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Faced with reports of a "black spot" that interfered with the mobile network in several neighborhoods, technicians at Australian cellphone provider Telstra say they recently found the source of the problem: a man's beer fridge in his garage. The refrigerator was tracked by "software robots" and workers wielding special antennas.

"I'm amazed something like that could knock out part of the network," Craig Reynolds of Wangaratta, northeast of Melbourne, tells the Herald Sun. "You're certainly going to stop and wonder. I'm going to run and see if my fridge is all right next time there's a problem with the network."

The beer fridge's motor was blamed for causing the disturbance, with Telstra engineers saying that an electric spark evidently created enough radio frequency noise "to create blackouts on the 850mHz spectrum that carries our mobile voice calls and Internet data," according to the Herald Sun.

Telstra's Greg Halley tells the newspaper that technicians used directional "Mr. Yagi" antennas (aka the Yagi-Uda antenna, named for its inventors) to track the precise location of the disruption. In the past, they've found ATM machines and illegal signal boosters to be culprits. As you might expect, the engineers deal with hundreds of such cases each year.

"The sources vary — it can be domestic equipment, it can be [TV] masthead amplifiers, it can be electric or plastic welding stuff in industrial estates, it can be illegal repeaters," Telstra manager Richard Henderson told iTnews.

"There's no particular focus now on beer fridges," he added.

The incident has sparked discussion on Slashdot, where comments ranged from discussion of "how dodgy does a motor have to be" to disrupt the network, to a more pressing question: What did Craig Reynolds do with his beer?

Get recipes for Paletas De Aguacate (Avocado Ice Pops), Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream, Raspberry Frozen Yogurt, One-Ingredient Ice Cream and Slow-Cooker Kulfi.

When Mitch Hurwitz and his collaborators began making the Fox sitcom Arrested Development 10 years ago, it was loaded with jokes — in-jokes, recurring jokes and just plain bizarre jokes — that rewarded viewers who watched more than once. But even though it won the Emmy for best comedy series one year, not enough viewers bothered to watch it even once, so the show was canceled in 2006 after three seasons. And that would have been it, except for a loyal cult following that built up once the show was released on DVD and the Internet. So finally, on Memorial Day weekend, Arrested Development was reborn with 15 new episodes released all at once through Netflix. I binge-viewed them all immediately, and loved watching them that way.

It's the structure of this new season of Arrested Development that impresses me the most. Like Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm, it's got a season-long story arc, as well as tightly sculpted plot twists within each installment. And the new season tries something daring by focusing each episode primarily on a specific character from the large and talented ensemble. This allows the show to revisit the same moments from various points of view, in a way that becomes its own running gag. Those legs you see in one episode? You'll find out who they belong to many, many episodes later. Hidden identities, sudden surprises, perplexing mysteries — they're all unfolded slowly, in intertwined fashion, like some sort of comedy double helix. And watching everything in one sitting helps to make those connections even clearer.

“ [I]t seems almost unfair to single out any of them — except for Bateman, whose dry delivery is the gravity that keeps this whole enterprise from spinning off into space.

We now have faces and emotional words to attach to the scandal surrounding the Internal Revenue Service and its targeting of conservative "tea party" and "patriot" groups during the 2012 campaign cycle.

At a House Ways and Means Committee hearing Tuesday, representatives of six organizations described the long delays they have experienced when trying to get the IRS to rule on applications for tax-exempt status. They spoke of the extensive questionnaires and demands from the IRS to see their donors' lists and other information.

And they used stirring language to call for change.

"This dialogue is about the jackboot of tyranny upon the field of our founding documents," said Karen Kenny from the San Fernando [Calif.] Valley Patriots.

Among the questions her group was asked, Kenny said, was her "personal favorite ... which in relation to protests asked for a listing of our 'committed violations of local ordinances, breaches of public order or arrests' then requested details on how we 'conduct or promote' illegal activities. I think the IRS needs to fix its labeling machine: We're the San Fernando Valley Patriots, not Occupy Oakland."

Kenny said her organization applied for tax-exempt status in October, 2010. But she "stopped the costly and exhausting IRS process in July 2012. We survive on my credit card and donations in our cake tin. Like patriots before us, we persevere."

Becky Gerritson from the Wetumpka [Ala.] Tea Party said it took 635 days for her group's application to be approved. The information she had been asked for along the way, Gerritson said, included "my list of donors, including the amounts that they gave. ... 501c4 organizations do NOT have to disclose donor information. I knew that. Why didn't [the IRS]?"

Choking back tears, Gerritson concluded her statement to the committee by saying she isn't "interested in scoring political points. I want to protect and preserve the America I grew up in, the America that people cross oceans and risk their lives to become a part of. And I'm terrified that it's slipping away."

Also during the hearing's first hour, John Eastman of the National Organization for Marriage testified about how confidential information concerning his organization's donors was leaked in March 2012 and that it appears the document "originated from within the IRS itself."

The statements submitted by each of the witnesses are posted here. We'll be monitoring the hearing and updating as warranted.

The hearing's early hours produced a moment of partisan dispute among the lawmakers. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., told the witnesses that what happened to them was wrong — but suggested that they were mostly inconvenienced and that they should be talking about what information the IRS should be requesting from them, not only what what they believe they should not be asked.

That led Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., (the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee) to say that McDermott was suggesting "that these citizens are to blame for applying."

"You're to blame, I guess that's the message here," Ryan said.

McDermott didn't have a chance to respond at that moment.

As we've reported, a Treasury Department inspector general's report concludes that "ineffective management" allowed "inappropriate criteria" to be used during the processing of such groups' requests.

The former acting commissioner of the IRS, who lost his job after word of the scandal broke, has said "foolish mistakes were made" but has also insisted that the motivations were not partisan. On Monday, newly installed Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel said his "primary mission" is to restore trust in the agency.