You're right, that was sloppy. Here is a revision:

mysql> describe gw_ir;
+------------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field      | Type        | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+------------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| image_id   | int(11)     |      | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| image_name | varchar(50) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| image_data | mediumblob  | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
+------------+-------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)
[download]

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use LWP::Simple;
use DBI;

my $url     = "http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_ir_west.gif";
my $file    = "/usr/home/mhearse/weather_images/sat_ir_west.gif";
my $newfile = "/usr/home/mhearse/weather_images/latest.gif";
my ($min, $hour, $day, $month, $year) = (localtime)[1,2,3,4,5];
my $image_name = "$month-$day-$year-$hour:$min";
getstore($url, $file);

if (-s $file != -s $newfile) {
   rename $file, $newfile;
   my $image_data = getFile($newfile);
   my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:mysql:weather_images",
             "ser", "********")
             or die("Error! $!\nAborting");
   my $sql = qq(INSERT INTO gw_ir
               (image_name, image_data)
                VALUES ("$image_name", "$image_data"));
   my $sth   = $dbh->prepare($sql);
   $sth->execute or die("\nError executing SQL statement! $DBI::errstr
+");
   $dbh->disconnect;
} else {
   print "file is current\n";
}
sub getFile {
  my($file) = @_;
  my $fh;
  unless (open $fh, "<", $file) {
    die "Error opening $file : $!\n";
  }
  my $data;
  { local $/ = undef; $data = <$fh>; }
  close $fh;
  return $data;
}
[download]

MySQL doesn't like the sql statement.

DBD::mysql::st execute failed: You have an error in your SQL syntax.  
+Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for th
+e right syntax to use near 'ÀµÖ* íÆ. ³ô®´ØR{mþÒ:»Àºëö*·ì¶k¼½.àë·' at 
+line 3 at ./simple line 24.

Error executing SQL statement! You have an error in your SQL syntax.  
+Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for th
+e right syntax to use near 'ÀµÖ* íÆ. ³ô®´ØR{mþÒ:»Àºëö*·ì¶k¼½.àë·' at 
+line 3 at ./simple line 24.
[download]