happy 8 march to the women

[James A. Donald]

> Two of the earliest important contributors to computer science are distinguished women:
>
> Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper

Ada Lovelace made no significant contributions for science, mathematics, 
or computer science.

The work for which Ada is most famous consists of writing up Babbage's 
algorithm descriptions.  She did not create them herself, but from 
Babbage's notes.

Babbage hired her to generate publicity for his difference engine 
because she was famous, and she was famous because she was a *female* 
scientist and mathematician, as a dancing bear is famous not for dancing 
well, but for dancing at all.

Grace Hopper cause Cobol to be created, a language infamous for being 
bad, but popular with authority figures.  She issued a bunch of 
extremely bad specifications, reflecting what authority figures who do 
not understand computing are likely to mistakenly think that they want, 
and then programmers who were actually competent then gave effect to her 
incompetent and bad idea.

There are no great female scientists.  If there were you would not have 
been reduced to giving Marie Curie not one but two Nobel prizes for work 
that no male would have received a Nobel prize for.  (For the similar 
but far more important discovery of Radon made at about the same time 
got no Nobel prize), work that she did as the least important member of 
a team of three scientists, all of them greater than her, and yet the 
two males did not get the Nobel prize.

There is one great female mathematician, Noether, of whom it was said "I 
can testify that she is a great mathematician, but that she is female I 
am far from sure."  All other supposedly great female mathematicians are 
fakes in the style of Marie Curie, or routine mediocrities in the style 
of Ada and Hopper.