The stage is set for strategic buyers. Uncertainty over macroeconomic issues may have dimmed the corporate lights on M&A plans in previous years, but 2014 is providing a more promising script. Debt financing is readily available; many corporations boast significant cash on their balance sheets; shareholders are clamoring for more than just share buybacks; and companies are scouring for targets at home and abroad with more immediacy than before. CEOs are viewing the M&A scene with more confidence than they have in a long time.

For many of us trying to navigate the 21st Century, it's become sensible – healthy, even – to maintain a simmering, low-grade paranoia about the impending robot revolution. Advances in automation and robotics are impacting virtually every area of technology and industry.

From improved efficiency to more advanced fabrication possibilities, specialized 3-D printing sub-sectors are emerging that cater to an array of enterprise buyers with money to inject into the field. Machines can now produce materials with potential health applications, such as human cartilage, plus batteries, LEDs and motor components. But what is the environmental impact of 3-D printing?

The Ebola crisis in West Africa has helped push cocoa prices up by 10 percent since August to more than £1,000 ($1,617) per tonne, and this despite rising production.