Daily French Roast

Anne is reading …

If you believe that Margaret Thatcher was womanly, as well as being an iron lady, then it seems understandable that some compare Christine Lagarde, director of the IMF since the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn to the British global leader to gave rise to Meryl Streep’s academy award nomination today.

Christine Lagarde is now the woman of the moment, writes Newsweek who features the IMF director as their cover story this week.

She is not an economist, and she has never been elected to political office. Her greatest skills, according to those who work closely with her, are her ability to listen, to assess, to pull together a strong team, and to get the best out of a tough situation. “You don’t leave the room until a decision has been reached,” says a former staffer at the French Finance Ministry.

Yes, the interview does make it clear that madame is a woman. The word ‘stones’ on her agenda means that she has an appointment with the jeweler.

Newsweek writes that Christine Lagarde is transforming the IMF, accruing power far beyond her predecessors. In summary, Lagarde is “rapidly climbing the ranks of the most powerful people in the world.” Read on

Organization of Human Brain Mapping

Brain science is a core passion at AOC, and today’s WSJ article Probing the Brain’s Mysteries details the huge advancements made in brain scanning in the last year.

“The study of connectivity is as hot as hot can get,” said Susan Bookheimer, a neuropsychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who is the new head of the Organization of Human Brain Mapping, a large international professional society of neuroimaging researchers.

Key research institutions leading the way towards a significantly better understanding of cognition and how the brain works includes:

— The Human Connectome Project, a five-year, $40 million effort funded by the National Institutes of Health.

— Researchers at the privately funded Allen Institute for Brain Science are finishing a $55 million human brain atlas that offers the first interactive guide to the brain’s anatomy and genes.

— At the Child Mind Institute in New York, Michael Milham and his colleagues recently persuaded researchers at 33 centers around the world to pool 1,300 data sets on brain connections into one public collection.

Evelyn Lauder Memorial

Evelyn H Lauder | More than 2,000 family, friends and civic leaders honored Evelyn H. Lauder at a Monday morning memorial at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. Members of the Lauder family, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Barbara Walters, Elizabeth Hurley and Dr. Larry Norton shared memories of Evelyn Lauder’s life during the service. Leonard Lauder, Evelyn’s husband, gave the most moving commentary about this exceptional woman. His comments about orchids being Evelyn Lauder’s favorite flower must be shared:

Evelyn saw life through a different prism than most — flowers to her were symbols of all that was beautiful.…To her, orchids were the ultimate symbol of life. She said, ‘The orchid is the strongest flower; it will survive any tempest. Their beauty comes from within. And when they die, they always come back to life.’
“Evelyn, my love, you are my perennial orchid,” he continued. “You will be with me — with us — always. I love you, forever.”