Hopefully you'll ignore my opinion - its all in the eye of the beholder from my perspective :)
(The basis of that not being UX - thanks to whomever raised that random distraction, but about Beauty / Ugliness as cited in your headline).
You aren't going to please everyone all the time, and certainly your design gets a reaction from me.
My assessment is made in the context of you assessing other designs - hoist with your own petard if you will. This heightens the situation - that is I'd expect an exemplary design on a page willing to comment on others.
The number one turn off for me would be the choice of font. It certainly comes of as playful and dare I comment on Mark's work (for I shall) - I do not think that quality of font is suitable for body text. No it's not in the comic sans league, but it evokes unpleasant sensations. This could be the font itself or font rendering on Chrome on the Mac. Quite frankly I find it horrid.
Next for me is the typographical structure. The spacing is aggressive and draws attention to the font - which is undesirable for me given my reaction to the font. All your headings have what appears to be the same amount of white space above and below. It feels rather generic and rushed.
Finally the elements on the right hand side are too dominant for my liking and draw focus away from the article. Perhaps as they contain advertising material that is the intent. But it doesn't do much for me.
Take it all with a grain of salt, I think it was Keith Richards who had a comment about opinions being like... :)
The font for the main text is oddly changing between being very thin/light and on some select letters quite fat (v, A). The links are _very_ bold, impeding reading.
Other than that I think your design nice and simple.
