It's about time this topic came up again. It was alluded to in Putting Perl Back on Top in the Fields of Scientific and Financial Computing two years ago, but was skipped over in the discussion on language. There was quite a discussion following chromatic's post on marketing which you might find more informative.

It may be worth noting to the ADC how much Perl has evolved in the last 15 years. Perceptions based on out-of-date opinion of what some friend of a friend thinks Perl is what will kill you. Knock that on the head as soon as you can.