Fresh Greens: Tandem Bike-Pedaling Robot, Crazy Building Grown from Trees, Peeing on Tomatoes and More!

This week's most wonderful posts from Treehugger:

5 Places Riding Your Bike is Banned or Illegal (You'll Be Surprised)
So many places exist in the world where it is actually illegal to ride a bike. Perhaps the funniest example is Baldwin Park, California, where it is prohibited to ride a bike in a swimming poo. The saddest is the injunction against Saudi Arabian women bikers: read on for wild and crazy rules, keeping bikers from their bikes.

Researchers Say 'Good To Pee On Tomato Plants' - Just Don't Let The Neighbors See
If you want bigger, better tomato plants with bigger, better tomatoes that are actually better for you, one option is to mix in some of your own pee. No, seriously. Research has proved it.

First Living Building Successfully 'Grown'
Living walls are great--they can reduce pollution, better insulate buildings, and lower the need for maintenance--but it's time to expand the concept. Introducing the 'living building', where trees are grown into the structure of a building and melded with cables and metal supports. Talk about 'green buildings!'

Joules, the Tandem Bike Robot that Pedals for You (Video)
If you have a tandem bike but no one to ride it with you, perhaps Joules could be your partner. He'll do all the pedaling!

[DasBub #1 05:22 on Tue, Sep.22]

You had me at "peeing on tomatoes".

[Tdawwg #2 05:54 on Tue, Sep.22]

Keep wearing that helmet, Joules! Smart automaton!

[Lobster #3 06:00 on Tue, Sep.22]

The tandem-bike-pedaling robot strikes me as both the most ridiculous and awesome way to turn a bicycle into a motorcycle.

[Lobster #4 06:02 on Tue, Sep.22]

The living building is a neat idea but it's not like trees live forever, especially if they're constantly exposed to changing weight loads that are unnaturally jammed through their trunks, which have been forced to grow at odd angles. I also don't really see the benefit since it's not so much a "living building" as a very ornate treehouse.

[danlalan #5 06:13 on Tue, Sep.22]

THIS JUST IN:

Animal waste and urea make good fertilizer!

Will the discoveries never end?

;>

[dculberson #6 06:51 on Tue, Sep.22]

The third picture just looks brutal. Like someone stabbed a tree with a big pole.

[Anonymous #7 12:42 on Tue, Sep.22]

I can understand not wanting to ride in a swimming poo. Any poo that has evolved such motor skills should probably be avoided.

[Beanolini #8 03:20 on Wed, Sep.23]

#5, danlalan:

Animal waste and urea make good fertilizer! Will the discoveries never end?

But it's not as good as you might think. Large amounts of the nitrogen in urine can be lost to the air as ammonia.

There's been lots of work done on ammonia loss in animal urine, due to its importance in loss of soil fertility on grazing land.