Links of Interest – April 24, 2015

I’ve got several great links that I haven’t found the time to post individually. It’s time to shake the dust off and share them with you in a nice big batch:

45 Years after Apollo 13 – What went wrong and why? – Ars Technica provides a look at the real story behind Apollo 13:

Space industry insiders have a love-hate relationship with Ron Howard’s 1995 film Apollo 13. On one hand, the movie depicted many aspects of NASA’s Apollo program with an extremely high degree of accuracy, and it did so in a positive light. The film also helped elevate the Apollo 13 mission and the tremendous engineering work that occurred during its seven days to near-mythical status.

On the other hand, Apollo 13 the film is rife with Hollywood-isms—mostly focused around “amping up” the interpersonal relations between characters. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise never raised their voices or yelled at each other on the far side of the moon; no one was ever worried about Swigert’s piloting abilities; and grounded astronaut Ken Mattingly didn’t actually lock himself in a simulator and personally devise a solution for the spacecraft’s power issues. [Read more…]

Apple.com – an album on Flickr – a thorough gallery of screenshots of the Apple.com home page. (HT: Daring Fireball/John Gruber)

George Lucas wants to build affordable housing on his land – I like this guy. I hope his plan works out for all those concerned:

Lucas has decided to bankroll the project himself. “George Lucas said, ‘If I’m not going to do what I wanted to do there, what can I do that would be really beneficial to this community?’” Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey told KCBS.

Quadruple Rainbow – Fast Company updates us on the science behind “quadruple rainbows” and explains that this viral tweet from Tuesday isn’t one of those, but it’s a cool shot nonetheless:

Quadruple #Rainbow at #glencove ny @LIRR station Today will be 4 pots of #gold #lucky #chasetherainbow #aprilshowers pic.twitter.com/4YUUveJuy6

— Amanda Curtis (@amanda_curtis) April 21, 2015

Photo credit: PEEKSPACE – curated free-to-use space photography