USPS Will Not Ship Li-ion Batteries Internationally Anymore
If you're planning to send electronics overseas, you'll have to pony up for FedEx, UPS or DHL because USPS won't do it anymore.
The United States Postal Service has said that starting next week, it's banning the overseas shipping of laptops, smartphones, tablets, or anything else with a lithium-ion battery. Starting May 16, our friends at USPS will be revising their mailing standards manual and prohibiting the international mailing of lithium ion batteries. Fast Company writes that the reasoning behind the ban is likely the fact that lithium ion batteries can catch fire or explode under certain circumstances and improperly stored or fully charged can pose a risk on flights.
Being unable to ship smartphones, laptops, Kindles or MP3 players overseas will be a headache for a lot of people, however, USPS says it doesn't expect the ban to last forever. Come January 2013, it anticipates that customers will be able to mail specific quantities of lithium batteries internationally as long as they're properly installed in the personal electronic device they're intended to power.

You're properly right...
You're properly right...
I think the hardest-hit here will be Apple product owners, with their non-removable LI-ON batteries. No more shipping your old 3GS to some company in India or China to get a few extra bucks. Although, I suppose there's always DHL.
I'm guessing that the airlines carry more Li-Ion batteries in any given day then USPS does in six months...
They are banning it temporarily, Li-ion batteries are more dangerous to an aircraft when they ship in bulk. When they are in devices they are less likely to start a chain reaction of Li-ion battery fires. They probably won't allow people to ship more than a couple per package or something of that sort.
One reason for concern was the loss of UPS aircraft to fire that spread very fast and had a massive amount of smoke. It was determined to have started with a shipment of Li-ion batteries.
Here's a link to the story from last year: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/3/report-faults-batteries-plane-crash/
In that case it should be a non-issue for most consumers since few individuals ship Li-Ions in bulk. If I am selling a single used GPS unit on eBay, is that an issue? Maybe if most things people ship internationally through USPS contain Li-Ion batteries, but I'm assuming it is a pretty small percentage of the packages.
I'm not sure I'm following your analogy there but I think I understand the sentiment that was its catalyst.
Luckily, FedEx pwns the brown turds everyday....
I'm not certain about your physiology but having "brown turds" is generally not seen as unhealthy. I'm no doctor. I'm not sure how important color actually is but it often is affected by what the subject ate. If the food didn't have large quantities of coloring in it it will often be excreted as a "brown turd". ...and turds are...
Oh, you meant UPS.
USPS tracking service is always been unreliable.
When one battery catches on fire in a cargo hold filled with several dozen tons of flammable objects ranging from paper to other electronics, then the poor pilot and copilot will get to soil their pants while trying to land a internally burning aircraft.
And those hundreds or thousands of people depending on the USPS will be disappointed when they learned that their mail delivery was toasted. Literally.