Johan Plane wrote:
[...]

Martin, I know you're the everlasting (and in my eyes fanatic) defender of SETI,

A little :-)

... everyone
has the right to their own opinions ...

Very much so.


But please note that it is not the University of Berkeley giving the funding (as suggested in your post). They are paid by external funding for whatever research. Also I believe, the usual channels of science funding are blocked due to political reasons regardless of any science merit. So...

Not so simple.


And of course you are welcome to your opinion.

Regards,
Martin