but they were so cheap, they must be the risky kind?

Yeah, most likely. The tricksy ones are Chinese.

From the NYU webiste, Getting to Know Americans (A guide for foreign students)

Interesting to see how we appear to others.

Americans generally believe the ideal person is self-reliant. Most Americans see themselves as separate individuals, not as representatives of a family, community or other group. They dislike being dependent on other people, or having others depend on them. Some people define this trait as selfishness. Others see it as a healthy freedom from the constraints of family or social class.

How is this value manifested into behavior? In individualist cultures, such as the U.S., it is assumed that people need to be alone some of the time and prefer to take care of problems by themselves. Another expectation is that people are ready to “do business” very soon after meeting, without much time spent on preliminary conversation. Also people act competitively, are proud of their accomplishments and expect others to be proud of their own accomplishments.

...

Americans tend to have a missionary spirit to win other people over to their way of thinking and are likely to judge other societies in terms of the United States. Americans often think that other countries should use their example and adopt their ways of doing things. Other cultures are often evaluated as better or worse than this one rather than simply being seen as different. Americans tend to think that theirs is the best way to do things, in spite of many serious social and environmental problems in this country.

Um, oops? Sorry, non-Americans.

Wow, that is fascinating.

It makes me laugh and laugh and laugh.

Which it probably shouldn't.

Women can be powerful! Timeliness is important! Materialism is cool!

I got notifications in the last two days that TiVo and ABE Books (or a third party company that works with ABE.) were hacked. I haven't bought anything via ABE in this century. Blargh.

Have you gotten more spam, Sue? I've gotten tons more recently. Fuckers. I went on a date once with a guy who announced he wrote spam software. How was it supposed to go any further? He's obviously the devil incarnate.

I got notices from a couple of companies in the last few days saying they've been hacked but I haven't noticed an uptick in spam.

Tivo got hacked? Yikes. What effect does that have on users, do we know? (I was away all weekend and haven't looked at my Tivo since I got home.)

I went on a date once with a guy who announced he wrote spam software.

I went on a date once with a guy who was all proud of having scammed his insurance company by claiming he was hit by a car and couldn't work, but I met him through a friend who met him mountain biking.

And he wore a gold chain, and I just couldn't deal.

I got the notice from Tivo - but I don't recall a notice from ABE and I just purchased books from them last week!

Tivo got hacked? Yikes. What effect does that have on users, do we know?

Email addresses and names have been leaked. No financial information is compromised, and no data is corrupted.

a guy who was all proud of having scammed his insurance company

This guy looked like he was waiting to see how I'd react, which was fair. Except, me, I'd have lied about it. I mean, you already have no morals, why not lie on a first date? Maybe he didn't like me enough.