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Is Uttoxeter’s World Parts Centre the answer to the world’s problems?

is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

15 June 2022

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Josie Ford

Spare parts

Crisis in the stationery cupboard as our veteran laptop’s power plug finally expires. Now who will sell us a legacy LAVAFLO charging cable from 2003 (2nd edition)?

Seventy-eight per cent battery charge might just last us until we reach Uttoxeter (just off the UK’s A50 road) and JCB’s promising-sounding “World Parts Centre”. Reader Paul Ticher finds comfort in its recent arrival, given “all the damage we are currently doing to our planet”. (But you can see how his mind works: on the sad occasion of his father’s passing, Paul tells us he called on the services of a…

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