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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Diana Navarro loves to code, and she's not afraid to admit it. But the 18-year-old Rutgers University computer science major knows she's an anomaly: Writing software to run computer programs in 2014 is — more than ever — a man's world.

"We live in a culture where we're dissuaded to do things that are technical," Navarro said. "Younger girls see men, not women, doing all the techie stuff, programming and computer science."

Less than one percent of high school girls think of computer science as part of their future, even though it's one of the fastest-growing fields in the U.S. today with a projected 4.2 million jobs by 2020, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This week Google, with a driverless car and Web-surfing eyeglasses under its belt, has given The Associated Press an early look at how it's trying to change the gender disparity in its own workforce, and in the pipeline of potential workers, by launching a campaign Thursday called "Made with Code."

The initiative begins with an introductory video of girls— silly, serious and brave — meeting President Obama, painting over graffiti and goofing around. The narrator says: "You are a girl who understands bits exist to be assembled. When you learn to code, you can assemble anything that you see missing. And in so doing, you will fix something, or change something, or invent something, or run something, and maybe that's how you will play your bit in this world."

A website features female role-model techies who write software to design cool fabrics or choreograph dances. There are simple, fun coding lessons aimed at girls and a directory of coding programs for girls. The search giant is also offering $50 million in grants and partnering with Girls Who Code, a nonprofit launched in 2012 that runs summer coding institutes for girls, including the one that helped focus Navarro's passion for technology.

A preview test run of Google's online coding lessons this week was deemed "awesome" by Carmen Ramirez y Porter, 11. "It's not very complicated. It's easy and fun and really cool to see how it turns out when you finish," she said.

National Center for Women & Information Technology CEO Lucy Sanders, a leading advocate for women in computer sciences, sees the Made With Code initiative as a pivotal moment in what has been a long-term challenge of getting more girl geeks growing up in America.

"It used to be that as a computing community we didn't really talk about gender issues. But now we're really pulling together, from corporations and startups to nonprofits and universities," Sanders said. "I'm very optimistic."

There's plenty of room for change.

Female participation in computer sciences has dropped to 18 percent, down from 37 percent in the 1980s, and only seven percent of U.S. venture capital deals go to women founders and CEOs. Just 20 percent of the 30,000 students who took the Advanced Placement computer science test last year were girls, according to a College Board analysis, which showed no girls at all took the test in Mississippi, Montana or Wyoming.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, one of the earliest Google employees, points to societal and economic drawbacks if women are not participating in the booming tech economy.

Also, she said, "I miss having more women counterparts."

Tech firms are overwhelming male — Yahoo on Tuesday released a report showing 62 percent of its global employees are men. At Google, about 70 percent of the roughly 44,000 people it employs throughout the world are men. This year, the search giant commissioned a nationwide study to find out why so few women pursue technology careers, asking 1,600 people about whether they were encouraged to study computer sciences and had opportunities to learn to code.

Their findings, shared with the AP this week in advance of public release: Girls have little exposure to technology and computer sciences. That doesn't mean they're not interested, however. If parents, friends and teachers encourage their daughters to pursue computer sciences, schools offer more courses and more role models step forward, the field can be leveled.

But to capture girls, it's got to be fun.

That's the plan for a "Made With Code" kick-off event in New York Thursday for 150 girls, where indie rockers Icona Pop will perform and coders will demo how they make everything from animated movies to designer fabrics with software. Actress Mindy Kaling, who is the event's master of ceremonies, said she fights gender bias in Hollywood, but when a techie friend told her about Silicon Valley's gender gap "it was staggering."

"Just as television and movies need to reflect their audience, I think it's important that people who create technology reflect the diversity of people who use them," she said.

Chelsea Clinton, who is representing the Clinton Foundation at Thursday's event, said she got her own first computer in 1987 from Santa Claus.

"Ultimately computer science is helping to create the future," she said. "So when we think about the future, we know we need to be doing more in this country and around the world to ensure that girls and women see computer sciences as real, viable options for them."

Entrepreneur Dez White wasn't necessarily pursuing a tech career when she asked a patron at her family's restaurant to teach her to write software. She just had an idea for an app and wanted to make it.

"It was very hard for me to get my head around it," White said. "I didn't go to Stanford for code."

Today, she hires coders for her firm Goinvis, which sells privacy apps that allows users to send texts that self-destruct at a set time and emails that disappear from an inbox after they're opened.

But in addition to her day job, as a successful female African-American entrepreneur, she realizes she needs to be a mentor as well.

"I think young women don't even realize computer sciences are an option. It's not laid out like nursing and social work," she said.

Next year, she's planning to organize a technology retreat for high school girls, and she tries to hire women for her growing company.

"It's hard. We have to really look. Their numbers are very, very slim," she said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers is pitching a no-hitter through eight innings against the Colorado Rockies.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner had not allowed a baserunner until Corey Dickerson reached on a two-base throwing error by shortstop Hanley Ramirez to start the seventh.

That is the only runner Kershaw has permitted.

Kershaw has struck out a career-high 14 batters, including all three in the sixth inning. He has thrown 101 pitches, 73 for strikes.

The Dodgers lead 8-0.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's government has finally agreed to try to negotiate a payment plan for the $1.5 billion in bad debts and interest it owes to the U.S. hedge funds it demonizes as "vultures."

But before both sides sit down for talks in New York next week, President Cristina Fernandez wants everyone to know she still has some cards to play.

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to turn away Argentina's last appeal, Fernandez has promoted the idea that her government can ignore its rulings and meanwhile keep its promises to a much larger group of bondholders. Her ministers say she can avoid defaulting on another $24 billion in debt by paying them outside the U.S. financial system.

Most analysts call it a doomed scenario that will never work, but that hasn't silenced Fernandez.

New York billionaire Paul Singer, whose hedge fund NML Capital Ltd. won the case, will have to decide whether she's bluffing. The stakes couldn't be higher for Argentina's fragile economy.

Here are some ways it could play out:

"Plan A"

— Argentina complies with the orders of U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Griesa.

It pays the plaintiffs 100 percent in cash, plus interest, on debt that went into default a dozen years ago, starting with $907 million by June 30. That's when another $907 million is due on the $24 billion in "exchange bonds" owned by the 92 percent of investors who agreed to swap defaulted debt for new bonds worth a third of their original face value. The holdout plaintiffs own about 1 percent of the original defaulted debt, and sued rather than agree to provide Argentina debt relief. The judge says exchange bondholders can't be paid unless the holdouts get an equal amount.

The pros of this approach include that with nearly $29 billion in foreign reserves and very low indebtedness relative to the size of its economy, Argentina can afford to make this month's payments. And if it is willing to borrow again internationally, it can meet future bond quotas without abandoning its populist programs.

In fact, bond analyst Josh Rosner says Wall Street firms are eager to lend Argentina whatever it needs to pay off all its remaining defaulted debt, which Fernandez said totals $15 billion.

"If the government chose to raise capital as a means of resolving this impasse, it would normalize its relations with the international capital markets, reduce its cost of funds going forward and immediately begin to attract the foreign investment necessary to develop key industries, including its energy sector and the broader economy," said Rosner, the managing director at Graham Fisher in New York.

The main con for Fernandez? Taking on more foreign currency debt protected by U.S. law goes against everything the Argentine government stands for politically.

The official story of Fernandez's "victorious decade" is that she and her late husband, President Nestor Kirchner, restored Argentina's economic sovereignty after foreign banks brought the nation to its knees by paying down its international debts, even at a huge cost. Without affordable access to foreign credit, the government has drained the Central Bank to pay its operating costs. Fernandez is correct when she says "it would not only be absurd but impossible" to spend half the remaining reserves on court judgments.

"Plan B"

— Argentina defies the judge, and U.S. banks are barred from processing its bond payments, so it offers to swap freshly defaulted bonds with new bonds issued and paid from Buenos Aires.

The foreign ministry announced late Wednesday that this remains Argentina's plan, and blamed U.S. courts for making it impossible to meet its June 30 responsibilities in New York.

Fernandez controls Argentina's Congress, so she could get this plan approved locally, but organizing a debt swap can't be done in little over a week, meaning missed payments are inevitable. And because Argentina has the capacity — but not the will — to pay the court judgment, this would be more than a "technical default," as Argentine authorities have described it.

The missed payments would likely trigger a cascade of bad outcomes and threaten to unravel many other debt accords, including Argentina's recent deal to repay $9.7 billion to the Paris Club of lending nations, which includes the United States.

The main pro of this approach is that defying the so-called "vulture funds" is a highly popular idea among Argentines.

Argentina's law firm advised Fernandez that her best option for leverage was to default first and negotiate later. So even if it doesn't work, it could give a president intent on showing the global financial system who's boss in Argentina a short-term boost as she begins the last 500 days of her eight years in office.

And if Singer believes she's not bluffing, he might just offer a face-saving deal she can carry back from the edge of the abyss.

The main con? Few people who understand bond markets think it has any chance of success.

About 85 percent of the creditors would have to approve it, said Matias Carugati, an economist for Buenos Aires-based consultancy, Management & Fit, and many investment funds are barred from making such a change. Others would be wary of relying on Argentine law.

Consequences:

Argentina is already suffering through a recession, rising poverty and crime, reflecting an economy that has stopped growing. Its consumers are already spooked by currency controls, lack of credit, spiraling inflation and other results of the government's refusal to settle accounts with foreign lenders.

A disorderly default would be dire, making credit disappear and costing jobs, said Fausto Spotorno, an economist with Orlando Ferreres & Asociados.

"I'm not so much worried for me as for my kids. I'm going to be dead already and Argentina will still be paying what it has owed for years," said Umma Sanchez, a 37-year-old psychologist. "We will never be a normal country, and that we owe to the people who govern us."

___

Associated Press Writers Almudena Calatrava and Debora Rey contributed to this report.

PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — The sounds at Pinehurst No. 2 were the first indication that the second week of U.S. Open golf would not be exactly the same as the first one.

Players arrived on the first day of practice to hear clanging from workers tearing down half of the grandstands around the 17th and 18th greens. They heard the whoosh of water coming from a hose that watered the greens to keep them softer.

That didn't make the stage for the U.S. Women's Open feel any smaller.

"We play good golf courses, but sometimes we don't play great golf courses," said Juli Inkster, playing the Women's Open for the 35th time. "It seems the men play great golf courses week in and week out. I think when we come here, we're maybe a little more appreciative of playing a great golf course. It's in fabulous shape. I really didn't know what to expect, us playing after the men. And it's turned out great.

"You can't even tell that the men were here the week before — except for the huge tents and everything."

The U.S. Women's Open gets started Thursday in golf's version of a doubleheader. Just four days after Martin Kaymer won the U.S. Open with the second-lowest score in history (271), it's the women's turn.

Everyone from the 53-year-old Inkster to 11-year-old Lucy Li will get a crack on a Donald Ross course fresh on the minds of golf fans who watched the U.S. Open last week.

"Last week with the men, they proved that under par is possible," defending champion Inbee Park said. "So yeah, we should go out there and try to shoot under par."

It's the first time the men and women have competed on the same golf course for a major in back-to-back weeks.

Pinehurst No. 2 will play at 6,649 for the women — just over 900 yards shorter than for the men — though it most likely won't play as long as the card indicated, just as it didn't a week ago.

The plan is for the greens to be the same speed, except a lot less firm. Even though a shorter course should allow the women to use the same clubs, the majority do not hit the ball as high or with as much spin.

And then there are the optional extras.

Reg Jones, the senior director of both U.S. Opens, said bleachers around the 18th green that seated 4,077 seats now are big enough for 1,560 fans. Six supplemental concession stands have closed.

The USGA refers to this doubleheader as a celebration of women's golf. It sounds a bit more like an experiment.

No one is sure what to expect.

Cristie Kerr, who won her U.S. Women's Open up the road at Pine Needles in 2007, already was concerned about the weed-filled sandy areas that replaced thick rough. Kaymer last week hit a 7-iron from 202 yards out of the scrub area to 5 feet for eagle on No. 5, one of the more pivotal shots of his blowout win.

"The native areas — the 'stuff' they were calling it last week — that's going to play a lot tougher for us than it is for the men," Kerr said. "We're hitting longer clubs out of it than the men are. We're not hitting down on it as much.

"So it plays tougher for us. They wanted us to hit the same clubs into the greens as the men. But I have to tell you, we're hitting longer clubs into the greens than the men and we don't spin it as much."

What will that mean to a sixth-grade girl?

Li has been the biggest attraction this week as the youngest qualifier in U.S. Women's Open history, and with a chance to become the youngest player to make the cut. Marlene Bauer was 13 when she tied for 14th in the 1947 U.S. Women's Open in Greensboro.

"The perfect week? I just want to go out there and have fun and play the best I can," Li said. "And I really don't care about the outcome."

The biggest fear was the amount of divots left behind from the men, though that doesn't appear to be a problem.

"We really feel like we're well-positioned for a great championship this week," USGA executive director Mike Davis said.

The biggest concern is making sure the greens don't get so crusty from temperatures expected to approach 100 degrees that it's impossible for balls to stay on the green.

As soon as the U.S. Open ended, the maintenance staff applied water to the greens in four-minute cycles, three times a day. It plans to water the greens every night.

"They've obviously chucked a lot of waters on the greens since Sunday," Laura Davies said after her practice round Tuesday. "I didn't have one shot bounce crazy off the back of the green. I think we all thought that it should have been the other way around — we all felt we should have come here first and then the guys.

"But I think the USGA has got it spot on. Because they have turned the course around ... and gone from a Sunday of a U.S. Open to having it play really fair at the moment.

"I'm sure by next Sunday it will be hard and bouncy, and we're all going to be complaining like we always do."