So which magical, fashionable language optimizes itself? I agree that there are herds of languages and frameworks that will allow someone to create a system that will serve even medium size load. But I have yet to see any language that will self optimize, and I am not sure that I would trust one that did. Scalability/Optimization usually take place outside of Java proper anyway, either at the application server level, the database level or at the caching layer. And from what I have seen most modern frameworks use the same sorts of options. Heaven help the poor Ruby on Rails programmer that thought the data layer was going to scale by itself. I don't really want to be put in the position of defending Java if there is a better option out there, but I don't see it.

let me get this straight... Java needs tattooed programmers to be relevant? Snarky comments about Cobol aside, Java is the current programming workhorse. It provides the greatest infrastructure and options for scalability. Since when does fashion dictate what technology is best for the job?