Ask HN: Are some signup CAPTCHAs becoming a bit ridiculous (yes you HN)?

My friend showed me this after trying to sign up for HN. There’s now a Capcha when you sign up which is more than difficult to answer... mostly because the text is so difficult to read it doesn't look like english. Not sure if the intent is trying to stop bots or trying to stop anyone who doesn’t want to spend 10 guessing characters. Oh, and think the text CAPTCHA is hard… listen to the audio puzzle (get your pen and paper ready).