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facts & arguments

AWKWARD FAMILY PHOTOS: “Thank you @BuzzFeed for reminding me of my awkward yrs,” tweeted @ChelseaClinton, this after viral-news website Buzzfeed regurgitated an “adorkable” snapshot of 12-year-old Chelsea during her father’s presidential campaign – braces, ringlets, sassy sunglasses and all.

Welcome to Talking Points, a daily roundup of digital miscellany

ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA

Yelp's new heat-seeking maps allow users to locate their fellow hipsters, jocks and yuppies in cities like Portland and Toronto. Diametrically opposed is a new app called Hell is Other People, which helps people avoid other people. The brainchild of Scott Garner, an interactive telecommunications student who suffers from social anxiety, the app employs the same technology as Foursquare – in reverse. It leeches onto Foursquare to track the digital "check-ins" friends make when they arrive at a local bar, restaurant or park. Hell is Other People then offers escape routes as well as areas to steer clear of your compadres. Orange points reveal where those pesky friends have checked in, while green points indicate "optimally distanced safe zones." Go forth, digital Thoreau.

MATE RETENTION 101

What a turnoff: A study published recently in the Journal of Evolutionary Psychology suggests that men perform oral sex on their female partners not for fun, but as an onerous-sounding "mate-retention strategy." Evolutionary psychologists at Oakland University in Michigan were baffled about men performing the act, since it doesn't lead directly to baby-making. So they surveyed 243 men in committed, heterosexual relationships and discovered they were using cunnilingus partly to discourage their partners from cheating. "The results of the current research suggest that cunnilingus and female orgasm may be best explained as elements of a broader male mate-retention strategy." Come on, let's give men some credit: Everyone knows you do the dishes for that.

QUOTED

"Life should be filled with positivity and holding each other up, not making threats and sending bad vibes." – Jennifer Love Hewitt (@TheReal_Jlh)

Following Alec Baldwin's lead, the far less quotable actress quits Twitter, bidding adieu to 600,000 followers in a flurry of hippie-isms.

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