Things I learned lately - 23 December

• A Russian reality show launching in 2017, called "Game2: Winter", will see 30 male and female contestants seek to stay alive in wilderness populated with bears and wolves for 9 months. The prize is $1.6 million. Organizers boast that everything is allowed, including rape and murder, and contestants will reportedly be required to sign a waiver acknowledging such. An ad reads: "Each contestant gives consent that they could be maimed, even killed. 2,000 cameras, 900 hectares and 30 lives. Everything is allowed. Fighting, alcohol, murder, rape, smoking, anything." Russian criminal procedures will apply and police are free to arrest anyone who commits a crime on the show.
• Queen wanted the song Bohemian Rhapsody to be the first single from A Night at the Opera. But their record label EMI, did not like the song and preferred You're my Best Friend. Queen refused and also wouldn't entertain a request to edit the song for radio. Once they realized EMI wasn't cooperating, a leaked copy somehow made it into the hands of UK DJ Kenny Everett, who teased listeners with snippets of the song, because he'd been told not to play it. Listeners begged him to play the whole thing, which he did - 14 times over 2 days. This created a problem, because now many fans wanted to buy the single, which hadn't even been released yet. A similar situation happened in North America on all RKO radio stations. Suddenly, the song EMI said would never get any airplay was all over the radio and creating quite a buzz for Queen.
• Red dwarf stars burn for such a long time (about a trillion years) that we don't know what happens to them once they use up all their hydrogen, because none have burnt out yet, and probably won't for another 900 billion years.
• The story about the War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938 causing mass panic in the US, was totally fabricated by the newspapers, who had a bone to pick with the new 'radio' medium and were trying to stir up trouble.
• In France, traders are under no obligation to provide change. The law states that it is up to the customer to provide exact change.
• France is the largest country in the EU (by area).
• The perfume capital of the world is Grasse, France.
• The Arc De Triomphe in Paris WAS the world's largest triumphal arch until 1982, when North Korea deliberately built a bigger one.