Prairie

Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type. Temperate grassland regions include the pampas of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay as well as the steppes of Eurasia. Lands typically referred to as "prairie" tend to be in North America. The term encompasses the area referred to as the Interior Lowlands of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, which includes all of the Great Plains as well as the wetter, somewhat hillier land to the east. In the U.S., the area is constituted by most or all of the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and sizable parts of the states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and western and southern Minnesota. The Central Valley of California is also a prairie. The Canadian Prairies occupy vast areas of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

Dominique Swain

Dominique Swain (born August 12, 1980) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as the title character in the 1997 film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, and as Jamie Archer in the film Face/Off.

Early life

Swain was born on August 12, 1980 in Malibu, California, the daughter of Cindy and David Swain, Sr., an electrical engineer. She has two sisters, Chelsea (born 1982/1983) and Alexis (born 1978/1979), and a stepsister and brother from her father's first marriage. Swain grew up in Malibu where she attended Malibu High School, and enjoyed playing sports, making art, and listening to music. Swain excelled at learning, earning straight A's and becoming Valedictorian like her sister before her. Her parents are separated.

Career

Canadian Prairies

The Canadian Prairies is a region in western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions, natural or political. Notably, the Prairie provinces, Interior Plains, or simply the Prairies comprise the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as they are partially covered by prairie (grasslands). In a more restricted sense, the term may also refer only to the areas of those provinces covered by prairie. Prairie also covers portions of northeastern British Columbia, though that province is typically not included in the region in a political sense.

Definitions

The word prairie usually refers to a type of grassland, and true prairies occur only in the southern reaches of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Contrasted to this are other biomes such as the boreal forest taking up the majority of the Prairie Provinces, or the aspen parkland.

However "the prairies" may also refer to all of the Interior Plains region within Canada, in contrast with the Rocky Mountains and the Canadian Shield, and is a continuation of the Great Plains region of the United States.

Kevin Sorbo

Kevin David Sorbo (born September 24, 1958) is an American actor best known for the roles of Professor Radisson in God's Not Dead, Hercules in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Captain Dylan Hunt in Andromeda, and Kull in Kull the Conqueror.

Early life

Sorbo was born in Mound, Minnesota, where he attended Mound Westonka High School. He is the son of Ardis, a nurse, and Lynn Sorbo, a junior high school mathematics and biology teacher. His father is of Norwegian descent, while his mother has English, German and Scottish ancestry. He was raised in a Lutheran family. Sorbo attended Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he double majored in marketing and advertising. To help make tuition, he began to work as a model for print and television advertising in the 1980s.

Career

Sorbo started his acting career in 1986 making guest appearances in several television series such as 1st & Ten, Murder She Wrote and The Commish. He was considered for and lost out to Dean Cain as Superman in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and was a possible contender for the role of Agent Mulder in The X Files which went to David Duchovny.

Lance Henriksen

Lance James Henriksen (born May 5, 1940) is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his frequent collaboration with James Cameron. As well as his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as Bishop in the Alien film franchise, and Fox television series Millennium. Henriksen is also a voice actor, notably having voiced Kerchak the gorilla in Walt Disney Animation Studios' Tarzan.

Early life

Henriksen was born in New York City. His father was a Norwegian merchant sailor and boxer nicknamed "Icewater" who spent most of his life at sea. His mother, Margueritte Werner, struggled to find work as a dance instructor, waitress, and model. His parents divorced when he was two years old, and he was raised by his mother. As he grew up, Henriksen found himself in trouble at various schools and even saw the inside of a children's home. Henriksen served in the United States Navy from 1955–58 and attained the rank of Petty Officer Third Class.