part of H8 -- nice rocks, nice bush, just nice.  I could offer supporting fire to E0 and/or, when it turned into F0.  Also, it affords the opportunity to move up, in the event my guys at E0 did well, and take shots at enemy corner-lurkers that often appear at the top of F6. 

Indeed, reds did show at F6.  Indeed, an enemy wolf pack of lights and mediums did show at E0.  Indeed, my, XVM-gave-the-win-to team, did represenT! at E0 as well (capital T was intended there), very much so, erm, too much so, uh, guys, we have a lot at E0....

But placing myself at H8/G8 also affords me the ability to race back to flag (heh, I said, "race" when referring to a T28), in the event a capping battle breaks out.  Mind you, I am in a slow-moving T28, and this, "get-back-to-the-flag" part is honestly a tertiary plan, but part of it. ...this part depends on the fact that my team is well spread-out, balanced on both flanks with just enough going right (east) and just enough to flag (west), with just enough to do both jobs, including, keeping the enemy flag-cappers reset until I can get there -- hopefully, going the very back, safer way along toward G1.  If not, then a much shorter and quicker route straight down the path from J7 to F2.

As it turns out, by the time I see all the red dots at both spots, I realize: As much as we have put too much on the east, they have put too much on the west, at the flag -- and if you think about it, it's not such a bad idea to overstack at the flag ... in the _right_ circumstance. 

I begin my sluggish trek back, but at the same time, a lone M4A3E8 begins a solo-man cap.  A slow, solo-man cap (did I say that twice?).  This occurred _as_ I'm considering and quickly (heh, quickly) _do_ make the trek to the flag -- but now, realizing I have to do the shorter and dangerous route.

A sprint in a T28 is like a gnat watching an elephant take a dump, waiting for the foods of it.

 

"Not a total crisis," thinks I.  After all, there are 2 mediums -- on the wrong side of the flag -- and some heavies near the flag.

Then, to my horror, I realize: no one but me is making the journey to _really_ reset this capture.

• And they do not.  The 2 mediums and fast TD on our team seem unaware.
• The heavies are all locked in blocking battles that are not near enough to the flag to get at the US medium, who is utilizing good defilade and avoiding hits.

It is as if my team is frozen in time, and only I can do the work of resetting.

I manage only to get close enough to damage the KV-3 who joins, and I do think our Lion manages to hit him as well, but for all else, the first capper -- the M4A3E8, is never reset, and it is a loss....

Bottom-line: cover the flag, be aware of the east, but the battle is lost if that red bar finishes the journey to 100%....

 

Dark green indicates spawn point and trek to hide. Lime green indicates trek from hide to begin journey to flag. Light bluish line indicates path to flag wherein 2 or 3 shots did result in damage to capper, but only secondary capper....

iSpawn or iFKD....

@ hide, awaiting to see how it all unfolds ... doesn't get pretty....

The futile journey and useless attack on the enemy flag capture

A hit ... on not the one I wanna hit....

Duh howwah!!!

 

The Birdhouse

A bit ago my wife says to me, "you need to build something with the kids."  This past weekend, we built/builded (builded?) a birdhouse....

 

 

The 3 of us went to the basement.  I found a sheet of Luan board and some rather thick molding.  I ended up using the molding for the rough frame and the luan, of course, for the main walls.

 

 

Before we got going, the 6 year old saw me getting all the stuff ready: work bench, drill, nails and screws, etc.  When he found out it was going to be a bird house he said, "I don't want to build a birdhouse.  I want to build a clock."  To wit I retorted, "based on the tools, materials and engineering expertise at hand, I can assure you that we will not be building a clock, unless it is a sundial...."

 

 

And thus, so, the birdhouse began.  As it started coming together in my mind and before my eyes -- the 6 year old jetted from the project about 5 minutes into it, but my daughter stayed enthralled over the entire weekend, and was eager and asking to do more, a great assistant -- before long, the project took on a life of its own.

 

 

I thus approached the project, the thing -- a birdhouse -- as a analyst/engineer might:

• What are we building? a birdhouse.
• Why? for birds to live and raise a family in.
• How should it work: for years, over many seasons.
• What are the challenges:
• Maintenance
• Adaptability (you know, making it so different birds can live in it of different sizes)
• Durability (the birds need a safe, dry home)

 Maintenance: cleaning a birdhouse is something any proud birdhouse maker/owner should do.  If you don't agree, then I question your claims to ornithology.  To answer this challenge, I created a removable shelf in the bottom, with a crude handle.  The front panel was only framed, allowing the some 5 inches of shelf to be fully removed.  Using tin snips, I cut a piece of old metal blinds, attaching this to the rear of the shelf.  This will grab the debris of the old nests, and yank it out when the shelf is removed. 

 

 

(Finishing nails were only used at first to hold pieces in place, but screws throughout of both 3/4 inch and up to 2.5 inches in length.  All were pre-drilled.)

 

 

Adaptability: the front panel is entirely separate, held in place by screen door levers I had lying about.  Simply turn all 4 corner levers 180 degrees clearing the entire "fake" front, and it is removable.  This feature serves a 2-fold function: ability to apply different front panels, ergo, "bird holes" (and the size of the hole matters, google it) while also allowing for the maintenance feature listed above.

Durability: I caulked with White Lighting all purpose interior/exterior caulk the entire structure, which now consists of a nice, pitched roof -- well fortified in the interior with more thick molding -- and also, Ace Hardware provided very nice, new-brand exterior latex paint, which my daughter and I applied just yesterday.

 

 

The project continues.  I plan on purchasing new Dremel bits -- lost mine in the move -- in order to finish cutting off any screw-points within the structure (my daughter is worried they will hurt the birdies; yes I did Dremel down many prior to the roof; these are the roof screws that punched through ... they were _that_ long).  I bought exterior green and yellow paint for the kids to finish the look, and I'm considering attempting to paint/caulk the insides as well.

 

 

I think in Bird House v.0.0.12b, I will make even more adaptability by being able to disassemble the structure further, in order to perform deeper maintenance.

 

 

Last night, my wife says, "I think the next time you show it to me, it will have electricity wired-in."  I thought, "hmmmmm."

And so, according to Progressive Theology, this is exactly how we and our cosmos came about.  God set out to make a simple garden, with a simple man and some animals.  He thought this would be cool and fun.  But not long into it, Adam was lonely, so god made Eve (by ripping Adam apart mind you).  This became problematic as well, and before you know it, god is instilling such concepts in the minds of people as Wall Street, French food, hamster cages and weird Japanese pop culture.  He also took the time at some point after the initial project to toss in Super Novas, red Mars' dirt and solid ice on Mercury that exists along-side molten rock.  Once we started reeeally looking at the stars, he went, "oh sh*t!" and threw some other galaxies out there.

 

 

Now, we're seeing about 14 billion years into the past.  Currently, he's affixing new features to look at beyond this.

 

 

He left up to us some work too -- like, the birds will build their nest, not me -- and to this, we as people created Big Brother, Jersey Shore and wearing one's pants "on the ground."  God looks at these things as we do the bird's nest containing a discarded 6-holed, plastic, soda can holder and bits of garbage VHS tape, and he thinks to himself, "they really just throw anything together they can find, no matter if it fits or not...."

Here it is with the roof not yet complete, no caulk/paint and some other things not yet done.  It is currently very caulked and painted "Designer White," exterior latex.  More coat going on tonight and hopefully some more dremeling -- ayeday I'm dremmelin'....

World of Tanks Statistics

I love stats when it comes to lots of things: boobs, tanks, boobs on tanks, and boobs, I mean, tanks.

Having said that, I installed a player-made stats proggy called, get ready for it:

"World of Tanks Statistics"

(Reminds of how my Grandfather used to jokingly remark when someone in the house answered the phone: "Joe's fish market, Joe speaking....")

NSaaiman's World of Tanks Statistics at WoT Forum, US

Main Site & Download

First install and run of it just today
It promises to track me progress as I progress (or degress/digress/regress?)

WoT: The "He Sucks & He Don't" Mod ... Showing Win Rate In That Tank

A guy on the forums put a mod to the XVM mod (that's 2 mods if you're keeping up) -- the ol' "he sucks and he don't" mod -- that he claimed would show wins in _the_ specific tank that _the_ specific guy is in, not just global win rate.  Well, just now, I got it working and it works:

XVM: Kuroialty's Win Rate In That Tank Mod

Download

I am only running this on one computer I play WoT on, to see how I like it comparitively.

But, it works!

I compared a player in the game to his Service Record.  Indeed, it showed his win % in that vehicle.  His global was a different number.

Screens (some I took and some from Kuroialty, along with his explanations):

Here's yet another mod to the mod to the mod, did/done by Plunky:

I did things a little differently. The way I have mine setup, I now have a better understanding as to how good a person may be in the specific vehicle they have brought into the match.

Normal OTM Explanation:

Line 1: Tank (enemy), Player Nick (allies)
Line 2: Player Nick (enemy), Tank (allies)
Line 3: Tier - Health Bar - Health %
Line 4: Total number of games played - Global Win Rate - Global Efficiency

Note: The color of line 4 denotes Global Efficiency

----------------------------

Alt OTM Explanation:

Line 1: Name
Line 2: Number of games played in current tank - Win Rate % in current tank - Global Efficiency
Line 3: Health Bar

Note: The color of line 2 denotes Win Rate in current tank only