Vote for the MIT-Cornell Fictional Alumni Face-Off
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The tournament has begun. Which school's fictitious alumni will come out on top? You decide.
Simply answer the following question:
Which person, if real, has the potential to offer the greatest contribution(s) to society?
Cast your vote three ways:
- Submit your answer in the comments of this post
- Respond via the Cornell or MIT Facebook pages
- Tweet using the hashtag #MITCU

Need some inspiration? Learn more about Ling Woo and Lex Luthor.
Representatives from the Cornell and MIT Alumni Associations will be looking for posts that are clever, witty, absurd, and downright ridiculous. The more entertaining we find your comment to be, the more likely it will tip the scale in favor of your alma mater. Voting ends each Friday at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Check out the match-ups (click on image to enlarge). Brackets are updated every Monday.
What’s at stake? The winning school will take ownership of the soon-to-be-constructed Social Media Cup trophy. More importantly, the losing school will be forced to produce a video that pays homage to both the tournament winner and his or her alma mater and promote the video on their own Facebook page.
Comments
BryanSinger
Wed, 09/28/2011 7:10pm
Lex Luthor. I'm not even going to bother explaining this obvious win.
ErikT
Wed, 09/28/2011 6:58pm
Sorry Woo - Lex all the way, baby!
This is a contest of style over substance; Woo's got the hot looks, but, really, what else? She's an empty suit, suitable for leading large multi-nationals for several years, before bailing on a golden parachute right after it's come out that she was funnelling funds to her 3rd cousin's typewriter-repair firm back in Shanghai. Oh, and was sexually harrassing the mailboys.
Lex, on the other hand, is the classic underappreciated geek who really *can* change the world. Sure, that gleaming dome is sexy (I mean, MIT has thing for gleaming domes, after all), and he's the CEO of a huge multi-national, but remember, he's been head of it for 40+ YEARS now (no take-it-and-run parachute for him!), and really does care. I mean, you *have* to care to put in all those hours plotting and schemeing world domination - it's damned hard work, and you can't just get by on a nice butt or a snarky comment!
Potting world domination really does make the world better - look at Bill Gates. Without him and his evil empire (ahh, I mean, Microsoft), where would Linux be?
So, it's Lex by a Landslide!
Robert Bateman
Wed, 09/28/2011 6:57pm
I would like to see the 7 following for the remaining MIT spots
Bullwinkle J. Moose
Will Hunting
Tony Stark
Dilbert
David Levinson (Independence Day)
Rockhound (Armageddon)
Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba!!)
I would say Howard Wolowitz but I cannot say anything great about him other than astronauts can crap in space more easily.
Robert Bateman
Wed, 09/28/2011 6:43pm
Lex Luthor's greatest enemy is Superman and has defeated him on multiple occasions.
Ling Woo...makes fun of...handicap people.
Conclusion: I think America is about sick and tired of Superman's crap. When your pad is the fortress of solitude with $0 rent, you can give up the reporter position to someone who actually worked hard to earn it. Damn illegal aliens keep taking our jobs and its time we elect someone like Lex to clean up our streets!
Regarding Woo as a contender: Let's ask Michael J. Fox how he feels...
Demi Moore
Wed, 09/28/2011 6:35pm
Like for serious? Lex Luthor, no contest.
KeithP
Wed, 09/28/2011 6:34pm
Lex Luthor clearly
TomS
Wed, 09/28/2011 6:09pm
From my undergrad years I remember when Lex worked in the basement of Bldg 20 during Christmas Vacation. His folks didn't want him home, so he was caring for a grad student's High Voltage Labs experiment over the holidays... that's how he lost his hair.
sarah
Wed, 09/28/2011 6:06pm
Luthor...duh!
Perfessergreen
Wed, 09/28/2011 6:04pm
Lex hands down, while willing to sacrifice millions of innocents to create new beachfront for real estate development, and no doubt improving negative climate change impacts by increasing solar reflectance with the ensuing nuclear dust clouds, he still had a kind heart to employ henchman Otis and provide a home for Miss Teschmacher, obviously a lady of limited resources. Ecologist, humanitarian, winning!
ConcernedAlum
Wed, 09/28/2011 5:55pm
Is this a joke?
Lex Luthor's wikipedia page has 10454 words to Ling Woo's 2196.
Enough said.
wallyb
Wed, 09/28/2011 5:55pm
"Which.....has the potential to offer the greatest contributions...?"
Clearly Lex. He has created untold inventions and re-invented himself many times over. Just needs a little guidance to re-direct all that effort towards the good.
Woo? OK, she has a nice butt, and excels at projecting sexuality and anger simultaneously. Big deal. Plenty more of that on the red carpet in Hollywood on any given night......
BrassRat
Wed, 09/28/2011 5:32pm
Why the beaver? Because it is nature's engineer...
Why lex? Because I dont see a woo constructed legion of doom (kresge) on Cornell's campus.
Where's the alumni giving woo, where's the giving?
BooYaMIT
Wed, 09/28/2011 5:32pm
This one's not even fair. Lex Luthor is a criminal genius without superpowers who has stood up to an all-powerful non-human. Lex gets my vote.
Kathryn
Wed, 09/28/2011 5:19pm
Lex Luthor!!!!
Michelle
Wed, 09/28/2011 5:09pm
Woo!
Mamta
Wed, 09/28/2011 5:06pm
Lex Luther because we all know that a little bit of adversity pushes us to be better. No Lex - wimpier Superman.
Also my husband is from Cornell and everyone knows that the wife and MITer is always right.
Shawn
Wed, 09/28/2011 5:05pm
Lex Luthor, obvi
ace
Wed, 09/28/2011 5:04pm
lex
Alison
Wed, 09/28/2011 5:00pm
I'm sure Ling Woo is very impressive, but I think Lex Luthor wins on being a classic supervillain that we love to hate. Wikipedia (for what that's worth) reports that he's been around since 1940 - an enduring torment to the superheroes!
Len
Wed, 09/28/2011 5:00pm
This will be a wipe: MIT is a culturally embedded institution, while Cornell unfortunately is regional (my distant high school used the Cornell football fight song with locally-adapted words to it; no-one had ever heard of Cornell and never worried about it) (which is as much a comment on local culture as on Cornell). After all, MIT has the hero cable-tv repairman/alien killer from "Independence Day" (who spent 8 years at MIT to become a tv repairman).
Justin
Wed, 09/28/2011 4:58pm
Lex has a much larger potential impact in that his personal concern is a global topic: the ability of humans to control their own destiny and the progress of human civilization.
He acts on a national and international level, is a master of getting people with conflicting interests to work together, and is not just a technological innovator, but someone who is able to get those innovations into practical use, under the most demanding of conditions (that is, while having them being interfered with the most powerful solar powered destructive phenomena yet discovered).
Whitney G
Wed, 09/28/2011 4:54pm
Lex Luthor!
Dale
Wed, 09/28/2011 4:54pm
And Ling Woo gives great hair!
Emily
Tue, 09/27/2011 12:00pm
Anyone who can kick ass in heels deserves to win! By default, she works twice as hard as Lex!
Chris S
Tue, 09/27/2011 11:59am
Ling Woo was half of first same-sex kiss I ever witnessed. It was an experience that I found inspiring.
Donna
Tue, 09/27/2011 11:49am
Lex Luthor, of course! He has so much more power and many more resources at his disposal. And no one is saying whether the contribution to society is positive or negative. I think Lex would have the greater potential to change society.
ed
Tue, 09/27/2011 11:47am
Lex Luthor brings nothing to the table except some dumb rocks. That's hardly a contribution. (it must be miserable to come from a school and identify yourself as a Beaver. No wonder the guy turned into a villain with little more creativity than to carry around a green pebble.)
Ling Woo and smart, witty, and has a great butt. Advantage, Woo.
Monica
Tue, 09/27/2011 9:16am
LING WOO!
She's kinda my hero...
Jan
Mon, 09/26/2011 7:41pm
Ling Woo who?
I vote for Lex Luthor.
Pete
Mon, 09/26/2011 6:21pm
go Ling Woo sinister yet compelling
Jack
Mon, 09/26/2011 3:56pm
If there is one thing I have learned in my 50 years, it is never to vote against a man whose main goal is to murder his arch-enemy and enslave his home planet, as a mere stepping stone to his long-term goal of dominating the entire flipping universe. Plus, Lex has a far sexier hairstyle than Ling Woo, hands down. MIT rocks, and so does Lex Luthor. Go, Beavers!
Steven Conforti
Mon, 09/26/2011 3:41pm
Lex Luther has been PotUS. He's saved the world (unwilling) a number of times. His impact to society is clearly greater than Ling Woo.
Ana
Mon, 09/26/2011 3:20pm
Hmm, two villains...except not. Woo, often described as a villain, is nothing more than a mean person. Lex Luthor winds hand down. First, he was voted the 8th greatest villain by Wizard on its "100 Greatest Villains of All Time" list. Second, while his main enemy was superman, he's crossed paths with many superheroes, and he still lives to tell the tale. Unlike Woo, who's annoyances, are limited in scope to a law firm, Lex Luthor poses a credible threat to the entire world, thus having a much greater impact.
Karen
Mon, 09/26/2011 3:12pm
Ling Woo is wittier, more feminine and not quite as evil as Lex.
(Why didn't they put up Claudia, the kid from Doonesbury? Didn't her fictional character go to MIT after they cheated in the voting?)
Steven M
Mon, 09/26/2011 3:07pm
Even though I went to High School with Lucy Liu, got to give this one to Luthor. Irritating dragon lady, or the dude that kicked superman's butt on multiple occasions? C'mon - total no-brainer.
Amy Marcott
Mon, 09/26/2011 2:57pm
Take nothing for granted in the Fictional Alumni Face-Off! Most creative response will tip the scales...
Ryan Ko
Mon, 09/26/2011 2:50pm
lex luthor obviously! How is this even a question?