Anyone who has been to the US will know that passport control is serious. Sure the UK takes it seriously too, but there's something about the officialdom of the US that makes you instinctively add "sir" to every question you're asked as you try to enter the Land of the Free.

So perhaps it is not surprising a message posted by an Irish citizen on Twitter proclaiming his desire to "destroy America" was interpreted rather literally as a terrorist threat against the good old US of A, rather than as a colloquial term for having a good time. It resulted in him and a friend being ejected from the country.

According to The Sun, Coventry resident Leigh Van Bryan's messages were written several weeks before he left for Los Angeles with a friend, Emily Bunting, but on arrival he was subjected to almost five hours of interrogation, held overnight and then sent back. Imagine the jetlag, urgh.

That wasn't the only message which got the pair in trouble, with one that noted Bryan's desire to dig up the corpse of Marilyn Monroe - in a reference to joke in so-called comedy show Family Guy - also under scrutiny.

Homeland Security reported, with Orwellian tones, that "Mr Bryan confirmed that he had posted on his Tweeter [Tweeter? - Ed] web site account that he was coming to the United States to dig up the grave of Marilyn Monroe".

Because whatever someone writes is always The Truth and can never be interpreted in any other way.

The po-faced nature of this message would be laughable if it wasn't actually so serious an issue and related to what were clearly a couple of light-hearted, highly public messages by a 26-year-old bar manager.

However, the situation is clear: before you write anything on Twitter ask yourself, would I want an overzealous law enforcement official to read this? If the answer's no, best not tweet. Sneak had better quit Twitter then.

It is fair to say Rupert Murdoch had a pretty hectic 2011, with his firm involved in the huge phone hacking scandal that led to the closure of the News of the World and the ongoing Leveson enquiry.

This also saw Murdoch grilled relentlessly by MPs at a Commons Select Committee in which he proclaimed it was the "most humble day of my life", before being hit in the face by a foam pie - by "comedian" Jonnie Marbles, not the MPs.

Now, in a move even the most daring Hollywood scriptwriter wouldn't have tried to pull off, Murdoch has joined that most public of forums, Twitter, in order to share his thoughts and opinions with the world, which mainly involves him praising Fox.

One message reads:

Saw Fox film Descendants.Thank God, one to be proud of. Star Geo Clooney deserves Oscar, maybe film too.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) December 31, 2011

while another proclaims:

I LOVE the film "we bought a zoo", a great family movie. Very proud of fox team who made this great film.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) January 1, 2012

Sneak isn't sure where to begin really: the utterly appalling grammar (perhaps he needs an editor, is Andy Coulson available?), the brazen bias, the willingness of Rups to open himself up to an almighty online backlash, or his chutzpah in joining Twitter when you'd have thought he'd be keen to stay out of the headlines for once.

Then, as if things weren't bizarre enough, his wife Wendi Deng - her of Commons-pie-attacker-hitting-fame - apparently joined up too, and not only started defending Rups (obviously) but also flirting with Ricky Gervais.

However, it sadly became clear this was a hoax account, despite Twitter giving it the blue tick of verification for a short while.

Sneak would like to think it is all some form of April Fool's stunt, but sadly it is most definitely still early January and Rupert Murdoch really has joined Twitter. Happy New Year - 2012 is off to a flier.

The bookish geeks at the Oxford English Dictionary have announced that 'retweet' and 'sexting', words casually bandied about on Twitter and mobile phones, are now so common as to be worthy of a place in the hallowed book.

Sneak is pleased to see this, although while he was aware that 'retweet' means repeating someone's message on Twitter, he wasn't quite so au fait with the term 'sexting' until he undertook some horrific Google searches to arrive at his own definition:

"Sexting [verb] pronounced: sex-ting. The act of electronically distributing pictures of ones intimate areas to a potential mate via the medium of mobile or electronic communications. Usually undertaken by 11-14 year-old chavs or US politicians. Used in a sentence: Rob and Sandra fell in love after sexting one another on their iPhones."

It's not a huge surprise that these terms have made it into the OED as the growth of mobile communications and social networks has given rise to a wealth of jargon such as '@reply' and 'follow Friday' on Twitter, and 'poke' and 'like' on Facebook.

Other notable entries into the OED were 'auto-correct', 'cyberbullying' and 'woot'.

Another benefit of this, aside from enriching the glorious English language, is a few new words for Scrabble games with the family. Lol!

It's not often Sneak gets a chance to meet a real-life Olympian, so it was with great excitement that he greeted silver medal winning Roger Black at V3 HQ on Thursday, and even managed to persuade him to give Twitter a go.

Ostensibly here with networking firm Cisco to spread the word ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, which kicks off in just one year's time, Black was soon engrossed in a heated debate about all things technology.

Although BackleyBlack, the business training company he set up with fellow Olympian Steve Backley, has an account on the micro-blogging site, Black told us that he has so far shunned Twitter in a personal capacity.

"It's easy to get absorbed in it, but for every 10 people saying something nice about you there'll be one person saying something negative," he said. "I should use it to keep up to date with things in the Olympic world, though."

Black, who has also put his name to a range of running treadmills, voiced concerns that a personal feed may be abused by disgruntled customers.

However, Sneak suggested that Twitter could actually be an excellent way for Black to build his business and engage in a meaningful way with customers and fans alike.

Medal hoarder Black also shared his love of the iPhone with the V3 team, claiming that it had transformed the way he does business, and he gushed over the new MacBook Air Sneak showed him in the office.

The afternoon was tinged with sadness, however, as Black refused to take on school sports day runner-up and egg-and-spoon specialist Dan Worth in a 400m race round the streets of Soho.

Gunnell and Akabusi - consider the gauntlet officially thrown your way.

Microsoft has apologised after suggesting that fans of Amy Winehouse should honour her recent death by downloading a music track to their Zune music players.

A day or so after the 27 year-old singer was found dead, Microsoft UK's official Xbox Twitter channel posted a message saying: "Remember Amy Winehouse by downloading the ground-breaking Back to Black over at Zune." The post included a link to download the track.

Whether you liked her music or not, the death of almost anyone is a tragedy, particularly for one so young, and people are a bit sensitive about such an issue. The resultant storm of tweets started to trend on traffic graphs, and some hasty fire-fighting ensued.

"Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse ‘download' tweet seemed purely commercially motivated. Far from the case, we assure you," Microsoft tweeted within an hour of the original post.

However, the idea that Microsoft was motivated by something other than money didn't seem to fly with the Twittersphere, and the news started to spread even further.

"With Amy W's passing, the world has lost a huge talent. Our thoughts are with Amy's family and friends at this very sad time," was the final post from Microsoft on the subject, no doubt reassuring those who were concerned that the original message had been less than respectful.

Sneak reckons they should stop digging before they get to China.

The man arrested for attacking Rupert Murdoch with a foam pie during parliamentary hearings announced his intentions on Twitter before making his move.

Jonnie Marbles, a self-described writer, comedian, activist and blogger, attempted to hit Murdoch with a foam-filled foil pie as he was giving evidence to the News of the World phone hacking inquiry. He reportedly shouted: "You naughty billionaire" while doing so.

In a move that will make the prosecuting counsel very happy indeed, Marbles tweeted his intentions seconds before the attack. "It is a far better thing that I do now than I have ever done before #splat," he wrote.

Murdoch received a glancing blow from the pie to the right shoulder, before his third wife Wendi Deng attacked Marbles, aided by parliamentary staff and Murdoch's son James. Marbles, whose real name is Jonathan May-Bowles, was arrested, and the committee declared a 10-minute recess to allow the room to come to order.

Foam pie attacks have been used for political protest for more than 40 years, starting as part of the US counter-cultural movement in the 1970s. Bill Gates was hit in 1998 on a visit to Belgium, which apparently led to some sackings in his personal security department.

Marbles's attack is similar to Aaron Barschak's, who infiltrated Prince William's 21st birthday in 2003 in Arabic dress. Barschak, who called himself a "comedy terrorist", also stood for election twice, and is now reduced to giving occasional interviews on The James Whale Show.

Barschak was never prosecuted, but the policing environment is very different now, especially in light of the serious nature of the phone hacking hearings. Student protestors are receiving long sentences for what were considered minor public order offences, and Marbles is unlikely to escape prosecution.

Legendary comedian John Cleese often refers to a childhood spent using jokes as a way to escape bullying and harassment. One can only hope that the inmates of Brixton prison are sufficiently amused by Marbles's gags to get him through his stretch.

Women's football is often overshadowed by the original and altogether more manly version of the game.

Women's FA Cup matches were once shown on the BBC, but are now relegated to satellite. Despite women showing increasing interest in the sport, the world is choosing to ignore it, right?

Not anymore. The FIFA Women's World Cup final broke the record on Twitter for the most tweeted event in the social network's history.

The final match in Germany, in which Japan beat the US in a penalty shoot out, saw Twitter activity climb to 7,196 tweets per second by the end of the game.

The US missed three penalties, and Japan, which at the start of the competition was ranked fourth in the world, became the first Asian nation to win the trophy. So omedetou gozaimasu to them.

Previously, Japan's New Year's Day in 2011 was the most tweeted event with 6,939 tweets per second.

However, before all you women's football fans start to get excited at the prospect of saturated Premier League-style coverage, the new Twitter record is more likely down to the more prosaic explanation that the World Cup final was played between two of the world's largest populations of Twitter users.

For his part, Sneak was fuming when his favourite TV show was broadcast over an hour late thanks to the 'enthralling' extra time coverage. I mean, no sporting event is worth missing Family Guy for, right?

Sneak can still remember the days at school when bigger boys would promise to "duff him up", so it brought back unpleasant memories to see Wayne Rooney, the free-scoring, three-bedding star of Manchester United, promise the same to a Liverpool fan on Twitter.

Writing to a user called @sam_oldham_LFC, which could mean he supports Oldham, but more likely Liverpool, Rooney boasted of a muscular prowess that would leave the man in a comatose state, whilst also mocking the condition of his hair.

"I will put u asleep within 10 seconds hope u turn up if u don't gonna tell everyone ur scared u little nit. I'll be waiting," the footballer wrote.

For those of you unable to comprehend the lexicographical nightmare of a modern footballer's vocabulary and a 140 character limit, it translates as:

"I will beat you up within 10 seconds. I do hope you turn up [for the fight]. If you don't, I am going to tell everyone you are a scared little nit [not sure what this means, actually]. I will be at the appointed location at the appointed time if you wish to joust with me."

Later, Rooney wrote: "Haha bit of banter and people go nuts chill all people," displaying the tension-diffusing skills he so often exhibits on the pitch.

Sneak finds it hard to be too mad with Rooney (not as mad as during the World Cup last summer anyway) as he's hardly the first man who kicks a dead sheep's bladder around a piece of grass for a living to run into trouble on Twitter.

For example, West Ham striker Carlton Cole was charged by the Football Association for very odd comments he made during England's 1-1 draw with Ghana at Wembley in March.

And Liverpool striker Ryan Babel was fined £10,000 for putting a link to picture of referee Howard Webb in a Manchester United shirt after an FA Cup defeat at Old Trafford.

Ah, footballers. A crazy bunch.