Today's Curious Mix: Original Sin, Sexy Olympians, and Sen. Joe McCarthy

Judging by three of today's top four key phrases, you'd think the country was undergoing some sort of national spiritual revival. But the sudden prevalence of religion-related discussions can be tracked to a meme -- an online list of questions or an online game shared among bloggers -- about topics that range from original sin to reincarnation, definitions of heaven and hell to free will, and the religion-science debates.

Speaking of debates, the increasingly loud/questionable/is-it-over-yet? debate about the Kerry-Bush Vietnam years brings out some bizarre combinations among today's burstiest people: namely, mud-slinging Matt Drudge, of the Drudge Report and the late Sen. Joe McCarthy, whose accuse-and-make-them-defend tactics are mentioned in a LA Times editorial (registration required) calling for an end to the whole tiring affair. Hear, hear!

Sen. John Kerry's Tuesday night appearance on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" picked up a few hits as well, as did Stewart's always irreverent sidekick Rob Corddry.

Speaking of hot Olympians, you probably thought that bloggers would be drooling over those bikini-clad, American beach volleyball women, right? Well, you'd be wrong. Also among today's burstiest people are "hot gymnast" Alexei Nemov and Canadian springboard diver Alexandre Despatie. As one teen blogger comments: "hubba hubba."

BlogPulse also receives a plug in a blog by Jupiterresearch Analyst Gary Stein. Increasingly, researchers and analysts are toying with and finding value in BlogPulse's ability to create trend graphs based on key words, phrases and issues appearing in blog links and postings. Try it out!

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: How are those politically motivated movies and downloads faring into the fall?