What are these programs and why are they connecting to the Internet at startup?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
I have permanent connections to Canonical servers, what are they for?

I am new to Linux and Ubuntu and when I issued the following command at a terminal window:

sudo netstat --inet -p

I got the following results:

sharon@sharon:~$ sudo netstat --inet -p 
[sudo] password for sharon: 
Active Internet connections (w/o servers) 
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name 
tcp        0      0 192.168.1.66:33323      alkes.canonical.co:http ESTABLISHED 2505/python     
tcp        0      0 192.168.1.66:33324      alkes.canonical.co:http ESTABLISHED 2505/python     
tcp        1      0 192.168.1.66:38138      mulberry.canonical:http CLOSE_WAIT  2259/ubuntu-geoip-p 
tcp        0      0 192.168.1.66:35837      mistletoe.canonica:http TIME_WAIT   -               
sharon@sharon:~$ 

Questions:

1. What is python? Can I uninstall it without adverse effects?
2. What is ubuntu-geoip-p? Can I uninstall it too?
3. Why are the above programs or sub-programs contacting alkes.canonical.co, mulberry.canonical and mistletoe.canonical?
4. Is personally identifiable information being sent to canonical.com?

My installed OS is Ubuntu 12.10, kernel version 3.5.0.21, 64 bit, English.