[Sirens] didn’t seduce with beauty or carnality — not with petty diversions — but with the promise of unending knowledge. “Over all the generous earth we know everything that happens,” they crooned to passing ships, vowing that any sailor who heeded their voices would emerge a “wiser man.” That is precisely the draw of the Internet.
— Peggy Orenstein, for the NYTimes, likening a free Mac utility, Freedom, to Ulysses tying himself to his ship’s mast in The Odyssey to keep from following the call of the nearby Sirens. Freedom forcibly disables your Macintosh’s internet connection for up to 8 hours as a means to eliminating distractions. [NYT]
