Connections....

Ahhh, you might be old enough to remember the delightful show "Connections" by James Burke that followed the impact of one invention to the creation of a modern one through different modifications and applications. He would start with something like a pendulum and end up putting man on the moon (I'm making up the example, but you get the idea). NPR has a whimsical story about why hats disappeared from the heads of men in American and it lays blame on cars or more accurately, the interstate highway system which made cars the preferred mode of transport. He highlighted the casualty of hats because cars are not street cars and buses. The highway system has changed the fabric of our society, and apparently the fabric of our clothes too.