On December 30, 1861, Associated Banks in New York City — innovators in credit clearing circles (pictured above) — halted gold payments to government and investors, to disrupt Abraham Lincoln [1]‘s US bank reform program.
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December 30, 1865 was the birthday of Rudyard Kipling.
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Today’s feature article is a product review, written by Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson.
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We need more entries for Round 122 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest [2]. More than $978,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 122 ends on January 31st, 2026, so get busy writing and e-mail [3] us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics [4]. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.