California forest fire, 2002IMAGE COURTESY OF LORI NIX
A tornado has scrambled the contents of a small town square, leaving upturned automobiles, lopsided telephone poles and a confused cow planted smack in the middle of very unfamiliar patch of grass.
Cracked yellow instrument panels, rusty dials and broken gauges are all that remain of a nuclear power plant control room, devoid of human presence in the aftermath of a meltdown.
A glowing orange fire blazes through jagged black trees, rushing in a fury towards a tiny aluminum camper, its inhabitants ignorant of the impending danger.
No, these bizarre scenarios are not plucked from obscure science fiction novels, surrealist dystopias or old folk tales; they are grounded quite solidly in the real world. Except that world is three feet tall. The scenes are dollhouse-sized ...
