not really what I'd call "breaking news"

Irish Times Breaking News
10:15:00: Dollar little changed against the yen overnight

Must be a slow news day at the Irish Times.

well, that was nice

Bob Harris, over at This Modern World:

...then there was the magnificent show of love given to an injured distance runner from Ireland who was lapped by almost the entire field and labored alone for nearly two minutes to finally cross the finish line.

We weren't just cheering. Many of us were standing. And when it was my turn to help cheer her as she struggled along the back stretch, I noticed my eyes had filled with tears. So had Leslie's. And almost everyone else's.

Just for a moment there, it felt like all of humanity had a good and decent soul. We need more moments like that. (link)

I missed the race myself. I knew she was running, but forgot about it completely until well after the fact. Nice to know she got more than just the Irish supporters behind her. Mind you, I don't think she was injured so much as simply outclassed - this is her fourth, and no doubt final Olympic visit, an amazing record in itself. She's held various records over her career, and has an Olympic silver to show for her efforts. Word is that she'll participate in the European championship athletics in two years' time, but beyond that she's probably out of the game.

you are not a unique and beautiful snowflake

"Hi, I'm an utter fanboy/girl but I'm trying to hide it by being gratuituously weird". It's like reading my first posts to talk.bizarre, almost.

I'll type slowly so you can understand.

1. Email is flawed.
2. You can trivially forge an email from dork@example.com and by and large you'll get away with it.
3. Various things are being done in an attempt to combat this, but the problem exists, and we have to live with it for now.
4. When a spammer forges mail in this way, anything that treats the origin address as authoritative will not in any way affect the spammer.
5. This includes your stupid challenge/response system.
6. Instead, you will annoy the owner of the forged domain.
7. This person most likely already has their hands full dealing with genuine spam, to say nothing of bounce messages (which are an automatic part of the email system, and can not as such be dispensed with).
8. You are adding to this person's daily intake of useless crap.
9. As one of these people, I am rapidly approaching the point at which I will set up an automated filter to approve spam to your mailbox.
10. This should be considered fair warning.
11. CHALLENGE/RESPONSE SPAM PROTECTION IS A BURDEN ON OTHERS. STOP USING IT.

Thankyou.