It comes from Jeroen van Bergeijk, a reporter for the Dutch paper NRC Handelsblad. Jeroen also wrote a great piece about Web Writers In The Flesh earlier this fall.
The foreign-language versions have always been a bit of an incomplete science. Nobody, not even the craziest fan, is willing to translate this entire sprawling site into any language; I haven't done it myself for the French and German versions.
But the foreign-language versions do bring us overseas fans who can then enjoy the stories in English.
Or, in some cases, just enjoy the cartoons: I seem to be very big among Spanish speakers. I get a lot of e-mail in Spanish.