For the past couple of weeks, Ottawa’s been talking about the Gloucester Soccer Association’s mercy rule – that no team can be up more than 5 goals above the opposing team. I enjoyed XUP’s take on the controversy last week. ...

[ ](http://ottawastart.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/concerts-screenshot.gif) We recently launched a new Ottawa Concerts Guide on OttawaStart, complete with a huge listing of upcoming shows. The concert schedule feed is provided by PollStar.com , on of the internet’s biggest concert listing sites. Besides upcoming shows, you’ll also find a listing of local music venues plus ticket info as well. ...

The NCC will debut a new nightly sound and light show on Parliament Hill on July 8, but over the past few weeks they’ve been testing and rehearsing the multimedia show. ** ** It’s called ** ** [ Mosaika ](http://www. ...

Yesterday morning, Ottawa was smothered in smoke from forest fires in Quebec. Environment Canada’s web site listed Ottawa’s weather condition as " Smoke “, illustrated by a small fire & smoke icon. A few people noted on Twitter that it was the first time they’d ever seen that icon as part of Ottawa’s weather report. ...

This week is Environment Week, and the Green Ottawa Blog has a great round-up of local activities. Click here to read more… Some more local environment blogs & sites to check out: * [ Ecology Ottawa ](http://www.ecologyottawa.ca/) * [ Ottawa Riverkeeper ](http://ottawariverkeeper. ...

** #1: ** The OC Transpo Riders' Union is holding a meeting on May 30. ** " ** Currently, we are a group of riders who oppose service cuts and fare hikes, and we are going to collective respond to these. ...

[ Photo by m0nkeyman ](http://www.flickr.com/photos/29433912@N00/2491806063/) Eric Darwin has two posts over on his West Side Action blog about the upcoming renovation of the Bell Street Towers. * [ The Bell tolls for Peyton Place ](http://westsideaction.blogspot.com/2010/05/bell-tolls-for-peyton-place.html) and * [ The Bell tolls for Peyton Place (ii) ](http://westsideaction. ...

Here’s another nifty open source aps, designed to help you find a “nice bike route in Ottawa”. It’s called BBBike @ Ottawa . ** ** You enter a start & finish point, and then you get a Google map with a route suggestion. ...

If you’re on Somerset Street in Ottawa’s Chinatown before June 8, drop by the Oriental Charm Gift Shop (653 Somerset Street West) and check out the interactive twitter-enabled light boxes: One of the highlights of this year’s festival is an interactive lighting display by [ The Latest Artists ](http://www. ...

In our latest installment of Five Questions , Brett Delmage from OttawaJazzScene.ca tells us about the great resource he’s helped create for Ottawa music fans. 1. I've read your "About Us" page -- but can you elaborate a bit more on why you & Alayne McGregor started the site? ...