Almquist shell

The Almquist shell (also known as A Shell, ash and sh) is a lightweight Unix shell originally written by Kenneth Almquist in the late 1980s. Initially a clone of the System V.4 variant of the Bourne shell, it replaced the original Bourne shell in the BSD versions of Unix released in the early 1990s. Derivative versions of ash are still installed as the default shell (/bin/sh) on FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD, MINIX, and Android, and in some Linux distributions.

Debian and derived Linux distributions such as Ubuntu ship a version of ash, known as dash (Debian Almquist shell), as the default /bin/sh, although Bash is the default login shell for interactive use. The reason for using dash is faster shell script execution, especially during startup of the operating system, compared to previous versions of Debian and Ubuntu that used Bash for this purpose.

Ash is also fairly popular in embedded Linux systems; its code was incorporated into the BusyBox catch-all executable often employed in this area.

Ash (deity)

Ash was the ancient Egyptian god of oases, as well as the vineyards of the western Nile Delta and thus was viewed as a benign deity. Flinders Petrie in his 1923 expedition to the Saqqara (also spelt Sakkara) found several references to Ash in Old Kingdom wine jar seals: "I am refreshed by this Ash" was a common inscription.

In particular, he was identified by the Ancient Egyptians as the god of the Libu and Tinhu tribes, known as the "people of the oasis". Consequently Ash was known as the "lord of Libya", the western border areas occupied by the Libu and Tinhu tribes, corresponds roughly with the area of modern Libya. It is also possible that he was worshiped in Ombos, as their original chief deity.

In Egyptian mythology, as god of the oases, Ash was associated with Set, who was originally god of the desert, and was seen as protector of the Sahara. The first known reference to Ash dates to the Protodynastic Period, but by the late 2nd Dynasty, his importance had grown, and he was seen as protector of the royal estates, since the related god Set, in Lower Egypt, was regarded as the patron deity of royalty itself. Ash's importance was such that he was mentioned even until the 26th Dynasty.

Volcanic ash

Volcanic ash consists of fragments of pulverized rock, minerals and volcanic glass, created during volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used to refer to all explosive eruption products (correctly referred to as tephra), including particles larger than 2mm. Volcanic ash is formed during explosive volcanic eruptions when dissolved gases in magma expand and escape violently into the atmosphere. The force of the escaping gas shatters the magma and propels it into the atmosphere where it solidifies into fragments of volcanic rock and glass. Ash is also produced when magma comes into contact with water during phreatomagmatic eruptions, causing the water to explosively flash to steam leading to shattering of magma. Once in the air, ash is transported by wind up to thousands of kilometers away.

Due to its wide dispersal, ash can have a number of impacts on society, including human and animal health, disruption to aviation, disruption to critical infrastructure (e.g., electric power supply systems, telecommunications, water and waste-water networks, transportation), primary industries (e.g., agriculture), buildings and structures.

Big!

Big! is a TV series in which an episode consists of a team of engineers manufacturing the world's biggest items (usually a household item that's normally hand carried, scaled up to proportions that make the items unusable without JCBs and Cherrypickers) for the sake of setting world records.

The devices have to function to qualify.

The series originally aired on Discovery Channel in 2004. It is currently airing on The Science Channel weekday mornings.

Cast

Episodes

Big

Big means large or of great size.

Big or BIG may also refer to:

Film and television

Music

Places

Organizations

The Perhapanauts

The Perhapanauts is an American comic book series created by writer Todd Dezago and artist Craig Rousseau in 2005.

The first two mini-series, "First Blood" and "Second Chances," were published by Dark Horse Comics, although it was announced on October 31, 2007, that forthcoming Perhapanauts comics would be published by Image Comics.

Plot

The Image Comics series began with an annual in February 2008, "Jersey Devil", followed by what may either be numerous upcoming mini-series or an ongoing series. The first series is "Triangle" taking the team into the Bermuda Triangle, which starts publication in April 2008.

The story follows a team of supernatural investigators (in that they both investigate the supernatural, and are supernatural beings who investigate) working for Bedlam, a top-secret government agency. The main focus of the stories are on Blue Group, one team of Bedlam operatives.

The members of Blue Group are Arisa Hines, the group's leader who has psychic powers; Big, a Sasquatch whose intelligence has been artificially raised; Choopie, a Chupacabra with a somewhat erratic personality; MG, a mysterious being who appears human but has the power to travel to other dimensions; and Molly MacAllistar, a ghost. Other characters in the series include Joann DeFile, a psychic who works as an adviser for Bedlam; Peter Hammerskold, a former Marine with psychic powers who is the leader of Bedlam's Red Group and sees Blue Group as rivals; the Merrow, a water elemental fairy who works on Red Group; and Karl, a Mothman who is a Bedlam reservist and would like to be a full-time member of Blue Group.