"When I mention that switching from coal to nuclear power would decrease, not increase, the amount of radioactive exposure to the general public I always get blank stares or incredulous exclamations."

I bet the folks at Chernobyl really goggle their eyes at you when you tell them.

"Plutonium isn't that poisonous. Chemically, it's a heavy metal so yes, it is poisonous, in the same way that lead and mercury is poisonous.
Plutonium is radioactive, but it emits alpha radiation which cannot penetrate the skin, or even a sheet of paper.
Thus the only way to get cancer from plutonium is to inhale or eat it."

coincidentally, that's the only ways to get killed by poison as well.

well, you know canada's on the metric system, they don't use feet any more.

well, unless somebody suddenly appeared alongside his boat in international waters offering him some marijuana, he having never arranged to go out there to meet the guy, let alone perhaps actually acquiring the marijuana in the US and carrying it out there himself, then he in fact did break the law.