He thought that because of the rise of postmodern irony the durable street rackets and shady back-room dealing had gone out of style.

NEWYORKER: Great Experiment

But to do that, we want to make sure that everybody has health insurance, which in turn allows us to cut back on some wasteful spending and help upgrade hospitals and doctors and how they perform medicine because now they're not dealing with as many emergency room patients.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Holds a Town Hall in New Hampshire

It's likely that part of the story is ability: not everyone is up to the task of dealing with the complexities of a bigger conference room filled with disparate participants.

WSJ: In Defense of the CEO

The charity's ways of dealing with this problem include a treadmill for dogs to use, and a top floor room where they can be let loose to play, complete with giant lorry tyres and a paddling pool.

BBC: Birmingham Dogs' Home: Plan to open ?5m bigger centre

Not only does this feature allow you to engage in truly personal listening (perhaps your partner is sleeping in the next room?) without shelling out for an expensive pair of wireless headphones or dealing with their often-complicated set-up, but it opens up a whole range of creative use cases and possibilities for future features.

FORBES: The Roku 3 Set-Top Box: A Nearly Perfect Product

Others fear that a house business committee would amount to no more than the same old backroom dealing, but clothed with a little extra legitimacy because a few establishment grandees had been in the room when it was sealed.

BBC: The year ahead in Parliament