Japanese fashion designer Kosuke e used anything from iPods to LAN cables, power boards and fabrics to create sculptures for his 'MODE less CODE' exhibition at the Nanzuka gallery in Shirokane, Tokyo

Since it was shown on Sunday, an episode of the Fox animated comedy “Family Guy” has drawn the repeated condemnation of Sarah Palin, the former Republican governor of Alaska and 2008 vice-presidential nominee.

In the episode, the teenage character Chris dates a girl named Ellen, who has Down syndrome, and who tells him over dinner that her mother is “the former governor of Alaska.” Ms. Palin, whose son Trig also has Down syndrome, has said that the “Family Guy” show “really isn’t funny” and was the work of “cruel, cold-hearted people.” Ms. Palin’s daughter Bristol has written that the “Family Guy” writers were “mocking my brother and my family,” and called them “heartless jerks.”

One person who supports the “Family Guy” staff is Andrea Fay Friedman, the 39-year-old actor and public speaker who played Ellen in that episode. Like the character, Ms. Friedman also has Down syndrome.

In an e-mail message sent on Thursday to The New York Times, Ms. Friedman wrote:

I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line “I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska” was very funny. I think the word is “sarcasm.”

In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life.

Ms. Friedman also spoke by phone with ArtsBeat about her “Family Guy” episode and the controversy that followed. These are excerpts from that conversation.

Rubbish powered the DeLorean's Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor power source in Back To The Future, so it makes sense that now we're in the future we can makeethanol fuel from fruit peel.

It's the work of professor Henry Daniell at the University of Central Florida, who can also turn newspaper into fuel fit for running a car with—using more than 10 enzymes from plants to break the rubbish into sugar that is then fermented into the ethanol fuel, producing less greenhouse gas emissions than electricity or gasoline. Plus, it decreases the pressure put on landfills—and might help stave off the "iPad effect" and keep newspapers in print for a while longer. Zing!!!!

Desney Tan, a senior researcher at Microsoft Research, shared how Microsoft thinks the Xbox 360 could fit into hospitals. A low-cost PC, the 360 could be networked to share medical records with an in-room screen, filtering such information depending who is in the room—your doctor vs. your family vs that random guy who stopped by from work.

Sensors could make these distinctions automatically. (I imagine a scenario in which all doctors and nurses have RFID tags, and the Natal camera counts the number of bodies in the room. If the two don't match up, you available personal information becomes more conservative.)

Of course, this 360 could be used play games, too. Microsoft isn't, like, looking to torture the pediatric ward.

What are these scuba divers doing on the street in the middle of Bergen, Hordaland, Norway? And why are they chasing this Google Street View car with such a ferocious attitude? Why?

Welcome back to the beautiful city of Rapture, the dystopian underworld introduced in 2007's BioShock, a failed utopia all but destroyed by its inhabitants, a world less mysterious than when you last left it.

BioShock 2 puts players in the suit of Subject Delta, a hulking Big Daddy prototype who longs to reunite with his bonded Little Sister, a girl who happens to also be the daughter of Sofia Lamb, the woman now running Rapture, the underwater city somehow still as chaotic, leaky and menacingly well populated 10 years after the events of the original BioShock. Along the way, you'll be aided by Lamb's opponents and Eleanor herself on your search for your lost little Lamb, growing stronger with all new genetic modifications in the form of offensive Plasmids and passive, ability-granting Tonics. This time, you'll dual wield the power of Plasmids in your left hand, burning, electrocuting and freezing foes, with deadly new weapons for your right. BioShock 2 drops tomorrow 2/9/10