Slang for Teddyboy.
The opposite of Mods -- they were the boys that your mother warned you about, the black leather-jacketed rough boys, the British version of greasers. The Beatles when they were on the Reeperbahn were Ted Lite.

Punk can be said to have grown out of the Teds. If James Dean and Marlon Brando were British they would have been Teds.

TED, ideas worth spreading.

Since its founding in 1984 by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks, TED has worked to bring together the worlds most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are all challenged to give the talk of their lives. Currently the event is hosted by Chris Anderson and owned by his non-profit organization The Sapling Foundation.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, the three worlds it originally tried to bring together, but its scope has widened considerably since its founding years.

The original TED conference is held annually in Long Beach, California, USA, with more than a thousand people attending as over 50 speakers each take an 18 minute slot to talk about topics varying from the original three (Technology, Entertainment and Design) to new ones that mater to the world like science, business, the arts and global issues facing our world. Around those 18 minute slots there are also many shorter pieces of content, including music, performance and comedy. The result is that TED becomes a mind opening experience, connecting the various topics together and showing the links between them that make up the intricately interconnected whole.

This original TED conference has also spawned off some interesting extensions, like TEDGlobal, a twin conference held in Oxford, UK that has now also become annually, its topics are slightly more international in nature but the TED format is maintained. A similar initiative will start in november 2009 in Mysore, India called TEDIndia, exploring the beckoning future of South Asia.

Another extension on TED is the TEDPrize, which tries to leverage the growing TED community's exceptional array of talent and resources in collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact. The TEDPrize is awarded annually to three exceptional individuals who each receive $100,000 and the granting of 'One Wish to Change the World'.

Finally the most interesting extension according to me is the TEDTalks initiative, which began as a simple attempt to share what happens at TED with the world. With its limited seating capacity at the TED conferences, only a limited amount of individuals would be able to see the mind opening talks, so the TEDTalks initiative, under the moniker 'Ideas worth spreading' started releasing the talks online as short video's. This soon attracted a global audience in the millions, including myself, who where all enthusiastic at the chance of hearing the worlds most inspiring voices.

This all leads to what TED is today, while TED is still based on the various conferences, it is probably best thought of as a global community, welcoming to people from every discipline and culture, all of which just two things in common, the search for a deeper understanding of the world and the hope to turn that understanding into a better future for us all.

Ted is a reoccurring character in Scott Adams' Dilbert comic strip. Along with the Pointy Haired Boss, Dilbert, Wally, Alice and Asok the Intern, Ted is one of the people seen around the conference table at Dilbert's work. Unlike the others, who all have somewhat developed personalities (or at least personas based on a few humorous traits), Ted has no defined personality, life, or history. This is acknowledged by Scott Adams in his Dilbert book "Seven Years of Highly Defective People", where he says that he thinks of him as "Ted, the Generic Guy", and states "If I have to fire or kill someone, its often the generic guy". Ted has no personality traits and a generic appearance, and does whatever is necessary to move the gag of the comic forward.

Someone could draw a contrast between this and other comic strips, such as Peanuts, Doonesbury and Bloom County, where many of the characters that were in supporting or even walk-on roles had fairly well defined backstories and personality traits, or at least some basic idea of continuity. While this contrast could be drawn, it is not particularly meaningful: Dilbert is meant to be a gag-based comic strip, and having a generic character to get electrocuted or deported or whatever is needed that week fits well with the purpose of the strip.

Ted (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tedded (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Tedding.] [Prob. fr. Icel. teja to spread manure, fr. ta manure; akin to MHG. zetten to scatter, spread. 58. Cf. Teathe.]

To spread, or turn from the swath, and scatter for drying, as new-mowed grass; -- chiefly used in the past participle.

The smell of grain or tedded grass. Milton.

The tedded hay and corn sheaved in one field. Coleridge.

 

© Webster 1913.