The Bird of the Century Contest (formerly known as Bird of the Year) in New Zealand has completed. Comedian John Oliver launched a "global effort" in support of the pūteketeke. The annual election is called Bird of the Year and held by the New Zealand conservation group Forest and Bird. Forest and Bird started the annual Bird of the Year competition to raise awareness for endangered native birds. I wonder if that succeeded. Something has succeeded for someone, though.
The British-American comedian pulled off a world-wide publicity stunt that got the bird voting system crashed. More than 350,000 ballots were cast compared to 56,000 in 2021.
The bird is a crested grebe. They eat their own feathers to trigger their gag reflex so they can vomit up parasites. That's the puking part.
What made Oliver take on this project? It was elaborate - billboards in Paris, Tokyo, London, Mumbai and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. I think likely expensive as there were planes flying overhead with banners, Oliver in a bird costume, and similar stunts.
Washington Post's headline says he interfered with the bird competition. I guess that's the motivation. Lots of press. The headlines are from everyone everywhere. And so the Puking Bird and not the Kiwi turns out to be the bird of the year/century.
I wonder how many Black Friday's there are? It is supposed to be November 24, 2023, but I've received notices of Black Friday sales on every Friday since the beginning of November.
There are lots of Black Friday questions on google that may seem unrelated. Here's one: What is Black Friday in Catholic? And another: Is Black Friday related to Jesus?
Is there a Black Friday food? Like these amazingly black cherry tomatoes?
