Adding to this since it is the best suggestion so far....I'm not sure I'd use etching stuff rather than a standard pegboard piece if I'm just hacking... if I'm finished then order one to be printed. Not sure about a couple of the bigger tools but it all depends on the project (could also go to manual tools if they wont be used much).

wall of drawers with millions of little compartments for components.
wire stripper
proper multimeter, capacitance meter
lots of wire!
Variable power supply
Scope/logic tester
solder station: Copper braid,solder,solder pumps, variable temp solder iron, brass sponge, flux pen, stand
May need a fan depending on ventilation or you'll all get sick and die.
heat shrink tubing
heat gun (for soldering surface mount chips or other annoying stuff)
Lots of handy outlets.

That said i'm thinking of a small robotics/electronics lab. Nothing heavy mechanical.

Nothing is set in stone yet. In the last couple days Musk was talking about a variety of possible avenues forwards. Those are indeed the plans floating around now though. But it would be premature to say anything is remotely decided.

I don't think SpaceX is even remotely near a position where they can tell NASA to take a hike. They are in very many ways in a partnership. Things would be a lot harder without NASA there. AND NASA is a huge source of money. Just recently there was talk of SpaceX making its super-heavy instead of NASA for the US government. That contract would represent another 2.5Billion just to go where they wanted/intended to anyways! Plus they would get continual flight purchases from NASA after that.

Also they already have a 2014 flight sold to Bigelow, I'm sure that number will increase as they prove themselves. And I'm unconvinced that SA would be worth that much to them since their goal seems to be mainly sub-orbital... there aren't many people with 10~20million to visit the space station... Though with a heavy lifter and a large enough group they may be able to cut that below 5million/person (if all of musk's optimism comes to pass)

All happening in nice and stable countries. Rwanda during that time period did not have as many advancements.

Bill gates is going to be around for the next millennium? ... I think that would give the borg claim credence.

Zuck lies. It isn't even clear that he has the legal right to sell the company to begin with.

This is patently false. You can draw an almost perfectly smooth line plotting the top societies with economic stability. If your point were true we'd make our best steps forwards right before the country collapses into economic depression. Progress takes money and time. Without stability you have neither of these things.

20% of the us earns an avg 10.5k/year. That is 900/mnth. If you need medication you often are choosing between food and the meds. I imagine a decent chunk of those 20% also have kids.... they also aren't free.

I'm not saying that there aren't morons that spend themselves into poverty situations there DEFINITELY are. Just try to remember that isn't the case for many of the poor people you do see at walmart.

It felt so good hitting the x for expert-sexchange :/ they took that away from me.

If you want to whitelist only a few sites and do the same set all the time you could just stick some javascript into a favourite...

Code button:
javascript:q=document.getSelection();if(!q){void(q=prompt('Looking%20for:',''))};if(q)location.href='http://www.google.com/search?&q=site%3Asuperuser.com+OR+site%3Astackoverflow.com+OR+site%3Aslashdot.com+'+q

Substitute sites as you want. (Just make a shortcut or favourite and plug in the code where it says url...)

Classy engineers do. Just not around work. It doesn't have that 'Scotty' feel to it like hard liquor.

*erring ... I don't normally reply post to myself but I saw the mistake right after I hit post and it is rather egregious :S

"the effects seem to consistently outrun the predictions"

Here he is referring to the IPCC reports. And I doubt you can find anything that says they haven't undershot everything. But then they were expected to since it was a sort of airing on the side of caution (people still called them crazed alarmists mind you).

Aahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahaaaaaaaa

*gasp*

hahahhahahahahhahahahaaaaaaa...

*regains composure* There is a small chance that you are being overly optimistic.

Since that was from 2004 and still talking about the Falcon 5...

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/awst/2010/11/29/AW_11_29_2010_p28-271784.xml&headline=NASA%20Studies%20Scaled-Up%20Falcon,%20Merlin

From another post about super-heavy rockets. Musk said that he'd personally guarantee he could go under 1000$/lb (At the very end of the article). This could happen in only a few short years. So he does seem like he's moving towards the 500$/lb price point.

There is a down side to having so many moving parts mind you.

As peacefinder pointed out, SpaceX is so badass they post the prices on their site. But I'd like to point out that Musk has said: "Ultimately, I believe $500 per pound or less is very achievable."

http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=10

So who knows what we'll be seeing in the next few years.