Awesome video!

[Insidious Von]

I'm looking forward to In The Heart of the Sea about a doomed whaling vessel that ran afoul of a Bull Sperm Whale. The incident became the inspiration for Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Bull Sperm Whales are temperamental, they will attack predators that threaten their pod. But this is the first I've heard of one attacking an actual ship.

Sperm Whales dive to great depth to feed on Giant Squid and they have sophisticated sonar to help them locate their pray. The diver has balls for getting so close!

 

[Insidious Von]

Wow!

 

[Dougal Short]

The story of the sinking of the whaling ship Essex is a must-read for any arm-chair adventurer. The sinking was ultimately the least of the problems for her crew.... http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-true-life-horror-that-inspired-moby-dick-17576/?no-ist

Many years ago, I worked as a dive guide in Dominica. Sperm whales winter there and it's still possible to snorkel with them. Like any wild animals (especially the ones that weigh a LOT) you need to be vary careful around them and respect their "space", but they are not at all aggressive. The only incident I have ever heard of where a person was injured was when a women was accidentally smacked by a tail fluke when the whale dove. he woman sustained a broken femur. Supposedly, the whale resurfaced almost right away and swam right up to the people helping the injured woman and watched intently... possibly out of concern?

 

[Insidious Von]

Sperm whales are perhaps the most intelligent of cetacians and one of the oldest species. Unfortunately their blubber and oil was highly prized by whalers in the 19th Century and they were hunted almost to extinction. The invention of gas then electrical light took the pressure off but they are still borderline endangered. IMHO I consider hunting such a magnificent beast an atrocity.

Prior to man the Sperm Whale had only one other predator, Megalodon.

 

[Insidious Von]

The trailer: In the heart of the sea.

 

[tribunus]

Looking forward to this movie.

Moby Dick wasn't entirely fiction. Meet Mocha Dick. http://www.todayifoundout.com/index...hips-and-survived-encounters-with-another-80/

 

[Insidious Von]

Ron Howard got the casting right, Ben Whishaw as Herman Melville.

Richard II is by far the best play of The Hollow Crown series. And he and his Bard co-lead Rory Kinnear were both in Spectre as Q and John Tanner respectively. Kinnear played Bolingbrooke (Henry IV) as the usurping sociopath he actually was.

 

[Insidious Von]

Of course there was another performance that made Richard II stand out over the other three plays.