Zad's Cavern of Random Works

A Singaporean-based blogger, @CriticalSpectator , recently pulled off a stunt creating headlines by posting on his Facebook page remarks implying certain sentiments among Malaysian Malay Muslims regarding the Palestine–Israel conflict and the war on Iran. The framing demonstrates intellectual dishonesty, or at least intellectual laziness and ignorance – as well as, in his own words, portraying them as “brainwashed and fundamentally bigoted”. It was reported in The Rakyat Post as well as its Facebook page . CriticalSpectator implied hypocrisy among Malaysian Malays by comparing Malaysia’s Bumiputera rights with Israel, implying it an apartheid system and calling out what he described as their “imaginary” moral superiority. His first post has since been removed by Facebook. He then reposted a chart comparing legal ethnic discrimination in Israel and Malaysia with the title “Malaypartheid”. Not to worry – I too created my own charts with facts duplicating his style below. ...

Though I don't expect to have readers, I would still like to make a small update/announcement regarding the North Borneo Dispute issue. I hope to one day to write-up my full analysis, however that won't be anytime soon. However, I will inform that recently I have various recent significant findings on this issue. The analysis will include more transcripts and translation of agreements written in Jawi Malay. Apparently the 1878 agreements has to documents. The 1878 agreement between Overbeck and Sultan of Sulu in my post titled ‘Transcript and Translation to 22 January 1878 Agreement Signed by Sultan Jamal-ul-Azam of Sulu appointing Baron de Overbeck’  was the Surat Kuasa (letter of appointment), not the Surat Perjanjian (agreement letter), which would include information on the transaction. Overbeck's agreement with Sultan of Brunei in 1877 has a similar format: One Surat Kuasa , but multiple Surat Perjanjian . My future write-up will also include legal agreements prior...

There is an age-old “unanswered” question about mathematics: Was mathematics discovered or invented? Foreshadowing: I have the answer. Though it is not considered a paradox, it acts like one, because mathematics is obviously both discovered and invented — yet, one cannot be both. This question has been discussed at length by some of the brightest minds in the subject. It is considered a deep philosophical question with multiple interpretations and is central to the philosophy of mathematics. There’s a video clip of mathematician Roger Penrose spending four minutes answering this question in an interview . Another mathematician, Edward Frenkel, spends thirteen minutes on the Lex Fridman podcast discussing this conundrum . There is a five-minute TED-Ed video discussing this. Yet none are able to reach a definitive conclusion — there is no straightforward answer, nor a workaround, nor an explanation of why this question is so difficult. What surprised me is that even bili...

Civilized people in America don’t eat like this. If you refuse to adopt Western customs, go back to the Third World. https://t.co/TYQkcr0nFE — Congressman Brandon Gill (@RepBrandonGill) June 30, 2025 Is he… eating with his hands? pic.twitter.com/3JLP2BaXiX — Jack (@jackunheard) October 20, 2025 The superiority complex among individuals in the Western world, and the ignorance demonstrated in expressing it, are still as absurd as ever. The criticism of Zohran Mamdani’ s eating etiquette exposes that little progress has been made in Western mentality towards the rest of the world. A U.S. congressman and public figure in today’ s world could openly and publicly, without shame, imply that the dining etiquette of another culture is uncivilised for no other reason than that it is not the same as Western or White dining etiquette. In a sane world, this would be career suicide. Not only are the hypocrisy and double standards obvious, and the attempts to argue the “backwardness” of eatin...

Many years ago, I was watching a documentary about boxing legend Muhammad Ali with my family, which included clips of Ali repeating the teachings of his Muslim organisation, called the Nation of Islam (NOI). My family and I wondered if this was a form of ‘ajaran sesat’ , i.e. deviated teachings of Islam. After the movie, we still held the same impression of the NOI as previously mentioned. Some nights ago, I watched the 1992 biographical film Malcolm X with my wife. It’s known that Malcolm X was also part of the same organisation, the NOI, and became a mentor to Ali until Malcolm’s departure from the organisation to form his own. Immediately after the film, we still held the same impression of the NOI as before. So, I did some reading. Prior to the movie, my wife had already done some basic research out of interest. She found out that when Malcolm X first visited Mecca for Hajj after his separation from the NOI, he was initially refused entry into the Holy City. One reason was that...

I made what is probably the most complete digital recreation of a pre-1899 flag of the Sulu Sultanate. There are two versions, one without the flowers on the left edge, and the other with the flowers. This flag is based on the version found in the Museo Naval de Madrid (Naval Museum of Madrid) as mentioned in ULR #3 in the URL reference list below. I made this in Adobe Illustrator. All the curves of okir, okil or ukkil " (probably from the Malay word ukir , which refers to carved out decorations) section of the emblem, the floral pattern motifs, are made out of parts different sizes circles. Customed curve lines are only present in the box section in the centre of the emblem. This box section is said to represent the doors of Mecca. My point of references are a collection of sulu flags by a researcher and vexillologist who identify him/herself only by his/her email address, paddpao@gmail.com, on who of his/her websites, http://www.royalpanji.net and http://www.webalice.i...

One of many often repeated arguments made by Zionists is that there has never was a sovereign country. Another way Zionists put it is to say that there has never been any historical records of an ancient Palestine country or Kingdom. This is to indirectly imly that either that there is no such thing as Palestinians, or that Palestinians have no rights towards freedom. This is my rant against this argument: Dear Zionists who are capable of reading history but unable to comprehend it, and whom often repeat the known fact that there was no such thing as a historical sovereign Palestinian state. News flash: The same is true with almost every nation state that emerged as a result of European colonialism. The Malayan and hence Malaysian identity didn’t exist prior to British colonialism in Southeast Asia. The Indonesian identity didn't exist prior to Dutch colonialism in Southeast Asia. The Filipino identity didn’t exist prior to Spanish colonialism in Southeast Asia. This does...