Scala is a new programming language incorporating the most important concepts of object-oriented and functional languages and running on top of the Java Virtual Machine as standard "dot-class" files. Sporting the usual object-oriented concepts as classes and inheritance, Scala also offers a number of powerful functional features, such as algebraic data types, immutable objects by default, pattern matching, closures, anonymous functions and currying, and more. Combined with some deep support for XML generation and consumption, Scala offers Java programmers an opportunity to write powerful programs with concise syntax for a new decade of Java programming. In this presentation, we begin by looking at the Scala type system and flow-control primitives, such as if/else, pattern-matching, tuples, lists, and more. Despite the name, "basics" in Scala can get the newcomer Scala developer quite some distance.