For the comments, let pop this in the right instead of the News Feeds and stuff. If there is a pic, the comments still on the right and the pic appears by sliding from sur comments.
a little improvements here and there and this can actually work out really well. Align the recent stories with home text grid and reduce the size of the comments and likes indicator. Plus the names should align with the top of text ending at the height of the Display pictures. How about removing the nav bar on the left and putting all those on the top like you have your home and profile and stuff?