Blog Posts by CNBC

By Cindy Perman, CNBC.com

Hey, Jim. Yeah, I'm not going to make it in — I'm, uh, trapped in a box again. With the hiccups. Yes! That's it. Trapped in a box with hiccups. Hep!There are 1,001 reasons why people are late to work.

Just bring up the topic of ridiculous reasons to be late and it is sure to stir up an interesting discussion.

A colleague recalled a former employee once called in because it was too hot.

Another recalled an employee at their previous job who was nearly fired for "calling in drunk."

Another recalled a local TV producer from her former job who once canceled a 6pm newscast because "there was too much news - I wanted to wait until 11."

And, perhaps the piece de resistance - one colleague recalled a friend who told his coffee-shop boss that he couldn't come to work because he'd been shot in the buttocks with a pellet gun. (True story!) And just when you thought that was the most incredulous part of the story, his boss replied: "Hey man, I've been shot in the HEAD with REAL BULLETS and I still came to work."

I know, that makes your excuse about having a little head cold sound lame, right?

CareerBuilder has

By Colleen Kane, CNBC.com

Winning Loos

Washrooms of American homes have evolved drastically since Mamie Eisenhower first popularized the "Mamie Pink" powder room in the 1950s. Back then, the humble bathroom was simply a private little room with a few essential components: a bath tub, a toilet, a sink, and a mirror.

Oh, how times have changed. Restrooms in today's luxury homes can come equipped with features ranging from the indulgent to the outlandish. Among these are bidets, wall-mounted televisions, his-and-hers sinks, and patios or balconies. Some bathrooms come with impressive views that sometimes go both ways, as some modern bathrooms are noticeably lacking in privacy. There even exists a Swarovski Crystal-encrusted throne for consumers who have $128,000 to flush away. (It's not really for sale, but could probably be special ordered.)

The following extreme bathrooms were supplied by Realtor.com and Luxury Portfolio International.

See the full slideshow: Extreme Bathrooms


Santa Barbara, CA

Santa

By Cadie Thompson, CNBC.com

Celebrities are making the rounds again this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The tech show has reeled in a star-studded lineup, and the stars are drawing attention.

Whether they are endorsing a product or service, revealing their own branded product line or just there to draw crowds to some of the latest innovations, celebrities are everywhere at CES 2012.


See the slideshow: Celebrity Promoting Products at CES


50 Cent & Pauly D50 Cent and Pauly D
Product: SMS Audio Headphones

The rapper, actor and CEO of SMS Audio, Curtis James Jackson III, better known as 50 Cent, attended CES on Tuesday to promote his company's headphones called Sync by 50 and Street by 50.

Sync by 50, a wireless headphone, features a 17-hour battery life, noise canceling features and built-in controls to allow users to adjust volume, fast forward, rewind and bass.

Street by 50 is SMS Audio's new wired headphone. This headphone has noise-canceling features, a microphone with a

By Jill Weinberger and Joseph O' Dell, CNBC.com

Major Shows, Major Placement

When a company pays for its product to be featured in a movie or a television show to increase brand awareness, it's called product placement. This form of advertising has been around almost as long as movies and television shows themselves, and has long been a secondary source of income for networks and content producers. When factoring in commercial-skipping technology such as DVR and on-demand programming, product placement becomes even more attractive for advertisers.

However, this type of brand marketing is a double-edged sword. While companies can weave their products into shows, they are in danger of alienating consumers with overzealous product-placement campaigns. The effectiveness of product placement is also a key question, and strategies can range from featuring a brand briefly on screen to having it play a key role in the plot.

In the past year, reality TV shows have been the leaders for

By Cindy Perman, CNBC.com

All aboard the USS Adorable. Next stop — your happy place!We have worried A LOT in the past few years - about everything from jobs to money, the stock market and the debt crisis in Europe. Show me someone who doesn't worry, and I'll show you someone who takes recreational drugs.

Do an Internet search for "worry about" and it turns up 779 million results. (A search for "happy place" - as in find yours - turned up a mere 8.7 million results. That's 100 times more results for worrying than happy place, for those of you keeping score at home.)

And where does worrying get us exactly? Just look at the S&P 500 - It ended 2011 almost exactly where it started. (off .003 percent, to be exact)

So let's start fresh for 2012 - and agree to stop worrying so much and get on with it already. Here are some tips for how to knock it off.

1. Create a worry period. OK, so maybe the first rule of worry club is stop worrying about worrying. Instead of trying to wipe it off the map and start living life like a magazine photo shoot, a

Trying to get fit this year?

Let these Diet Apps help you reach your goal.

By John Carney, CNBC.com

.I've recently been trying to do some research into divorce rates on Wall Street.

The data is hard to come by, in part because the census doesn't do a very good job between differentiating between high-powered Wall Street jobs and people who work in "banking" but might just be regional loan officers or even bank tellers. Anecdotally, however, it seems that working on Wall Street makes it hard to get married and stay married.

There are a lot of divorced folks on Wall Street and lots of people who stay single far later than the rest of the population.

So I decided to check my impressions with a young woman who works for a high-powered financial firm. For obvious reasons, she asked me not to use her real name or the name of her firm. Let's call her Gwen for convenience sake.

According to Gwen there are two types of successful men on Wall Street.

One type is "very regimented."

"They get up at the same time (early) every morning, never drink too much. They get

By Jill Weinberger and Joseph O' Dell, CNBC.com

Athletes and celebrities depend on their physical prowess and appearance to earn their livelihoods, and some will go to great lengths to secure it. Though the practice may seem outrageous to many, these stars have shelled out big money for insurance policies on the assets that have been benchmarks of their success: their bodies.

Taking out a policy on a body part, although rare, has been around for decades. During the 1920s, silent film clown Ben Turpin, who was known for his crossed eyes, took an insurance policy out if his eyes were to ever become uncrossed, TIME magazine reported. From their legs to the hair on their head and everything in between, the rich and famous are seeking to protect their money makers, and sometimes to gain a little publicity as well.

And who exactly is penning these policies? UK-based Lloyd's of London, has become known for providing some of the most famous celebrity body part policies. The company