"One major advantage over Python is that it's vectorised, so you can say things like A + 1 when A is a vector (or matrix). A bit like Matlab in that regard, only that it doesn't suck as much as the Matlab ``language''."

This is not very accurate. NumPy / SciPy provide vectorized matrix libraries, significantly faster than both R and Matlab for matrix operations. No argument though that Matlab as a language truly sucks =)