Headlines from January 26, 2009

Monday job cuts see 45,000 laid off from big companies.
Financial crisis topples Iceland's coalition government.
As states close prisons, small towns worry how they'll replace cheap convict labor.
Op: Obama's team should save its China criticism for issues that really deserve it.
Reasons why liberatarians can be pleased with Obama so far.
I owe a lot of my character and who I am today from a humble background. Interview with Zimbabwe's chief banker, apparently responsible for nothing bad.
Notes on pornographic cartoons, "idly sketched by Politburo members," and other treasures from the Stalin archives.
Instapaper for the commute: "Ms. Kennedy Regrets," or how a senate candidate turned Bartleby.
How Oprah's current crisis captures the nation's free-floating angst.
What it's like to live a completely nailed-down, GPS-enabled life.
2009 is the Year of the Gorilla and the International Year of Natural Fibers; periodic table of metaphors.
Very short history of political scientists in the movies.
Roger Ebert imagines the scenario wherein The Dude gets beat up at Sundance.
This is your last day to beat up on the Rooster's Zombie Round.
Hertzberg: Rather than choosing a hard or soft power narrative, Clinton will renew liberal internationalist "smart power."
Hamas offers yearlong ceasefire should siege of Gaza end, borders open.
Today's long read: In Egypt, Facebook is helping foster the rehearsal for revolution where freedom of speech, assembly cannot.
To combat hard economic times, Russian state alcohol agency proposes a tax cut on vodka.
Today is the last day you can vote in the 2009 Tournament of Books Zombie Poll.
Globish: English unintelligible to the English, which only angers the French more.
Billy's from my 'hood, mid-Long Island--Hicksville, to be precise (I'm from Bay Shore)--so I'm sensitive to his abuse of our common roots. Ron Rosenbaum explains the awfulness of Billy Joel.
The winter 2006 tour journal of the Piano Men, North America's only five-member Billy Joel tribute band, by Todd Levin.
Ecologist uses 18th-century British military maps to recreate the Manhattan island Hudson found.
Kate Moss wants to buy the farmhouse from Withnail And I.
In her web series, Smart Girls at the Party, Amy Poehler interviews awesome girls.
Video: Clip from adaptation of David Foster Wallace's Brief Interviews With Hideous Men.
Photos of old-school New York shoe shops.