Stephen Leatherman har i sitt hemland USA gjort sig känd som strandexperten Dr Beach. Här listar han sina personliga favoriter över hela världen.

Simply stop eating during the 12-16 hour period before you want to be awake. Once you start eating again, your internal clock will be reset as though it is the start of a new day. Your body will consider the time you break your fast as your new "morning."

For example, if you want to start waking up at 2:00 am, you should start fasting between 10:00 am or 2:00 pm the previous day, and don't break your fast until you wake up at 2:00 am. Make sure you eat a nice healthy meal to jumpstart your system.

Another example: If you are traveling from Los Angeles to Tokyo, figure out when breakfast is served in Tokyo, and don't eat for the 12-16 hours before Tokyo's breakfast time.

It's 2012. And it seems like something much, much worse than what the Mayans predicted is coming—and much sooner than you'd think. These are the twenty places you definitely want to see before it's all over on March 6, 2012.

It is widely known that law enforcement agencies are turning to social networks to monitor citizens but one UK Twitter user saw a joke tweet land him in hot water, as he was detained by Homeland Security in Los Angeles, interrogated and barred from the US, The Sun reveals.

Before Leigh Van Bryan and his friend Emily Bunting embarked on a holiday to Los Angeles, Van Bryan tweeted that he was going to “destroy America,” boasting that he would try “digging up Marilyn Monroe” during his trip across the pond.

If someone tweets they would “destroy America,” you would expect it to alert law-enforcement agencies. However, in the UK, “destroying” can also be used as a term for partying or having a good time.

When Van Bryan and Bunting arrived in the US, they were immediately detained by officials at Los Angeles International Airport, held by armed guards and questioned for over five hours before they were “handcuffed, put in a van with illegal immigrants and locked up overnight.”

Twelve hours later, after being held in separate cells (Van Bryan shared his cell with Mexican drug dealers), the pair were released and put on a plane home.

For me, Bagan was the primary destination. Finishing out 2011 and starting out 2012 in a valley covered with thousands of temples and a mist that turned everything into a painting through my viewfinder was amazing. It’s so very hard to describe in words and even the photos don’t do it any kind of justice. You have to see the place with your own eyes from on top of one of the temples to really get it.

If you want to go yourself, here’s what you need to know:

The American Civil Liberties Union has brought a suit against the US government over its seizure of the laptop of a computer security consultant - a seizure carried out at a Chicago airport about a year ago without a search warrant or any charges of crimes.

According to a report in Sunday's Boston Globe, the consultant - a former MIT researcher, David House - was returning from rest and relaxation in Mexico when federal agents seized his laptop.

According to the Globe, the government wanted to know more about House's connections to Bradley Manning, the US Army private accused of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks.

The seizure comes as no surprise. As Globe writer Katie Johnston notes, United States ports of entry are dubbed "Constitution-free zones" by civil liberties advocates.

Barring invasive techniques such as strip seizures, government agents are free to disregard Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. They don't need reasonable suspicion or probable cause, and they can take what they like, be it laptops or smart phones.