[jQuery] Advanced Problem - Any takers?

[jQuery] Advanced Problem - Any takers?


I'm dynamically inserting html into a page that only contains an
image. Such as...
<html>
<body>
<img src="http://my_domain.com/my_image.jpg"/>
</body>
</html>
my script has a large amount of html that i want to insert. the html
is stored in a variable . Such as..
var my_var = "<div>HI</div>";
(the actual html is much larger and more complicated than my example)
I then have..
$('body').append(my_var);
which you would think would insert the html into the page. it doesn't,
instead it just inserts it as text. The source in Firebug is now...
<html>
<body>
<img src="http://my_domain.com/my_image.jpg"/>
<DIV><div>HI</div>
</body>
</html>
NOTE: that extra div that's all CAPS, isn't a typo. jquery inserts
that for some reason and I don't know why.
The page doesn't render the "<div>HI</div>" as html, it displays it as
plain text.
If I use the same code on a page that has some more to it, like
google's homepage, the extra "<DIV>" isn't there and my html gets
inserted properly (not as text).
any clues as to why? is this a bug? am I missing some aspect of web
pages when they are only images?
Thanks in advanced for your help.
Josh