Amazon or Psychic?

My mom LOVES Amazon.com. It's cute. She likes to go there and buy books. She likes that when she goes to "double-you double-you double-you dot amazon dot com" it says, "Welcome, DO!" I've always found it endearing. I, too, find Amazon to be the most amazing thing ever because you can buy books for $.75, spend $3 on shipping, and receive everything within 2 weeks. Less if you find an awesome seller which I am willing to search for.

But that's not my point. My point is, Amazon has scared me and I don't know how they haven't been connected to a Criminal Minds episode yet. Sometimes while I'm on the site, I like to click the "Recommended" button to see what's awesome. This is what Amazon thinks I will like:
1. A book by Lorrie Moore
2. 2012
3. Hurt Locker
4. Zombieland

Or, as I saw it:
1. Book I'm reading
2. - 4. Movies we rented in the last 7 days.

(OK I'm KIND OF lying. I am reading a book by Lorrie Moore, but not the one they recommended. And JD and I didn't rent 2012, but it's been on the list.) But it begs the question: Is Amazon connected to the Family Video?

After that, I scrolled up to see what other strange predictions Amazon could give me. It asked me to rate Star Trek which I purchased for JD for Christmas. Underneath was a button that said "Items you own (7)" And I realized Amazon is tracking my purchases.

Which seems pretty obvious to the frequent user who already knew that, but for some reason I thought the "Recommended" button linked you to stuff you had recently looked at and like items. I find it strange that there's a me in a virtual Amazon store who has a shopping cart and a wish list and when she goes to the check out, they ask her how she liked that $.50 copy of Slaughterhouse--Five and would she like to purchase the 17 books on her wish list? "You can do the quick check ouuuutttt" it taunts.

I'm intrigued, really. So I scrolled up some more and there were more recommendations. Except this time they included unlike items.

OHMYGOD IS THAT A PREGNANCY TEST?! I DON'T WANT FERTILE CERVICAL MUCUS!!! I find the combination off-putting. A woman trying to get pregnant wants an ab roller and the Transformers movie? Unlikely, Amazon, unlikely. That's only page 1 of 35, people. Whatever math-problem/science-experiment Amazon is using doesn't seem to be cross checking it's data.

Although, on page 7, there's a sweet combo of psychology, psycho-pharm, social behavior books, that new James Bond movie, and an alarm sounding door jam. For the intelligentista who wants to moonlight as a ninja.

There's a fact-checker somewhere in Japan waiting to be fired.