Outed in the interview, he reviews a couple awkward and painful moments (hearing “Can you hear me now?” as his grandmother was lowered into her grave) in the course of his nearly 10-year stint as the face of “the network.”

Equally disgusting, he discloses an incident where the fear of bad PR silenced a voice known for being heard loud and clear:

Then there were the drive-bys. Marcarelli has a home in Guilford, Connecticut, and five summers ago, kids in an SUV began driving past at night, yelling, “Can you hear me now?” Later, says Marcarelli, “they started screaming ‘faggot’ up at my house. It got progressively more profane as the years went by.” One night, it happened while some friends were over, and he decided to call the police. “As soon as I hung up the phone,” he says, “I realized that in order for them to do anything about it, it would have to become a report that would go into a police log.” Worried about the publicity—and the questions that might ensue if it came out that the actor playing Test Man was gay—he declined to file a report.

Via Gawker

Not that you’d expect him to recognize that – he was merely 10 years old in 2002. Despite his youth, he’s the wiz responsible for opening realms of access to stripteasing loners, unsightly masturbation, and intriguing relationships lasting mere seconds.

Ternovskiy is the creator of Chatroulette.com.

While providing some fairly thought-provoking analysis of the Chatroulette phenom, it’s more riveting to read observations of the  Russian teen who brought the concept to browsers.

The article highlights social characteristics of the “18-year-old high-school dropout” (born 1992, if you’re bad at crunching digits) and a generation of nerds currently and soon attempting to rule the world. Starting first with the visuals:

He is thin and nervous, with light sprays of acne on his cheeks and a fuzz of dark-blond hair. He has a hard time making eye contact and learned English by spending thousands of hours chatting online, but he says that his passion is talking with people and “exploring other cultures.”

Later detailing Ternovskiy’s face-to-face social ineptitude:

The best way to talk to Ternovskiy is through some kind of digital intermediary. Shy and evasive in person, he fills with a wry swagger when he is just a stream of text. “They have no business no money blablablabla,” he typed to me one afternoon, feigning phlegmatic unconcern with the financial woes of an advertiser he’d been negotiating with—his only one. Like much of his generation, Ternovskiy has an online persona far more developed than his real one.

Transitioning from his thoughts on school and friendship(s).

Ternovskiy, meanwhile, sees school—and college—as a waste of time. “The last three years at school, I haven’t done anything,” he says. “I just can’t make myself. There’s so much interesting stuff in the world, and I have to sit there with textbooks?”

By “the world,” of course, Ternovskiy means the Internet, which is also where most of his friends are. His closest confidant is a Russian immigrant named Kirill Gura, who lives in Charleston, West Virginia. Every night for the past five years, Ternovskiy has turned on his computer, found Kirill on MSN Messenger, and talked to him until one of them fell asleep. “He’s a real friend,” Ternovskiy says.

Ternovskiy captures a tourist visa for the U.S., visiting New York City, San Fransisco and ultimately capturing an apartment in Palo Alto. The article concludes with a familiar situation for anyone experienced with online-centric relationships.

He also traveled to West Virginia to meet Kirill Gura, the friend he had chatted with on MSN Messenger every night for years, but whom he’d never actually met. The transition was bumpy. “It was a little weird, you know,” Ternovskiy told me later. “We was just looking at each other without having much to say.”

Sucks when you can’t click “next,” doesn’t it?

[Link via Shortformblog]

We couldn’t leave it at just the video. While the Ball State Daily News (rightfully so) has an Gora-recognized obligation to objectivity and, moreover, a sense of dignity, we find ourselves far removed from such honors and giggling like a pack of school gossip girls on Twitter.

We’re not condoning sexual harassment. Notable here is the university’s unintentionally embarrassing overreaction, as even a group of students with no prior context are highlighting.

Behold: linkage.

• “He” – rather, the Butt-Slapper’s fictitious persona – is on Facebook.

• The “official” (wtf?) The Ball State Ass Slapper Facebook page is closing in on 10,000 fans.

• Entrepreneurs at  BSAS: Ass Slappin’ Since April, 7 2010 are selling shirts for $10 through PayPal, or $14.95 shipped.

• Take it for what it’s worth: In Jersey, they fist pump. In Indiana, we ass slap.

• A smaller opposition group, clearly unaware of netiquette, also has as page: WE OPPOSE MEMEBRS OF THE BALL STATE ASS SLAPPERS GROUP. IT IS NOT A JOKE!!!
  
• Some tipsters are trying to get some coverage via The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Forums
  
• When a Gawker Network site picks this up you know it’s in the limelight. Deadspin has a short recap, disclaimer and set of links. We’re on-task to outdo them though, don’t worry.

Did we miss one? Post it in the comments so we can add it.

What’s there? Simple really: (Usually) candid pictures of people at Wal-Mart. No, not your average shopping looking for a bargain on HDMI cables, socks and a goldfish at the same place — but, well … you know.

[Props to Adam Rust for the tip.]

Cue the news that she’s pregnant and throw alcohol into the mix…

Click here to see what happens next

It appears Twitter user @cynful1 began tweeting from the coaster during the incident, although a closer look from a local news outlet reveals a potential attention whore looking for a piece of the action.

The Bay Area NBC affiliate reports @cynful1 might be a fake.

Just one problem: Twitter, which notes how a user posts a particular message, reports that all of Cynful1’s messages were posted “from Web.” Unless Cynful1 was toting a laptop, it would be tough to post messages from Web; most Twitterers in her situation would be sending tweets via text message or a mobile app like Tweetie.

Also suspicious: Cynful1 doesn’t mention any plans to visit Great America. Her account doesn’t list a location. But two venues mentioned in previous tweets, Du-Par’s and Hotel Cafe, are located in Los Angeles, not the Bay Area.

Curiously, her tweets started up around 4 p.m. Pacific time — two hours after local fire departments first reported rescue attempts, and well after saturation media coverage had begun, all of which speaks to an attention-getting stunt.

They even tried to call her out on it.

It’s difficult to tell whether the problem was resolved, though it’s a great (non-deadly) example of someone using Twitter for fame when fame is not due.

It’s that irrelevant bullshit.

Which got me wondering what in the world the top CNN.com search terms are …

In CNN’s defense (for once), these are actually user-generated lists. In society’s defense, well … we don’t really have one.