Shell Scripts.

Shell Scripts control your mac through the base UNIX system that lurks under OS X. They can do some things AppleScript can't, through it's use is a little more risky, since UNIX commands don't have the failsafes built into OS X. What could be the worse that could happen? You could obliterate your OS, that's about it. So be careful with these commands. Set shell to bin/bash for all, unless noted otherwise.

Clipboard:Append This can add a known filepath ending to a partial filepath on the clipboard or just add more text to it without deleting what's there. The example below adds "/Contents/Resources" to the end of the clipboard text. (thx: Gary Kerbaugh & Cole Tierney)
pbpaste | awk '{print} END {print "/Contents/Resources/"}' | pbcopy

CD R/W Erase
hdiutil burn -erase

Show Hidden Files / Rehide Files I give these as twins because you really will want to use both in the same script. You may want to show all files to access them, but you'll probably want to hide them again by the end of the Workflow. Sets the file visibility, then restarts the Finder.

Show Hidden Files
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true
killall -HUP Finder

Rehide Files
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false
killall -HUP Finder

Restart Finder
killall -HUP Finder

Repair Permissions
sudo diskutil repairPermissions /