| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a nuclear reactor of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. If you throw a rock on the street and ask whoever it hits their first impressions of nuclear energy, you may find: - yourself being arrested for throwing rocks at people on the street; I mean, come on, that is no way to investigate public opinion, and
- many, if not most, will have horrors such as Fukushima, Chernobyl and Springfield's three-eyed fish front of mind.
This may be why Americans are still "meh" at best about nuclear power, which they view only slightly more positively than oil drilling or Chris Martin. Their concerns may be understandable, but they're also outdated. Nuclear technology is much safer now, Bloomberg's editorial board writes, with accidents and shoddy waste disposal not nearly as likely as they used to be. And we must balance nuclear's potential cons against the far greater con of the planet turning into an unlivable hellscape; we can't curb carbon emissions enough to avoid that without nuclear's reliable clean power. Even Japan has recently re-embraced the technology, just a decade after Fukushima. Of course, public opinion isn't the only problem; government policy is also outdated, the editors note. As with so many other things in this country, from housing to florists, a tangle of unhelpful and obsolete regulatory hurdles stand in the way of change. But if we can clear those away, all we'll have left to fear is the extinction of those adorable three-eyed fish.  The technological breakthrough of the year. In October, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook Meta announced the technological advancement of the year: VR avatars with legs. Now 2022 will forevermore be the demarcation point between Before Legs and After Legs. The disappointment this breakthrough may engender in you is similar to the disappointment many investors felt as they watched sure-thing tech stocks crumble, taking their 401(k)s down with them. But beyond the legs and the faceplants, there were some good tech stories, too, Tim Culpan writes. The US finally started to diversify its semiconductor supply chain, and some tech giants followed suit, finding much-needed alternatives to China. AI got good enough to help middle-schoolers cheat on papers. Um, what else? Elon Musk is destroying Twitter and Tesla, and crypto melted down, destruction that will surely lead to creation. OK, 2022 wasn't great for tech. But it wasn't all bad. Further Tech Futurism Reading: Why technological predictions are so hard to make. — Faye Flam Like an unhappy family at a holiday gathering, Western countries are squabbling over climate policies even though they have a lot in common, including big economies that run relatively clean, writes Liam Denning. We could maybe use less protectionism — like the EU carbon tariffs that Tyler Cowen argues will make pollution worse — and more cooperation. Will Sonia Sotomayor resign? And four other big political questions for 2023. — Jonathan Bernstein We need government policies that make it easier for people to have children. — Ramesh Ponnuru Half of all passengers on two flights from China to Milan tested positive for Covid. In unrelated news, the US will require negative Covid tests for all travelers from China. Outdated tech may be the root of the Southwest Airlines holiday-flight nightmare. The US Virgin Islands sued JPMorgan, claiming it enabled Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. A silly walk burns more calories than a normal walk. (h/t Scott Kominers) Fourteen discoveries made about human evolution this year. Facebook addiction makes depressed people more depressed. The final Sherlock Holmes stories are about to enter the public domain. Notes: Please send Sherlock Holmes stories and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net or @markgongloff@mastodon.world Sign up here and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook. | 
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