c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le
"use List::Util qw(shuffle);
 ;;
 print 'shuffling...';
 my @rra = shuffle 1 .. 10_000_000;
 ;;
 print 'sorting...';
 my (@sorted, $start, $dur_asc, $dur_des);
 ;;
 $start = time;
 @sorted = sort @rra;
 $dur_asc = time - $start;
 ;;
 @sorted = ();
 ;;
 $start = time;
 @sorted = reverse sort @rra;
 $dur_des = time - $start;
 ;;
 print 'ascending (default sort): ',  $dur_asc;
 print 'descending (reverse sort): ', $dur_des;
 ;;
 sub pra { print qq{@{ $_[0] }[ 0 .. 9 ] @{ $_[0] }[ -10 .. -1 ]}; }
"
shuffling...
sorting...
ascending (default sort): 57
descending (reverse sort): 53