Ludogorets v Real Madrid

PFC Ludogorets Razgrad are full of pride prior to their UEFA Champions League home debut against ten-time European champions Real Madrid CF, "the best team in the world".

Carlo Ancelotti, Madrid coachThere are no average teams. This is the Champions League and every team wants to win every game. You saw how well Ludogorets played against Liverpool and how they will give their all. The first two games are very important and it is a must for us to start with six points. Ludogorets are a very dynamic team, they are well organised.

There will be no underestimating the task at hand. They play with courage, they have speed and are dangerous on the counterattack. They press well and we know only too well what to expect.

Read more:

http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2015/matches/round=2000548/match=2014326/prematch/preview/

It was fright night for Real Madrid in Bulgaria as minnows Ludogorets stunned the European Cup holders with a goal after six minutes and then made Carlo Ancelotti’s team toil for a hard-fought win.

Ronaldo missed one penalty and scored another, moving him to 69 Champions League goals – just two short of Raul’s record – but Wednesday was not a night for Madrid milestones, more of narrowly avoiding embarrassment.

They started slowly, defended badly and former Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez almost completed the horror show with an awful second-half miss with the score still at 1-1. He was replaced by Karim Benzema, who scored what was to be Real’s winner.  

Read more:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2777006/Ludogorets-1-2-Real-Madrid-match-report-Karim-Benzema-delivers-winner-bench.html#ixzz3F3pJftQS

Interesting C# functions and their usage

Select() function:

How to convert a string array to an integer array?

I was having a string array as

string[] arrUserIDs = { "315", "610", "1", "13", "456" };

 

I wanted to convert it to an array of integers. The previous and simple approach was to loop through each string and convert into interger, like:

int[] arrIntUserID = new int[arrUserIDs.Length];

int userIDCounter = 0;

foreach(string userID in arrUserIDs)

{

    int.TryParse(arrUserIDs[userIDCounter], outarrIntUserID[userIDCounter]);

    userIDCounter++;

}

 

But why write all these things if you can use Select() for doing the above task. The above code can be written as:

int[] arrIntUserID = arrUserIDs.Select(id =>int.Parse(id)).ToArray();

Where() function:

How to remove empty strings from an array?

I was having a string array like

string[] arrNames = { "315", "610", "1", "13", "456" };

 

First I was following the same loop approach for removing empty string from a string array. But then I used Where() function and by using it my code change to

arrNames = arrNames.Where(name => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(name)).ToArray();

Count() function:

How to count number of true values in an array?

I was having a boolean array like

bool[] arrAnswerChoices = { true, false, true, true, false, true};

I wanted to know how many true values are present in the array. Then I came to know the powerfulness of count() function and used it as follows:

arrAnswerChoices.Count(choice => (choice));

 

The above code gave me the number of true values present in the boolean array, usingarrAnswerChoices.Count(choice => (!choice)); will give the number of false values present in the array.

 

Hope this helps you

'Maybe it’s not about the happy ending, maybe it’s about the story'

The father of a 12-year-old girl who lost her battle with cancer last week says he was shocked to find she had left behind a long, handwritten message on the back of a mirror.

"It was a stand-up mirror in her room, and it was always lent up against the wall so we never saw behind it," Dean Orchard, of Leicester, England. "She never mentioned it, but it's the kind of thing she'd do."

Athena Orchard was diagnosed with cancer in December after discovering a lump on her head and collapsing in her home. She died on May 28.

"She was a very spiritual person, she'd go on about stuff that I could never understand — she was so clever," Dean recalled.

Dean was moving things around in Athena's room when he discovered the message.


"When I moved the mirror after she died, I couldn't believe it," the 33-year-old said. "I saw all this writing — it must have been about 3,000 words."

Here are just some of them:

• Happiness depends upon ourselves.

• Maybe it’s not about the happy ending, maybe it’s about the story.

• The purpose of life is a life of purpose.

• The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra. Happiness is a direction, not a destination.

• Thank you for existing. Be happy, be free, believe, forever young.

• You know my name, not my story.

• You have heard what I’ve done, but not what I’ve been through.

• Love is like glass, looks so lovely, but it’s easy to shatter.

• Love is rare, life is strange, nothing lasts and people change.

• Life is only bad if you make it bad.

• Remember that life is full of ups and downs, without the downs the ups don’t mean anything.

• I’m waiting to fall in love with someone I can open my heart to.

• Love is not about who you can see spending your future with, it’s about who you can’t see spending your life without.

• Life is a game for everyone, but love is the only prize.

"When I first saw it, it just blew me away," Dean Orchard said. "I started reading it but before long I had to stop because it was too much — it was heartbreaking."

The message, written in marker, also makes reference to her cancer diagnosis:

Every day is special, so make the most of it. You could get a life-ending illness tomorrow so make the most of every day.

Athena's funeral is scheduled for June 12.

"She was the bravest person I know," her mother, Caroline, told the paper. "She was always trying to make sure other people were OK before worrying about herself. She was always being positive."

#FriendsAreWaiting

Next time you go out, be sure to make a plan to get home 

safely. Your friends are counting on you. #FriendsAreWaiting

Bulgaria Celebrates 106 Years of Independence

Celebrations have begun Monday across the country with Bulgaria marking 106 years since the formal declaration of its independence from the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

Even though the third Bulgarian state was technically restored in 1878, for the first 30 years of its existence it was a tributary principality to Ottoman Turkey, until complete independence was achieved on September 22, 1908.

After the medieval Bulgarian empire was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1396 AD, Bulgaria was formally restored as a nation-state on March 3, 1878, as a result of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78 brought about by the bloodily crushed April Uprising of 1876.

Under the San Stefano peace treaty between Russia and Ottoman Turkey, Bulgaria was set up as a state on a territory of 170 000 square kilometers encompassing the three historic-geographic regions traditionally inhabited by Bulgarians - Moesia, Thrace, and Macedonia.

Three months later, in July 1878, the Great Powers from the so called "European Concert" revised the San Stefano Treaty in the so called Berlin Congress, an outcome of their conflicting great power interests.

As a result, the Principality of Bulgaria was set up in most of Moesia and the Sofia region on a territory of 63 000 square km. About half of Thrace, or Southern Bulgaria was made an autonomous Ottoman Province called Eastern Roumelia, with a territory of 36 000 square km. The rest of the Bulgarian lands under the Berlin Treaty - including all of Macedonia and half of Thrace - were left in the Ottoman Empire. The Principality of Bulgaria was a vassal state, while Eastern Roumelia was technically an Ottoman province.

Bulgaria's entire political and social life in 1878-1944 was marked by the desire to unify all Bulgarian-populated lands in one nation state - leading the country to participate in five wars in that period. First, the Unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia in 1885, and the declaration of full independence in 1908 were hailed as crucial and successful but only partial steps towards this goal.

On September 6, 1885, the Principality of Bulgaria unified with the autonomous Ottoman province of Eastern Roumelia, a few years after its liberation from Ottoman yoke.

The historic proclamation was made after a march by a handful of Bulgarians from the small town of Saedinenie  ("Unification") to the town of Plovdiv, removing one of the gravest injustices imposed in the wake of the Berlin Congress. The Unification was prepared by a network of secret revolutionary committees in Eastern Roumelia, and was backed by the then Bulgarian ruler, Knyaz (King) Alexander I Batenberg.

Great Britain had been the primary protagonist in downsizing Bulgaria during the Berlin Congress because it feared a large Bulgarian state with access to the Mediterranean would be under Russian influence. However, in 1885-1886, it backed informally but rather noticeably, Bulgaria's Unification, seeing that the Russian Empire at the time was against this move, which stirred diplomatic tension in the Balkans, and seized the chance to demolish Russian influence in Bulgaria.

As other Balkan countries objected to Bulgaria's Unification, Serbia attacked Bulgaria in November 1885. In a grand national effort to defend the Unification, the young Bulgarian Army, which had just been left by its senior Russian officers, repulsed the attack, and defeated the Serbs on their territory, thus making the Unification of Northern and Southern Bulgaria a fait accompli.

But it was not until 1886 when the Great Powers recognized the almost doubled state of Bulgaria with a Bulgarian-Ottoman treaty.

After the Unification of 1885, Bulgarian efforts were focused on making Macedonia and the rest of Thrace part of the country. Thus, Bulgaria backed the VMORO (Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization) and its staging of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenia Uprising in 1903 and several other revolts in then European Turkey in that period.

As the uprisings of the Bulgarian populations in Thrace and Macedonia failed, the Bulgarian leadership decided the only way help its compatriots still living under Ottoman rule was to wage a war against Ottoman Turkey. To do this, Bulgaria had to be able to enter international alliances, and to declare war as a sovereign nation state.

Thus, the Bulgarian Cabinet and ruler declared the country's independence on September 22, 1908, in a historic ceremony in one of the nation's medieval capitals Veliko Tarnovo. They used the fact that one of the European Great Powers broke the Berlin Treaty – Austria-Hungary had declared the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it was supposed to rule for a period 30 years, under the Treaty.

The actions of the Bulgarian leaders were in fact coordinated with those of the emperor and government in Vienna. Austria-Hungary announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following day, ushering into the Bosnian Crisis (or Annexation Crisis) of 1908-1909 creating diplomatic tension among the Great Powers that served as a preview of the Bosnian or Sarajevo Crisis of 1914 leading to the breakout of World War I.

Thus, as a result of Bulgaria's declaration of independence, the Bulgarian ruler Ferdinand I, who until then had been a Knyaz (the Slavic equivalent of "King"), became a Tsar (technically the Slavic title for emperor). Under international diplomatic pressure, Ottoman Turkey reacted to Bulgaria's declaration of independence only with diplomatic protests, without military action.

As it became independent, Bulgaria subsequently took part in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, World War I (1915-1918) in seeking to regain all of its national territory (and in World War II (1941-1945)), being ultimately unsuccessful.

The celebrations of Bulgaria's Independence Day are traditionally held the night of September 22 in Veliko Tarnovo, the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire that in 1908 Tsar Ferdinand and Prime Minister Alexander Malinov chose as the site for the proclamation of independence.

The Independence Day has been celebrated as an official public holiday since a decision of the Bulgarian Parliament from September 10, 1998.