I guess java is so slow because you have the initial over-head of starting the jvm. I'm guessing that subsequent prints of "Hello world" would be somewhat faster.

This article is basically trolling java, and it seems a number of people have taken the bait. Different languages have different strengths and weaknesses. You'll choose the one most appropriate to the task required. If that's printing "Hello World" to the console then fine, but I doubt many people would think "java" when presented with this requirement.