I haven't learned a new language for a while now. Perl/Java/C never fails me and I'd rather learn a new trick than another way of doing an old trick. I am learn

I haven't learned a new language for a while now. Perl/Java/C never fails me and I'd rather learn a new trick than another way of doing an old trick. I am learning about modern large-scale Internet service design, running hadoop clusters, distributed logging solutions, virtualization, ad-hoc radio networks, radio propagation, sensor fusion, intelligent transportation systems, etc. (for startup and PhD)