Mmm, soup

An Internet-borne meme from well over a decade ago was this image, reproducing an ad in a scientific journal. Dave Barry made fun of it in a 1993 newspaper column, and I would occasionally run into references to it on the pre-WWW Internet. I was never sure whether or not it was a joke - "Polytron" is a pretty generic name, and that poorly reproduced image didn't look like anything particularly effective.

I was reminded of it today - don't ask why - and realized that Google exists now. And, yes, there really is a Polytron. You can see the very latest models in full color, and they now have web pages proudly describing the machines' bone-and-organ-liquifying prowess.

Gone, though, is the specific word soup-like, which by itself carried the orginal ad from mildly grotesque to completely ridiculous.