they can bypass the security of wireless entry and ignition systems to take a car without the owner's permission

If only we had a word that meant taking something without the owner's permission...

It's not necessarily theft.

Off the top of my head here are some non-theft reasons:
          firemen moving the car out of the way of a fire
          a repo
          parents surreptitiously retrieving their car from an out of bounds kid

But you're right, probably mostly for theft...

On fuel injected cars you pay the penalty on a cold start - until the engine and exhaust / emissions systems are warmed up, the car runs rich (open loop).

Once the car is warmed up, the ECU (engine control unit) will go into a more efficient closed loop operation, using O2 sensor output to set more efficient fuel levels. Shutting off the engine for a moment will not send the system back to the less efficient open loop.

How many cycles will a flywheel driving starter motor / solenoid setup last?

TFA doesn't mention what will be used, but a spring / torsion system that captured the rotational inertia of the engine to stop it, and then used that stored energy to restart the engine would be great for warm restarts.

Why do we still carry money anyway?

Cash = Anonymity.

Hey: Eye are see is where those hackers refine their "sequel attacks", because apparently the first attack didn't fully tell the story.

I meant for 'patent' to be an adjective, but you're right, it works better as a verb.

So how do you close Pandora's box again?

Patent lawyers?

But is Windows Phone 7 as tasty as the Zune?

... some patent lawyers.

... an astronomer's head just exploded.

How much light pollution with these emit?

Perhaps it's just a case of bad gas caused by God eating the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

lawsuits and streissand effects coming in 3...2...1...

No big deal. Most modern cars have, to some degree, a black box.

One car company even 'gives you one for free': you can hit the rev limiter fuel cutoff once a year, any more and you void the warranty for parts excessively worn by over revving. (dammit - I can't find the cite right now. The google is weak in me today.)

... can it find dupes on Slashdot?

It's not very often that researchers stumble onto something cheap and simple that could potentially save hundreds of millions of lives. I sure hope it pans out in practice.

No, but it's every other week that some researcher thinks he has.

And every other day that some researcher submits a grant application claiming one.