I haven't noticed the post-Ramadan effect noted above, however, it does not seem like a stretch to think that 30 consecutive days of not eating from before sunrise to sundown would have a similar effect.

Personally, I find it very difficult to come close to replacing the calories I typically consume in a day in just two meals. Additionally, the amount I can consume in those two meals typically decreases over the course of the month. It seems like a similar, but perhaps "softer"/less unpleasant means of getting the same result.

I find the fast during Ramadan to be an excellent exercise of self discipline. I am also convinced there is are a number of health benefit to observing the fast.

While this study has interesting implications, I think the fast undertaken by Muslims during Ramadan deserves more study.

shadowmn52

If we assume that there is no other difference between boys' and girls' ability to program than the type of instruction they each receive, then it doesn't seem like an unreasonable method to incentivize teachers to explore alternative methods for instructing or motivating girls to explore programming.

This strikes me as an interesting experiment without any explicit harm to the participants.

What would be useful is if Google gathered the methodologies the most successful teachers used to get more girls to complete the course and made that information available so other instructors could try to duplicate their results.

(although that is probably at least part of it)

It could just be about the differing level of privilege men and women enjoy in society.
I read an interesting article about this that crystallized the thought for me:
http://pgbovine.net/tech-privi...

The interesting part of this discussion is how quickly people have dismissed the content of the article when it doesn't match their experience.
Many of the posts follow a theme similar to:
"What makes her so extraordinary? I went through the same thing and I'm a guy. It was no big deal."

I wonder if reading it that way makes the privilege implicit in the question more obvious?

To answer the question:
Taking as a given that men and women have equivalent mental capacity and that women are underrepresented in technical fields, she is extraordinary because she surmounted the barriers preventing other women from pursuing similar roles.

I suppose I should not be surprised at the lack of empathy on Slashdot after reading it for decades, but the circle-jerkiness of a lot these posts finally convinced me to say something.