[q3k]

This is incorrect. Any decent host/ISP will instead (automatically, sometimes) emit a blackhole request for the given target IP address to their upstreams, causing the traffic to be filtered there (at the 'larger pipe'). In turn, these upstreams can also pass on the same blackhole request further up if necessary. This means the target is down from the point of view of the Internet, but there is no collateral damage.

See: BGP Blackhole Community (usually 65535:666).

[ralferoo]

Interesting, I didn't realise blackholes were special-cased to allow BGP announcements of /32 instead of the usual /24 or larger. I'd just assumed (like the GP) that the traffic ended up on the target's closest network to the source and only then was it filtered.