In New York's Adirondack Mountains, inmates break ice on a frozen lake to make a giant winter palace.

WSJ: NY inmates help build ice palace in Adirondacks

Brooks points out the crystallized gypsum disguised as marble columns, the Styrofoam used to fill gaps in the palace's building blocks, and the most fundamental flaw: The foundations of the palace, set in an artificial lake, were designed to withstand a 200, 000 square-foot structure.

WSJ: Turf Battle Forms Over Hussein's Palaces

They used incandescent lamps to display stats, the same technology Daktronics relied on for the next 25 years, through an exclusive contract to provide the scoreboards for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, large displays for Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and an electronic voting system for the U.N.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Moriah began sending crews to help build the ice palace in 2009, after the closing of a prison closer to Saranac Lake that had sent workers since 1984.

WSJ: NY inmates help build ice palace in Adirondacks