Random SYN_SENT connections to Amazon EC2?

I have looked around but couldn't find anyone else with this issue. On my console (standard asus i7 laptop) running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS - I noticed in tcptrack that there are a lot of connections being made to an ip address belonging to Amazon EC2 services. I don't have any connection to amazon at all, and these connections are all status SYN_SENT. IP examples: 50.17.195.149 and 54.243.128.120.

Is this a security offense of any kind, or is there a rational explanation?

Thanks in advance.