RationalWiki uses images from Wikimedia Commons where available, via the InstantCommons mechanism. This broke last week because Commons' API went HTTPS-only. This is fixed on RW now, though you will see HTTP pages with HTTPS images.
(yes, we still need to get around to HTTPS on the wiki itself)
After much puzzling around MySQL, it seems apache2 was hammering the living my-goodness out of the MySQL instance on apache1. There is no obvious reason for this to have occurred ... but I disabled Apache on apache2 on the assumption that flying on one engine beats crashing on two. Investigation proceeds, further hiccups may occur.
Update: The answer: MySQL on apache1 saw apache2 as coming from its internal IP, so connections from it hung when it tried a reverse DNS lookup on this IP. Simple fix: skip-name-resolve in my.cnf.
RationalWiki is currently up
