In another example of rise of predatory older women in western societies, there's now a contest to find "Miss Cougar Australia 2010". It's pretty much nationwide, with heats being held this month, and finals slated for June.

Cubs (younger men) will be among the judges. Which begs the question: will there be a competition for them in the future?

Somehow I don't think this will happen. Cougars are generating way too much buzz nowadays, and will be for quite some time.
 
 
A guy in Britain decided to document his dating experiences in a blog, and ended up getting thousands of readers. He's become so well known for it that the local paper has even written an article about him, launching a competition to find him a date for Valentine's Day!

It's ironic, since he started out writing about his struggle to find love and now - even though he's known to many, many more women (surely already desired by a few) - he's probably less likely to achieve his goal. That's because if he does end up in a monogamous relationship, then his claim to fame (his blog) has no reason to keep going!It's kind of a Catch 22.

The blog could also cause problems for the women he dates, since he's sure to write about them in the blog. (Although, I suppose some of them would probably find that a bit of an ego boost.)
 
 
Australian celebrity Naomi Robson is a very controversial figure. While she was working in TV she was involved in a number of incidents that generated a lot of ill-well towards her from others in the media.

Now, she's resurrecting her career on the web. But the controversy continues to follow her.

It makes you wonder why people hate her so much. There must be many other female TV  personalities who are easily as difficult to work with, vain and morally questionable. But their bad behaviour goes "under the radar", even though they are well known.

I think it's something to do with her particular kind of physical beauty, and slightly regal air. She stands out like a sore thumb among most female celebrities, who are usually wholesome and fresh "girl next door" types.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how her web chat show goes. It does seem to be a canny move considering the growth of the internet. No one else seems to be doing anything similar, so she may well end up dominating the market.
 
 
There's a lot of conflicting advice out there about dating, relationships and marriage. The latest book on this subject to cause a bit of a buzz is by American author Lori Gottlieb. She advises women that putting all their hopes into finding The One is a bad strategy. They should settle for someone merely adequate instead.

This seems like sensible advice. However, even if women take it, there's still not a big pool of men out there who are interested in marriage. Huge social changes over the last few decades have made the benefits that accrue to married men comparatively small. And there are all those horror stories about them being heavily ripped off in divorces. Men - wary of being hitched at the best of times - are even more so today. It's quite an unfortunate situation, really.
 
 
There's been a lot of buzz about cougars in America for a while. And Australia is now following suit. Some have written it off as a passing fad but it seems to be a genuine social phenomenon resulting from demographic changes.

As this article states, "figures show the trend has increased in Australia due to an oversupply of single women aged 40 to 54 compared with men in the same age bracket".

Interesting that these independent older women are still called "cougars" Down Under. The term sounds so American, and I'd imagine that some people are not happy with yet another example of US style "cultural imperialism". Maybe one day we'll use the name of a local marsupial instead!
 
 
Most online dating scammers just want to relieve their victims of their money. That's bad enough. But sometimes their deception goes way beyond that, and becomes something truly horrifying. Take this example, in which a Briton was tricked into traveling to Nigeria, and subsequently kidnapped and held for ransom.
 
 
The recent sex scandal involving Irish politician Iris Robinson and her much younger lover would have received publicity at any time. But I think it's getting a huge amount now because there's a current media obsession with older women and younger men.

In any case, there are a lot of older women who fantasize about doing what Mrs Robinson did. But they don't act on their desires - probably the wisest course of action in most cases.
 
 
Online dating scams are now extremely common. And you'd have to pretty naive to fall for one, since they are usually so obvious. I'd imagine that scammers tend to have a lot less success these days since people are much more aware of them than they used to be.

However, some scammers are much more thoughtful and dedicated. Take Justin Brown, a 24 year old in Texas, who set up an elaborate ruse in which he posed as a famous model online, and even impersonated her in telephone conversations! Using these techniques over a two year period he managed to trick numerous very rich and successful men into sending money and gifts to him.

Sounds like he had a real talent. Pity he used it in this way. He might have had a lucrative career as an actor or voice over artist!
 
 
Several months ago Jodi Gordon made headlines by allegedly going on a cocaine bender with a bikie named Mark Judge. He is now in the news again, being one of the nominees for Cleo's Bachelor of the Year title.

Not surprisingly, the selection has caused some controversy. But it certainly reveals how the media works. Once you've hit the headlines for any reason - but particularly if it's through intimate association with an existing celebrity - then you qualify as a celebrity yourself!

If Mark Judge doesn't already have an agent, he should get one
 
 
Here's another case of dating sites being used as a source of information about relationship behaviour: In a study about what men and women preferred in potential partners, Welsh researches discovered that age was a very important factor. Dating site data overwhelmingly revealed that men preferred women who were younger than them, while the inverse was true for women. This strongly contradicted the currently fashionable image of older women with toyboys, which occurs only rarely in real life.