I have been in the IT business for over 35 years, starting as a mainframe operator to programmer, systems analyst, manager, director and Vice President of Technology. Because of some health issues I now find myself with lots of free time which I'm using to learn more about the online cyberworld. My online experience goes back to the early 1980's when I had one of those first CompuServe accounts (on a Commodore 64), then experience with BBSs (with a 300 baud modem), to AOL, then Netscape Navigator, IE, Firefox, et al. With my new "free time" I'm trying to explore and understand the Internet of the 21st century - Web 2.0, etc.
Viviparus georgianus, commonly known as the banded mystery snail, is a species of large freshwater snail in the family Viviparidae, the river snails. It is native to North America, generally found from the northeastern United States to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and thrives in eutrophic lentic environments such as lakes, ponds and some low-flow streams. The snail has has two distinct sexes and reproduces more than once in a lifetime, with females laying eggs singly in albumen-filled capsules. It feeds on diatom clusters found on silt and mud substrates, but it may also require the ingestion of some grit to be able to break down algae. This image shows five views of a 2.1 cm high (0.83 in) V. georgianusshell, originally collected in the U.S. state of Georgia and now in the collection of the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe in Germany.