My professor helps in the development of Java, and his kid apparently got tired of hearing people bash Java for being slow, so he ran a bunch of tests that showed Java, when run right, would often beat C++ by a hair. Oddly enough, it eventually got picked up on Slashdot, so we all gave our professor kudos on properly raising an uber-nerd.
Slashdot article
The Java is Faster than C++ and C++ Sucks Unbiased Benchmark