Celebrities air post-election feelings online

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mariah Carey was so excited about President Barack Obama's re-election that she released a new song in his honor. Beyoncé popped up on Instagram with a rebuke for Mitt Romney, while Romney supporter Elisabeth Hasselbeck sent out a disappointed but conciliatory tweet urging a divided United States to become one.

Celebrities, who voiced their opinions loudly during the election, continued to speak their minds after the ballots were counted.

Cameron Diaz, who is promoting her film "Gambit" in London, said she was worried about the election as she fell asleep.

"I was terrified that I was going to wake up to a total embarrassment for our country and that today would be a very different day for me," she said Wednesday. "But I was so thrilled."

Romney supporters Donald Trump and Ted Nugent ranted on Twitter after the election that the country is doomed, while Spike Lee and Russell Simmons celebrated Obama's victory and the diverse electorate behind it.

NBC News anchor Brian Williams called attention to Trump's series of tweets Tuesday while covering election returns, saying the real-estate magnate and reality-TV star had "driven well past the last exit to relevance and veered into something closer to irresponsible" with his posts.

"This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!" Trump tweeted. "Let's fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us."

Nugent was similarly upset — and expressive — Wednesday morning.

"Pimps whores & welfare brats & their soulless supporters hav a president to destroy America," he wrote. "Goodluk America u just voted for economic & spiritual suicide. Soulless fools."

He concluded with: "I cry tears of blood for The Last Best Place & the warriors who died for this tragedy."

Hasselbeck shared a more measured response, tweeting, "(Hash) momentofpeace: You cannot love the game only when your player wins. We remain to be the greatest nation and (at)BarackObama is OUR President." Mark Cuban, meanwhile, extended a virtual olive branch to Trump, writing, "I know it was a rough night for u," and inviting Trump to join him in raising funds for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Spike Lee was among the most vocal Obama supporters online after the election, using his Twitter feed to blast the Republican party.

"Great Lesson. This Is Not Ike's 1950's USA. Complexion Of This Great Country Has Changed-A True Melting Pot. The GOP Is Stuck In A Time Warp. YO," the filmmaker wrote Wednesday. "GOP WAKE UP. This Is Not" LEAVE TO BEAVER.FATHER KNOWS BEST OR MAYBERRY R.F.D." THE 21st CENTURY. And Dat's Da 2nd Term Truth, Ruth. YA-DIG??"

Beyoncé also gloated a bit, posting a photo on her blog that read, "Take that Mitches." It was accompanied by another photo of the singer wearing a "Texans for Obama" T-shirt.

Carey released a new song, "Bring It On Home," online Wednesday to celebrate the president's victory. She first performed the song at an Obama fundraiser over the summer, said Carey publicist Cindi Berger.

The pop star also shared her support on Twitter.

"Congratulations to our beloved President Barack Obama, our spectacular First Lady Michelle Obama & the adorable Malia & Sasha. We love you!" Carey wrote. "INCREDIBLE SPEECH!!!!!! Watching in a room full of diverse people-all truly moved. Thank you America for President Obama-4more yrs."

Simmons also acknowledged the diversity of Obama supporters in a blog post Wednesday called "Forward!"

"This is no time for triumphalism, because we are still in an economic crisis and we still have deep social divisions that must be dealt with," he wrote. "But we have to absorb, as a country, as a NATION, that first and foremost, AMERICA IS CHANGING... We cannot fight demographics by ignoring women, Latinos, blacks, young people, and gays who gave their lives for our country.

"The middle class and poor need support," he continues, "and every politician who is not ready for this change should wake today and realize that minorities will wait in line into the early hours of the morning to vote them out of office. Forward, we go."

Scores of other stars — including Tony Bennett, Cher, Shakira, Lady Gaga, Jessica Alba and Samuel L. Jackson— celebrated Obama's victory on Twitter.

Others, including filmmaker Ron Howard and actors Rob Lowe and James Van Der Beek, say it's time to move past the election toward mending the nation.

"To all the winners (and losers) tonight: Politicians run campaigns. Leaders strike compromises," Van Der Beek wrote. "Time for everyone to shift gears now (hash)please."

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— AP Entertainment Writer Hilary Fox contributed to this report from London.

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— Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen on Twitter at www.twitter.com/APSandy .

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A Collective Effort to Save Decades of Research at N.Y.U.

The calls started coming in late on Tuesday and early Wednesday: offers of dry ice, freezer space, coolers. By the end of Thursday there were dozens more: A researcher at Weill Cornell Medical College would clear 1,000 tanks to save threatened zebra fish; another, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, promised to replace some genetically altered mice that were lost; and a doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia even offered take over entire experiments, to keep them going.

As hurricane-driven waters surged into New York University research buildings in Kips Bay, on the East Side of Manhattan, investigators in New York and around the world jumped on the phone to offer assistance — executing a reverse Noah’s ark operation, to rescue lab animals and other assets from a flooding vessel.

“I’ve had 43 people who have offered to help so far, and some of them are direct competitors,” said Gordon Fishell, associate director of the N.Y.U. Neuroscience Institute, who lost more than 5,000 genetically altered mice when storm waters surged the night of Oct. 30, cutting off power. “It’s just been unbelievable,” he said. “It really buoys my spirits and my lab’s.”

Staff members at N.Y.U. worked around the clock to preserve research materials, running in and out of darkened buildings without elevator service, hauling dry ice and other supplies up anywhere from 2 to more than 15 floors.

The university’s medical center also got instant help, from almost every major research institution in the area.

The response reflects large shifts in the way that science is conducted over the past generation or so. Individual labs always compete to be first, but researchers increasingly share materials that are enormously expensive and time-consuming to reproduce. The loss of a single cell line or genetically altered animal can slow progress for years in some areas of biomedical research.

“We are totally dependent on each other in the life sciences now, for a very large number of cell lines and extracts, research animals and unique chemical tools and antibodies that might not have backup copies anywhere in the world, or in very few places,” said Dr. Steven Hyman, director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard. “Losing any of these tools tears a significant hole in the entire field.”

Danny Reinberg, a professor of biochemistry at N.Y.U.’s medical school, has studied genetics for 30 years, accumulating valuable mice strains and stocks of extracts from cell nuclei that would be extremely difficult to replace. The extracts must be stored at minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit.

Dr. Reinberg said he lost all of his mice: nine strains, including more than 1,000 animals that died in the storm surge. But he managed to save all of the cell extracts by moving some containers into freezers at N.Y.U. labs that weren’t affected and others to the Rockefeller, Columbia and Cornell medical centers, each of which cleared space, he said.

“We were able to save many things; it was just phenomenal to get that kind of help,” said Dr. Reinberg, whose house in New Jersey has had no power.

“Later in the week, at a Starbucks, I could finally download all my e-mail, and there were messages from people at the University of Pennsylvania and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, asking how they could help us re-establish the mouse lines we lost,” he said.

Some scientists have become interdependent because their students, who develop a specialty in specific tissues or animals, often move among labs. Research projects sometimes draw on experiments or analyses the students worked on at more than one place.

One researcher working in Dr. Fishell’s lab was formerly a student of Dr. Stewart Anderson of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who sent Dr. Fishell a text message on Wednesday to offer help. “I told him that even if it costs money, we’re happy to keep experiments rolling, if we’re able to,” Dr. Anderson said.

By late Thursday, freezer space in minus-112-degree units was extremely tight in the city. So was dry ice.

Susan Zolla-Pazner, director of AIDS research at the Manhattan Veterans Affairs Medical Center, had lost power in her 18th-floor lab in the department’s building at 23rd Street and First Avenue. She finally hired a company to haul her 20 freezers-full of specimens, for safekeeping.

“We spent all of Tuesday and Wednesday hauling 1,300 pounds of dry ice up to the 18th floor, using the stairs, to stabilize the freezers first,” said Dr. Zolla-Pazner, who is also a professor of pathology at N.Y.U. School of Medicine. “And the dry ice people would only take cash. I have about 25 to 30 people working for me, and everyone was out there on 23rd Street, reaching into their pockets to get what we needed. It was a herculean and heroic effort on the part of everyone here, and that is the story that needs to be told.”

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Gun sales set to rise, Smith & Wesson stock jumps after Obama win

While investors moping over President Barack Obama’s reelection sent the Dow spiraling down more than 300 points Wednesday morning, one sector is seeing a surge: gun manufacturing.

Firearms maker Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. surged 10.8% to $10.48 a share in morning trading, more than double its price at the beginning of the year.

Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. got a 6.4% boost to $47.48 a share, a 39% increase from early January

The impetus? Gun sales are expected to boom now that Obama, who said during one presidential debate that he’s open to reintroducing an expired ban on civilian purchases of assault weapons, is returning to office.

In October, the number of firearms background checks performed on potential gun buyers jumped 18.4%, according to the FBI, as cited by Benchmark Research. The data is considered to be a leading indicator for future gun sales.

Gun sales have seen double-digit growth since 2006 amid major product innovation and increasing social acceptance of firearm use, according to Benchmark.

Gun control advocates have pushed Obama to take a stronger stance on weapons ownership since the July mass shooting in Aurora, Colo.

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