Today in "whaaaaaaaat," feminist icon Ani DiFranco has cancelled her four-day "Righteous Retreat," a songwriting workshop for women. It was cancelled because it was going to be held at the Nottoway Plantation — one of the largest former plantations in the South, which now functions as a museum in which the horrors of slavery are totally sanitized and glossed over. DiFranco has since released a remarkably unapologetic "apology" following a lot of quite justified uproar. 
 
 On the Nottoway Plantation website, this sentence really exists: "Ever the astute businessman, Randolph [Nottoway] knew that in order to maintain a willing workforce, it was necessary to provide not only for his slaves' basic needs for housing, food and medicine, but to also offer additional compensation and rewards when their work was especially productive." Yes, a "feminist retreat" was really held at a location that describes hundreds of brutally enslaved human beings as a "willing workforce." How myopic does one have to be to think that's okay? As if that weren't bad enough on its own, Kat Endgame points out at PQ Monthly that the retreat itself is owned by the Paul Ramsay Group — an investment arm of Australian billionaire Paul Ramsey, who has "given more than $1.8 million to [Australia's] anti-gay, anti-abortion, and anti-immigrant Liberal party over the last 14 years." 
 
 In response to the massive outcry from DiFranco fans who felt deeply uncomfortable with the idea of developing their creative singularity (or whatever) in a site that essentially celebrates its own vile history, Ani posted an "apology." She does not take much accountability at all: 
 
 when i found out it was to be held at a resort on a former plantation, I thought to myself, "whoa", but i did not imagine or understand that the setting of a plantation would trigger such collective outrage or result in so much high velocity bitterness. i imagined instead that the setting would become a participant in the event. 
 
 This is the note it ends on: 
 
 i ask only that as we attempt to continue to confront our country's history together, let us not forget that the history of slavery and exploitation is at the foundation of much of our infrastructure in this country, not just at old plantation sites. let us not oversimplify to black and white a society that contains many many shades of grey. and let us not forget to be compassionate towards each other as we attempt to move forward and write the next pages in our history. our story is not over and, Citizens of the Internet, it is now ours to write. 
 
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 SYSTEMIC RACISM IS EVERYWHERE, IT'S NOT MY FAULT IF I DIDN'T NOTICE OR THINK ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS OF HOSTING A FEMINIST CAMP IN A SITE THAT ESSENTIALLY CELEBRATES THE HISTORICAL EXPLOITATION OF BLACK BODIES BECAUSE OF MY PRIVILEGE, LEAVE ME ALONE YOU JERKS!!!!! You can read the whole thing here, if you're so inclined. [Daily Dot, Telegraph, Vintage Vinyl News] 
 
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 Khloe Kardashian covered Cosmopolitan UK; she says that she's excited for a "fresh start" in 2014 following her divorce from Lamar Odom. She also spoke about the pressure she's faced to conform to traditional beauty standards: "I won't be bullied into [losing weight] by social media or anyone else. I love my body and always have" and recalls that when she was around nine, "I overheard my mom [Kris Jenner] telling her friend I needed a nose job. I was shocked; I hadn't even thought about it." It's honestly amazing that she manages to stay so positive despite facing such unhealthy pressure from her own mother at a young age. Kris Jenner, you are the worst. [Gossip Cop] 
 
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 If you are like me, you wonder at least once a week, "What is blandly affable Canadian chanteuse Carly Rae Jepsen doing right now?" And lo! an answer: she's going to play Cinderella in Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway. Cinderella 2: Ball Me Maybe? I don't know, guys. It's early. [Billboard] 
 
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 NBC brought Bryant Gumbel and Jane Pauley back to the Today show today — but, sadly, it was a one day only kind of deal. [PopWatch] ||||| Beyoncé has been labeled "insensitive" by some current and former NASA astronauts and their families for sampling audio from the space shuttle Challenger disaster for a love song off her newly released album. 
 
 Interested in ? Add as an interest to stay up to date on the latest news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest 
 
 Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center Jan. 28, 1986. All seven crewmembers aboard were killed. 
 
 "Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction," now-retired NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt said as the nation watched wreckage fall toward the ocean on live television. 
 
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 Twenty-seven years later, Nesbitt's voice is heard at the beginning of the video for Beyoncé's new song "XO," about a troubled relationship. The singer has said that "XO" was written and produced by Ryan Tedder and Terius Nash, who goes by the stage name The Dream. 
 
 The audio clip is short, lasting six seconds. 
 
 Beyonce, in an exclusive statement to ABC News this morning, said, "My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster. The song 'XO' was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you. 
 
 "The songwriters included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten." 
 
 But former and current NASA astronauts, employees and Challenger family members argue that using it in a pop song mocks the crew's sacrifice and opens fresh wounds. 
 
 June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger Space Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee and a founder of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, told ABC News she is "disappointed" in the singer's decision to include the clip. 
 
 "We were disappointed to learn that an audio clip from the day we lost our heroic Challenger crew was used in the song 'XO,'" she said. "The moment included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families, colleagues and friends. We have always chosen to focus not on how our loved ones were lost, but rather on how they lived and how their legacy lives on today." 
 
 Keith Cowing, a former NASA employee who now runs the NASAWatch.com website, said, "This choice of historic and solemn audio is inappropriate in the extreme. The choice is little different than taking Walter Cronkite's words to viewers announcing the death of President Kennedy or 911 calls from the World Trade Center attack and using them for shock value in a pop tune." 
 
 Cowing wants Beyoncé to remove the clip and apologize to families of the Challenger crew. 
 
 Several current NASA astronauts, who are not authorized to speak publicly, privately expressed similar dismay at what they say is Beyoncé's use of a tragedy to sell a pop song. 
 
 Retired NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson told ABC News, "For the words to be used in the video is simply insensitive, at the very least." 
 
 Anderson knows NASA tragedy firsthand. In 2003, he was assisting shuttle Columbia family members the moment news came that all seven had died when the craft disintegrated re-entering Earth's atmosphere. 
 
 But Anderson, who flew twice on the space shuttle and lived on the International Space Station for five months, seemed to give Beyoncé and her team the benefit of the doubt. 
 
 "What we do in space just isn't as important to young people today," Anderson said. 
 
 Beyoncé was born in Houston, the same home as NASA's astronaut training campus, the Johnson Space Center. She has worked with the space agency in the past, once recording a wake-up greeting for the orbiting crew of STS-135, the final space shuttle flight. 
 
 "You inspire all of us to dare to live our dreams, to know that we're smart enough and strong enough to achieve them," she told the Atlantis crew back in 2011.
– The Challenger space shuttle exploded after liftoff in 1986, killing all seven crew members on board ... and for some reason Beyonce thought it was appropriate to sample audio from the disaster on a song from her new album. Then-NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt is heard at the beginning of the video for "XO" for six seconds, ABC News reports. As the nation watched the Challenger disaster unfold on live TV, Nesbitt said, "Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction." Needless to say, astronauts and their families are calling Beyonce out; one former NASA employee wants an apology and the clip removed. Beyonce was quick to respond: "My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster. The song 'XO' was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you. The songwriters included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten." Meanwhile, in other "stupid moves by singers" news, Ani DiFranco had planned a songwriting retreat at the Nottoway Plantation, "one of the largest former plantations in the South, which now functions as a museum in which the horrors of slavery are totally sanitized and glossed over," writes Callie Beusman at Jezebel. After quite a bit of backlash, DiFranco canceled the workshop, but noted in her statement, "I ask only that as we attempt to continue to confront our country's history together, let us not forget that the history of slavery and exploitation is at the foundation of much of our infrastructure in this country, not just at old plantation sites."