Speculation, as it was used here, means "A conclusion, opinion, or theory reached by conjecture." And conjecture means "Inference or judgment based on inconclusive or incomplete evidence; guesswork." And it was defamatory because you base the entire thing on the presumption that he was trying to support a drug habit.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com

THAT BEING SAID: Nobody really knows. You could be right. However, there is a non-defamatory explanation for every one of your points. Not that everything you read should be believed, but the common story seems to be that the guy who was buying the snake from Eddie was his friend who attended the shop/party/contest with him. Maybe Eddie really wasn't interested in the snake for himself but in making a free $150 for eating some roaches. He seems to be remembered as "the life of the party" and some people do in fact eat bugs as a party trick for fun.

yeahn i know what you mean hygiene in reptile feeder roach cultures is always of the highest standard, clean rooms frequent cage changes and high degrees of disease surveilance by DVM's are completely the norm not the exception in the reptile hobby. The huge amount of USDA health regulations and compliance issues don't come near as close to keeping decent health standards with meat packing plants as the honor system does for non regulated entities such as roaches.

I agree with it being a stupid contest with a sad outcome that's my opinion
. Every one blames the friend now and point fingers. Reminds me of that incident pee for wii. Ben is def not responsible but I would feel guilty as a store front since the only reason the man is dead is from entering this contest.

http://reptileapartment.com/2012/10/...ent-community/

I heard from other sources that this guy really could care less about the snake at all, and did these contests all the time, just for fun.

I don't think that cause of death has been 100% established yet.

The only reason he is dead is because God gave him life. Are you going to guilt God too?

I respect peoples beliefs but lets not bring religion into this. Im an atheist and dont believe or see as you do.

"Amen"

I don't see any reason to attribute this to anything other than random bad luck. It's entirely likely that he rolled the dice in the "risk vs. reward" game, and the odds for "risk" simply caught up to him.

I personally believe that speculating anything, especially in such negative ways, is in no way productive to what actually happened. Let the professionals deal with it. All of us have absolutely zero say in the ultimate outcome of this, so all of this finger pointing and useless conjecture is doing nothing but distracting from the only validated fact that somebody tragically died after Ben's roach eating contest. Let's see what the official reports are and then we'll have more knowledge with which to condemn or empathize.

Personally, the whole "aspirated on vomit" theory seems the most reasonable, although I heard on the radio this morning that the autopsy was inconclusive.

OFF TOPIC RANT

Gosh, I think I'm going to have to state something controversial.

Oh my God, she mention the word God! Hurry, hit her with a stick!

Hmm, paraphrase "So you respect her religion but shut up about it and never mention that word, shutter "God". After-all, I'm an atheist and you'll respect my beliefs by never mentioning yours? WTF!

Sounds about right.

Lucille doesn't go around preaching her religious beliefs in any posts that I can think of but the one time she mentions GOD she is quick to be cut down about it.

Look, there are a lot of atheist on this forum. There are a lot people who have a lot of different beliefs. I myself have stepped out of line in some criticism in the past (Something about someone who believed they were a vampire and I made a lot of jokes about it) but come on.

You see it used to be and still is to some extent depending on what type of forum you are on that atheists would get attacked for not believing. Now it seems just the mere mention of the word GOD sends some atheists into panic mode.

You mention GOD. Oh no you didn't, Whomp! You don't respect her beliefs. You don't. You just want her to respect yours by not mentioning GOD period.

One who is religious and believes in GOD would say, GOD bless You, He/she is with god when someone passes. You show no respect by telling people to shut up because you don't believe what they believe.

All you want is none to say anything because you believe nothing. That is respect to you? No, respect would be to allow a religious person to state "he is with GOD" "He is with his maker" that is what religious people do.

If you don't believe that, then say I don't believe in GOD but lets not tell people to shut up because they believe when someone dies they are with GOD and they state it.

"Let's not mention religion" When somebody dies! When else would a religious person mention it? Come on!

How dare she.

GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD

By the way, if you think I'm only saying this because I have a firm belief you would be wrong. I'm just tired of people belittling people who do have a belief and also when someone has none. She didn't hurt anything with her comment and to be respectful of other peoples religion or lack of it doesn't mean you should never mention your own. Particularly at a time mentioning it is part of your belief system.

Personally, I'm getting kind of partial to the Ancient Alien Astronaut Theory. May God have mercy on my soul. :eek: