That Raines should find himself on the front lines at this moment is also the culmination of a personal voyage in which he managed to take a Democrat's life story and turn it into a Republican's resume.

CNN: AllPolitics - TIME This Week

His aim during a 100-day voyage that will take him from San Francisco, California, to Sydney, Australia, is to find the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" between California and Japan -- a massive sea of plastic trash that environmentalists say could soon be larger than the continental United States.

CNN: Environmentalist: It's becoming a plastic world

We're not sure when the bird is expected to take her first voyage, but here's hoping a few others are hatched in the near future.

ENGADGET: Southwest builds first 'green plane,' Ma Earth shows her gratitude

The space industry of 2006 is like a rocket about to launch on its maiden voyage--nobody knows whether it will take off or just blow up on the pad.

FORBES: The New Space Race

Surprised that the voyage would take so long (long enough, in one case, for the slaves to mount a rebellion), I pulled out the Oxford Atlas and easily located Madagascar, and saw its geographic relation to South Africa.

FORBES: Atlas Hugs: The Great Print-Versus-Digital Showdown