Puerto Rico beckons, Part II: Wildlife and kioskos enrich Island of Enchantment

Editor’s note: If you get Four Bites via email, click on the “see more” button to get the full picture, as this post carries so many images.

In what feels like the first real winter in ages, as the thrill of shoveling starts to wear thin, remember that round trip tickets from Buffalo to Puerto Rico start around $250 these days.

Sunday News and stories like this are FREE if you sign up at Four Bites.

As I write, it’s 85 and sunny in San Juan.

Here’s a second installment of Puerto Rico images and ideas to give you a vicarious warm breeze, if not actual travel plans. The first installment covers general Puerto Rico travel tips and details on six top-notch places to eat.

One of the benefits of a Puerto Rico defrosting session is getting better acquainted with the flora and fauna a tropical island has to offer.

Rainforest species have been joined by other animals who adapted to the Puerto Rican climate.

At a cat rescue in Old San Juan, one may spot the rare tree tabby.

Nearby, some sheltermates do cat things.

Parrot’s beak is a perennial herb.

There is something nutritious about finding beauty in the world.

Yellow ginger, in El Yunque National Forest.

Luquillo is another beach area popular for its stretches of peaceful sandy beaches, supported by a row of restaurants. The Luquillo Kiosks site lists 35 in business.

Kiosk-goers stroll along the line of restaurants looking for the right snack or drink. Stopping at two or three to assemble the perfect combination of treats is part of the cuture.

Hefty meat dishes, rice in varying shades, and fried everything are standards. So are seafood cocktails and

Route 187 follows the northern shore of Puerto Rico in the Piñones region east of San Juan.

Every few miles, snack shacks called kioskos offer food and drink only a Frisbee’s throw from the wave-lapped beaches.

Kiosko El Guariquiten

Kiosko El Guariquiten (or Guarikiten)

Carretera PR-187 lado opuesto Terraplan, Piñones, 00772, Puerto Rico

At Kiosko El Guariquiten, a cook stokes a wood fire to fry snacks in a cauldron of lard. Piononos de carne are pancake-sized discs of mashed plantain sandwiched around seasoned ground beef, dipped in batter, and fried.

Piononos de carne, Kiosko El Guariquiten

Here’s the 2024 menu.

As we ate, grackles kept an eye on us. When Jen put a morsel on the picnic table, a grackle decided to be brave.

At my age I’m not a nightlife animal, but my all-too-short time in the Island of Enchantment left me craving close encounters with another sort of wildlife.

I mean, really.

#30#

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Demolished: Trump claims smacked down by AI technology he actively champions



Donald Trump's enthusiasm for artificial intelligence may be tempered by a new report from the Washington Post that demonstrated that five different AI models responded that the president plays fast and loose with the truth.

In recent speeches, the president has been a big booster of AI, in addition an executive order designed to “sustain and enhance America’s dominance in AI.”

With that in mind, the Post's Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Stephen Henriques and Steven Tian decided to test the technology to see how Trump's statements hold up when compared to reported facts.

As it turns out, Trump did not fare well.

Setting the stage, the report notes, "To counter any inadvertent bias or systemic failures, we asked each of five leading AI models — OpenAI’s ChatGPT; Anthropic’s Claude; X/xAI’s Grok (owned by Elon Musk); Google’s Gemini; and Perplexity — to verify the president’s most oft-repeated claims or assertions," while pointing out each platform is independent from the others.

"Artificial intelligence discredited all the Trump claims we presented, fact-checking the president with startling accuracy and objective rigor," the report notes before adding, "Across all questions, AI model responses disproving Trump’s claims or rejecting his assertions were always in the majority (i.e., 3 out of 5 responses or greater). All five models generated consistent responses firmly denying the claims in 16 of the 20 questions."

As an example, the AI platforms were asked the touchy question: "Will Trump’s current tariff policies be inflationary?"

Both Grok and ChatGPT came to the same conclusion with Grok, on Elon Musk's X, replying, "Trump’s 2025 tariff policies are likely to be inflationary, with estimates suggesting a 1-2.3% rise in consumer prices, equivalent to $1,200-$3,800 per household in 2025."

The platforms also came back with answers unfavorable to Trump on his cryptocurrency involvement (Grok: "Trump’s cryptocurrency investments … present a strong case for a conflict of interest due to his administration’s pro-crypto policies, personal financial gains, and events like the $TRUMP gala, which suggest access-selling) and the even touchier question of "Is Trump right that the media is 'dishonest' or 'tells lies'?"

Examples like that led to the following summation: "How would Trump respond to the near-unanimous denial of his claims by the five AI models? Probably the way he always reacts to unfavorable news — by discrediting the dissent. But would he disavow the technology he is decisively promoting? Or, is there something fundamentally wrong with the accuracy of these AI models that is not widely realized?"

"The simple truth our analysis points to is this: Either the president is wrong, or the technology is a failure. We leave it to you to choose," the Post report concluded.

You see more examples here.

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Trump more focused on ‘selling fragrances’ than telling the truth: lawmaker



Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) called out President Donald Trump for being "more committed to selling fragrances than he is to telling the truth" about the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill."

As Republicans try to muster the votes for Trump's legislation, Kamlager-Dove spoke with a group of Congressional Black Caucus members outside the Capitol on Wednesday.

"We have a president that is more committed to selling fragrances than he is to telling the truth," she railed. "And [Republicans] are negotiating with this person about bending the knee to him rather than bending the knee to the constituents."

"And in our district, in every single district across this country, 85% of voters in every single district want Medicaid, want SNAP, want these programs that they are cutting," she continued. "If you cut Medicaid, you're going to close hospitals, you're going to close urgent cares, you're going to close community clinics."

The lawmaker also insisted Trump was "lying" about his pledge not to tax tips, overtime, or Social Security.

"Working folks who rely on tips, who rely on overtime, might only end up taking an additional $10 home," Kamlager-Dove explained. "How is $10 going to help you? It's not, especially when the richest of the rich are getting tax breaks of up to $300,000."

"We want everyone to know how more broke, how more hungry, how more sick they are going become and we need to be holding these receipts up to and through 2026 and holding these Republicans accountable. Why aren't they here with balloons and megaphones touting how beautiful this thing is? Because they know it stinks just like the cologne that they are selling in the White House," she added.

Watch the video below from C-SPAN.