Somebody must have breathed some life back into the markets, as we’ve seen quite few larger moves this week compared to the mostly tepid action the rest of the year. Today the big story was in metals taking a steep plunge, apparently doing their best bitcoin impression. The digital “currency” also crashed hard this week, giving even those in precious metals someone to point to and say “at least it could be worse.” Meanwhile, in the non-trading world the antics of North Korea left everyone scratching their heads, trying to figure out whether it’s an occasion to laugh or be afraid. But that’s not all we had our eyes on this week – here are the stories we’re looking at headed into the weekend:

• Bitcoin “mining” is almost as bad for the environment as actual mining (Bloomberg)
• Sleight of hand turns people from liberals into conservatives – or vice versa (Nature)
• A new twist in the hunt for dark matter suggests there could be a “shadow” Milky Way (New Scientist)
• Samsung is apparently vying for the title of “world’s biggest phone” (Computer World)
• The 1987 documentary that followed Paul Tudor Jones: Trader (Youtube)