ORly Radio Show 42 for Friday January 23rd, 2015 - 42, the Meaning of Life, or about how many senators believe in climate change. Science is still true even if you don’t believe in it...

Hosts: Andy & the Usual Suspects: Mike, David, and Don!!!
Music: "Rocket and Pamgaea” by Kevin MacLeod (www.incompetech.com)

Narrator: There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

Why 42 for the meaning of life, the universe and everything?

According to Douglas Adams himself:

What is the most ordinary, workaday number you can find? I don’t want fractions on the end of it. I don’t even want it to be a prime number. And I guess it mustn’t even be an odd number. There is something slightly more reassuring about even numbers. So I just wanted an ordinary, workaday number, and chose 42.

In another interview:

The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do'. I typed it out. End of story.

http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/310/why-did-douglas-adams-pick-42-as-the-ultimate-answer

Science / Technology / Politics

Item: 3 Minutes to midnight.
"The clock ticks now at just three minutes to midnight because international leaders are failing to perform their most important duty—ensuring and preserving the health and vitality of human civilization."
URLs: http://thebulletin.org/clock/2015
Item: The King is Dead - King Abdullah has passed on. Now what?
URLs: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-22/oil-surges-after-saudi-media-reports-king-abdullah-s-death.html
URLs: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/breaking-saudi-arabias-king-abdullah-dead

Item: Senate agrees climate change is real, but not on its cause, in Keystone amendments
"To express the sense of the Senate that climate change is real; and human activity significantly contributes to climate change."
In the end, just 50 senators voted "yes" on this question.* But 49 senators voted "no." The amendment failed to pick up the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster and was rejected.
In conclusion, the Senate is pretty clearly a hoax.
URLs:http://cir.ca/news/keystone-pipelines-status
URLs: http://www.vox.com/2015/1/21/7868677/senate-climate-vote

Humanities / Religion/ Politics

Item: Israeli PM Netanyahu and Speaker Boehner conspire to make life difficult...|
URLs: http://www.vox.com/2015/1/21/7866089/netanyahu-boehner-congress
URLs:  http://www.politicususa.com/2015/01/22/obama-meet-netanyahu-trip-washington.html
Item: GOP lawmakers declare ‘all-out assault’ on marriage for same-sex and atheist couples in Oklahoma
URLs: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/gop-lawmakers-declare-all-out-assault-on-marriage-for-same-sex-and-atheist-couples-in-oklahoma/

Politics / Humanities / Politics

Item: Illinois cop caught dozing in patrol car tells student ‘it’s now illegal’ to record officers (Which it is not…)
URLs: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/illinois-cop-caught-dozing-in-patrol-car-tells-student-its-now-illegal-to-record-officers/  
Item: It's over: Why the Palestinians are finally giving up on Obama and the US peace process
URLs: http://www.vox.com/2015/1/22/7324107/palestinian-abbas-peace-process

Potpourri / Politics / Flotsam & Jetsam

Item: House Republican leaders withdrew a controversial anti-abortion bill late Wednesday night after a contentious dispute arose over a rape reporting requirement in the measure.
URLs: http://www.politicususa.com/2015/01/22/bickering-gop-aborts-anti-abortion-bill-rape-reporting-provision.html 

Oh, Florida...

Item:  Bear hunting may return to Florida - Proposal comes after recent rash of attacks in Orlando area
URLs:  http://www.clickorlando.com/news/bear-hunting-may-return-to-florida/30878646
Item: A Teenage Boy Impersonated A Doctor For A Month In A Florida Hospital    
URLs: http://www.buzzfeed.com/rossalynwarren/a-teenage-boy-impersonated-a-doctor-for-a-month-in-a-florida
URLs: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/doogie-howser-wannabe-busted-786450

Entertainment/Reviews/(Nit)Picks

Andy’s: Douglas Adams. There. I said it.
David’s: http://www.gotenna.com/
Don’s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_Frequency_Allocations_Chart_2011_-_The_Radio_Spectrum.pdf 
Mike’s: Friends on Netflix