SANTA BABY, DID U GET MY TXT?

AT&T, Verizon, Sprint lose out by subsidizing Apple's cell phone

(NEWSER) - Apple's profits are soaring , but at the expense of cell phone carriers who subsidize iPhone sales. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint all pay about $600 for iPhones that they resell to customers for $200. The carriers figure they'll make up the loss with monthly cell phone bills—but Verizon and AT&T stock have both dropped, and Sprint's losses have ballooned by 40%, since they started selling the coveted iPhone, the Los Angeles Times reports. More»

Decline in regular mail more than offsets gift shipping bump

(NEWSER) - The US Postal Service had a jaw-droppingly ugly holiday quarter, losing $3.3 billion despite a better-than-expected surge in gift shipments, the agency announced today. That's $3 billion worse than its figure for the same period in 2010, the AP reports, and at this rate the agency expects to run out of dough by October. The problem is that traditional mail delivery continues to plummet—it fell 6% in the first fiscal quarter, which ended Dec. 31. More»

Farmers, postal processors, switchboard operators face job loss

(NEWSER) - Unemployment may be easing , but certain jobs seem to be sliding into the dustbin of history. The Huffington Post lists 10 on the skids, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

1. Farmers and ranchers: expected to lose 96,100 jobs by 2020. Mechanized farming is taking over.

Health orgs and school districts offer sex ed online

(NEWSER) - Why teach sex education in class when students prefer to text and Google about it anyway? So say some health organizations and school districts that are setting up sex-ed websites and texting services for teens, the New York Times reports. And students seem to like it: “You can ask a random question about sex and you don’t feel it was stupid,” says a Denver-area high school senior. “Even if it was, they can’t judge you because they don’t know it’s you. And it’s too gross to ask my parents.” More»

Letter carrier who threatened to 'go rogue' allowed to don red suit

(NEWSER) - After getting some bad publicity, the US Postal Service has decided not to prevent a kindly, bearded man from wearing a red hat and jacket as he makes his mail deliveries. For the last decade, letter carrier Bob McLean had worn a Santa hat and jacket during the holiday season, but after a colleague this year complained that he was violating the dress code, supervisors told McLean to leave the get-up at home, the Los Angeles Times reports. Management relented after the story got nationwide attention and McLean threatened to "go rogue" and wear the Santa suit anyway. More»