“Neither snow nor rain nor Kindle fire nor plume of iPad smoke stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”Despite its declining first-class mail volume, fresh legislative mandates to pre-pay its retirees, and a 3.2 billion dollar loss in its second quarter, the United States Postal Service has just steepened the incline it faces in trying to financially recover anytime soon. The national mail service has announced that while it won’t shut rural post offices, as originally planned, it will cease shipment of lithium-ion batteries internationally come May 16th. This prohibition means no more international smartphones and tablets, which mostly contain non-removable batteries. The long list includes other ordinary electronics that ship with components that have caused at least 121 incidents since 1991, and are speculated to have fatally brought down two planes since 2006. Constitutionally, it all makes sense: “The postal powers of Congress embrace all measures necessary to insure the safe and speedy transit and prompt delivery of the mails.”Read the rest over at Motherboard.