[Matplotlib-users] Reading a remote JPG URL using imread

MPL folks,

Would it be possible to enhance Matplotlib to allow "im=imread(url)"
to work if url returns a JPG?

Currently (it seems):

1. If the URL returns a PNG this works:

im = imread(urllib2.urlopen(url))

2. If the URL returns a JPG, this DOESN'T work:

im = imread(urllib2.urlopen(url))

.. and neither does this:
im = imread(urllib2.urlopen(url),format='jpg')

... but this DOES work:

im = Image.open(cStringIO.StringIO(urllib.urlopen(url).read()))

See an example in Ipython Notebook here:
http://nbviewer.ipython.org/3918576/

So could just be hidden from the user so that "im = imread(url)" would
just work for JPG (assuming PIL was installed)?

Thanks,
Rich
-- 
Dr. Richard P. Signell
USGS, 384 Woods Hole Rd.
Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598