We're all a little hyperloopy right now, with just a few hours to go before Elon Musk finally tells us what the hell he's been going on about with this whole shooting people in tubes from LA to SF thing. Since he stayed up all night like a crank-addled college kid, the least we can do is read up a bit about it all.
So, with that in mind, here's five good articles to read so when the full announcement finally comes at 1:30 PDT, you can sagely nod your head and tell the people around you that you totally called this one.
1. This Gizmodo article that sums up what we know.
This is a really solid overview of what's currently known about the Hyperloop plans, and has good explanations of what the best guesses are all about.
2. Motherboard's post from Jon Gardi
Mothernboard got John Gardi, the man who Musk himself came closest to predicting how the hyperloop would work, to write up a detailed explanation of his idea. This article is great in how it really assesses the construction issues and infers the overall scale of the project, both physical and otherwise.
3. Jennifer Ouellete's overview of past pneumatic transit systems on iO9
Jennifer is a friend of mine and a very talented science writer (I illustrated her book) and a couple years back wrote this great overview of pneumatic transport systems from the past (the Hyperloop is expected to have at least some related technologies to these). These were sort of the Hyperloop ideas of their eras, so it's not a bad idea to get some historical perspective on how these ancestors turned out.
4. Extreme Tech's how-it-works speculation
This article has some good overviews of the technology involved, and is the only one I've seen so far that includes the idea of acoustic, as opposed to maglev, levitation.
5. Our big infographic.
You people are busy, and may not have time to read. Here's what we know and are guessing so far, in pictures.
Five Things To Read Before The Hyperloop Announcement