Russia Says Take the Day Off and *%$&(*

In much of the world, population growth has reached unsustainable levels, but Western Europe is welcoming a minor baby boom after 20 years without enough children to replace the elderly and sustain prosperous economies. Russia is conducting a national campaign to produce more Russians. Spanning no less than 11 time zones and occupying one-seventh of all the land surface of Earth, Russia's population is only 141 million-- just 2% of the world's population, compared to 20% in China and 17% in India. President Vladimir Putin says demographic inadequacy is a crisis, and Russia has declared September 12 as the Day of Conception, or Procreation Day. Allan Hill is Professor of Demography at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.