No back-up, and an obit to die for

You know that business about always backing up your work? Well if it needs reinforcing, here's a tale of a woman whose only copy of her master's thesis was stolen. But she couldn't face re-writing it, so she went bin-diving.

Then, an obit to die for.

Peter Brunt, who has died aged 88, was Camden professor of ancient (Roman) history and fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, ... his most important contribution was his innate sympathy with the Roman proletariat demonstrated in his 700-page book, Italian Manpower 225 BC-AD14 (1971). It may be unreadable - it ends as it begins, with a table of figures - but it includes everything you need to know about the Roman proletariat, whose suffering in the creation of the Roman empire is enthusiastically quantified ...By the end of the process we are so exhausted that we do not notice that there is no conclusion...

(Hat-tip to The Little Professor.)