I noted an oddity. When the featured thread block is configured to show the author's name under the avatar, long user names get wrapped awkwardly, as in this:
IE9 should work with that CSS.
Unfortunately I don't have access to IE9 so I can't do any testing.
It works in the latest version of IE so all I can suggest is you upgrade/change your browser or edit the Style Properties to cater for older browsers.
Try adding word-wrap: normal; to the Miscellaneous field.
If that works, let me know and I will add it to the next release.
OK, so it looks like I just need to add word-wrap: normal; to the author element.
It's already present on the title, so I probably just overlooked adding it there.
It will be in the next release, but in the meantime you can edit the SP to add it manually.
Make sure you add it for the individual blocks and the page.
If it was added, I can see me replacing the date with a Font Awesome calendar icon, and when hovering over the calendar the date will show as either a tooltip or a title.
I can see it would be useful to have the end date shown somewhere but I think it is only relevant to moderators - ordinary users don't need it and probably don't care either.