You might remember that, when I wrote the story on Russia's expedition to claim the Arctic as its own early this month, I noted that August is known in the news business as the "silly season". And while I doubted that Russia's efforts to lay claim to oil and gas resources was anything but serious, I have now found a story that truly qualifies as a silly season entry.

Yesterday, the Associated Press earnestly reported that the governor of the Ulyanovsk is trying to raise the birth rate in this region of southern European Russia. Fair enough: The birth rate in Russia has been in a serious downward spiral for some time and its death rate has risen, making for a large decline in population across the country. Every time I do a profile of one of Russia's regions, the 2002 population numbers show a sharp decline from the previous census. Last December, Russian legislators enacted, at the behest of President Vladimir Putin, a maternity incentive law that creates an IRA-like savings account for new babies and seeds it with almost $10,000.

But it's what the governor has done to reverse the decline that caught the reporter's attention. He has declared September 12 "the Day of Conception" and has given all workers in Ulyanovsk the day off to do just that.

Why September 12? Well, if you do the maternity math, you'll realize that the children conceived on that date stand a fair chance of being born on June 12, which is a national holiday known as Russia Day. As I noted in that earlier post, Russia Day marks the date in 1990 when the Russian Federation declared its sovereignty and ended the Soviet Union. It has been gaining traction as a holiday, but still often takes a back seat to November 7, the anniversary of the October Revolution.

Ulyanovsk couples who deliver on June 12 stand to win up to $10,000 in cash, as well as prizes like cars and refrigerators, according to the Associated Press. And though Conception Day might seem a bit ham-handed, the Associated Press says it is working: The region's birthrate in the region has risen since Conception Day was implemented in 2005 and is up 4.5% for 2007.

Be that as it may, the newspaper and Web site editors who are picking up the AP story are having a field day writing headlines for it like " In Russia, birthing for rubles".