January 2010 Puzzle Solution
White, blue, yellow, red, and black are the only colors found on international maritime signal flags, each of which stands for a letter or a number. For each of our five flags, look at all the maritime flags corresponding to the letters on our flag. All of the letters on our white flag correspond to maritime flags with white regions on them, etc., and moreover, the shapes of those regions roughly resemble zeroes, ones, or mathematical operators:

White: AHSJTWC -> 1 1 0 - 1 0 =
Blue: GTDPXKJ -> 111 1 - 0 + 1 =
Yellow: KRGD -> 1 + 111 =
Red: TVH -> 1 x 1
Black: 6I (rotated) -> 10

Simplifying these expressions using BINARY math gives:

White: 100; Blue: 10000; Yellow: 1000; Red: 1; Black: 10

These are all different powers of two, and the same ones that are used in our beloved five-bit binary that can represent the alphanumeric values of A-Z. Map the colors onto the five bits:

16: Blue; 8: Yellow; 4: White; 2: Black; 1: Red

Then, for each letter or number in the string at the bottom of the puzzle, look at the corresponding maritime flag and note which colors are present, then turn those into a letter using this particular variety of five-bit binary.

E: Blue, Red = 17 = Q
C: Blue, White, Red = 21 = U
Y: Yellow, Red = 9 = I
5: Blue, Yellow = 24 = X
9: Yellow, White, Black, Red = 15 = O
N: Blue, White = 20 = T
4: White, Red = 5 = E

So the answer is QUIXOTE, which doesn't have much to do with flags, but which used the most interesting variety of flags and color combinations. Remember, don't give up on an approach even if the first letter you get is a Q!

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