Just thought I’d mention this. I heard it on the TV news and none of the website news venues seem to have picked it up yet. It’s hot and fresh off the wire, as of less than 5 minutes ago. In any case, it’s too bad. He was 69 years old. He always seemed an interesting character, even if a bit nutty and something grizzled.

But making it to nearly 70 ain’t too bad considering the life he had and how many stunts he pulled off. Evel had a liver transplant in 1999 and obviously has had his share of health problems.

On the topic of bad science. Although I don’t wish the man death or anything, I lost quite a bit of respect for Mr. Knievel due to his promotion of a device called the “Stimulator” a few years ago on a commercial. He claimed it helped with his pains from years of broken bones and motorcycle spills. The “stimulator” was pulled due to suits from the FTC and others for making baseless medical claims. As it turns out, the damn thing is just a gas grill igniter with a plastic cover/handle on it. It doesn’t have any proven effect on pain but does deliver a mild electrical shock from the small piezoelectric pulse generator in it, which normally creates the spark to ignite a gas grill flame.

Knievel may well have been a paid spokesperson who didn’t know anything about what the product was and who may very well have believed it worked based only on the placebo effect, but that doesn’t let him off the hook for promoting quackery. Oh and also he severely beat a guy with a baseball bat in the 1970’s, nearly killing him. Based on that, while I don’t rejoice in his death or anything, he’s not really a “hero” to me in any sense of the word.

 

More info Here
Even More (From Casewatch)
Info on the settlement to refund purchasers from the FDA

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Announcements, Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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