Lee - I'm riding the REI Randonee and it came with aluminum nipples. We didn't even think to check since we've never had nipples fail at all. Next time, we'll have them swapped out for steel or brass!
emperor - I can see how one broken spoke leads to others, but the fact that they broke in such quick succession - two within 3 km seems odd. And then, after we fixed those ones, another three broke during the night when the bike was just sitting htere! And other one snapped while I was hitching a ride in the back of a truck. Odd that they would all give out like that.