Esperanto might never have really taken off, but the Internet seems to be in the process of moving us toward a far more successful and truly universal language: emojis. And as Ashley Stone inventively demonstrates in this design-school project, emojis on paper possess the ability to make us think through important issues as we work to decipher them. What I find particularly appealing about her “Endangered Emojis” series is the simple-yet-effective way in which she adapted a real fundraising campaign led by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – its “Stamp out Extinction” initiative – to appeal to teens and twenty-somethings.

The United States Postal Service today released its 10-year Plan, ‘Delivering for America’, to return the organization to financial sustainability and achieve service excellence while maintaining universal six-day mail delivery and expanding seven-day package delivery. “The need for the U.S. Postal Service to transform to meet the needs of our customers is long overdue,” said Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer Louis DeJoy. “Our Plan calls for growth and investments, as well as targeted cost reductions and other strategies that will enable us to operate in a precise and efficient manner to meet future challenges, as we put the Postal Service on a path for financial sustainability and service excellence.” “The Board challenged Postal management to devise a Plan that was firmly rooted in our public service mission to bind the nation together,” said Ron Bloom, Chairman of the United States Postal Service Board of Governors. click read more below

Sears Holding Corp. has announced yet another round of store closures, with Kmart taking a big hit. The embattled retailer said it will close 63 stores, including 45 Kmart locations and 18 Sears stores. The stores will close after the holidays, in late January. But liquidation sales will begin as early as Nov. 9. “Sears Holdings continues its strategic assessment of the productivity of our Kmart and Sears store base and will continue to right size our store footprint in number and size,” the retailer stated in an announcement on its website. “In the process, as previously announced we will continue to close some unprofitable stores as we transform our business model so that our physical store footprint and our digital capabilities match the needs and preferences of our members.” Click Read More below for additional information.