On the Subject of Cruel Ed Balls

“Ed Balls”
—Ed Balls, 2011

• This module consists of a framed portrait of British politician Ed Balls and six circular buttons with letters on them.
• If the frame is not red, you’re looking at a different module.
• The letters are E, D, B, A, L, and S, but they are encoded by performing each of the following transformations exactly once (but not necessarily in this order):
  • Each letter is Caesar shifted by a fixed amount (possibly 0).
  • Each letter is converted to flag semaphore, rotated by a multiple of 45° (possibly 0°), and converted back to a letter. A letter will always be rotated into another letter, never the numeral or cancel symbols.
• To disarm this module, undo the transformations to return the letters to their original form and enter the message “ED BALLS.”
• Pressing an incorrect button will result in a strike and reset your input, but will not cause the buttons to change.

Semaphore Reference

A	B	C	D	E
F	G	H	I	J
K	L	M	N	O
P	Q	R	S	T
U	V	W	X	Y
Z