create Mechanize::Page object quickly from HTTP resource or local file

instant_mechanize_page.rb

def mechanize_page( uri, base_uri = nil )
  require 'kconv'
  require 'rubygems'
  require 'mechanize'
  require 'hpricot'
  WWW::Mechanize.html_parser = Hpricot
  if ( URI( uri ).is_a?( URI::HTTP ) )
    WWW::Mechanize.new.get( uri )
  elsif ( File.exist?( uri ) )
    base_uri = 'http://example.com/' if base_uri.nil?
    WWW::Mechanize::Page.new( URI( base_uri ),
                              {'content-type' => 'text/html'},
                              open( uri ).read.toutf8,
                              200,
                              WWW::Mechanize.new )
  else
    open( uri )
  end
end