President Joe Biden won't be winning any office pool competitions for March Madness this year.
The University of Arizona, his pick to win it all, crashed out of the yearly collegiate basketball tournament on Thursday after suffering a stunning defeat to Princeton.
Every year, 68 universities compete in the NCAA Men's Division Basketball Tournament, which historically takes place in March and April.
American sports fans — presidents included — partake in the revelry by filling out brackets, trying to predict the winner of each round and ultimately the tournament champions.
The bracket is divided into four quadrants: South, East, West and Midwest. Teams in each quadrant are seeded 1-16.
Arizona, the No 2 seed in the South, lost to No 15 Princeton 59-55 on Thursday. It was the 11th time in the tournament's history that a 15 seed defeated a 2 seed. Until Thursday, No 2 seeds defeated 15 seeds 93 per cent of the time.
An upset of this scale is part of the spirit of March Madness, which received the nickname because of smaller universities upsetting well-establish basketball powerhouses such as Arizona.
It also creates a so-called bracket buster — a type of upset that virtually ruins any sport fan's hopes of winning bragging rights if their championship pick lifts the trophy.
And Mr Biden isn't alone.
Out of the 20 million brackets filled online, only 787 remain perfect through the first day of play — or 0.000039 per cent of all online entries, according to the NCAA.
Former president Barack Obama's bracket is in much better shape after the first round. Though he also must have been surprised by Arizona's defeat, his national champion pick Duke steamrollered Oral Roberts 74-51.
Mr Obama also selected Baylor, UCLA and Houston to reach the Final Four.
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Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
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RESULTS - ELITE MEN
1. Henri Schoeman (RSA) 57:03
2. Mario Mola (ESP) 57:09
3. Vincent Luis (FRA) 57:25
4. Leo Bergere (FRA)57:34
5. Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS) 57:40
6. Joao Silva (POR) 57:45
7. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 57:56
8. Adrien Briffod (SUI) 57:57
9. Gustav Iden (NOR) 57:58
10. Richard Murray (RSA) 57:59
TUESDAY'S ORDER OF PLAY
Centre Court
Starting at 2pm:
Malin Cilic (CRO) v Benoit Paire (FRA) [8]
Not before 4pm:
Dan Evans (GBR) v Fabio Fogini (ITA) [4]
Not before 7pm:
Pablo Carreno Busta (SPA) v Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) [2]
Roberto Bautista Agut (SPA) [5] v Jan-Lennard Struff (GER)
Court One
Starting at 2pm
Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) v Dennis Novak (AUT)
Joao Sousa (POR) v Filip Krajinovic (SRB)
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Rajeev Ram (USA) and Joe Salisbury (GBR) [1] v Marin Cilic v Novak Djokovic (SRB)
Nikoloz Basilashvili v Ricardas Berankis (LTU)
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Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
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Stars: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone
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